A kinkajou that turned up inside a Johnson County home on Thursday has been returned to its owner.
The Johnson County Sheriff's Department said the kinkajou's owner stepped forward to claim the animal and that it is now at home recovering from frostbite.
Officials said the animal entered the home by running in behind the homeowner's child, probably to find shelter from brutally cold weather that had already formed blisters on the animal's paws.
The kinkajou is a tree-dwelling, fruit-eating animal from the jungles of Central and South America -- and therefore not quite accustomed to such low temperatures. They don't necessarily make great pets, but having one isn't terribly uncommon.
"They can be friendly but they can also be very vicious and aggressive if they're startled", said Shelly Meeks. "They don't like fast movement. They like nice, slow, quiet environments."
Vets who were attending to the animal, which they temporarily named Pikachu, thought it might lose one of its paws due to frostbite. They later said Pikachu showed good progress overnight and may lose a toe at worst.
NBCDFW's Bruce Felps and Omar Villafranca contributed to this report.
