Are your nuts dirty?

So I'm correcting papers from this undergrad landscape ecology class. One question addresses habitat for a raccoon that eats pinon pine nuts, and needs clean open water where it can wash them, "because it has no saliva." One of the students refers to the fact that (in the context of the question, involving the impact of development on the raccoon's habitat), the raccoon is still within an acceptable distance "of water for them to wash their nuts in."

Funniest thing I've read this semester.

***UPDATE!***
A second student used the same phrasing, but he italicized it: "If it is like any other raccoon, it will not shy (sic) to go around the buildings at night to wash its nuts."

Oh, and if any of my students are reading this (probability approaches 0 for this event), thank you!