Coons~~Pros and Cons..

[Janet Harrington]

I wouldn't recommend a coon for a pet, nor any wild animal, except for maybe a baby rabbit.  It isn't fair to the animal.  Besides, now it is against the law.  If a wild animal needs help, you have to notify the guys that used to be game wardens.  No, wild animals do not make good pets.  This was way back in 1957 and my husband was well aware of what a wild animal could do.  It was a pet, but it wasn't allowed to run free or alone.  It was locked up except when we were with it.  One of the reasons we turned it loose was that it was a good escape artist and my husband knew that sometime or other there would trouble with it.  My husband was the original Elk County red neck.

My dad was an original Elk County red neck? LOL, Mother.

[jarhead]

Yes Janet it was a bad deal.  It was very foggy/rainy that night and they couldn't get a life flight chopper to fly in but someone in Independence(I think it was ) had a small plane and volunteered to fly them to Wichita. It was an unbelievable amount of stitches and staples to fix that young'n up. Not positive but I think that young'n graduated high school this past year

[Wilma]

Janet, you don't remember playing with the coon because you kids weren't allowed to.  Daddy played with it with leather gloves and when Daddy wasn't there the coon was locked up in a cage outside.  Yes, Daddy was the original Elk County red neck, coon hunting and all.

[frawin]

Wilma, Coons do not make good pets. They are a wild animal and should be left that way. About 15 years ago a friend from Elk City found out the hard way. He raised a baby coon with an eye dropper. That cute little fur ball would ride wrapped around his neck------then that little cutie grew into a 20 lb plus, boar coon. One night it got into his kid's bedroom where it proceeded to mount the youngest child head. Three adults could not get that coon off the child. Shot the coon off with a .30-30 rifle, while it was wrapped around that little boys head chewing his face to shreds. The child had to be air lifted to Wichita the injuries were so bad. All 3 adults and another child had to have rabies shots. Nope coons do not make good pets !!!

Jarhead, I agree with you that Coons do not make good pets. In the late 1950s I found 5 baby Coons in Guy Denton's haybarn on the Rutherford place just West of Howard. I kept 2 a male and a female and raised them to Maturity, the Female got  Mean first and I finally had to take them down along the River and turned them loose. Wild animals are just that and cannot be trusted.

[Janet Harrington]

Besides, they knock the lids off the trash cans and use their little hands to pull your garbage out and decorate the streets with it. LOL