Yeah, but stories about how I successfully made a fairly difficult shot, eliminated an animal that was a nuisance, and did it in a safe and responsible manner with a firearm make you cry. I gave you the day off.
Back when I used to live in the country, every now and then, a racoon would make the mistake of rummaging around in my yard. At the time I had a Treeing Walker with a seven generation pedigree. I never hunted her, but she did fine on her own chasing the little bastards up a tree.
It's interesting how some people that don't live in the country really don't appreciate how destructive the little animals can be. It's very easy to see a racoon and think it's cute. It's quite another thing to have the same racoon knock over trash cans. destroy crops, and attack pets. One really has no choice but to kill the racoon, as quickly and humanely as possible. And Forbin, I love the avatar. The look on Crockett's face when the Daytona was blown up is great. It's almost as good as when Tubbs turned to the guy who just blew it up in a weapons demonstration and said, "sold!"
And the little buggers are strong, dexterous and very smart. One time at scout camp (cue in Boy Scout joke...), we had one open a jar of peanut butter that we couldn't open because the lid was just too tight.
You got that right! I used to have a fiberglass camper top on my truck. I put some garbage in the back of it one evening and during the night they managed to turn the latch and get the camper door open and raided the garbage. What a mess!
One morning I found my plastic garbage can had been thrown against the side of my car to pop the lid off!
I saw in one of my grandmothers old Joy of Cooking books (from the 1940s) a recipe for raccoon with sweet potatoes. Being a hunter and one that isn't keen on waste, I've often been tempted to eat a raccoon the next time I kill one, but I'm paranoid about the whole rabies thing. I've heard some strange noises recently and I'm convinced it's either a rabid fox or a rabid raccoon. So far I haven't seen anything associated with the noises, and they only occur at night out by the garage. Maybe one evening, I'll just put the tree stand up and watch to see what shows up. I'll keep the rifle with me just in case.
Did it domesticate very well? My ex father-in-law had one for several years that he had live-trapped. He bought, sold, and traded coon hunting dogs and used it to help train the dogs. It was a vicious little bastard! You didn't touch it or you'd draw back a nub.
Polly was gentle enough that we'd let her in the house sometimes. We raised her from a baby, though, so she was used to us. I don't have a picture of her indoors (I think it's at my mom's), but here's one of me bottle-feeding her in her pen: [?=Possibly NSFW!][/?]
I just spotted another one on the porch. The little bastard got away before I could get a shot at him!
Whatever has been coming round these parts the last couple of days came back about an hour ago. The dogs just sarted growling and barking and then crying. I went out back and saw a dark shape running back into the woods. The funny thing is, as soon as I opened the door to go outside the dogs ran into the house. These dogs are completely fearless, but whatever is out there, they want nothing to do with.