where could i get a baby racoon?

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: sygyzy

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: sygyzy
It's amazing how many people here speak from experience. What? 10 years ago, nobody knew it was a bad idea to have racoons as pets? I don't need to shoot myself in the foot to realize it's a bad idea. Isn't it common sense? I did learn, however, *how* bad of an idea it is from the testimonies here.

cKGunslinger - What a fun childhood! Tell me, how was the armadillo?

Boring, actually. Almost like having a box turtle as a pet. It kept digging it's way out of it pen, so I tried to put it in a wire pen above ground and it tried to dig it's way out of there and bloodied up its feet pretty bad. We doctored it and let him go shortly after.

The possum was much cooler. He was actually pretty tame and you could hang him upside down by his tail from tree limbs, etc. He was like a really fat, slow-moving ferret.

Still, nothing beats waking up at 5am to take a whiz when you are 6 years old, hearing a hissing sound while you pee, and looking over to see a 3ft alligator in 2" of water in the bathtub, giving you the eye. Good times.

Man what a cool story. I wish I had a wild childhood like that. I think possums are scary. i see them in my headlights at night and it scares me. They looks EVIL and have sharp teeth. Yuck.

Did the armadillo bite alot? That's pretty sad that it hurt itself trying to escape. Really shows it didn't want to be there.

Did the alligators give you any trouble?

Armadillos really don't bite, just dig/claw. It's hard to even hold one because their claws are so sharp and legs are so strong (they dig in the dirt for grubs, worms, and roots.) Yes, having it caged up was wrong, and I let it go after 3-4 days. I just thought it was neat when I managed to catch it.

We have dozens of gators growing up. They are pretty easy to catch and keep and make great conversation topics. We had a small, fenced-in area with a small pond that had 4-5 gators in it. We bred a few and one baby gator bit the very tip of my dad's nose off. We eventually released them all and kept one (Jesse) in our pond. We had to let him go after he got a bit too big and dangerous. Biggest I've ever had was about 9ft long. He was huuuge. You rarely have to worry about their bite, as you can clamp their mouth shut with just 2 fingers, so 2 wraps of electrical tape was enough to keep it shut while you moved it, etc.. The biggest worry was their tail. One that big can swing it and knock a man completely off his feet. Then the fat thing would either try to sit on you, claw you, or beat you to death with its tail.

Later, after we got rid of them all, we just answered calls when someone complained that a gator got in their pond or such. We'd catch them and release them out in the swamp somewhere, otherwise people would just try to kill it instead. My dad was kinda the original Steve Erwin, but with a bit more sense (but slower reflexes. )