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Sandy Ward  > Other > Pets
An assignment in Spanish class ["Haz una lista de todas las mascotas que tenías tú cuando eras niña"] brought to mind several unusual pets I had had in childhood. I started to tell about my pet raccoon ["un mapache"]. The teacher asked us to bring photos to the next class and come prepared to tell stories about our pets. Could I find a photo? That led me on a search through boxes of old photos, documents, and slides. What treasures I found! A few were worth digitizing and sharing here.

Now I will also add photos of more recent pets.
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Sandy Ward > Pets photo
Sandy Ward > Daniel Coon, nicknamed "Danny", was my constant companion during one summer in Danvers, MA.  In this photo he was only a few weeks old, and I was probably 13, or had just turned 14.  I found him in a tree near home. His siblings had died; he was the last one left, and near starvation. I took him home and fed him, and he seemed to adopt me as his caregiver.
Sandy Ward > Danny Coon posing for a picture. He slept in a box in the entry hall near our kitchen.
Sandy Ward > Danny drinking from a water fountain at camp. (We had gone together to Wildwood, an Audubon camp in Barre, MA)

Photo by Roger, a fellow camper who also had brought a pet raccoon.
Sandy Ward > Ready to travel!   Danny traveled with me everwhere, e.g., to visit relatives in Delhi, NY and in Edgecomb, ME, as well as spending two weeks at Camp Wildwood.    The game warden who was supposed to release him back to the wild at the end of the summer (after I had raised him on a "temporary permit" to keep a wild animal) said he was too tame, and thus had to go to the Spot Pond Zoo, Stoneham, MA. At the zoo he joined another coon of the same age who had just lost its playmate, so we tried to think of this as a happy ending for Danny, who now had a companion to play with.
Sandy Ward > Danny Coon "signed" our Guest book.  The next entry confirms the relationship of the construction of our new house to the discovery of Danny in summer 1957. The nest in which he was found was near the construction site.  The carpenter's son also found a raccoon (and told me where to look.)
Sandy Ward > 3 years later. Another summer, another raccoon. His persistent cries from high in a fir tree outside my bedroom window led us to find him. I named him "Rackety."  He stayed outside our house, sleeping in a cage with open door, thus free to come and go as he pleased. (Thus, no need for permits or game wardens.)
Sandy Ward > Chico, our cat who loved to drink fresh water from a bathroom tap.  October 2003

Chico was born in California (1988?) and lived until 2005.
Sandy Ward > Our cat Sevda enjoys a warm spot on the radiator cover in the sun.
Pets photo
Other sizes: Small • M • L • O • save photo |
Keywords: closeup sandy coon
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