Rescued a baby coon once, it became my daughters pet. Was real cool until it hit adolescence, then got mean and bit her. That was the end of that.

A little 5'2" blue eyed blonde. Ended up having to marry her to get her "tamed."

We had a pet skunk when I was a kid. I remember my dad's friend, a veterinarian, who neutered him and removed his scent glands, saying that pet skunks need both canine and feline vaccinations. He even had a collar and a tag. Even with the scent glands removed he had a slightly skunky smell. I think he smelled like strong coffee. I still think a slight whiff of skunk smells sorta' like coffee.

We also raised a fan named Danny because I was so young I couldn't say "Bambi" yet. I used to keep "Bit-o-Honey" candies in the pockets of my jeans so they'd get soft enough for me to chew. Danny would knock me down and stand on my chest eating them through my jeans. All my jeans had holes chewed in the pockets from him.

My mom's neighbor currently has a pet fox. That is a really cool pet, except that it stalks you.

When I lived in Meridian years ago and elderly woman up the road had a "pet" deer that hung out in her front yard. She'd give it a handful of corn every morning when she went to get her paper and check the mailbox. One morning the little buck just decided to kill her, and did.

My wife has a Box Turtle and Tortoise garden in our back yard. I'm the turtle pen design and landscaper. They live very happy lives, hand fed, and come to my wife when called. Most of ours are captive bred and have had them several years. Probably outlive us too.

Aren’t you afraid of them jumping out John?

Just kidding. That’s pretty cool really. Nice job

Super cool water garden.

My dad had quite a few of those growing up in West Texas. He put a splotch of paint on each one - different color - and named each one. They were good diggers and would escape under the fence but neighbors always brought them back to the house.

There are also over a dozen volunteer pet toads that frequent that pen. They have to climb in and out. The stream is full of tadpoles right now. They mate about twice a year and must drive the neighbors crazy with all the noise they make during that time. There is a big leopard frog in there as well that my wife can hand feed. It can clear the fence in one jump. Lots of big lizards too that climb all over my wife at feeding time.

Reminds me of my childhood.

When I was a kid we we found a young coon and brought it home for a pet. We had the dog tied up to the clothes line and over the course of 2 days it barked itself horse. Mom finally told us we were going have to let them duke it out. When we untied the dog it made a bee line for the coon and terrible noises came out of that rolling bundle of fur. When they finally disengaged and finished licking their wounds they were best buds. Slept in the same dog house, ate out of the same bowl....coon even made friends with the bird dogs next door. On Saturdays dad would cook pancakes on the patio grill and the coon would eat as many as we would.

You KNOW I have a special place in my heart for the froggies. Somehow we had baby bullfrogs hopping out of Mom’s monkey grass in the front yard. There was no standing water there. Don’t ask me how it ever happened but it was cool to have them around all the time.

Also, I had an albino African black clawed bullfrog growing up. The thing looked like a plucked chicken. He killed 3 salamanders before I gave up buying more. Goldfish diet. Had him from 4th grade till I graduated HS. I had no idea they lived that long.

We have a single frog that gets in the pool every night. It's fun to turn the underwater light on and watch as he swims laps from one end to the other continuously.

We have to be extremely careful when we step out the back door. Bugs don't last long in our back yard.

Buddy has a roadrunner at his ranch cabin. Can’t touch it but it will stay about 5 feet from your feet if you toss it bits of steak off the grill

John, thats the coolest tortoise setup I've seen outside of a zoo.

We have an Eastern Box Tortoise that was a rescue with a cracked shell. He's pretty old and it takes him a few tries to catch a Walmart night crawler but he's pretty smart and lets us know when he's hungry. Boiled eggs, veggies, sliced pears, worms (thanks goodness for Walmart), the little dude has a heck of an appetite. He was up and out ofhis hide this morning hanging out of his shell with his legs stretched out soaking up the sunshine.

When I'm roaming around Hagermann doing volunteer stuff I always see a lot of wild three toed tortoises. They're pretty good sized tortoises. Some of them have a lot of bright reddish orange coloring like the one in your photo.

Someone on here owes me some turtles. From a thread I started back in June.

I have lots of pet turtles. 😜

https://i.ibb.co/rmb2mFq/default.jpg

Had a girlfriend once that owned a Serval.... Not cool!

That is really cool. You win for having had the best wild animal pet. Sad thing is most rodents don't have very long life spans even in captivity.

I tried to domesticate two baby squirrels once but they only stayed a few days.

I’ve seen it all now.

had a friend growing up that had a pet racoon. He got it when it's eyes were still shut.

The best man in my wedding use to have a largemouth bass named Bill Dance.

When I was a kid I had a tortoise that would climb straight up a chain link fence. Fortunately, he could never make it over the top.

She must have liked BEER.

Still looking. If I wasn't wanting to find one they would be everywhere.