So it’s late Christmas morning and the phone rings. The wife picks it up and I can tell it’s my neighbor. I catch bits of the conversation…my wife offering to borrow some live traps from her brother and so on. After she hands up she fills me in on the conversation. It appears my neighbors have a coon on the back patio and it won’t leave. They just didn’t want our dog to get in a scrap with what appeared to be a sick coon. I would have volunteered my services but, my neighbors had already called animal control and the local PD. A few minutes later they call back to say that animal control is on the way. A little time goes by and I kind of forget about the situation next door when the phone rings again. This time I answer. It’s my neighbor’s wife. She says “Scott do you have a gun at your house?” I reply, “sure… what’s going on?” She tells me that animal control showed up without a gun and the coon is now up a tree about 10 yards from the patio. Her husband tried shooting it with an air rifle with no effect. “OK, I‘ll be over in a few minutes.” I grab a few 20 ga. shells and a hand full of .22 rounds, get the Ruger 10/22 and the Beretta 20 ga., throw on my boots and head over. AS I’m coming around the house the animal control agent is there and says “Ahhh that long rifle should so the trick. I thought this area was more residential so I only had my .22 short pistol in the truck.” I just kept my mouth shut and headed around back. My neighbor was there and asked if I was comfortable shooting the coon and I gave him a “no worries”. It was a very large coon in a small maple about 25 feet up the tree. One crack of the Ruger and he was in a freefall. I’m not sure what he charged my neighbor, but at least I didn’t have to bury the coon.
