Friends, I found a letter Cooper wrote when he was 13 years old. It provides some insight into our beautiful boy. It highlights his love for animals, and particularly hedgehogs. I’m not really sure why, but Cooper loved hedgehogs. 

Hedgehogs are Cooper’s spirit animal.

This short letter captures Cooper’s inquisitiveness. He was certainly a smart boy, he had lots of questions.

How many 13 year olds were calling out the internet for accuracy, back in 2013!?

Anyway, many of you have mentioned you like reading things about Cooper. I was looking for something else in my files today and came across this. It made me smile.

Enjoy!

Ps- the doctor’s name is not John Doe. Also, Cooper had proper salutation for his letter, I shortened it up for simplicity. I have not made any corrections otherwise, the letter is as written.

Cooper James

August 2nd, 2013

Dear Dr. John Doe,

Hi, my name is Cooper James and I have a few questions for you regarding hedgehogs. I’m thirteen years old and ever since I visited a hedgehog at the local zoo I have found that I would love to have one as a pet. After researching a little bit about them, I discovered that they were officially “legal” in Arizona however you have to have a permit that is very difficult to obtain. I haven’t found out the actual requirements for this permit but I have read online it is “virtually impossible to obtain” (Hedgehog Central).

So one question I have is what are the actual requirements, and why, if Hedgehog Central was correct, are these permits so hard to obtain? I’ve also found online that hedgehogs were illegal here because they have highly contagious foot and mouth disease. Now this is something I understand but from my research these diseases are typically only found on hedgehogs sold from pet stores. I believe that if hedgehogs were illegal to sell in pet stores, and only from highly credited and certified breeders then these diseases would not cause a problem. 

Please note that all of my facts are based off research from the Internet so I might not be correct in everything I say. That’s why I’m sending this letter to get more information on the topic. You can contact back through the return address or my email …@gmail.com. Thank you for time and have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Cooper James