Rebecca achieved national prominence when the first family tried to domesticate her, but with her capers - all avidly chronicled by the media - she showed how we have never really known quite what to make of raccoons. Are they pests? Pets? Thanksgiving dinner? Rebecca certainly had an easier time than many of her peers, said Katherine Grier, a historian at the University of Delaware. In the 1920s, stylish raccoon coats flew out of stores. To some - including the Mississippian who sent Rebecca - raccoons were food.