Did you have an unusual pet as a child?
I think almost all children are fascinated by other living things, whether 2-legged, 4 legged, or many-legged. My youngest son once had a pet worm, which he named Willy. We tried, like probably most parents would, to tell him that his worm would be better off in the garden, but he was convinced that the box with bits of grass was just what Willy liked. Of course the poor worm died, and there was an appropriate funeral with a wagon for a hearse, and our dog and Larry and me as mourners. Willy even got a cardboard headstone, inscribed, "Here lies Willy. He was a good worm."
My older sons also had an odd pet, although at first glance it didn't seem that odd. Lucky was part hound and part German Shepherd, I think. What kind of hound we were never sure. He was named Lucky because he was lucky to be alive. He was born blind.
A friend's dog had a litter and Lucky was the last of the lot, smaller, weak, and not a good feeder. But he survived and my friend begged us to take him, thinking that with 4 boys the dog would be well cared for. And he was. He stumbled around, knocking into things for a while but eventually he learned to navigate fairly well.
Then he developed epilepsy or something like it. He wandered into the woods one day when no one was watching. We would search frantically for him, and after a while we heard the most mournful howling.
Poor Lucky. We watched him more closely after that, and all was well until one day he went off again, and this time the fit was too much, and that was the end of Lucky. I suppose there wasn't much chance for him in the first place, and at least he had a few happy months before his short life ended.
As a girl I once had a pet wasp. We found him in our back yard, with a damaged wing; apparently. he couldn't fly. So we made him a shoebox home and tried to put in things we thought he might eat. What do wasps eat anyway? The wasp, named Buzzy, did manage to survive for a week, and I often took him out of the box and let him walk up my arm. One day, he just flew off. We were so happy and decided we should be veterinarians when we grew up.
There was my pet bat, although he didn't last long at all. My sister Judy and I found him in a construction ditch as we were walking home. He had a broken wing and we were confident after our success with Buzzy that we could fix him up. Well, you can imagine my mother's reaction when we carried him into the house in a paper bag. She told us to get rid of him, NOW! We carried him outside, then secretly put him into Buzzy's vacated box. Fortunately, the bat died during the night
I am sure there were other odd pets in my life; these are just the ones that come to mind.
How about you? What pets did you have, or do you have an unusual one today?
You triggered a memory of a frog in the goldfish bowl, but I am sure that we didn’t keep it there for long.
ReplyDeleteRelatives had a rescue dog that was both blind and deaf.
Good topic, Sue. Back in my childhood in the 1950s, my brother Gary had two unusual pets. He adopted a baby pigeon, raised Elmer to eat from our hands and to like children. My dad owned a salvage yard where Elmer roosted in a parts bin each night and strutted up and down the aisles every day. Some days he ventured further afield and would show up at our elementary school if the windows were open. He would sit on the window sill of my classroom or my sisters. That of course always delighted the other children but sometimes embarrassed us if Elmer made a mess on the window sill. Elmer lived a long and pretty uneventful life. My brother grew up and married. Dad sold the salvage yard and Elmer was a part of the sale so I cannot relate the rest of
ReplyDeleteElmer's story.
The other pet was Myrtle the Turtle. Gary picked her up off of a Missouri road and brought her home. He built her a box with a wire top and a pool of water. Myrtle lived in our backyard at least all of one summer. Again, I can't tell the rest of the story. I don't know if Gary released Myrtle to the wilds when winter came or did she succumb to the harsh winter. Good memories! Thanks for jogging my memory.
I loved this post it made me laugh! A pet bat, no wonder your mum wanted it out of the house, they would not be my idea of a pet.
ReplyDeleteI've got nothing to top yours! My cats, dogs, bunnies, goats, horses, pheasants, chickens and pigs are boring compared to yours. We did raise bees for a while, although they were not pets, they were interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe did not have pets growing up beyond a few cats that came & went because people would drop them off at our corner.
ReplyDeleteSince I've been married we've always had a dog. Right now we have two, a mut that my son picked up as a puppy...abandoned. She's pretty old & probably won't be around much longer. And a lap dog, a morkie, that my husband gifted to me when our son got married.
We've had quite a few rabbits & a pet snail, some fish & we consider our box turtles pets though they roam free. We watch for them every year.