What's your critter story?

I think it’s time for another pet blog. I’ve been without a pet for over three months now, and the silence is making me a bit crazy. I need something to be responsible for. Otherwise life is just too dang boring IMO. I will probably get another dog once I’ve attended the RWA conference in July and made my way up to North Carolina afterwards. Dogs are the best for me, but this vacancy in my heart has made me think about all kinds of pets.
                        My adorable Sparky. Miss him so much.

                       My friend's dogs, so sweet.


I was never a cat person, but a lady came in my business years ago with this little black kitten in her arms. She said her la-de-da Persian had hooked up with a barn cat and these ne’re do well cats were the result. She had one left, and she was going to throw it in the canal behind our business. She was an older farm lady – that’s what she’d always done with unwanted critters. Ugh! Needless to say, that lady picked the right place that day, because I took that cat home and had him for 18 years, a quarter of my life span. I cried for days when he had to be put down.


A friend of mine dropped her kids at a school carnival, probably way back in the 80s. In those days, pets were often given as prizes on the midway – a stupid way of rewarding a kid for busting a bunch of balloons, but hey, it was the custom back then – a way to find homes for overpopulated goldfish. Anyway, her daughter came home with a furry little chick. Sadly, those delicate creatures usually died right away, a cruel “learning experience” for the child. This sturdy little chick didn’t die. Instead she lived in a large crate in my friend’s family room for twelve years! She played with the family, she gave eggs, she fluffed herself by the fire in the winter.



Wondering what is the most unusual pet you remember having. What’s your pet story? I don’t know many writers who don’t love dogs, so tell us a dog story, or a bird story, or maybe even a story about a super clever guppy. Let’s celebrate all of nature’s critters today.


Cynthia

And don't forget to read this month's Heartwarming books!

Comments

  1. Lol. I've known people with pet chickens, but never one kept in the house. I loved the story.

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  2. A great story, Cynthia, especially love the chick one which had a very happy ending. When my brother and I were growing up, we got pink and blue dyed chicks at Easter. They didn't last long, poor things and thank heavens those practices are no longer legal or acceptable! Our daughters had a budgie that lived to a ripe old age (for budgies, I guess) and after a whole year of training, learned to say his name - Polly. Yes, he was named by a 5 year old! But if he was out of his cage, he liked to fly into a shoulder during meals until. ..well...you can guess what happened one evening so no more free flights at meal times. A fun and heartwarming post!

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    1. Janice, love your budgie story. We had a parakeet that hardly ever stayed in his cage. He used to sit on the ear piece of my father's glasses. One day he flew, landed, and put a claw in dad's eye. Not a pretty picture, but dad was okay after a time.

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  3. My yellow lab Sunny and my daughter's cat Lucy are buddies. But at one time we had a black lab named Blue who was the typical dog...hated cats. (Or so she said.) When the girls were little, there were usually friends around so when the dog went after the cat there was enough high pitched screaming to be heard in the next county. The dog never got the cat.

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    1. Oh, yes, little girls can let a pet know when they don't approve. Good for them.

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  4. Cynthia, I'm sorry for your loss. I can't wait to see what kind of dog you get next. As a kid I had rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, goats, cats, hermit crabs, and fish. When I was in first grade, my older brother won two goldfish at the school carnival and gave them to my sister and me. Our cat used to drink out of their fish bowl but (thankfully) she never went "fishing." We had them for 9 years.

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    1. Carol that's amazing. Your carnival fish lasted that long.

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  5. Cynthia, my heart still breaks for you for having had to say goodbye to your beloved Sparky.

    I'm NOT going to share a dog story, because you know that would end up taking up a LOT of space here! :)

    I have had all sorts of critters (probably no surprise), the most unusual perhaps being albino laboratory (rescue) rats. I must have been around ten years old. I built huge cardboard mazes and taught the rats how to navigate them to find the cheese!

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    1. Some of us are born teachers. I've taught a number of people different things, but I've never taught a lab rat.
      Cynthia

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  6. Two years ago I lost our 2 dogs within 3 days of each other. While one was expected (we think she had cancer) the other one caught us completely off guard. It took me weeks to recover and because the 4 pound terror used to sit on my lap while I wrote, I had a hard time writing again. Amazing how attached we get to our pets. As such, my husband refuses to get another pet, so for now, we are petless and it seems we will remain that way. It makes me sad because they really do make your life better.

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    1. I understand, LeAnne. I'm torn about getting another dog. I'm just now beginning to enjoy the independence of not having a pet, but I know once the "just right" dog finds me, I'll be a pup mommy again.
      Cynthia

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  7. I'm a cat person, all the way. We currently have five, one indoor, four outdoor. All boys. We adopted the indoor cat, and a few years later the outdoor cats adopted us. Well, their mother did, before she died. I keep wishing I could bring them inside to keep them safe, but I'm worried about how they would all get along, and whether I would stress out my indoor cat too much, and where we could possibly put more litter boxes in this small house.

    Dogs are okay, when they are well-behaved. I don't want any other animals in my house, ever. Birds freak me out a little, and rodents and other really small animals freak me out a lot! I used to have a hamster when I was a kid, because my parents wouldn't let me have a dog or cat. I confess, by the time it died, I was relieved because I hated taking care of that thing. But I never want to live without cats again.

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    1. Heidi I've heard that wnen cats have been outdoors too long, it is hard to acclimate them to the inside, so you are probably doing the best thing.
      Cynthia

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  8. Great blog I love hearing anything about animals and it's nice to hear them called critters x

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  9. A chicken in the living room... I like that idea!

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    1. Every time I would go back to Ohio where my friend lives, I'd walk in her house so afraid to ask about the chicken. But then I'd hear the chicken pecking away in the family room, and I'd know all was well. She got to be very big.
      Cynthia

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  10. I feel for you. Hope you find the perfect dog to fill that void when you're ready. I love the house-chicken story.

    I grew up on a farm and we weren't allowed to have indoor pets, but over the years we had dogs, cats, pigeons, two rescue hens, and a horse outside. We also had a hognose snake one of my brothers caught and kept in the wellhouse. It was the first snake I'd ever touched, and I was surprised to find it was smooth and silky rather than slimy like an earthworm. I brought it into the house to show my mother, "Touch it. Isn't it smooth?" She was not amused. She still laughs about that.

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    1. I was surprised the first time I touched a snake too.

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  11. I don't currently have pets, but love that my neighbor to my right and across the street have dogs that alert us to strangers on the street. I'm almost finished reading this month's books. They are all so great thus far.

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  12. I've had dogs, gerbils, birds, a horse, hamsters, a white lab rat (a rescue, like Kate's), and cats but the most different? A six-foot boa constrictor named Surge that lived in a terrarium in my kitchen. We eventually gave him to the zoo. Have had the most success with 😺 🐱.

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  13. Oh, wow, a boa constrictor. Don't know how I would do with that.
    Cynthia

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  14. The most unusual pet I remember having was a couple of lizards I found in the creek on my grandparents farm. LOL I don't know what type they were, but they were small and in my childish mind I just assumed they were salamanders, so I named one Sally Salimander and the other one Lizzy Lizard. Needless to say I didn't know much about taking care of them and eventually got bored with them and they were let out to live their life on the farm as they originally intended. LOL

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  15. My mom had a pet iguana. It wasn't caged. It used to relieve itself in the bathroom!! One smart creature. But once when my mom was away and asked me to feed Lizzie, it saw me with the banana in my hand and started running towards me. The banana went flying one way and I went the other. I never could warm up to that reptile even though it was always sweet.

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  16. Oh...and I love the little chick story.

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