The pets you've had...

The pets in my family...or at least in my life's part of my family started with a "mutt".

She seemed to have some Collie in her, but she was clearly a mix...very intelligent and loving.

I, however, have typically gravitated to cats. I did once own a Dalmatian...very loving, easy to train...but easy to forget the training. Maybe should have been a show dog ( ) was definitely pure bread and could have passed as a china doll or statue.

Still it is cats that I like and prefer.

I've had two in the last 25 years.... the Thunder Cat a pretty bad-ass but super loving tabby with 6 toes on each of its front feet.... and Girlfriend the classic fraidy cat, frightened of her own shadow and so black it was hard to get photographs.

Thunder died young (about 4), Girlfriend died old (17).

Recently I've been adopted by a cat...clearly his choice...long story he seems to have been abandoned, is massively lovable and has quite the personality.

Anyway...how about you ?

What are your pets/pet experiences?

I had ant farm for almost three years.

I had old English sheepdog ( dolly ) for five years.

I had an box turtle ( Wilbur ) for seven years.

I had two white rabbits ( fritz and mitzi ) for seven years.

my brother found Wilbur, and train him to eat lettuce from your hand. he taught Wilbur to drink out of the bathroom's sink faucet.

Wilbur really shy, he would put his head up the water that come out the faucet, so you watch behind Wilbur or the leave the room, Wilbur drink.

Wilbur like to walked around our house, Wilbur didn't like dolly. dolly want to be friends. but Wilbur bite dolly on the nose. that was it for that friendship. dolly like scratching or claw the back of Wilbur's back. Wilbur put his head in his shell, dolly like push or kicking Wilbur around.

dolly was breather, she would make a good obscence caller. you know how dogs breather heavy sleep. dolly slept in my bedroom all time. before we try dolly used to sleep downstairs. we found dolly used watched in the middle night, " the shop channel ", dolly order to much stuff for herself. dolly was " American jewish princess dog ".

dolly like watching tv, sometimes if lassie bark or any other dogs, she bark. she like occasionally like go to tv screen, and started to lick a lot, no reason, no particular reason.

dolly like the outdoor, she had problems with her eyes. some reasons, she like to run into things, literally walked in trees , branches, doors.

one of the odd thing happen with dolly, we let dolly spend time alone in the backyard, we didn't that dolly know how to drive. once she almost make out of the neighborhood with other neighbor's dogs, they were going to up the street at our neighbor's movie theater to see " benji ". my mom caught dolly right before she turn out from entrance. my mom was in her car. my mom screamed at dolly, and dolly was come back in the backseat of her car. other dogs got our car, and went see the movie without dolly.

dolly was a good listener to the family, dolly empathy with us. let her hold or pet when we felt bad. dolly took notes during her therapy sessions. she only charged us five dollars per session, not like other neighbor's dogs that charged twenty dollars per sessions.

I never had other pets after that in my life. I have found memories of pets that last forever. if I want another pet, it would be a dog. like old English sheepdog, golden receiver, or irish setter.

Growing up, parents had a pure bred German Sheppard - great dog, but if you opened the door he'd bolt.
I also had two gerbils ... then 6, then 20-some ... then ....

Once married and out on our own we started slow - there was a birds nest outside the apt window and we watched.
Then graduated to fish.
Then a dwarf rabbit. We'd let it have the run of the apt when we were home, then cage at night or away. It was litter box trained.
When we got the house, we got two more rabbits for a total of 3 (fixed, so no babies) and a dog - A puppy from our neighbor was a sheppard / local stud mix.
Our 4th rabbit (rescue) lived about 14 years!
All of our rabbits were litter box trained and had freedom to roam various "protected" rooms of the house. The dwarf rabbit broke it's front leg on a floor grate. Ever see a rabbit with a cast?!
Next dog was a rescue mutt.
Now we have a puggle, and our next pure bred pug is about 3 weeks old. We'll get her from the breeder in June.

My son had gerbils and frogs growing up.

So at one point we had - 3 rabbits, 2 gerbils, a dog and fish

Had to get rid of my little Massasauga when I was staying in the dorm.

I had a cocker spaniel with a sordid past in high school. Named Kandi. She was not my Mom's dog though.

The a cockatiel, Squackers, flew on my head and wouldn't leave. Then T.C., the cat moved in. Then Pippin, another cat moved in.
One of my minions, went abroad for a while so we kept her dog, a corgi chow chow mix. Basically an ottoman.
Then I stopped at Walmart to get litter and came home with another cat, Leeloo. She is the only one we have left. She will be 13 soon.

Had a Shepard mix and a Collie.

I keep at least one Brown Recluse & one Black Widow on my desk for education & help public learn identification. One of my recluses was a TV star, she was on all three local channels at one time or another when stories about spiders were blowing up the airwaves. She lived several years.

I personally have killed two Brown Recluse by rolling over on top of them but not before they had shown their displeasure by biting me . the first time was when I was working on the plumbing in the crawlspace beneath the bathroom in my grand mothers house . grand dad was in his mid eighties and couldn't get into much less out of that space so he was sitting at the opening talking me though the job . The second time was a few years later when I was under my 1969 ford pickup taking the three bolt starter off to have it rebuilt before it totally f**ked up my fly wheel . as anyone who knows anything about bites , you don't usually know you have been bit until you are feeling the effects of the venom or the bite it's self starts to rot . both times I was wearing an under shirt and a long sleeved shirt so I didn't get the full 'dose' like if you are bit 'spider to bare skin '. both the scars are about 1 1/2 ins around and ugly .


When we were kids a stray dog that looked like a first cousin to a coyote showed up one morning . he was a domesticated dog . we named him Lobo and us kids were in heaven cuz it looked like we had our own wild coyote. When it came to us kids , that dog had the patients of three guys named job and could hear/smell/ see anything dangerous , whether it was a snake or something a dumb kid would get hurt doing , a mile away .

speaking of plastic spiders.

when my family living in old house, my mom come home somewhere on afternoon.

I was sitting on the top of stairway going to our second floor, actually, dolly was keeping company at the time. when the front door opened, dolly ran down to meet my mom. but I didn't said, I still hiding on the stairway.

my mom went to our front table look at the mail. so she head down , she did see me. I had a big plastic spider tied to a big string. so I started lower the string down with plastic spider taggling on the string above my mom's head.

so, I got the spider little above her eye level, so she lifted her heard. she really scream very loud. naturally, I laughed my a** off and almost fell down the stairs.

I thought my mom was going have a heart attack right there. after, the shock of it, I thought I was really in trouble. my mom by my surprise, she thought it really funny. she had a bad day that day, she said that really help her out, she need it.

of course, she never let do to the prank again.

I've been either dumb lucky or not reacted to recluse bites. We have lived with them all of my life. The Black Widows have been blooming as of late. I have to go into sweat lodge & clean it out before we do ceremony.

Mutts are often the very best dogs.

Wow, ant farms, turtles, plastic spiders . You had a very exciting childhood chasing around after your pets ,,,

I was a kid, I like playing with daddy long legs spiders. I used singed to them, wayne newton, " daddy, don't walk so fast! " then I pulled their legs off their bodies.

Sea Monkeys!!!!!!!!!
Let's not forget our Sea Monkeys!!!!!

I had sea monkeys, when I was got them from ad from back of comic book.

I not most interesting to watch they don't eat bananas. they really don't anything, I try remember what they do. I had them in 60's. why are call " sea monkeys " even look like monkeys. they look what jocks would ride something under the sea.

this first time, since I was a kid. I am not sure, why I was so fond of them back then?

See Sea Monkeys!