Pets

Pets have always been a part in my life. For the most part dogs were the pet of choice but from time to time a cat would become a member of my pet family.

I was in the third grade when Mom and Dad made arrangements to buy a puppy from an Aunt who bred American Spitz When it was shipped to us, it arrived as a tiny ball of white fur and grew up to be a big ball of white fur.

He was our constant companion, even walking along with those of us who went to school in the mornings, then returning home to keep Mom company until school was out. Mom often said he was a comfort to her when Dad was out of town on company business because he was a good little watch dog.

When I was in Florida as a young adult, one could buy baby alligators packaged in tiny wooden crates from vendors at tourist sites. By writing an address on a tag, they could be mailed to friends and family back home. I sent one home and it was quite a novelty. As it grew we kept it in the bathtub. Once it got dropped on the bathroom floor and we were all too skittish and afraid to handle it. Mom phoned Dad at the office to come pick the thing up. Finally the day came when Mom got tired of having to wait for someone to come take it out of the tub so she could bathe. I have no recollection of how we got rid of it.

One day a squirrel nest fell out of the backyard tree and I took one of the babies and kept it as a pet. It was quite tame and would sit on my lap when I brushed my hair. I used to carry it to the park and let it play for a while then call it and it would come back to me, but one day it refused to come back.

I once had a gold fish that I named George. After spending a couple of years with me, he went to live with my daughter and her husband and lived to a ripe old age at her house.

I used to keep guppies in a big gallon jar on top of the gas stove where the pilot lights kept the water the correct temperature. I could watch the the birthing of baby guppies while sitting at the kitchen table sipping a cup of coffee.

A few years ago I had a lovely singing canary. I bought him a female companion and before I turned around, I had several cages of singing canaries. I often took one of the cages across the driveway to the folks house so they could listen to a canary sing for an hour or so.

Recently my cat, Mimi, went missing during the super moon. Every day I look out the kitchen door hoping to see a wayward cat who decided to leave some scroungy riverboat gambler and come back home, but as of this date, her whereabouts remains unknown. I keep the toys and scratching posts on the off chance Mimi will come back, but the three pretty parakeets given to me as a pet replacement, are alienating my affections.

Their behavior is amusing. One is a male, but one of the females has become the 'boss'. She monopolizes the swing, and is the first to investigate the new toys I put in the cage. She has chosen one of the seed cups to be her own and rarely lets the other birds eat from it. I notice that she also listens more intently than the other two when I play the singing canary YouTube video.