Family Pets

all images are from Google pics and are similar depictions of what our pets looked like





The first family pet I remember having was Hammie the Hamster. Hammie was loved, shall we say, a little too much. My twin sister had a habit of holding him a little to tightly and we blamed her for his death. It was late and my Mother had gotten us up to tell us the bad news. Hammie had died. We cried and we were upset of his departing this earthly life. We planned a proper burial the following day. We found a shoe box and laid him to rest, dug a hole in the ground and covered it. We said our final goodbyes.

We got our second pet a beautiful calico cat. Star was her name. She soon found Hammies grave and had a little snack. We were devastated. Star was a great cat. She was a perpetual hairball machine. The initial sounds of the cat needing to get rid of a hairball sent us into our own gagging as we knew what was coming. Nasty hairballs!

She even had the kindness of leaving a hairball for me on my birthday one year. It was in my direct line of walking path in my bedroom. Not something that I appreciated feeling first thing on my birthday. She lived for many years. She got along with all of us, and was a rather laid back cat. When it was soon for her to go the way of the earth she had wandered off one day. We hadn't seen her for several weeks. We thought we had heard her several time meowing but could never see her.

A very blustery day had come and the winds blew and so did Star out of the big pine tree out back. She landed on the ground very flat like a pancake. My Dad and brother wanted to give her a proper burial so they dug a hole in the ground to put her in. When my Dad went to put her in he discovered the hole was too small. Instead of making the hole bigger he made the hole work and got her to fit with the shovel.


Then we got the dog that probably had ADD. We named her Coalbin. Because she looked like she had jumped in a bin full of coals. This dog was challenged to say the least. We had a big sectional couch that she would run around for several minutes without stopping. She ate things like glass and bit my sisters ear and tore it. She took things out of the trash that were meant to stay in the trash. She had boundless amounts of energy. She just was too much for our family and so my Dad took her back to the pound without telling anyone. We got over it!

We had several goldfish. One had a sudden death in the sink disposal as we were trying to clean it's bowl. That was a bit traumatizing for me. Shiver! We had the occasional adoptive pet that we would take home from our elementary classes. Like the rabbit I took home for a spring break. We vowed after that to not have an indoor bunny, because all they did was leave little poopies all over. My eldest sister did have a pet bunny but failed to take into consideration the placing of the bunny outside and the poor bunny overheated in the direct sun location.


Gee I wonder why I don't want to get pets for our children? There are 2 kinds of people in this world, people who like having pets and people who don't like having pets. Right now in my life I am the person who does not like having pets. I am sure one day I will change my mind, but not in the near future. I am grateful for those who are pet people, because those cute little things needs good loving homes.