- how many of you, had a couple of standard pets such as dogs or cats as
children?

I had cats growing up.  We had one particular housecat from the time I
was about a year old up until I was 17.  Our house was located on the
edge of a small town on an intersection so a lot of times people would
choose there to dump their animals, so we constantly had stray cats
coming through.  One of them my parents allowed us to adopt as an outdoor
cat, who shortly afterwards presented us with a litter of 4 kittens and
then was run over in the highway when the kittens were a month old.  We
hand-raised the four kittens, gave 3 away and kept one, who we had for 6
years.  Shortly before we moved (when I was 14) a beautiful stray gray
cat adopted us.  He so endeared himself to us that my parents actually
planned to turn him into a housecat and take him with us.  He was hit on
the highway the day after they decided we could keep him.

There were also a huge number of stray dogs that came through.  My
parents were NOT dog people, and of the two strays that they allowed us
to keep (outside), one was a cocker-poo who my father later admitted to
shooting because it chewed out some insulation.  At the time he just told
us it ran away.  The other was a black lab who liked to chase the school
bus, one day my father just took him away saying he was going to give him
to someone.  To this day I still don't know for sure what happened to
that dog.

After I moved out on my own, I've had many more pets.  My dogs are
housedogs, I don't worry about a little drool (err...a lot with the Saint
Bernard *LOL*) or hair or if they chew something up.  If something gets
ruined it is my fault for leaving it out or for not watching them closer.
My current cats are strictly housecats, they DO NOT go outside.  After
seeing so many cats that I loved as a kid run down on the road I refuse
to go through that again.  As one of my cats now is approximately 20
years old (adopted her over 9 years ago and she was old then) and still
going strong I figure I must be doing something right.

I never was around any other types of pets much as a kid, except for
fish, and at one point I kept a newt in my aquarium.  Afterwards, I've
kept birds (parakeets and doves), rabbits, chameleons and iguanas.
Unfortunately I never had much of any luck with the reptiles so I haven't
had any for a while now.  Would love a snake but DH is terrified of them
and doesn't want me to have one :o( Now finally, I have a ferret.  I had
actually never even seen a ferret before I got Snow!  Nothing like an
intense crash course in learning a new critter *LOL*  She's definitely
well worth it though!

Niki & Snow
[Posted in FML issue 5272]