Wolfy writes:
Curiously...
- how many of you, had no close pets as children, but later in life
became animal and ferret people?

yeah, that would so not be me.

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

We had several dogs, all of which lived very log doggy lives

-Shade - my Dad's german shephard/collie mix.  When I was born she would
lay across the threshold to my bedroom.  Only Mom & Dad were allowed to
cross.  No one else.  Period.  When Mom would put me to bed, Shade would
rest her paws on the crib to make sure I was there and then go lay across
the threshold.  Apparently she also let me chew on her tail.  go figure.

Tag- Collie mutt that we had with Shade.  Happy, happy, lovey doggy.

Ladie - miniature schnauzer.  She was one heck of a guard dog, even if
she coudl only reach your ankles!

Faun - weimeriner.  She came to us from a farm because she was a chicken
and duck killer.  Uh, yeah, right.  So why did she run in terror from our
ducks?  Never did figure that out.  She "shared" my bed.  And by that I
mean stretched out to full length with her head on my pillow on a twin
bed.  Not much room for me to sleep.

We also had several kitties.  Meatloaf - so I was 4 when I named her.
Beautiful dilute tortie.  And several other kitties that would get dumped
off where we lived and we would take care of them.  In fact right now I
can't even come up with all their names.

- how many of you had close contact with more unusual species of
animals as children?

You're killing me!  We had at home - an iguana (who demanded to be hand
fed), prairie dog (who ate through our drywall one day, he was fine, my
step dad was not so happy), bunny rabbit, blue front amazon parrot (Reg
who turned out to be a she and who ate the seat of our exercise bike -
Reg is still with the family and it has been decided that my brother will
inherit Reg), several cockatiels, a pair of love birds, several finches,
ducks (who hated water), ferre t(Whatchie), hamster (my hamsters always
bit the snot out of me), gerbils...I think that is all.  We had a small
pet store and as you can tell, we brought many critters home with us.

Chris in WV with Cinders Petrie, Snow, Arcas, Orlando and the three no
good cats.
[Posted in FML issue 5271]