Wolfy  Asked...

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

I got a dog when I was nine....that was the most 'standard' pet I owned
until I was 18 and had a cat.

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

My first pet was a cavy at age four, followed quicky by two snakes I
discovered in my grandmother's back yard.  In the years that followed,
so did frogs, toads, tropical fish, newts, salamanders, assorted lizards,
rabbits, more snakes, a tarantula (a 10th birthday present from my
parents), ferrets (got my first when I was nine), parrots, scorpions,
tortoises, assorted large insects, gerbils, and hamsters....it is not
surprising that I became a zoologist, I suppose.

Now that I am grown, I have snakes, lizards, newts, frogs, turtles,
tortoises, fish, parrots, cats...and, of course, ferrets.  I also now
have a daughter who looks to be following in her fathers footsteps...at
eight, she has a cat, hamster, fish, and a snake....and is quite fond
of the ferrets.

G. A. Christian Bilou, writer/zoologist.
Director, Reptile Rescue Alberta (Est. 1994)
http://members.shaw.ca/reptile.rescue/
Past-President, Calgary Aquarium Society
http://www.calgaryaquariumsociety.com/
Legislative Co-ordinator, TARAS
http://www.albertareptilesociety.org
[Posted in FML issue 5272]