Petable Pets

Are there any unusual pets you’ve had — or would like to have?

I loved the dogs I have had with all my heart, but I find it hard to live without cats.

Not unusual, although, some of them have been!

Over the course of my life my families have had a rat, a mouse, a hamster, several guinea pigs.  We’ve had aquarium fish, turtles and even a rescue snake, (little garden snake; I never wanted one, would never have one again.)

We had, throughout my life, assorted birds: parakeets, a Beebee parrot, a cockatiel, a canary, assorted finches and a Spice bird, (with the sweetest song that never goes above a whisper!)

As for anything out of the unusual, my mother fed and tamed squirrels; we fed tame raccoons.

In Idaho, I spoiled my neighbor’s cows by feeding them cornstalks; the donkey at the small, local zoo took a liking to me and I visited him regularly.
I thought I’d like a donkey after that. I visited someone here who said theirs was cantankerous. He was friendly with me. (Maybe donkeys would like to have me as a pet!) That never happened, and now won’t.

When I moved to Kentucky, the people next door to me let us ‘share’ their menagerie which over the years included turkeys, guinea fowl, assorted chickens and geese. They had a potbellied pig, miniature goats, (we witness the birth of tiny twin kids!), an iguana, (who allowed me to feed it when my neighbors were away; he didn’t say much), two ferrets, (both of whom were escape artists and would come to me when I called to them), and a lamb, which I bottle-fed and washed while my neighbors worked. Fun that I had, I would, however, not choose to keep any of them on my own.

The people behind us had horses which I always made friends with, (mostly via apples and carrots).

I can’t say that many unusual animals have appealed much to me. I have enjoyed watching the shenanigans of weasels, but they can be so fierce.

Otters seem terribly cute, but I would hate to confine one. They seem to have so much fun frolicking.

Beavers are also quite cute, but some fool took one home from a park in Colorado when we were there. The man  got into trouble when he had to call the authorities for help; the beaver had almost destroyed the entire bathroom the kidnapper had locked him into.

I’ve seen tame, de-scented skunks who behaved like cats, but why bother? There are plenty of cats that need homes.

If there was a way to guarantee the continual tameness of such a creature, I’d like a bear. I’d never torture one the way those who captured them in the past did to keep them in control. But I  think bears  are beautiful. I always made sure that I saw Smoky when I went to the National Zoo when I was a kid and I visited all of his neighbors. For whatever reason, most zoos no longer have bears. I miss seeing them. But do I think it’s a good idea to keep a bear? No, no, I don’t.

As much as I love cats, I would never even in my wildest dreams want to keep a Big Cat or a Wildcat. The feral cats and abused spitfires I have worked to tame have been  enough for me. I find that their individual personalities are often unusual enough, thank you very much!