Focus on pets

It's possible to look at our lives through different lenses, or, in other words to focus on different viewpoints. For example I can tell the story of my family pets.

The first pets I remember having were a pair of turtles. I'm sure they had names but I've forgotten them. There may have been more than 2 turtles, but only 2 at a time. They generally thrived on neglect, and lived in a fish bowl that had water and something they could get out of the water onto (I can't quite remember what). I remember watching them crawl around. We might have had them a year or two.

There were any number of goldfish, which came from school fundraisers or the carnival, prizes for winning some game. Carefully carried home in small plastic bags of water, I kept them alive until I got home with them at least, but they usually didn't last a week. My best friend had fish that lived for a lot longer. Several times we kept a bird for some friend of my Mom; I remember covering the cage at night. I never did much like pet birds, I'm not sure why. Later we had some hamsters. They were fun. I think they may have lived as long as six months.

When I was 16 we got a cat, Phoebe. My parents had always said no to getting a cat or dog, but this cat seemed to adopt us. (Although, I confess that I did give her some encouragement to come around by feeding her scraps.) She got into some spaghetti in the trash can and had a stain on her fur for months. After several weeks, Mom took a liking to her and we decided we could keep her. She lived for 16 years! She seemed to have the best personality. I wish I remembered her better.

When I was away in college, my brothers brought home a stray dog--I was surprised my my parents accepted it--a good-natured mutt. Mom told me she liked to jump on the neighbors trampoline. I would have liked to have seen that. Unfortunately she also liked to chase cars. I think they had her about 2 years.

Over the years my parents had several more cats and at least one other dog. One of the cats Mom was quite attached to. I'm not sure how long they had her, but I remember Mom mourned that cat for a long time. Along the way there may have been other cats, I can't remember. I know there were two cats and one dog, that outlived them. Mom had hated the dog, which would jump up on her and make her fall down (she being at that time unsteady on her feet). Mom tried to deal with the problem by giving the dog treats--not good dog psychology! Knowing she had treats just made the dog want to come to her.

I was more of a cat person until I stayed with Mom that last year. I liked the cats. But I found I liked the dog too, although I was sorry that she caused so much distress to my Mom. I never could teach her not to go to Mom, or to convince my Mom not to give her treats.

I never was able to have a pet all the years I lived in Hawaii where I was always renting. Oh, there was one rabbit. We (me and three girls I was housemates with) tried keeping this rabbit. I think most of us liked it, but none of liked its upkeep. It had shown up unexpectedly and disappeared the same way. We didn't have it very long, 2 months maybe.

One time during those years in Hawaii, a lady I knew from my folk-dancing group asked me to watch her 7 cats for her. She was going to let me drive her car and stay in her house. I didn't have a driver's license, so I could do it--I was really disappointed. I befriended one of my neighbor's cat, a pitiful thing, much the worse the wear for getting into fights. (I didn't like hearing the howling at night!) I remember I had some song I used to sing to it, some silly ditty like that song from Friends that Phoebe sang--"smelly cat, smelly cat"...my song was something about it having one eye, I think, I can't quite remember. I would sit on the steps in front of the house and pet it and sing to it. For some reason I can't remember anymore I had named that cat Troika. The words to the song rhymed with Troika and the tune was melancholy. I never knew what the neighbors called it.

I pretty much have never met an animal I didn't like (so far). I'm sure I could even get to like having a pet bird.