Memories #6 - Pets

I thought I'd pay a little tribute to the many pets that have come and gone in the lives of my family members and I. Mostly we've had dogs, with an occasional goldfish and some rabbits. Here they are, mostly in order of when we got them:

Boats:

We got Boats on Christmas Eve when I was five. Some lady had Queensland/Australian Shepherd puppies in the back of her truck in the grocery store parking lot and was selling them. My dad and I and maybe Danika just happened to go to the store that day. Being the dog-lover that he is, my dad just couldn't stay away. So we got a puppy and brought it home. I'm pretty sure my mom didn't know about it until we brought him home. I remember that I loved to carry him around and hold him like a baby.

Boats was an outdoor dog. He drove my mom crazy by doing things like this:

Our hose was never the same after that. He chewed on everything and really needed people who would play with him more. And maybe a bigger yard. So we eventually gave him away.

Winky:

I think I was about 8 when we got Winky. She was a cute black terrier mix that we got from the pound.

My mom let her live in the house because she was small. She was great. She let us hold her, she didn't bark at strangers, and she loved us. She only had one fault. Every time the front door would open she would try to get outside. Most of the time we could hold her back, but every once in a while she would escape and go racing across the street (I think there was a boy dog that she was friends with). We lived on a semi-busy street and she ran across one too many times. She ended up getting hit and killed. It was awful. I remember crying and having a runny nose. And eating an orange popsicle. I also remember having soccer practice that night and my coach was really nice about it and he told the whole team what happened so they would know what was wrong.

Tricksy:

We got Tricksy not too long after Winky died, so I think I was still 8. We got her from the pound as well.

I'm still shuddering at the outfit I'm wearing in that picture.

Tricksy was a good dog, but she wasn't quite as nice as Winky. She wouldn't let us hold her and she barked every time the doorbell rang. She didn't like strangers at all. She was a good guard dog. And she never ran across the street. We ended up having Tricksy for 15 years (she was about a year old when we got her). She grew quite plump during the last half of her life, but near the end she lost a lot of weight because she only had one tooth left and couldn't eat much. She was also very weak in her old age. I remember one time after my mission my mom woke me up at about 2am to tell me that Tricksy had peed on the floor (she had also lost most of her bladder/bowel control) and had slipped on it and couldn't get up. So together we got her back up and laid her down in a more comfortable place. I remember it was really sad because she was struggling so hard to get up and couldn't because her legs were splayed out all over and she didn't have the strength she needed. She ended up wandering off one day and my parents got a phone call saying that the pound had her and asked if we wanted to put her to sleep. So that was that.

Maggie:

We got Maggie about a month after Tricksy died (even though my mom had said no more dogs). She has got to be the best dog we have ever had. She's a Jack Russell Terrier (dog from: The Mask, Frasier, Wishbone) and my dad and Bethany got her at PetSmart.

She's so friendly and curious and loves to be around people. For the first little while that we had her she had a really hard time when nobody was home. She has gotten much better but still gets SO excited when someone comes home after she has been alone. It's nice to feel loved, even by a dog. She's also really smart. She understands the word "walk" and gets really excited when she sees my mom putting on her walking shoes. And she will eat anything. She really likes grapes.

We have also had 3 rabbits, but I only have a picture of our current rabbit, Sammy:

I haven't ever really paid much attention to the rabbits we have had; they're mostly Bethany's. I'm more of a dog person anyway. Sammy loves bananas and running around in the yard. When you take her back to her cage, she just jumps right in. My brother likes to bring her in the house, much to my mom's dismay.

We've also had several goldfish over the years, but they never lasted long of course. Except one actually lived for a year and a half. I don't remember any of their names though.