Did you grow up with pets?

As a child, I had severe asthma and allergies. My first major asthma attack involved my cousin's Great Dane and myself being closed in a station wagon waiting for the rainstorm to end. I started wheezing and swelling and the rest was history. In the course of my young days (as I've mentioned before-the days of the dinosaur), I was able to tolerate birds and hamsters. They were fun, but they just weren't DOGS. When I got married, my parents decided to get a dog to replace me. LOL. It so happened that I did not react (asthmatically) to their pup, so I ran out to buy his brother. Low and behold, I was VERY allergic to him! :( As luck would have it, I worked with a guy whose mother was the head nurse to a pediatric allergy specialist. He agreed to see me and even though in those days you were told to get rid of the dog, he said he would work with me. I got weekly shots and other various treatments and I finally got immune to my dog of a lifetime, Wolf. The rest is history.

It's been sort of off and on as far as I'm concerened. When I was born we had a Samyoed named Sam (my sister named him, she wasn't bery original :) ) who lived until he was about 15 or 16. After Sam there was a couple of years break and then we got a lab pointer cross from the Huame Society who was on death row when we got her, her name was Coco (she was chocolate...my other sister named her) she died about 6 months after we got her though due to cancer. Both of those dogs were my eldest sisters, then we got some fish and have had fish for the last 7 years, there's the aquarium type and then the pond type that come in the house in the winter. and then about 2 and half years ago I got Smudge who was my first dog (the first one that I owned) and last October I got Winter, and I plan on having pets for the rest of my life. :D

I had pets off and on growing up. My parents had two dogs when I was born, but had to get rid of them two years later when my brother was born., so I don't remember too much about them. We got the first dog I remember owning when I was 14, and she is still alive almost 13 years later!! The first pets that were my responibilty, were the fish I got when I was in college, and still have 4 years later, surviving the move home from college, into my aprtment, and into my husband's house. Sadie (16 months) and Cincy (5 months) are the first dogs I have really attempted to raise/train. So far, I think we are doing well....