Did you grow up with pets?

[AmberLee]

I was lucky growing up with pets (even though Mom complained daily about each of them, she let us have them!...)

Dogs: A sweet, nutty German Shepherd mix female named Killa; a zany terrier mix named Lucky; a huge nutty German Shepherd named Towser; a sweet 'gentlemanly' German Shepherd mix named Modoc; a precious ? mix of a dog - mainly black with 4 white paws and a couple white spots named Bootsie. (Bootsie followed me home from Kindergarten -- do not remember now whether this required coaxing or not...)

Cats: Two Siamese when I was tiny -- I don't remember their names, but the neighborhood kids and I would seranade them with "We are Siamese if you please..."; they ran away very shortly thereafter but this may be coincidental. A gray tabby named Sylvester who was a magnificent mouser (started to list details here, but they are grusome...) who actually put up with being baptised one afternoon when a religous fervor hit our playgroup. Another precious gray tabby was named Oliver; he entered our lives when we were older and less trying for a cat's nerves. He had been abandoned near the ranch where my parent's worked. (Olivia was named in this Oliver's honor.) A tuxedo male named Mercury and his black litter mate named Vulcan.

White Rat: His name was Snow White and I would give him rides in the basket of my bicycle. For some reason my teacher was horrified that he was named Snow White as this is a girl's name and insisted that I call him Snow Ball whenever I'd write about him in school essays. (A point I still puzzle over many years later...)

Hamster! Her name was "Queen Victoria" and she wasn't amused by much of anything... Remarkable how much disapproval she could demonstrate with a wrinkle of her nose!

4 Hermit Crabs: The males were Holofernes and Theopholes; the females were Clytemnestra and ? I don't remember now how I told them apart... My parents said they were glad I got these names out of my system before it came time to name grandchildren...

Goldfish and guppies and seahorses and a jarful of little tiny frogs (and one toad): many, but I've forgotten their names... Except for those returned to the wild quickly, they died young, it seems...

Sorry, got carried away here. Way more than you ever wanted to know...