Family Pets - question for all Pet Talk people

[DJFyrewolf36]

My parents have always had pets I have fond memories of my dads fish breeding projects and the dogs we always had. Growing up, there were at least three dogs! At one point we had four, but one sadly went to the RB because one of my brothers friends left the front gate open and he got out and a car hit him . My parents had cats too and my mom has always been a bird person. Not to mention the rats and lizards I had too I even kept grasshoppers lol.

My parents love animals, and love having them around. Both sides of my family are decendants of farmers and always believed that treating the animals right was the best way. My dad had vaious pets growing up and my mom had horses I know for sure.
My parents still have (or are owned by more accurately) birds, fish and two dogs. Mom even has a chicken

[Suki Wingy]

I don't think I'm related to one person, at least not for three generations who DOESN'T like animals of some sort. My great grandma used to tell me about the dogs she had, and they had several cats when my great grandpa was alive. My grandparents on my mom's side love animals and always have. They just adopted a puppy. My grandpa was an army surgeon and while they were staying in Okinawa, (Japan) they rescued a dog named Lucy, who they took home to Iowa with them. Growing up my mom always had multiple dogs, cats, birds, and my aunt made sure there were plenty of guinea pigs.
Now all of my aunts and uncle also have multiple pets. My uncle and his wife have been on a waiting list for a Eurasier for about a year now.

On my dad's side, my grandpa retrained abused horses and my grandma used to ride before she got married. She said my grandpa made her quit riding english since he was a 'cowboy'. (What a silly thing to do!) My dad even dug up a photo of my great grandpa, apparently he kept playing truant in order to go to the barn. My grandma later managed a racehorse, she still talks about her. My dad was the true ecologist though. He spent his childhood days catching snakes and reading college level books on animals. He even took a baby crow from its nest and raised it, his Archie. While that was a dumb thing to do, he succesfully raised Archie into a healthy adult crow who was more like a free ranging partner in crime than a pet. My dad was even crazy enough to keep a constrictor in his yard and bought two dosen chickens and let them loose for the snake to hunt and eat.

Even my step-parents each had animals growing up.

[Grace]

Neither of my parents had pets growing up. My mother did allow us (my brother and I) to have one cat when we were in grade school. But after she died, there were no others.

I must have always loved cats. There is a picture of me, when I was maybe 3, sitting in a haystack surrounded by cats - and I was smiling.

My brother had a black lab, Pal, for years. He took her everywhere - to work, to the nursing home to visit my mother, out on his boat. He was devastated when she died.

And I've had cats all my adult life. When Douglas and I got married, we did get a dog - he had grown up with cocker spaniels. Jenny was a Westie mix - a cruelty case at age 3 months. She lived to the ripe old age of 15. Now we have 6 cats.

[chocolatepuppy]

I grew up with cats and dogs. The cats were outside cats, they could come in the house, but no litter box, they had to go outside. Most of them would disappear after a while.
The dogs were my dad and brother's hunting dogs. They too lived outside. I do remember when it got extremely cold outside the dogs came in the basement.
When I was seven my parents got a poodle! I thought he was all mine! Of course, he was a house dog.
We had rabbits, mice, and fish also over the years. When I was a teen my now hubby, got me a few ducks!
So no wonder I love animals. Great thread Karen.

[Cincy'sMom]

I think most of these pictures have been posted before...quite a long time ago, but they are some the pets fromthe past.

Me about 30 years ago, with one of the 2 dogs my parents had before children, Simon


My dad with Mickey and Simon


My grandma and one of their dogs, Toby


My aunt and Pierre


My grandma and Sooty, My aunt's dog (Sooty is one of the first dogs I really remember from childhood)