Got Pets

Continuing the play on the "Got Milk" ads. Earlier I wrote "Got Memories" which I had originally planned to be about pets. We have always had a lot of pets. Ever since we got our first kittens soon after we were married our home has never been without at least one cat.

Paul and I also enjoyed many pets as children. Paul's mother had a soft spot in her heart for animals. There was always a dog in their lives as far as I know. They had two bunnies when I first knew their family. One was a little wild bunny named Ozzie that came from North Island. The other bunny was a large white rabbit similar to one our children had in the sixties.

Paul's mother had a darling parakeet that she let fly around their house. Pedro learned some words and could sing, or whistle, "Take me out to the ball game." He got out one time and she was able to call him back into the house. But when he got out again, probably on someones shoulder, they did not realize he was missing in time to get him back. Mom was very very upset about losing her little friend.

My sisters and I had cats that we loved as well as other assorted pets. I had parakeets and a favorite little turtle. We also had a pet hen named Susie Q that traveled from Coronado to Washington state with us in 1949. Mac, my turtle made the trip with us too. We left Susie Q on the farm when we came back to California later that same year. My turtle made the trip south with us along with a kitten. Then in 1950, after moving back to California, we got a puppy that my mother named BeBop. We had him a couple of years. We continued to have cats all through my teen years.

There were always farm animals when we lived with our grandparents on the farm. Besides the cows and chickens there were pigs and one work horse. I remember Grandma warming newborn piglets next to the old wood stove when the mommy pig couldn't care for so many little piglets. There were cats in the barn and on a rare occasion we had a pet kitten on the farm. There was always a farm dog. I remember my parents taking Buddy for a ride when we went to get ice cream cones. They bought the dog a cone too. That would be an amazing treat for a farm dog.

On the farm as young children we accepted that animals were mostly for the survival of the family. Cows were for milking, mostly. The chickens were for eggs or a good chicken dinner. I have always hoped Susie Q didn't end up in a pot of stew, but times were tough so who knows. The pigs were also used for meat. That is the way it was. The cats and dogs were not usually house pets.

I remember one of our first pet cats we had when I was ten years old and living at our grandparents' home in Coronado. He was a pretty fluffy kitty and my sisters and I loved him a lot. He died unexpectedly and we cried and cried about this loss. We went on to have more special kitties over the years. We continued to be sensitive to their needs.

My children grew up with a lot of pets, mostly kitties. It would take a book to share about each pet. We also had birds which doesn't always work with cats. We had Henrietta our first cute little dog. She was part Dachshund. She had one litter of puppies, and it was a difficult delivery for her so she ended up having surgery to have the final pup. That one did not survive. One other pup also died during her labor. She had four healthy pups and we found homes for each of them. Their daddy was a Dachshund which was appropriate.

I can't begin to remember all the kittens we had. But we got to where we were able to have all of our cats fixed so there were no more litters of kittens. Charlie was one of our earliest cats. Charlie ended up having kittens so we obviously gave her the wrong name. After her largest litter she went out and got hit by a car and ended up with a broken hip. She had surgery for this injury and we had to bottle feed some of the kittens. We eventually got her spayed so she got a reprieve from nursing kittens.

Other pets included guinea pigs which are a favorite of ours. There were hamsters, mice, rats and a chipmunk. We originally had two chipmunks but one got injured on their wheel and did not survive surgery. It was not illegal for pet shops to sell little wild animals in those days. Charlie the Chipmunk lasted a number of years. He was part of our collection when Bill's second grade class came to our house on Olive Lane to see our zoo. We also had a large white bunny that we got for Easter in 1966. He got into the neighbors yard and mated with their bunny so they had little bunnies. Several years later we had a little black bunny that we named Happy Hare. He ran around the house playing with the cats.

After we moved to our present home in 1973 we got a cute little dog that Griff named Nipper. She could have been a cockapoo. Later on a little poodle got into our yard and mated with her. She had three sons and we kept them all. We named them Doug, Sheldon and Herschel (Hershey). They lived a long time, especially Hershey who lived fifteen years. We had other dogs along the way too.

In 1980 my niece Elizabeth came from Montana to visit us after she graduated from high school. She ended up staying for five years along with her dog, Mouse. With Mouse added to our dogs we had five dogs in the house at that time. Actually her dog was the most well behaved of all the dogs.

Other dogs we have had over the years are Susie, Sam, Bear, Mandy and Sammy. I could be forgetting one. Each pet has a story to tell. We have not gotten any at the shelter as they seem to find us. The pups, Henrietta and Nipper, were acquired on purpose. The others found us in various ways.

We also had turtles at various times. Two turtles that we got while we lived in Coronado moved with us to our present home. They were originally very small turtles that lived in a bowl, but ended up in a little children's plastic pool in our back yard. We had them for more than thirty years until a raccoon came into our yard and injured them. We did not know there were raccoons in our area until then. We had to have them euthanized due to their injuries. We had box turtles when we lived in Coronado. We had a desert tortoise, that was found walking down the street, after we moved here.

One of our kitties was named Phantom as Paul found her at work where the Phantom jets were. Our Phantom was a tiny kitten when Paul found her. We had her for nineteen years. Griff now has a large kitty named Phantom. He is named after our original Phantom. We also had a kitten we named Temporary as we were not going to keep her. We had her for many many years. Early on we had a kitty named Goldwater that we had for many years. We had him when our boys were babies and moved twice with him.

If I forgot any pets they will be another story for another day. We only have kitties at this time, but there are more than I care to admit to.  Got pets!!  :)

images from Marvin family album