You can't help but learn something when you have a pet. We have three...none of which were a "Yay! Let's get one!" of my choice. What do I really want? A cat. A nice, fuzzy furball to snuggle with on the couch. But, one of my children is allergic to cats, so that's out. Our first and last experience with a dog still haunts me. We adopted two-year-old Lucy from an animal shelter because we wanted to rescue a dog. While incredibly sweet, she was outrageously neurotic and must have been treated badly in the past. We couldn't leave her alone without her howling and sqwuaking (that's right, sqwuaking) for the entire time we were gone. Also, she had a habit of clawing at my stomach (I was pregnant with my second). We started to get nervous about her interacting with our 3-year-old. After 8 months and a lot of tears and guilt, we ultimately gave her away to my in-laws friends, who had another dog and that seemed to help her tremendously. She now lives in Orlando and while her story has a happy ending, I still feel awful that we couldn't make it work.
So, of course, all my daughter wants in life is a dog. Never mind that she's terrified of them in person. Specifically, she wants a pug. She writes books about pug care. She papers her room with pugs. She insists she would clean a pug's wrinkles if she had one. All I want to do is get her one. However, the cost and the fact that we aren't home enough, make it impossible at the moment.
So...we have an albino okeetee corn snake named Ricki and two parakeets named Weasley and Dobby. The snake is Kyle's, Weasley is Amanda's, and Dobby is mine simply because Weasley seemed lonely. We let Kyle talk us into Ricki five years ago...."Mommy! I'm a boy who needs a pet!" I let my husband talk me into allowing Amanda to buy Weasely. I am NOT a fan of birds in cages, but I gave in on the condition that we train the bird to come out and play. Well, Weasley didn't want to come out and play. Six weeks of sticking my hand in that cage, many times a day, to hand train her and by week five, she had had enough. She started to bite me. Hard. She glared at me. She turned her back, then whirled around to eat my fingers. After two weeks of getting bitten, I gave up. Two weeks later, Weasley got Dobby and he became her subservient boy toy. They are very happy together and want nothing to do with the rest of us. I feel like their landlord.
So what has my family learned by having pets? I have learned how to inject a snake with anti-biotics through a needle. Right between the scales! It's amazing what a mother can do when her son had to put his snake on a gurney at the animal hospital (yes...that's right...snake on a gurney) because it's mouth was staying open as if it was in respiratory failure. As well, my son has learned how much parents can nag ("Did you feed Ricki? Did you feed Ricki? Did you feed Ricki? Did you defrost a mouse? Did you.....etc.") Still, we have learned that, on the whole (antibiotics aside!) a snake is the easiest pet to care for.
What else have I learned from my pets? Only a visit to the exotic pet animal hospital will net enthusiastic comments over the beauty of your pet snake. Birds poop about once every half a second. Never send your mother a letter in the mail with a shedded snake skin stating that "Ricki sends her love." (Yeah...I'm not getting into that one.) Nobody can ignore you as effectively as a bird can, and yes...I still want a cat.
Still, we have what we have and we must love them because they are all alive and well.
Do you have animal lovers in your house? I have to be careful what I show my ultra-squeamish-yet animal-loving-daughter, however, perhaps you have a potential veterinarian in your family? If so, send young children to Animal Doc , a page for kids that was created by University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. HealthyPet.com offers free articles for kids about pet care. For older kids who are considering higher education in veterinary medicine, send them to FutureVet.
Does your family have a pet for which you all go bonkers? Why not start a page for them at You Pet? We just started one for Ricki Redrock. Let us know! Ricki will friend you!
