Thoughts From Rosebud Lane

Did you have any pets in your childhood home? If so, please tell me about them. If you have a photograph of any of your childhood pets, please share.

We always had a pet or two. I seemed to drag home strays. My mom being softhearted mostly let them stay. 

We had cats and dogs. My brother and I often had those miniature turtles you could buy at Woolworth's. I don't know how it happened but it seemed like they would always escape their dishes and end up dead somewhere in the house. 

My brother had gerbils for a while. I am not sure why he liked them. I usually ended up cleaning their cage, which I hated doing. Hmmm, maybe that's why he like them...to torment me.

This is Teddy. He is the first pet I remember. He was a cocker spaniel. He used to jump up on the piano bench, would push on the keys. He was asking for his treats that were kept on top of the piano. I was 5 in the photo. Not a great photo, but it is 56 years old after all.

This is Ginger. One of the strays I mentioned. I was 10 in the photo, making it 1965. We had her until 1975. She escaped many times only to return home with surprises for us in a few short weeks.  One time she had the surprises in the middle of the night. On my mom's bed!We were always able to find homes for her surprises. One boy we did keep. We named him Sylvester. I can't find a photo of him. Ginger was a bright orange stripe. A rare color for a female cat most are males. Just like most calico cats are female.

 

I brought home a black lab one time. I was about 16 then. Poor doggy was being abused and neglected by his owner (a friends parents).  The parents would once in a while give him water but like as not it might be beer in his water dish. I kind of stole him. Well, not kind of. I did steal him. I couldn't stand seeing him tied up all the time with no attention. I was about the only one to play with him. Labs are the smartest sweetest dogs of any breed . So, I took him home one day when no one was at home there. I renamed him Sabbath. It was the 70s and Black Sabbath was THE band in my world then. And of course he was a black lab. Oh, how I loved him! We had him until we moved from that house 7 years later. I gave him to a cousin. Poor Sabbath ran away from that home, ended up in the pound and my cousin refused to get him out. I didn't find out about this until it was too late to do anything.

We had a Siamese kitty for a while. My mom brought her home. We named her Baby. She was a sweet little thing. She got a fish hook caught in her mouth, and the vet couldn't get it out. We lost her that day. 

My mom brought home another stray one time. She named him Buster. He was a German Shepard mixed with a Pomeranian. The poor mommy of Buster was the Pomeranian. He was wild thing, and was not to be tamed. He had to be chained when he went outside other wise he would run the neighborhood. Sometimes he would get loose and show up at my school. The nuns would have me take him home. Sometimes more than once a week.  I only lived 4 blocks from school.

We had a Chihuahua dog. She was a tiny little thing. Her name was Chi-Chi. We got her when she was already quite old. She had bed eyes and couldn't hardly hear. She would sneak out sometimes. We knew she had gotten out when we would hear a car horn honking. Chi-Chi like to lay in the sun, unfortunately her favorite place was in the middle of the street.

Those are the pets I remember the most. I am sure I missed some. It is a good thing we didn't live out in the country. I might have brought home horses.