Dash #555 Pets

 Did you have any pets during your childhood?

          There are posts that I have shared about adopting dogs during my married life.  I think the only pet from my childhood mentioned is a rabbit I had received from an aunt one Easter (see here) but Pinky was not our only pet.

A German shepherd pup had wandered into our yard one year.  We tried finding its owner and kept him for a couple of months as I recall.

          Patrick wanted to keep it and gave him the name "Junior".  He tried training the dog, and paid bail money when he was caught by the pound.  I think that happened twice before he decided he really couldn't afford the cost.  That is how Houdini was from this post.

       

          For years before and several years after Junior I had gone through at least five cats.  Mittens, Blanco, Inky . . . I don't know what happened to all of them or how long I had each one.  I don't suspect any of them made it a full year.  I don't even remember one of the names.  I don't know if they ran away or were stolen (I had attempted stealing a neighbor's cat at one time).  Mom told me that there was one that she found in the dryer. I think it was Blanco. Her neck had snapped.  Sorry for that gruesome detail.  I don't remember it personally.  Mom told me that she couldn't deal with it and called a neighbor to remove it.

          The cat that was with me for the longest was "Patch".  I don't know how old I was when we got her but I know I still had her when I was in junior high.  I considered her to be my cat and figured I was in charge of naming her and tried out different names like "Jelly Bean" and "Marshmallow".  Unfortunately I never did settle on a name.  We kept Patch in the basement.  As our washer and dryer were also located in the basement, mom would meet up with Patch whenever she was doing laundry. She started calling my cat "Patch" because of a grey mark surrounding one of her eyes.   

          I remember Patch disappearing and hunted in the basement for her and found her under the stairs along with a litter of 5 kittens.  Mom would not allow me to keep any of them.  I don't remember how many years I had her.  I would think more five to ten.  We had to put her down.  I wish I had better memories to share.

          Corey had gone through a series of cats also.  I have more and better memories of his cats than I do my own.

           Never had a goldfish - but had purchased goldfish for the boys after I got married.  I also think that either Patrick or I briefly owned a turtle.

Ghost and Midnight

I have seen two different cats hanging around our house.  Jenna has named the three that she has seen and Roland says he's seen four. None of them appear to be scroungy or "homeless" and I have wondered what it is that attracts them to our yard in the first place.  Perhaps it was when Roland put up the bird feeder - though we haven't seen too many birds this winter.  

I'm pretty sure that the black cat is a tom.  He wants nothing to do with people.  He runs away if we open the door - and he always dashes off as if he is trying to escape whatever he's guilty of.  Jenna calls him Midnight.

I don't recall ever having seen Ghost before we came home from our Christmas vacation.  She is really friendly, well kept.  We're certain that she belongs to somebody, but we don't know who.  She likes attention.  She wants to cuddle.  She has very soft fur.  Jenna loves her.

I took several pictures of Ghost.  These are the ones which turned out the best.

This is Jenna's favorite

I do not have any pictures of Midnight.