did you grow up with pets?

[Adrock-JD]

Yes. A German Shepard which died when I was very young.

Then we moved and got a Beagle which was backed over by my neighbor and killed...it had fallen asleep under her rear tire.

Another Beagle and a Basset Hound. Then a bulldog

A parakeet named Charlie. Got away when mom was cleaning the cage on the porch one day.

Lots of fish. A 10 gallon aquarium. A 55 gallon saltwater and then a 110 gallon.
After many years got tired of the maintenance.

One cat (Red) got as a kitten from the neighbors. Then I got all cats when I was grown.

No pets now.

 

[Knucklehead]

Yeah, we had a regular zoo at our house..Tons of dogs,a few cats,fish,sea monkies,hamsters,ducks ,gerbils,iguanas,birds, and even an ill tempered spider monkey..

In Florida,my ma used to feed an alligator that would come by the canal in the house evry couple of days..Seemed he loved whole,raw chickens..

 

[Swellegant]

There were always dogs in the house... my mother and step-mother always felt compelled to have a dog or two. All of my aunts and uncles had dogs, too, as did my maternal grandparents; my paternal grandparents had owned dogs before, but during my childhood they only had parakeets.

Mother had a gorgeous black lab for a long time, who turned up when I was six, I think; later she added an incredibly stupid sheltie/shepherd mix, and at one point had a purebred Samoyed (even stupider) that had been her mother's, which she gave to Mother when she moved to Palm Springs.

When I moved in with my father and stepmother, she had a big goofy golden lab and a little black-and-gray dustmop creature that she insisted was a "cockapoo" (Cocker spaniel/poodle mix) but I'm pretty sure was the illegitimate spawn of a badger and a chimney-brush. Later on, she had a pair of ill-bred shar-peis that smelled horrible and pissed everywhere.

Mother also went through a phase where she had a cat, as well. When they died, she'd go get another one somewhere, always a tortoiseshell tabby for some reason. One of them scratched me on the neck and infected me with tuberculosis, which resulted in having a lymph node removed from under my chin, which in turn left a nasty scar that is with me to this day.

When my grandfather died in '87, my uncle gave Grandmother a lhasa-apso, the offspring of his own dog. Maggie was the only dog I really loved. She was silly and at times annoying, and shed the most amazing amount of long white hair (which we had to rake out of the carpet before we could vacuum), but always sweet and cuddly and never tried to get on the furniture. She died several years ago, though, and we haven't had another one since.

I also had fish and birds and even a couple of dogs of my own during childhood, but they always died... sometimes it was my fault, but usually it was just bad luck. I never successfully owned a pet on my own until I got my turtle five years ago... he's still alive!

 

[Latimer]

A couple of ridgebacks.

I like being around farm animals: chickens, geese, ducks, goats, sheep and cows. Wish I had that experience as a child.