Yikes....... animals

When I was eight my parents bought us a dog (black lab) because I was afraid of animals..... due in no small part to being knocked over by a poodle when I was 18 months and also falling off a horse when I was on holiday (why, was I the one to get the horse which was as wide as it was tall and made me slip from side to side????). I grew to love our dog 'Sam' very much - after overcoming my anxiety on the first day we had him when (at 8 weeks old) he had me cornered by the front door. But I still didn't like any other animals.

So, imagine my shock/terror/angst (pick any, or all three) to discover that my husband LOVED animals. We bought a dog (yellow lab) just before we had our daughter, which was fine because I was OK with labs. THEN as the children got older suddenly the house was a menagerie. We had two rabbits Angel and Peter (later to be named Petra when we discovered he was a she), a hamster, several fish, a cockerel (named Cocky.... all pet names down to the children), and chickens (who were very partial to pasta and peanut butter and would come running toward you when you called them).


And when we came to New Zealand, sans all above pets some who were no longer with us and some (rabbits and chickens) who we gave away to good homes, we seemed to start again - though living in a motel and NZ regulations did thwart us a bit. Nevertheless, we bought a dog 'Ellie' (see photo for Ellie as a puppy - she's now nearly 6) and my son rescued a couple of mice from someone who was being cruel to them and he kept and bred them (intending to sell the offspring to pet shops, who, it turned out didn't want them) , and we had a tank of fish - and let's guess who ended up cleaning them out every few weeks!!!! And the children also took riding lessons.

So, am I now an animal lover? I'm much better than I was. Cats worry me, as do horses and cows, and certain dogs. But I'm getting there.

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