My parents got into tropical fish while we were in CT. When I say 'got into' I mean seriously. We had 4 tanks that held a variety of fish. No goldfish... nothing that common. My favorites were the neons. Tiny little swimming rainbows! There was a Jack Dempsey and of course little catfish for gravel cleaning and plecostomus' for glass cleaning. I remember sitting in front of the tanks and just watching them swim in their happy little homes. They had live plants and real rocks, none of that plastic junk for these fishies.
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| Neons... tiny swimming rainbows! |
I remember trips to the fish store well. It was an adventure. There were no PetsMarts are any kind of chain stores then. This store was set up in what used to be an old house. It was warm and smelled swampy and damp inside and there were dozens of tanks set up holding all kinds of fish. I wish there were still small mom and pop tropical fish stores. You could tell that they were run by people who really liked fish and took excellent care of their stock. Fish are cool. I would like to have some again if I ever move into a place with enough room.
Our first pets were turtles. Tiny little red ear turtles with shells that measured about 1 inch around.. We each had a little plastic turtle home which consisted of a plastic circle, flat-bottomed bowl with a plastic palm tree and island in the middle.
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| My turtle island didn't have gravel. |
Mom used to give us little balls of ground beef for a turtle treat about once a week which they actually loved. I don't remember what we named those turtles but they were really cute and we liked them a lot. One of us liked his turtle a little too much and held it for extended periods of time which eventually resulted in a turtle death. My turtle survived and grew to 3 to 4 inches around before we moved and I had to give it away.
After the turtle incident we got gerbils. We named them Hansel and Gretel. Gerbils are really good escape artists. That's what we learned. We also learned that Don shouldn't have a small pet. He also held his gerbil a lot and once held it by the tail when it really wanted to not be held... the tail skin and fur decided to leave the actual tail so he ended up with a gerbil with a naked tail. It grew back eventually. In the end, the neighbors' bathroom wall was torn out to get Gretel back into her cage. We aren't sure, but we think that she had babies while she was 'on vacation' in the wall... Not that it mattered since the exterminator was there shortly after her rescue.
So... our next pet was a puppy.
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| If you take the brown off this dog and add more tail..... |
We named her Princess and she had short white fur with black spots. Not dalmation spots...big spots.She was a small mutt... I want to say she was at least part terrier. Lots of energy. We had little dog treats that were shaped like people that I used to try and teach her tricks... useful tricks like sitting. I don't know if those treats are still made... they weren't shaped like just ANY people... They were shaped like people that dogs are good at biting. You know - mailmen and postmen. She also had milkbone treats and one day I decided to sample one. Hey, if it's good enough for my dog... Mom broke a wooden spoon that day in an effort to make me stop chewing and spit out said Milkbone. She broke it on the table, not me... but it made a really loud noise. I continued chewing and she told dad when he got home. Dad then had to talk to me and explain that I shouldn't eat those. I think it might have been hard for him to keep a straight face during that talk.
When dad got orders to go to Key West we had to give Princess away. We kept in touch with the people who took her in and were told that Princess had run away from them at least 2 times and went back to our old house. I guess she eventually settled in at her new house though. Either that or my parents stopped telling us about her escapes.
Enough about pets now. Next time, things that I remember that may or may not be true.
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