Heads or Tails

This week Barb over at Skittles' Place has challenged us to write about pets (heads) or pet peeves (tails). Since you don't really want me to get started on my pet peeves (not really) I'll stick with heads this week! Plus, it gives me the opportunity to think back during my life and see just how many of my pets I can remember (I have a feeling I will be forgetting some). I will try to do this chronologically.

1. Bunky - sheep dog that my parents had gotten as a puppy before I was born. He lived until I was 12 years old, and at times in my life he was taller than I.

2. Hamsters - we had four (2 one time and 2 another time). The problem with our hamsters was they kept finding a way out of their cage. My brother and I thought all of our hamsters ran away and never came back. My daddy didn't tell us until we were adults that one time he found them in the mouse traps. (We lived in the country and my parents kept traps around the house all the time - out of our sight/reach of course.) He didn't have the heart to tell us at the time.

3. Sam - the cat we had the longest when I was very young. We had other cats, but they were mostly strays that we started feeding and they all stayed outside.

4. Bosco (Bobo) - we got him from my aunt when her dog had puppies.

5. Brandi - cocker spaniel we got when I was 9 (at the time he was 6 months old). This has been my favorite pet of all the pets I've had. He followed me around everywhere. He slept in my bed, and he was such a comfort when I was having a bad day (teenage years there are quite a few of those - or there were for me anyways). He ended up getting sick and my dad found him at the bottom of our stairs the day he was scheduled to be put to sleep. I never knew they had made an appointment for this, and I found comfort in the fact that he didn't have to be. He was like my baby before I had my babies!

6. Snake - my brother's and I don't even remember the name of the thing.

7. Charlotte, Wilbur, and Flopsy - My brother, sister, and I all had rabbits. We enjoyed playing with them, but they were so big we didn't get to hold them much.

8. Buddy - lab mix that we got when my grandparents' dog had puppies. He was an outside dog, and my brother claimed him. My parents still had Buddy once I was married and moved out. He died just a few years ago from cancer. Drew still remembers and misses Buddy.

9. Romeo - cocker spaniel that Craig bought for me because he knew how much I loved Brandi. Romeo was older when we got him, and he ended up biting Craig while I was pregnant with Drew. We decided we could not risk our son being bitten, so we found Romeo a family with a home in the country.

10. Turtles - I'm not sure how many we had or what their names were - we didn't keep these very long.

11. Hermit Crabs - we get these almost every year at the beach, but we can never keep them alive.

12. Rabbits - Craig and I decided we would get Drew and Mikayla rabbits (daddy gave us the cage we had kept Charlotte, Wilbur, and Flopsy in).

13. Birds - We have had 4 birds total, and Drew mentioned just this morning that he would like to have another parrot (he meant parakeet). The first two we got after Drew fell in love with GG Ma and GG Pa's bird the first time we went to Florida with him (he was 9 months old). After awhile, he lost interest in the two we had here (we were also afraid he would turn the cage over on top of him - he was learning to walk), so we gave those two to my cousin.

14. Red - a hamster that Drew picked out and named all by himself.

15. AJ - black lab we got about two years ago from a teacher at Drew and Mikayla's daycare. Ms. Amy said AJ was about 2 years old, and he was another favorite pet of mine (not to mention Drew and Mikayla's). One morning we woke up and AJ was gone - we think someone picked him up.

16. Brandi - yellow lab (already named) that we got from one of my cousin's customers. We had to give her back because she kept jumping over our fence and we were afraid she would get hit by a car.

17. Fish - this is one that could have run through the whole post.

I have had several different pets in my life - can you tell we love animals?? Every time I get ready to hit publish I think of something else. Maybe I could update this sometime with pictures of some of these pets. Right now we are without pets. I would LOVE to have an English bulldog one day. I keep saying this will have to be when my children get older because I hear you have to "baby" them. Plus they are a little expensive so I'll have to save up...