I don't want a cat.
I don't want a dog.
I had a dog when I first got married.
A beautiful Siberian Huskey.
He was a wonderful pet, but more work than I can imagine doing again; especially with 3 kids and a full time job.
Still my kids beg for a dog.
Instead, I got each of them a rabbit.
3 rabbits....
We put a hutch up outside, and Fluffinutter, Peanut Butter, and Chocolate lived out there.
Then they wanted hamsters.
Ok, so I caved and we got 3 hamsters.
One died and was replaced with a gerbil (they have short life-spans)
Then another died and was replaced with a guinea pig.
Somewhere in there we aquired two mice.
My father's business was tropical fish, so we got goldfish, then Siamese Fighting Fish, and then a 70 gallon aquarium with African Cichlids....
They call this a menagerie.
I'm almost to the point where I believe a dog might have been easier...
Anyway, last week Peanut Butter, our 7 yr old female lop/dutch died.
She was sick for a few days; lethargic. She just sat and wouldn't eat or drink.
My middle daughter was beside herself trying to figure out how to make her better.
And then she just died.
So we took her and put her into a shoe box.
And buried her in one of my backyard flower beds which is now really the pet cemetary.
They said a few words after I dug the hole.
They all cried.
It's so hard to see them cry; to experience loss.
They put flowers on the spot after i covered the hole.
You want to protect them from all of this.
You can't.
It sneaks into everyday life.
This week I let them mate the two dwarf rabbits.
My husband is going to have a FIT when he finds this out.
I figure if they must learn the lesson of death, then they should witness the other side too.
The Gestation period for rabbits is about 30 days.
I have time.
secretlife posted on Aug 23, 2006
| views: 330
Comments
-
Alcarinque said on Aug 24, 2006....
I think my family can have you beat. We had a real menagerie. At one time we had a great dane, 3 snakes, 3 turtles, 2 tokay geckos, a pacman frog, 4 fire-bellied toads (2 were mine), 2 chameleons, several tropical fish, a hamster (also mine), and we raised mice to feed the snakes, geckos, and frog. That is just what we had at one time though. We've also had cats and rats and birds and various other reptiles. All the neighborhood kids loved our house.
-
secretlife said on Aug 24, 2006....
Oh yeah, you have me beat!
I have been considering a lizard. Not the kind that eat mice.
I don't really want the kind that eat crickets or meal worms either because I just can't bear having that stuff in my house....maybe a nice vegetarian iguana or something....
-
satyr said on Aug 24, 2006....
I will admit that our menagerie has dwindled as the kids have gotten older and left the nest, but we still have 2 dogs and 3 cats (the rabbits, gerbils, mice and fish have been weeded out by now). The pets have been used to (hopefully) help teach our children responsibility. They were responsible for feeding, cleaning cages, etc.
The heartbreak that goes with the loss of a pet I also believe helps youngsters learn about life, and how to work one's way through the loss of a loved one (even if it's not human).
We have had some wonderfully tearful times of remembrance from the many pets we have had, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.
-
secretlife said on Aug 24, 2006....
did you have a pet cemetary in your yard satyr? How bout you Alcarinque?
-
Alcarinque said on Aug 24, 2006....
We don't actually. I had a few pet bugs that were buried in the back yard and our tarantula was buried back there, but nothing else. We generally threw them away or flushed the fish. The great dane was put down and the vet disposed of the body, and I particularly remember my dad taking our rabbit out into the desert and dumping the body. I thought he was soooooo mean, but I'm sure there were some very happy coyotes and ravens.
-
secretlife said on Aug 24, 2006....
Alcarinque: You definately have my menagerie beat!
I flush the fish too; we don't bury those.
Once I had this Plecko...big one...maybe 12 inches long that died and I tried to flush it. It clogged the toilet. My husband never lets me forget that one.
-
Alcarinque said on Aug 24, 2006....
That actually sounds like something I'd do.
-
lioneljay said on Aug 25, 2006....
I absolutely have to ask how you came up with the name Fluffernutter. That's my favorite snack sandwich of all time.
-
satyr said on Aug 25, 2006....
We have buried a few in our back yard, SL, which is against city ordinance......most of the time we take them out to the in-laws who live about 5 miles out of town, and bury them at their place.
-
secretlife said on Aug 25, 2006....
Fluff was a New Zealand White. So he was pure white with pink eyes and a pink nose. He was my oldest daughter's pet, and we took him home from a 4H fair when she was 4.
At the time, she was in her Fluffernutter/Peanut Butter sandwich phase. To her 4 yr old eyes, he looked like Fluffernutter! And so that's what she called him.
That rabbit lived to be 11 years old!
Two years after we got Fluff, my middle daughter was ready for her own bunny. They collaborated and picked a brown wild-looking lop/dwarf female and she was, of course, Peanut Butter. What other mate could Fluffernutter possibly have?
-
secretlife said on Aug 25, 2006....
lioneljay- i expected you to look over my erotic stories, not these blurbs!!!!
-
lioneljay said on Aug 25, 2006....
SL, consider it done (it is, in fact).
I'd asked about the term Fluffernutter because it's such a New England specialty and so few people with whom I have contact outside of New England have ever heard the term.
-
secretlife said on Aug 25, 2006....
nope, i'm in jersey, and we do those sandwiches here too!
-
lioneljay said on Aug 25, 2006....
Then there is hope for Jersey after all. ;)
-
secretlife said on Aug 25, 2006....
I have a t-shirt that reads: NJ where the weak are killed and eaten; hope? i'm not sure bout that.
-
lioneljay said on Aug 25, 2006....
So that wasn't a mirage that I saw as I merged onto the NJ Turnpike last summer, that sign that read "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here?"
-
sissy1 said on Sep 19, 2006....
My daughter had a Dutch rabbit that lerarned to unlatch his cage, whidh we kept inside the house, whever he wanted out. He would roam around a while, leaving a trail of pellets, then on the command, "gohome" would return to his cage and drop the latch. When we put him in q hutch outside, he ws killed by neighbor dogs. Otherwise, he was an excellent pet.
Comment on "On Children and Pets"
Related Posts:
ZsuzsiO
posted on Nov 01, 2008
| views: 27
|
Or the question about the mutant flee situation... read entire post
Gardeninggal
posted 10 days ago
| views: 27
|
My Mother always told us when we were growing up that pets did not belong in the house. I agreed with her completely. So when my roommate’s cat was following me around the apartment all I could think of was that cat... read entire post