With a ‘woof, woof’ here and a ‘meow, meow’ there…

Well, so maybe it’s not Old MacDonald exactly, but there were times growing up that it felt like it a bit. 

We started with a dog, that my dad got when I was a baby. Toddy (named for a pet alligator my dad had as a kid – don’t ask me why the alligator was named that…) was a Sheltie, and a one-person dog. That person was my dad, and he didn’t have much to do with the rest of the family – except for me, maybe because I reminded him of my dad.

My parents told my brother and I that we could each get a pet at age 7 – when they figured we’d be old enough to help take care of it. They originally didn’t put a whole lot of caveats on this idea, so I decided that I wanted a horse.

What? You don’t think a horse was a legitimate request? Our house sat on about 1/2-acre of land and I figured that the backyard was plenty big enough. I promised to clean up after it, to feed it and exercise it and everything.

My parents disagreed. I got a kitten instead. And my dad (very creative with naming animals) came up with the name ‘Jellybean’ for her.

Jellybean was a very sweet kitten, but she only lived for a year (we don’t know why she suddenly died). So I got a replacement kitten, that my dad named ‘Sassy’. Sassy was a nice kitten as well, but didn’t have much to do with me – she pretty much became my mom’s cat.

Hmm, maybe that had something to do with the fact that my mom ended up being the one to feed and take care of her most of the time? Nah… 

After about a year or so Sassy (no, she didn’t die – be patient!) found herself ‘in a family way’ and we found ourselves raising a litter of seven of the cutest kittens you’ve ever seen. My brother and I named the whole group (we beat our dad to it) – ‘Paws’ and ‘Boots’ had white feet, ‘Tiger’ was a grey tiger striped kitty, ‘Midnight’ was black and white, ‘Caramel’ had a caramel-colored mark on her forehead, ‘Coal’ was pitch black except for one tiny white spot on his stomach, and the other grey tiger striped one we christened ‘Jellybean II’.

We managed to find homes for all of the kittens and my mom breathed a sigh of relief that we were back to being a one dog and one cat family. At least we were temporarily, that is.

We always called Jellybean II the ‘kitty who came back’. The family that had taken her (because she matched their existing cat) gave her back a couple of weeks later since their male kitty just wouldn’t get along with her. And for some reason we didn’t look for another home, but just kept her.

And she became my kitty.

A little while later, we added a puppy to the mix when my brother turned seven – he’d asked for a rabbit, but my parents talked him into a dog instead. Rex (named from a baby name book of all things) was a tiny little Beagle, even when full grown.  He and Jellybean became fast friends and used to wrestle, play and even curl up together.

Over the years afterward, we had gerbils (mine were named Amber and Topaz – yes, I was a teenaged girl, lol), fish, a turtle, and another dog after Toddy passed away. She was a Golden Retriever named Taffy – I don’t remember who came up with that one. She ended up more as my brother’s dog though, until he went away to college.

My mom took care of and kept the whole menagerie after my brother and I were gone, until each of the four dogs and cats were gone. Mom now lives alone – except for three cats she adopted after moving into her current house. Callie and Toby were strays (mother and son) and mom took my cat Antigone when we moved into our current house (black cat + white carpeting = no way).

We were pet-free for a while (after trying out gerbils, fish and hamsters with no luck) but got a kitten (Misty) a few years ago for our girls. Then a second kitten (Peaches), and when that one died (after eating the foam tiles on our basement floor), a third kitten (Snuggly). Who snuck outside a while later and ended up with a litter of her own (deja vu, anyone?). We raised five kittens and kept two of them (Tips and Dusty).

We’re now a 3-kid, 3-cat family – and going to stay that way.

At least for now. 

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp.