Day 27: Pets
Wow we have had a lot of pets. First there was our black cat Sassy, who we had to get rid of because everyone was allergic to her and my lungs were sensitive to her hair. Then Alicia and I each got a kitten. I remember taking them home and loving them. Alicia had an orange cat with white stripes named Muffin, and I had a black and white one I named Berlioz from Aristocats. I remember Berlioz loved to climb in our Christmas tree and play around the house, but I had my heart broken as a 7 year old when Josh and I were being babysat, and I could hear Berlioz making weird sounds in the garage. He was still young (about a year or 2 old) I had to watch him suffer with my babysitter trying to pull me away as I watched him pass away from a heart attack. It sounds disgusting and terrifying, and it was, but it was sad to be a child watching that happen.
I loved Berlioz, but I promise I'm not some crazy cat lover. We also had a white rabbit named Marshmellow. Then we had a hampster named Gizzy, who died of a tumor on her leg. It has sad as well but kind of funny looking at it now because we had a long-ish funeral for her outside our apartment. We then had two turtles: Tiny and Josh (named after my brother). Tiny passed away as well for some reason I can't remember, but I loved that turtle Josh haha. We kept him in a large tupperware container with water, and I would hold up my artwork, and he would walk back and forth examining my drawings. We then would play music in the room, and he would stand on his hind legs and jump up and down and swing around and splash water around him. I am not kidding! haha who would ever guess a turtle could do such a thing? But then Josh (the turtle) became smelly and started growing at a fast rate. We had to let him go in the creek outside our apartment, so my mom bought me a turtle build a bear.
Then somebody in our ward let us buy a kitten from her. We thought it was a girl, so we named it Abby. Well, it turns out it was a boy. But Abby was a hoot. He would play hide and seek with us as kids, and would love to play around. We kept Abby for a while, but he moved around during the divorce, so I believe he started becoming resentful.
Later the same lady that gave us Abby said she found a puppy in a dumpster so she had to save him, so she named him Oscar, but her dad would not let her keep him. So guess who adopted Oscar into their fam? That's right, we did! He was the cutest dog alive. He loved to play and would chase tennis balls. Oscar later had to move to Arizona to stay with our sweet Grandma Wagner because it was too hard during the divorce to keep him.
Then there was our dog Smokey (chow dog). She was a sweetheart and was very loyal. Our uncle let us keep her for a while, and everyone loved her so much. But we moved back to Texas with her. Now this might sound strange, but in Texas there are critters everywhere, including opposums. I hate opposums, and it must be because of this. While Smokey was outside one night, she would not stop barking. We went to see what was the matter, and there were a pair of gleaming eyes making a hissing sound. We brought her inside, and she eventually stopped barking, so we let her outside again. We heard the fighting again as Smokey was barking, chasing the opposum around the yard, but yelp as we thought she killed the oppossum.
We were proud of her for 'trying to protect us' but worried. The next day we saw the same oppossum climbing our fence.
As the week went on, we would take Smokey on walks and lived life normally, but she started to have symptoms of rabies, so she had to be put asleep.
After a while we got adopted another cat named Marty, because he was found underneath a Walmart truck. Marty acted like a dog, chasing his tail and playing fetch. But he eventually ran away.
So yes we have had a lot of pets, but we ended up having Oscar again, and to this day he still is with us :) He is always happy, hides when there is fighting, throws tantrums and pouty faces, and acts as a doorbell when someone comes to the door, likes to be around people and always makes sure everyone feels happy, and of course begs for food.
