Our beautiful pets over the years…

This morning as I sat watching all the activity on the bike track and in the park across the road, I couldn’t help being amused by the vast difference in the size and shapes of both dogs and owners doing their daily walk. Some of those dogs were big enough to throw a saddle on and others were small enough to sit in a teacup!

I don’t think a dog ever looks happier than when it’s busily trotting along beside its owner… except maybe at dinnertime! All this dog activity made me think of the pets that we’ve had over the years, and there sure have been a few!

When we were first married I brought with me a cute little penny turtle, named Goopy. He was named after the little girl’s toy in the movie, “The Shiralee”. Does anyone remember the movie? I think penny turtles are protected these days so we won’t be having another Goopy.

Then came kids and all the pets that they pleaded and begged for! First up was Bubble and Squeak, the budgies. These poor birds had a few close shaves with a carpet python before falling off their perches. It didn’t seem to matter where we hung their cage that darn snake managed to find them!

Following close on the heels of Bubble and Squeak came the goldfish, Diva. Whether it was over feeding or old age, she (I think!) eventually went the way that most goldfish eventually do… belly up!

Clawdia, the cat came next, named so because as a kitten she loved nothing better than to sink her claws into us all. Now I’m not a cat lover, but our neighbour’s cat had kittens and we all know how cute kittens are. Add to that a little five-year-old daughter with big brown eyes just pleading for a kitten and yes, I weakened. Darn it all! I have to say that Clawdia and I had a real love-hate relationship but nobody was as surprised as I was at how sad I felt when we said our final farewell to her.

Our next adventure involved two hermit crabs, Mel and Henry, who had a rather unfortunate end.  I didn’t realize hermit crabs hibernated and thought they’d died. I very thoughtfully buried them in our back garden only to find out later that I probably buried them alive, I still feel bad about that!

Having failed as a responsible hermit crab owner, I once again weakened when our daughter pleaded for a puppy… Clawdia was still with us at this stage so a puppy was going to be risky. Once again the big brown eyes won and the next Christmas we brought home a tiny ball of white fluff that would give us absolute joy for the next twelve years.  Bubbles, was the best little dog ever and is very sadly missed. He and Clawdia had a difficult relationship but managed to come to an understanding. Bubbles was the boss upstairs and Clawdia could do what she liked downstairs. When Bubbles was a teeny weeny pup Clawdia scratched him across his snout in a rather nasty confrontation that had the poor little dog yelping and whimpering for a long time. Obviously that incident stayed in Bubbles’ memory because once he was big enough to stand his ground, that’s exactly what he did!

I can’t forget the smallest of all our pets, the Sea Monkeys! These were undoubtedly the easiest of our pets to look after but even the Sea Monkeys ran out of time when we couldn’t find any more of their food in the toyshops!

But wait, there’s more! During Clawdia and Bubbles’ time, we also took on a seemingly endless family of guinea pigs. These guys were a lot of fun but took a lot of looking after. Even with two cages we sometimes slipped up with keeping males and females separated so someone was always pregnant! Despite all the babies, we eventually put the two cages out for the curbside collection. Carpet snakes, neighbourhood dogs on the roam, heat and maternal smothering all took their toll on our little fur babies!

Unfortunately Bubbles lost a battle with kidney disease a couple of years ago and after having to say goodbye to him we declared that there would be no more animals for quite some time. We’d like to travel and be free to go when and where we like for a while. Bubbles was a great little travel companion but he definitely restricted the number of places we could stay as a lot of camping grounds and caravan parks are not dog friendly, which is such a shame.

The pet-free thing was going well until our daughter returned home to live and brought with her not one pet, but two! Marvin, the 9 month old rat, who is actually a girl but the name was a winner so Marvin it is. He-she is very cute and not much trouble so that’s not too bad. Then there’s Daisy, who at the time was seven weeks old and so cute! She’s a mini fox terrier x Pomeranian x Jack Russell. Now to be fair, we did give our daughter the go ahead to buy Daisy, providing she was completely responsible for her. So far, that’s working really well but the jury is still out…

Daisy is a real little darling. Very sweet and timid, unless it’s playtime! She has wormed her way into our hearts quite effortlessly and I have to admit it’s really nice to have another four-legged member of the family. She’s now 14 weeks old and has grown amazingly. At seven weeks old she was smaller than a tissue box but is now about the size of two tissue boxes!

Research shows that having a pet is good for our health – both mental and physical and over the years I must say that we have had so many happy times and lots of joy through our pets. A dog is my pet of choice. They’re loyal, loving, trusting, great company and always happy to see you! Do you have a favourite pet who makes your day with a wag of their tail or a twitch of their whiskers?

I’ll be giving you regular updates on the life and times of little Miss Daisy (that’s her in the bottom right photo). Keep an eye out for “The Daisy Diaries” on Starts at 60 and follow the adventures of our latest family member. I’m sure a lot of you will relate to experiences we have with this delightful young lady!

Do you have a pet that puts a smile on your face every day? Tell us about them in the comments below…