Pet History

Pets were always a huge part of my family growing up, but I was thinking about how I have never had a dog until the day that it died and since having Peeka I am beginning to understand why!
Dogs are a HUGE commitment.
Especially when they have so much to learn, but are too stupid to learn it. Once in a while Peeka will impress me though and the kids love her, which is why I put up with her crap. Literally.

Anyways, this is my Pet History:

Shasta and Bow

In Australia we had another cute little sheltie named Onya and I would dig in the dirt with her in the backyard.  (I've tried convincing Kyle to let us name one of our girls Anya, like on Anastasia, but he just won't go for it.)

Riley

One Easter we got a couple of bunnies! How cute is that?!

I don't remember what their names were or how long we had them because our neighbors dog got into their cage and killed them.

Socks

The neighbors at the top of the hill had so many cats that had a bazillion kittens and one day every neighbor kid took one home to beg their parents to let them keep a kitten. Me and Katey were the only ones whose parents caved. :)

My parents told me if I kept Socks then we had to get rid of Riley though.  Deal.

Even though the real reason is that they were pregnant with EmmaLee and didn't want to have such a big dog knocking her over.

Socks died a few year after I left for college. He lived about 13 years, definitely the pet I had the longest!

My first grade teacher, Ms. Huish, gave me a couple gerbils.

I think they had like 3 litters of babies too! Out of all the babies only 2 lived, the rest always got eaten.  Probably cause I held them too much :(

Our next dogs were Jasmine and Casey.

They went to new homes during the divorce.

Then came Slinki,

My 6 foot, red tailed boa constrictor!  My cousins downstairs neighbor was getting rid of him and knew how much I loved going over to see him so I saved my money and bought him for $500.

He died while I was in high school, but was a super fun pet to have!

I had a couple water turtles for a short time.  

Bert and Ernie.

I think they came from my 4th grade teacher, Mr. McArthur.

That's also when Jake had his two Iguanas, Luigi and Bowser.

Honey

On the last day of 9th grade, on our way to Lagoon, there were free puppies outside of Macey's.

We were living in the white house so my mom let us get one!

She was a good dog, but then she disappeared and us kids swear that my mom took her to a farm!

The week before she was threatening to get rid of her if we didn't take care of her...

Very suspicious.

 During the time that we had Slinki he ate rats and sometimes the rats were friendly.  So we kept a couple for our pets. Our favorite was Suzie.

Scone

At my Grandpa's house in Aurora, he had some horses.  My dad's horse was Scone and I got to ride him around the corral a handful of times. I loved telling people I had a horse though.  I LOVED horses!

We had a parakeet from my great aunt Jill that lasted one night because it could fly and I decided to get it out while Socks was inside the house... 

There have been quite a few other pets at our houses, belonging to my siblings over the years and more since I left home, including Jake's chinchilla named Dusty.

Bubble, Squishy and Spermy

While we were dating, Kyle and I got 3 guppies.  One was even still alive when we left on our missions the next year! That was why we tried to have guppies on the tables at our wedding, but that didn't work so well!

Our first pet after being married was Pokey, our hedgehog!

He died a couple years after we got him.  I almost cried and Kyle made fun of me for it.

Since being married we have also had 3 cats.

Kitty, Phantom and Meeko

And now we have our dog, Peeka!

I'm planning on having her till the day she dies!  So hopefully she gets better. 

So far it's been iffy ;)
She digs holes, eats my carpet, chews on Kasen's toys till they are bloody and/or destroyed, steals food off Kasen's tray, vomits on the floor, chews up the hose, trips me when I try to take her running, trips me when I'm walking around the house, poops in her crate too often and scratches Kasen's face sometimes. Even Kasen calls her "stupid" now, but they LOVE playing together!

My mom made having dogs seem so easy because I don't remember this much trouble!
Hopefully one day she will know how to walk on a leash, maybe go running with me and not to jump on people because Tai loves her now too!

 I'm just trying not to hate her today...

#inbigtrouble

Usually though, I love animals :) Not to the point of donating to those Sarah McLachlan commercials for dying animals, but I think animals are fun to have around.

If I can hold it, ride it, rescue it or even just look at it then I'm in, whether it be horny toads, snakes or sea turtles!

#africansafariplease

Growing up I loved that my mom almost always let us have the pets that we wanted and told myself that I would do the same for my kids.  We'll see how far I'll really go though.
I do believe that having pets is a good way for kids to learn about taking care of and respecting life, dealing with death and learning how to treat and be around animals without fear.  Responsibility for something outside of themselves is good to practice.
 So even though Peeka drives me crazy, seeing Kasen play and laugh with her makes some of the bad stuff worth it cause they will be best friends!