No more pets, please

In my lifetime, my house has been a zoo. There were many parakeets, and many assorted dogs including pedigree hunting dogs with names like Big Boss Billy's Chief Banjo Joe. In fact there were so many hunting dogs that I lost count. Also there were stray cats, one named Ms. Black who had a litter every time a Tom looked at her, and a male stray named Cringer,

There were tropical fish including guppies, kissing grommies, neons, black mollies, and other fish found in home aquariums. There were beautiful Siamese fighting fish kept in separate fish bowls.

My son brought home lizards, frogs, a rooster, raccoons, an injured barn owl, squirrels, a baby fox he named Rocky and turtles. One of the turtles was named Joe.

There were also pet rabbits and baby ducks and geese galore. Most of the animals or birds were given names but many of those names have eluded me.

There was also an appaloosa pony named Flicka and a lilac crowned Amazon parrot, mentioned last week.

Now understand. All these creatures brought a measure of pleasure, some more than others. But they required attention and care.

There was the house dog that shed white hair 24/7. I'm talking about twenty four hours a day, seven days a week for 16 years. Now that's a lot of hair to vacuum, sweep and brush from carpets, upholstery and clothes. The dog was a beloved member of the family but he caused me to have many bad hair days.

The parakeets were less trouble because all I had to do was see that their feed cups were filled and water cups replenished and the paper changed in the bottom of their cages.

There is always the problem of what to do with a pet when you want to be away from the house for a day or two. In my family's case, the pet dog that shed all the hair went with us. If we went camping, he went along. If we traveled, he traveled with us, hogging the air conditioner by standing in front of the main car AC vent. He once made a cross country trip with us in a small Cessna 150. It was his first and only plane ride but he settled in like an old pro and slept through turbulence over Idaho.

The birds presented no problem because they could be given a double portion of seed and water (in a short absence).

There was Pete, the talking parakeet, and birddogs named Slick and Shag. There was Two Bits, a treeing feist, who died last year, There was a part wolf dog named Zach who hated snakes and was bitten by them on several occasions,.and there was Spook, a pedigree dalmation, and a pet Muscovy duck named Huffy.

I named him Huffy because he couldn't quack. He just huffed and puffed like the big bad wolf in The Three Little Pigs. Huffy would come to the kitchen door and I'd hand feed him bits of bread. Mostly he spent his days cruising on the backyard pond. Sadly, he was caught on land by a big dog and almost killed. During the attack he hobbled and struggled to get back into the safety of the pond while I fended off the dog.

Finally, Huffy made his way to some tall grass on the west side of the pond. Strangely, two other ducks rallied round and stayed with Huffy while he recovered. After several days, Huffy made his way back into the pond, accompanied by his caretakers. The caretaker ducks knew that Huffy was in trouble and they supported him by staying by his side,

And I can't forget Redd, the sweet shy Doberman who looked ferocious, but wasn't. He kept many a Fed-Ex man in his place and salesmen too. When they saw him round a corner of the house, they headed for their vehicles. Redd just looked at them, and never barked. He lived to be ten years old.

After years of being in close proximity with animals, I'm amazed at what they know and are capable of learning. They are not dumb animals-- they can be taught so many things. I remember a baby raccoon that loved to play with a broom. In my kitchen while I swept the linoleum, it would run and grab the broom, sometimes wrapping its claws around the broom handle. Obviously, it was enjoying the broom. The little raccoon would dart behind a cabinet then zoom out to grab the broom when it neared.

Pete the parakeet acquired quite a vocabulary. He could repeat many words and phrases and learned to sing a portion of Jesus Loves Me.

He spent endless hours playing with the toys in his cage. He would cuddle with a yellow plastic bird I had hung on his perch. If I removed the plastic toy from the cage, Pete would squawk and run back and forth on his perch, panicked until I returned the plastic toy. Obviously, he had claimed the plastic bird as his own.

He played games too. He would go to the bottom of his cage, pick up a tiny plastic toy, then climb his ladder to his perch. Then he would drop the toy and watch it fall to the bottom of his cage. Then he would climb back down, retrieve the toy, and repeat the process over and over. It was a game with him, like basketball.

In the woods around my country home, there are deer, raccoons, opossums, foxes, coyotes and a few wild turkeys. Occasionally, you can see one of them cross the gravel roads or appear at the edge of the woods. There's also the beautiful blue heron that catches fish in the backyard pond.

Living among the animals and birds is an enrichment.

I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything,but I'm taking a vacation from animals.

I'm opting for more freedom.

No more pets, please.