From the Sixties...

These are the pets I, or my family, had from when I was 5 through 15. My memories are sadly lacking, but I have done the best I can to remember these babies.

Babe Babe is the first animal I can remember having any interactions with. She was my father's hunting dog. I don't, however, have any memories of her prior to his death. Honestly, I don't have many memories of her, period. The first thing I can remember is her with her puppies. She was technically living at my aunt and uncle's, but as they lived only 2 doors down, she virtually still lived with us. I was trying to get the puppies to eat, but they wouldn't. Whether that was because they were ill, or because they were too young, I don't know. It could have been either, as none of the puppies survived. Another time, Babe was in our house and one of us kids spilt some chocolate milk. She really seemed to enjoy that as she quickly lapped it up.

At some point in time, Mom decided to give Babe away. Was I sad? I would certainly think so, however, I don't specifically recall. She wasn't really a dog that we played with since she was trained to hunt. The last reference I have to her is when we were visiting my cousins' in Ohio and we overheard Mom talking with the other adults. Babe had gotten loose at her new owner's and been killed by an automobile.

Thomasina

     Chronologically, I'm not certain who came next, Thomasina or Domino. For some reason, I feel it was Thomasina, but I could be totally wrong.

     Thomasina was, for those of you too young or too senile *smile* to remember the movie, a cat. She was named for the Disney movie "The Three Lives of Thomasina". As the movie was released in December of 1963, this would place her in our home in 1964. Along with thousands of other Thomasinas in thousands of homes, I'm sure. I would have been 8 years old. Again, my memory is extremely poor. Of course, my childhood memories are pretty much non-existent overall.

     Thomasina welcomed me to the world of reproduction. Her kittens' (2) births were the first time I had experienced any such thing. I do remember that Mom did not want her to have them in the closet. Thomasina did not agree. Guess who won? After the birthing was finished, Mom moved them out of the closet and into a box.

     She (Mom) was a Campfire Girl (It was all female then) leader at the time and I can remember all the girls wanting to play with the kittens. They weren't very old at the time. Mom warned us we shouldn't bother them so much. But we were kids and they were kittens... I don't know if the kittens died, then Thomasina ran away or vice-versa. We never saw her again.

Domino

     Domino was one of those "free to a good home" puppies. I still know the house where we went to get him. The puppies were down in the basement of the house. My older brother picked him out. I suppose he was more Tip's dog than mine or my sister's.

     He was a very playful dog. With one trick that we didn't see as stupid until it was too late. Whether it was out back in the alley, or in front in the street, if he saw a car coming, he played his version of "chicken" by darting across the road in front of it. He almost always made it...

     There were a lot of neighborhood kids as well as the three of us out front when it happened. It was just a young kid that hit him. I know he felt pretty bad about it. Wasn't his fault, though. Mom thought Domino died instantly. We buried him at my grandmother's house. I don't really know why.

Popeye Popeye represents the many parakeets I had when I was a kid. I feel ashamed that I cannot remember each individually. I only remember Popeye's name because I named him after my Halloween costume for that year. The first one we had we'd gotten from an older lady who could no longer take care of him. He was quite the scamp--continually escaping from his cage. Another stupid trick we thought was "cute". At least with him, we tried to keep him from doing it. One day we came home from shopping to find he had drowned in the commode.

Mostly I remember how many of them died. Another one, we had one of those little ferris wheel feeders. NEVER put one of those in the cage with your bird. His head became wedged in it and he died. There was a time we had two parakeets at once. We were cleaning their cage and I don't really know what happened. One of them just dropped dead. Its partner died not soon after during a thunderstorm. I had just covered it up for the night and gone to bed myself. There was a horrendous thunderclap and somehow I just knew... I went to check on him, and sure enough, he was lying on the bottom of the cage.

Matthew Matthew came into our lives when I was 11 years old. My brother, who was 16 at the time, had a paper route and his boss gave Matthew to him (us). Maybe it's because I was older, or maybe it's because he was around longer, but I can remember more about Matthew than any other pet from the 60's. Hence, he's been given his own page.

Chicken      Not terribly creative, Chicken was, yes, a chicken. Not just any chicken, though. Mom had gotten me a incubator and my neighbor had given me any number of fertilized eggs. Time after time I would put the recommended two in, watch the temperature and water carefully, rotate the eggs, etc. with no result other than bad eggs. Finally, tired of it all, I put five eggs in, added water and turned them when I thought about it.

     One night, I had a dream that a black chicken hatched. Keep in mind that the only chickens I had ever seen were either fried or the white ones my neighbors had gotten at Easter. I'll be darned if within the next couple of days, a brown/dark brown chick hatched out of the top egg. I have no idea what kind he was.

     His (I don't really know the sex, I've just always used the male pronouns) home was out on the back porch in a large chicken wire cage. Mom had put rocks under the clothesline so she could walk there when it rained. Every time we would turn them over, looking for bugs, Chicken would get all excited and start jumping up and down in his cage. He knew we were looking for treats for him. That part was smart, the part that was silly was that the cage really wasn't high enough for him to do this and he always banged his head on the top of it.

     Chicken died almost a year to the day after he was hatched.

A.J.

     "A.J." stands for "Albino Jake". He was the product of a "free guinea pig" ad on the radio. My sister had gotten a guinea pig which died after only a week or so. When my mom heard the ad on the radio, she allowed my sister to have this free one. What the previous owners neglected to mention was that this guinea pig was on the verge of giving birth. Shortly after arrival in our home, she gave birth to two babies. A.J. was the male of the two and became mine.

     The first mammal entirely mine, A.J. had way more personality than I would have expected from a guinea pig. Naturally, he loved lettuce, carrots, etc., but there was also something he enjoyed which was not normal guinea pig fare. Nehi used to produce a soda flavor called "Lemon Sour". To be honest, I don't remember exactly how it tasted, but I liked it. One day I decided to share with A.J., and he liked it too!

     He lived in the living room, but was more than close enough to hear whenever the refrigerator was opened. Invariably, he gave out a guinea pig whistle. Just as invariably, we would then bring him a treat. I guess he had us pretty well trained.

     His death came in my high school years. By then I had learned that to mourn a pet was "unacceptable". No child should ever feel this way. To grieve alone is one of the hardest things to do.

Big Kitty Big Kitty, whose proper name was "Alva", came into my life in 1968. He just sort of appeared in the neighborhood. He was the first time I ever asked Mom "Can I keep it?". Guess one or the other of us was so cute, she couldn't say no. There's more about him here.

Others There were others, no less loved at the time, but faded from my memory now. Turtles, fish, gerbils, mice, etc. There was almost no time in my life that there was not some kind of pet in the household. My mother is wonderful in that way. I don't remember her ever turning down our request for a pet. Of course, we didn't bring every cat, dog, snake, whatever, we saw home, either. At least, I didn't while I still lived with her. Check out the 80's for more on that.

The story of The Rainbow Bridge
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