Did you have a favorite pet while growing up?

Tell us about your pet(s). If you didn't have one what did you wish for?

From: Jenny McMurray

I actually am not an animal lover, but I did have pets growing up, but my most favorite was Grandma and Grandpa Harris's dog Ducks. I thought it was funny that Ducks was always trying to get the porcupines and ended up getting the quills stuck in his mouth.

From: Lois Rotella

They only pet we had when I was a child was gold fish. We would win them at school fairs or street fairs. Most of the time they didn't last very long. Either we feed them to much or didn't clean the bowl. We did get a siamse cat when I was an adult. We named her Cleopatra. The family entered her in a household pet show and she won three ribbons. Cleo loved to hide on us. We had to be careful about opening doors because she would charge in the closet or out the door. I miss her very much. Our other cat was a gray cat named Misty. Misty love to jump up and look you in the eye. She was very funny. She waited at the door when i was coming home and then go to sleep when i got home. I think she thought we were her children. I miss her very much also. Right now were have no pets in the house.

From: Connie Olson

I didn't have a pet until I was 15 years old. We lived in the cities and my grandfather lived with us. He didn't like dogs and thats what we wanted. My grandfather died just before we moved to the suburbs. So It was shortly after we moved there we got a dog. We picked out this small cuddly looking puppy. It was suppose to be a small dog we were told. HAH! My father when growing up had a dog by the same name. My father said he knew it was going to be a big dog when he saw the huge paws on it. We named him "Timmy" he was a Chesapeake. We were very happy to have a pet.
Our yard was fenced in and that was the extent of "Timmy's" world. He would wait for us to come home from school to be roughed house with, as we called it. He took turns sleeping at the foot of our beds every night. I remember the click of his toenails on the wooden part of our floors as he made his nightly rounds. I was out of school at the age of 17, and married at age 18. So I only saw him when we went to visit the family. Timmy loved limburger cheese. My father had that and crackers as a snack every night after work. Timmy lived to be the ripe old age of 14 in our years. He just didn't wake up one morning. We buried him under the pine trees in our back yard.

From: Connie Farrington

I didn't have a favorite pet when I was growing up, but here's a pet story that happened when I was about 9, I think. The family dog was named Buzzerboo, and was getting along in years. He was outside, doing whatever Buzzerboos do. As far as I know, he never crossed busy Ridge Road to go over to visit Marshall, Sarah, Phil, Nancy, Joyce, Bill, Don (Tunk), Carol and Gail Harris. I had received a new umbrella and wanted to open it up in the house to look it over more closely. My mother yelled at me not to open it up inside the house. "Something terrible will happen if you do", said she. Not the least bit superstitious, I said, "Watch this. Nothing bad will happen." And I slid the catch slowly up the umbrella handle. At exactly the same time, brakes screeched in front of the house. And a car hit and killed old Buzzerboo, who was crossing Ridge Road.

Although I don't consider myself a superstitious person, I never again opened an umbrella in the house. And our family never again owned a dog. And I'm sure my mother never gave me another umbrella. (My, what a dismal pet story that was!)

From: Philip Harris

I have had a lot of favorite pets when growing up. I will always remember my dog Rex. He was run over by the local church minister. I walked on to the dead dog a couple of weeks later. It was the saddist time of my yothful life. My father who was in the service at the time said he could see the tears on his letters.. The dog was my constant companion. He would follow me to school and wait until I got out. We would hunt and swim together.

From: Gail Goodrich

I had a dog Shaggy. She came to us when I was 11. She was pregnant and we suspect our dog Snorty was the father. She was a pure bred wire haired terrior. She would sit on my lap, follow me all over and even ride horse back with me. When we found out who owned her my brother Phil said I had to return her or pay for her. I started a jar of money that I asked everone to contribute to. When I was sure I couldn't get enough money I was so upset that Phil finally told me he was only joking and that the owners said I could have her. She had many litters of puppie that were pure bred after that. Dad sold them to make extra money. When I left home Ma and Dad took good care of her until she died of old age.

From: Amy Freeman

The first pet I can remember was Irving our cat, and Jo-Jo our bird. Grandpa named the cat. ( We all put names in a bowl and grandpa's was pulled out. ) When we moved, we couldn't take the pets so we gave our bird to a friend and the cat went to the SPCA. I didn't get a cat again until I was about 18. I got him from the SPCA when he was 8 weeks old. We called him Tigger because he was orange. I ended up having to give him back to the SPCA because I couldn't keep him at the new apartment. The other pets I remember were grandma and grandpa's dog Dux, and Steve's dog Simba. Those were some fun animals!

From: Lucy Welden

We had a dog his name was Rex, he was always around with one of us, usually with my sister or I. He would follow us when we went bike riding, my uncle would take him hunting he was good at retriving even though he wasn't a hunting dog. He was our best friend we had him for about 14 years.

From: Renee Zamora

I remember our black and white, border collie, Skippy. I just loved her. I loved having her sleep with me, she was just the best dog. She followed us kids everywhere. We had many cats that had kittens. I can remember my brothers and sister watching the cat have kittens in our closet. My most prized animal was my horse Fitzy Hal, a retired Standard bred racehorse. We had named the horse Bishop, after my father, until we found out his racing name. We would ride the horse but it didn't like to have a saddle on it. One time my father tried to ride the horse with a saddle and it just sat right down. One day the horse wouldn't leave it's corral so I tried to walk him out to the field. As I went around the corral the horse was spooked and ran over me. My foot was bruised very badly. It took a long time to heal. After that I was afraid of the horse and we sold him. I'm still a little nervous around horses.

From: Joyce Eggleston

I have always had a cat or two. I had a black and white cat I called poo-poo tiny. I wrote a song about him. I had a beautiful yellow tabby, Cats named Babe cat, It cat, Boinger cat, Nitchie cat. Now I only have Tabby which was my mothers cat and I took him when she passed away. He is still going strong at 16 years old and he is spoiled rotten.

From: Heidi MacDuff

My favorite pet was Babe Cat. I love cats. Babe cat would be with me outside when I played and sleep with me at night. I am very allergic to animals, but I kept her near me night and day.

From: Marie Zamora

My pet growing up, that I still have is m Siamese cat, Moo. Yes, Moo. She's 9 years old and a totally spoiled rotten little brat, but she's just like her mommy (me). I love her to death and I hope to take her with me when I'm married and move out.

From: Brenda Olszewski

The pet I most remember was our dog "Skippy" she was a very good dog and I remember her going everywhere with us kids and even one time when dad came into our room Skippy was there growling ready to protect us.