Pets enter our lives enriching and enhancing our day-to-day living. Some are service, hunting or work animals, while others are companions to the elderly or disabled. Most of them are simply pets.
Our family has run the gamut of critters. Pre-marriage, I owned two Great Danes and two horses, plus Kato Kitty. My husband was raised with schnauzers, guinea pigs, and baby turtles that were found in their swimming pool, though I believe there were other little critters, too. Together we owned one more horse, two bunnies, two Old English Sheepdogs, two guinea pigs (one still alive), a plethora of Siberian hamsters (had two, then the babies came! Three batches of them--no, it wasn't on purpose!). And a gazillion fish--some indoor, some outdoor. We actually had a beta live for four years!
Every single animal brought something into our lives. One of the bunnies lived a very short life after getting a disease from it's mama. I had to give the baby daily shots, but when it started having seizures while I held it . . . well, it was horrible. I never want to go through that again.
Evil momma hamster was a good mother even if she would chomp a finger just because. One time she bit me and my reaction flipped her up in the air, off my finger and she ping-ponged behind the bookcase where we had her cage. She was still stunned when I snatched her up and threw her back into her cage. Daddy hamster was really nice until he developed a tumor and died. Of course, the evil one managed to live for another year or so.
We have a small pet cemetery in our backyard. Harry (guinea pig) and Katie are buried next to each other in a garden bed that I can see out my kitchen/writing window. I plan to bury Kato (he's being cremated) in the back bed under a couple of pine trees. The baby bunny is buried near the corner of our deck.
Our first house also has a pet cemetery--hamsters and bunny. Luckily, I never had to bury my horses--they were sold--because a backhoe would have to have been rented!
Animals will always be in our lives. Yes, they can be a lot of work to train, feed and groom, and costly to take to the vet, groomer (Hubby clips our furry beast) and feed.
But the little buggers are worth it . . . even if they do fart under my desk and gas me out.
Later, Peeps.
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
3/18/09
Fuzzy Critters--Redo
I borrowed this topic from Kristen Nelson’s blog Pub Rants, and posted it on Pink Fuzzy Slippers blog. So I'm going to run it here--to fill in one of my days.
When I was growing up, I never had a pet, not even a fish or hamster. Dad didn’t like animals. Don’t know why, maybe it was because the house was already a zoo with nine of us kids running around. Anyhoo, when I turned sixteen I started working for a veterinarian. Someone had dropped off a Great Dane puppy for adoption, the owner lived in the apartment and he didn’t realize how large Great Dane’s got—uh, for general purposes here, Dude was a moron only an idiot would think a Dane was an apartment-sized dog—yes, I know people own Great Danes in New York City, but in Oklahoma? Come on. So, I brought Gretchen home, and she became one of the family until she died during my second semester of college.
I love animals. All animals, even the nasty wildcat that bit through my thick leather gloves. Currently, we have a small menagerie, consisting of fish, guinea pig, cat, and dog, though in the past we’ve had rabbits, hamsters, and horses.
And, yes, I do write animals in my stories. Doesn’t everyone?
Sometimes they are the invention of my imagination, like Inky, the scuttling shadow, or Ted, a Stitch-like six-legged creature from another universe. I’ve also written horses, dogs and cats into my stories. I’ve even written a picture book where the main character, a fly, has a pet aphid. Yeah, I like my critters. I think they give an additional dimension to my stories by way of characterization. The reader can learn a lot about your characters by the way they interact with our fuzzy/scaly friends.
Now, Pub Rants original blog post was basically in response to another blog post about the lack of characters in science fiction/futuristic/fantasies. I find this amazing considering how many writers DO write animals in their stories. They could be your basic dog, cat, or not. Here is a very small sampling:
1. Jim Butcher’s Dresden series—Mister the tomcat, and Mouse, the temple dog
2. Andre Norton & Robert A. Heinlein—cats
3. Jayne Castle’s (Jayne Ann Krentz) Harmony series has omnivorous dust bunnies (LOVE THEM!) Uh, a word to the wise, don’t get on their wrong side
4. Robin D. Owens has various critters throughout her Heart series
5. Johanna Lindsey had a futuristic with saber tooth’s as pet felines
6. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series has fire lizards
And some movies:
1 Star Trek’s Tribbles—cute fuzzies, but bred faster than rabbits
2. Alien (#1) had an orange tabby cat Riley went back to rescue
I know I’ve missed tons of fuzzy critters, but these were the few examples I could think of off the top of my head.
So what’s your take on pets in novels? Love them? Hate them? Will always write some sort of critter into your story?
When I was growing up, I never had a pet, not even a fish or hamster. Dad didn’t like animals. Don’t know why, maybe it was because the house was already a zoo with nine of us kids running around. Anyhoo, when I turned sixteen I started working for a veterinarian. Someone had dropped off a Great Dane puppy for adoption, the owner lived in the apartment and he didn’t realize how large Great Dane’s got—uh, for general purposes here, Dude was a moron only an idiot would think a Dane was an apartment-sized dog—yes, I know people own Great Danes in New York City, but in Oklahoma? Come on. So, I brought Gretchen home, and she became one of the family until she died during my second semester of college.
I love animals. All animals, even the nasty wildcat that bit through my thick leather gloves. Currently, we have a small menagerie, consisting of fish, guinea pig, cat, and dog, though in the past we’ve had rabbits, hamsters, and horses.
And, yes, I do write animals in my stories. Doesn’t everyone?
Sometimes they are the invention of my imagination, like Inky, the scuttling shadow, or Ted, a Stitch-like six-legged creature from another universe. I’ve also written horses, dogs and cats into my stories. I’ve even written a picture book where the main character, a fly, has a pet aphid. Yeah, I like my critters. I think they give an additional dimension to my stories by way of characterization. The reader can learn a lot about your characters by the way they interact with our fuzzy/scaly friends.
Now, Pub Rants original blog post was basically in response to another blog post about the lack of characters in science fiction/futuristic/fantasies. I find this amazing considering how many writers DO write animals in their stories. They could be your basic dog, cat, or not. Here is a very small sampling:
1. Jim Butcher’s Dresden series—Mister the tomcat, and Mouse, the temple dog
2. Andre Norton & Robert A. Heinlein—cats
3. Jayne Castle’s (Jayne Ann Krentz) Harmony series has omnivorous dust bunnies (LOVE THEM!) Uh, a word to the wise, don’t get on their wrong side
4. Robin D. Owens has various critters throughout her Heart series
5. Johanna Lindsey had a futuristic with saber tooth’s as pet felines
6. Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series has fire lizards
And some movies:
1 Star Trek’s Tribbles—cute fuzzies, but bred faster than rabbits
2. Alien (#1) had an orange tabby cat Riley went back to rescue
I know I’ve missed tons of fuzzy critters, but these were the few examples I could think of off the top of my head.
So what’s your take on pets in novels? Love them? Hate them? Will always write some sort of critter into your story?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)