PETS
This is an account of all the pets that my family has owned. When I was young, I
was particularly fond of dogs. Donna & Jackie have always preferred cats. Liz
mostly likes dogs, although she likes cats as well. My mom seems to like any
animal: cat, dog, bird, squirrel, etc. My dad had a pet raccoon when he was
young, thus his nickname of showee (sp.? French for Raccoon). As I got older, I
tended to start liking cats more and more and less so for dogs, mainly because
they are too smelly and noisy, although puppies are still cute to me. I decided to
make this listing because I started thinking about all the pets we had and I thought
it would be neat to have a little something to remember them by. The dates
shown are the best possible assumption, as all birth certificates have been lost.
- Snowball (Circa 1969)
Snowball was a big fluffy white cat that my sisters? owned around the time I was born.
Blacky (Circa 1970)
My family had a big black dog named Blacky. It ate some poison and died.
? Saint Bernard ? (circa 1972)
We once had a St Bernard when I was a little boy. My dad had helped a man fix his air conditioner. He was very grateful and gave us a Saint Bernard puppy. We kept it for a week, but had to give it back because the man's wife was upset when she found out what he had done.
Bonnie & Clyde (1975-1977)
These were two orange cats that Jackie named.
Boots / Sylvester (1976-1978)
I am not sure if these were two separate cats or the same cat that was for some reason renamed. I remember it (them) was black with white paws.
Princess (1977-1982)
I will never forget how we first acquired this dog. My dad played softball during the summers. We would all go to the games. Liz and I took a walk to the store to buy some candy. On the way back to the ballpark, we saw a puppy. We called to it ?here puppy, here puppy?. Of course it followed us. We became immediately attached. We persuaded our parents that we could have it by telling them ?it just followed us. It won?t stay away. I think it needs a home.? It worked. We named the dog Prince, but later discovered it was indeed a Princess. Incidentally, the next day, some kid asked if we had seen a small black and gold
puppy. He was looking for it. We said no (okay, so we lied).
Princess was a small dog, I think it was a miniature collie, although probably not full blooded. It was very friendly, but had a bad habit of chasing cars and eating the neighbors? chickens. When we moved away from Buras, my parents took it for a ride. About a month later, we got a call from an old friend saying
that the dog was back at our old house sleeping by the front door. We pleaded
with our parents and they caved and so we took a trip and went and retrieved
Princess.
Princess finally got too old and died.
Tiny (1977-1979)
Shortly after we first got Princess, my mom got Tiny. It was a chihuhua and it
loved my mom to death. Anytime my mom would rattle the keys, it would come
running, ready to take a ride. To other people, it was mean. It was a biter. It
took more than a few chunks off of my face. However, I do have a picture of
me and tiny sitting together in the front yard and we look very happy together.
Tiny met its? demise when a pack of wild dogs came through the neighborhood.
Smoky (1978-1981)
This was a big fluffy gray cat, very friendly. It was Jackie?s cat, and I think it
went for a ride with Princess when we moved, although we never saw it again.
Rascal (1979-1980)
This was a big gray short haired tabby cat. It was very friendly and playful. I think Jackie owned this one at the same time as Smoky, or maybe Smoky was years before. Rascal earned the nickname ?suck-the-blanket? because it used to hop up on the bed and purr and suck the blanket as if it were nursing.
Tiffany (1981-1985)
This cat looked a lot like Smoky, but with a bad attitude. It was Jackie?s cat and she was the only one who could pet it. It would bite and scratch everyone else. My mom finally got rid of it when it bit her in the face.
with her.
Baby Tiff (1982-1986)
Tiffany had a litter, and this was one of the two we kept. When it was born, it was gray, and so we thought it would look like Tiffany, so we called it Baby Tiffany, later shortened to Baby Tiff. It turned out to have short hair and looked a lot like Rascal. It was playful as a kitten and Mike and I used to make her and Flopsy (see below) have ?cat fights?. It wasn?t anything mean, but they were playful kittens and we would rouse them up and then make them ?fight? while Mike and I pulled for our respective cat. I think Mike usually chose Baby Tiff,
although I think sometimes we swapped.
As Baby Tiff got older, it got to be very timid; very much a scaredy cat. It was probably due to the cat fights. It finally died one day when it got ran over by a car. Me and Steven had to go and scrape it off Verna Drive. I shoveled it off
the cement and Steven held the bag. As I dropped it in, Steven dropped the bag,
claiming it was heavier than he thought. That sure was a fat cat.
Flopsy (1982-1986)
Flopsy came from Tiffany?s litter the same as Baby Tiff. It was white when it was born, but as it got older it turned more and more gray, and Steven always thought it was ?Baby Tiff? (or Tiffy Babe as he called it) because it looked a lot like Tiffany. It would walk across the room, and just flop down and fall asleep, thus the name. It was a very nice cat, although late in life it didn?t like to cuddle as much as it once did.
As stated before, it was my cat in the ?cat fights? and it usually won because it would flop down and let Baby Tiff get on top, looking like it was beaten, but then use it back paws in a kicking fashion to do the most damage. Like her sister, Flopsy was run over not long after Baby Tiff, this time on
Mimosa Drive. By that time, Steven and I had become experts at picking up dead cats and had no trouble with this one.
Bear & Cassie (1982-1983)
These were two orange cats that Jackie named (much like Bonnie & Clyde). Cassie was normal size, but Bear was huge.
Tibbar (1983)
Around Easter time we felt like getting a rabbit. I named it Tibbar which is rabbit spelled backwards. It basically just sat in the backyard and ate grass, kind of a boring pet. It was surprising the cats never ate it. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I do remember we had rabbit stew for Thanksgiving.
Lady (1983)
This dog was a Collie. It was full grown and registered. Unknown to us, it was also pregnant. We just thought it was fat and hungry. One night, I heard a whining noise. I looked at the floor from my bed and in the moonlight I could see the dog licking on something. I thought to myself ?Lady is eating Baby Tiff!? I turned on the light, and to my surprise realized it was having puppies. It was a large litter and some of the puppies died, which I buried in the backyard. We wound up giving the puppies
and Lady away. That was the last dog we ever owned, figuring dogs were just too much trouble.
Nuke (1985-1986)
This was a small tabby cat with big ears and it reminded me of a smaller version of Rascal. I think it got ran over also (seems to be a recurring theme).
Biscuit (Dec. 1987-1991)
We had a lot of pets when we were coming up, but by the time I went in the Army, we didn?t have any. My mom missed me after I left, so I decided to get her this cat when I came home from Basic Training. I went to the Humane Society and picked out this cat. It was a sweet furry black kitten. Looking at all
the kittens, it was the only one that wanted to be petted, so I decided to get it because it seemed sweet. It was. We called it Biscuit because it was so soft and fluffy. It lived happily until one day I ran over it when backing up my car. It didn?t die immediately, but the vet had to put it to sleep to stop it from suffering.
Precious (1988-1993)
My mom was at Liz?s house when she thought she saw a rat. It was actually a cat. My mom felt sorry for it and took it home. It was so ugly it was cute, so she named it Precious. It was small and black with streaks of orange and gray and white and other colors. It actually got a little better looking as it got older.
It had a sad, but rather funny demise. It would always keep my mom company while she read a book in bed. One night, she went and fetched the cat and brought it into her room. She began reading her book. Precious got into a playful mood and started chewing on the lamp cord. My mom noticed the lights starting to flicker. Next thing, she heard a loud thumping noise. She ran out of her room screaming ?Precious killed herself! Precious killed herself! She threw herself up against the wall! She killed herself!?. My dad and I went to check and the cat was lying there
stiff as a board with an electric cord in her mouth. My dad buried it in the back yard, rather hastily. About a week later, there was a big rain and Lauren and Claire came running inside saying ?Precious has come back. She?s floating in the backyard.? I went out there and dug a deeper hole and buried the cat properly.
Sam & Diane (1991-1993)
We got these two cats from Donna when the last episode of Cheers ran, thus the names. They were white and furry. Sam was huge, but Diane was moderate size. Diane always slept with me at night and kept my feet warm. They went for a ride after I got married.
Katarina (1994)
I found this cat at work. It had one blue eye and one green eye. I brought it home one night and surprised Nancy with it. I brought it to my mom and she kept it, although I took it for a ride not long after because it kept spraying the
furniture.
Fred (1991-Present)
For a couple of weeks, my mom kept asking me "have you seen that blue cat that keeps coming in the backyard"? I kept thinking "a blue cat"? One day, my mom says, "That blue cat is in the backyard!" I went and looked and there it was, a Russian Blue. I told my mom, "why don't you feed it?" She said, ?but then it won?t go away.? I asked ?so?? And then my mom said ?okay, lets feed it.? We opened up the door, and it ran in. From that day on, we were Fred?s pets.
Fred is a hunter. Always brings presents: snakes, rats, birds, squirrels, etc. He also tends to stay gone for extended periods, where at we have no idea. Once, he stayed gone for about a week. We thought he was dead. He finally came back, only this time he was missing an eye. We took him to the vet and had him stitched up. Although the loss of an eye has slowed him down, he still does what he can to hunt and still brings an occasional present.
He went on the ride with Sam and Diane but somehow he found his way back a couple of weeks later, skinnier, but still the same old Fred.
Misty (1998)
When we moved to Dallas, I pestered Nancy for a cat. She finally broke down and we went to the SPCA in Richardson. She was a cute little kitty. Unfortunately, when we had her fixed she died due to complications with the anesthetic.
Sandy and Elsie (1998-Present)
After Misty, I thought I would never get another cat as Nancy complained about her allergies the whole time we had the cat. But, one night Nancy went shopping and she returned with two kittens. She missed Misty so much she went and got these two. They are great. Very distinct personalities. Sandy is psycho cat. She is a tabby that jumps around the house all day. She still acts like a kitten. She is very affectionate and playful. Elsie is a tuxedo cat with a bad attitude. She hisses at anyone besides me that tries to touch her. She thinks she is queen of the house. Not as playful as Sandy, but the two still chase each other and play.
Feed Fred
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