penn

Pets I have had

An ode to (most of) my pets. I think I may have forgotten a few minor ones here or there, but this is a listing of most of the pets I've had during my life. This list was inspired by Yes and Yes' weekly list; my comment was too long to post, so I just had to make this into a blog post.

In doing this list, I realize I have had SO MANY pets in my life. I'm honestly surprised at this number. This are not all in chronological order because I keep remembering pets and adding them in.

1. Dylan the cat -- discovered in the post office elevator when my dad worked there. Guess what musician my dad loves? Or maybe he loves poetry?

2. Clementine the goldfish, who lived for two year before the introduction of a new fish led to her demise. I'm still pleased that my young self came up with that name. I think I was 6 when I get Clemmy. She was a friendly fish who would always swim to the top of the bowl and say hello whenever someone came into the kitchen.

3 & 4. Circe and Shadow, the two awesome black kitties I had for most of my entire childhood. I could write novels about those two.

5. Dora, my hamster. I adopted her from school after we did maze running experiments on her. She was a smart cookie who could get out of any cage. In retrospect, I shouldn't have taken the smartest hamster.

6. Cinders the guinea pig. I rescued her and she only lived a few months before I had to let her go. She was actually a pretty sweet pet. She scared the crap out of my cats.

7. Kiki the crazy black kitty. We almost named her Donner because of her habit of sneaking up and jumping on us in the middle of the night.

8 & 9. Oh, the dogs! How can I forget? Green the german shepherd and Molly the cocker spaniel were my childhood dogs that led me up to my teen years. We three got into quite a bit of mischief.

10. Belle the beagle, my parents' current dog but really my happy puppy. She gets so excited whenever I come home. For those who haven't seen her, a few pics of us hiking with Belle.

11. Chornaya, which means little black girl in Russian, was my college hamster. Another rescue pet, but this one lived for a year.

12. Ferdinand J the snake, named after King Ferdinand of Spain. My mom gave him to the cable guy after I left him at home when I moved across the country. True story. I wanted to bring him with me, but snakes and long road trips aren't the best idea, and I took two weeks to drive across the country.

13. Bree, a Kerry Blue Terrier. This dog broke my mom's heart. She was awesome and friendly and great to people but not nice to other animals. She escaped from our yard one day and chased a cat into its house. Animal control took her away. I understand, but it was still a super rough situation. We had 6 foot fences and still couldn't keep her in our yard. She was our dog when we first moved to Seattle in 1994.

14. I'd be remiss to not mention Spreckles the bird. I googled to see if I had ever posted a picture of her, and I'm surprised to see I haven't. I think more pictures of past pets are in order! Spreckles is the bird that just won't die. She's had pneumonia several times and is old as all get out, but she keeps truckin'. We got her from a friend who didn't have enough time for a parrot, and she's stuck with us for most of my life. I have a strange relationship with Spreckles. As long as my mom isn't around, we're fine (say, when I'm housesitting for my parents). The second my mom gets back into town, the bird either refuses to acknowledge me or is simply full of anger. And don't even get me started on how she laughs at me if I do something stupid.

15. Lucy the kitty (Luciferase is her full name). We just adopted her last week. She's a shelter kitty, and I am pleased as punch. She is currently sleeping next to me. She is also afraid of the outdoors. I haven't tried a vest on her yet, but she might go for it.

Woah, a plethora of pets. What a menagerie. Lucky for Matt that I don't own all these right now!

Big Changes

So, I cut my hair. A lot. I have mixed feelings; I don't look like me when I look in the mirror. But it is short and fun and entirely different from anything I have ever done before. We'll see if it sticks. I do enjoy doing a bit of experimenting from time to time, and hair is great because it will always grow out again.

Some views:

But wait, that's not all! We also had an addition to our household this week. I know I said I wasn't ready for an animal and blah blah blah . . . but we got a cat! Matt really missed having a cat around, and I did too. We moved to a two-bedroom apartment in mid-August, and we just didn't seem to have many excuses. Technically speaking, I adopted the cat, but Matt has promised to take on the cost of her care (we'll see). She does not yet have a name, but I'll let you know when we think of one. This is just a preliminary picture, as I am at school until Friday and won't be around the cat. (Side note: I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here, but I live at school during the week, at least from Tues to Friday, because the commute is an hour and I have some insanely long days at school.)

The cat is pretty cat-looking. Very standard tabby. I was learning toward a more distinctive looking cat, but Matt really fell in love with this little lady. She is energetic and fun but capable of entertaining herself as well. Hopefully, she settles in well.

I present the kitty and my new hair again:

Yummy

Creamed spinach, a last minute "oh, I need to use up the spinach" addition, became the sneaker hit of dinner. We had steak, sauteed mushrooms, and some potato bits (both normal and sweet). It was quite excellent. School has been super busy -- I'm two weeks in -- and this was my first chance to cook. I've got to take more time for this.