Well, not really but we certainly had plenty of animals around. My latest posts in SparrowHawk’s thread inspired me to make a list of all the animals that were on our property at one time or another.[ul][]Cats & kittens. Two of our cats got pregnant at the same time; this taught Mom & Dad not to let female cats run around without being fixed.[]Dogs. Usually just one at a time unless we picked up a stray for a few days. One stray ended up with a permenant home when we couldn’t locate her owner. The dog we already had at the time ended up with a relative.[]A turtle.[]A salamander.[]A possum. The stray dog we adopted brought home this baby possum once and treated it as her own offspring.[]A squirrel. Again, found by the dog but this time Mom did the feeding.[]White mice. Belonged to one of my sisters but Dad made her get rid of them.[]Hamsters. One was mine.[]Guinea pigs.[]A gerbil. Mine.[]Rabbits.[]Ducks. Raised by one of my brothers, probably before I was born.[]A spider monkey. Also before I was born; the baby squirrel Mom adopted was put in his old cage.[]Bees. Again, before I was born. The story is that Dad tried his hand at beekeeping until a neighbor had enough of being stung. I wonder if one of those colonies was responsible for the underground hive in one of Mom’s flower beds.[/ul]
You lied. I was planning on reading this thread aloud to my four year old nephew, he wanted tales of exotic foreign animals like Zebras and Hippopotami. Now he’s crying instead. I hope you’re happy.
Well, lets see. While I may not have quite the quantity of pets that you had, I had more than most (note: Not all under the roof at the same time):
2 Dogs
2 Cats
Several Newts
A few Scorpions
A Rock Python <— Real mean S.O.B.
2 Ferrets
Dwarf Frogs
Several Freshwater Tropical Fish
Several Hamsters
A Turtle
A Garter Snake
Us too. My parents collected kids and animals. Not sure which they preferred though.
3 dogs- one doberman, two mutts one of which was mine
2 cats- one siamese, one big yellow persian
3 gerbils-a cat ate one, but two is all you need really
many baby gerbils
1 box turtle- the big white rabbit used to sit on him
1 white duck- Mr. Duck, he was my mother’s
3 mallard ducks-two males, one female who laid brown eggs under the bushes in the back yard
2 rabbits
1 mynah bird
2 budgies- these were mine
unspecified lizards-belonged to my older brother, I didn’t care for them
1 guinea pig
1 white rat
half a dozen hamsters, give or take, I lost count
innumerable fish, crayfish and one salamander
Not all at once of course but we usually had at least 3 or 4 animals running around at any given time.
:smack: I forgot fish! They were Mom’s, she had enough Neon Tetras that they schooled together.
Right now…
3 dogs, a cat, 8 birds, and a rat.
ALl in all…dogs,cats, rats, birds, chameleons, snakes, iguanas, rats, mice, squirrels, opossum, birds (wild, released them later), rabbit, turtle, and fish.
I love beasts of all kinds. 
My family had both gerbils and cats, until the cats got the top off the gerbil cage while no one was home.
Judging by the accumulated evidence so far I’m thinking that gerbils and cats don’t go together.
Also, gerbils are tasty.
Aw, throw on some ketchup and put 'em between two slices of rye bread. They’ll be fine.
Oh, yikes, I grew up in a zoo, too.
We had:
6 kids
2 cats
2 dogs
3 bunnies
a bunch of chinchillas, gerbils, hamsters, mice
a bunch of lab rats, used to generate food for
1 boa constrictor
but always had pet rats from the bunch
1 albino walking catfish
2 electric eels
a bunch of bischers & small fish in assorted tanks
1 tortiose
several box turtles and sliders
a bunch of Bufo marinus, giant toads from S. America
transient salamanders and frogs, later released
1 tarantula
1 duck
3 parakeets, 1 Amazon parrot
a seagull and a pelican w/ broken wings, later released
babysat a young chimpanzee for awhile :eek:
various injured wildlife that folks brought in that usually didn’t make it
Our house was decorated with shark jaws, a 6 ft narwhal tusk, llama skin rugs, stuffed vampire bats, flying squirrels, anteaters, etc. Such is the life of a biologist. My stepdad would have someone bring him yet another critter at the college he taught at, and always had room for one more. Looking back, it was a wonderful thing to be surrounded by so many creatures and be able to appreciate them. Caring for the injured critters was always important to me, and I’ve since learned how to do it right, and one of my jobs is rehabilitating wildlife. I can’t imagine a life without being around animals.
I got worried this thread was written by my ex.
He did grow up at the zoo…his parents were zookeepers.
(actually he had some pretty good stories)