365 Day Meme - Days 26

It's been an interesting day: a potluck "tea" to celebrate a friend's family's 75th anniversary for having moved to Halcyon followed by going on a quick shopping trip with my Russian friend. I do enjoy spending time in Halcyon - a very quiet, spiritually-minded community. I'll have to post pictures one of these days. It really is gorgeous over there. Altho, I have to admit, strong windstorms always seem to wreak havoc over there. Plenty of trees blew over in the last on a few days ago... Still, the vibes and energies there are something to be experienced.

On to today's entry in the meme:

26: List your pets.

As a small child in Minnesota, I had a parakeet named Dicky and a kitten named Boots (who didn't last long with us before being sent back to the farm.) Then, once we settled out here in California, we had a fox terrier-small French poodle named Ginger. She was stone deaf when we got her from the pound, and someone had kicked in ribs in at one time. She was a sweetheart - very intelligent and wanting to please - and she lived to the ripe old age of 16. Along the way, we had more parakeets, whose names I have sadly forgotten.

While I was a student at Fresno State University, I had a little dog named Sweetie I got from the pound. Once I was married and we moved from Fresno to the Central Coast, I found a lady who desperately needed a little companion, and Sweetie went to live with her. For about six months, we had a cockatiel that we found underneath my mom's car. His name was Pepe, and he talked up a storm - but the time outside wasn't kind to him and he passed away. We tried another cockatiel, but all that little critter did was scream - Hubby hated the thing. We got rid of him post-haste.

When daughter Súl was a toddler, we got Inky, our first cat. Black as night, he was one of a litter of black kitties born in the industrial laundry where my dad was maintenance. He was quite the character, and I loved him dearly. He lived to about 12. After that, we had a parakeet named Sparky - and then a friend told us of a mama kitty who raised her kittens not to chase caged birds, and we ended up with Mischief. She was a tortoise-shell kitty, very lovely. When we first got her, the parakeet was bigger than she was, and was VERY curious about this little creature. Sparky pulled her whiskers and bit her ear... and sang to her. Once she was all grown up, anytime Mischief got upset or felt insecure, she go huddle next to the bird cage, and Sparky would once more sing to her and pull on her fur. When Sparky died, Mischief jumped up and sniffed at the cage - then sat down next to it for about two hours. Once she got down again, she wanted nothing to do with the cage - until the new parakeet (Ziggy) finally learned to sing the little parakeet song. Then, once more, she'd jump up and sleep by the bird cage; but, of course, Ziggy wasn't her "friend" and didn't pull fur or sing to her.

We've had our current kitty - a Bengal named Sadie - for nearly ten years now. She's been quite the experience, and I've learned NEVER to recommend a Bengal (or any other exotic) to anybody who's never owned a cat before. Bengals are NOT "beginner" kitties!!! I'll end here with the best picture we ever took of her.



Until tomorrow...