# Do You Remember Your Very First Pet?



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

A beagle puppy who was given to me for my fifth birthday, but also we already had lots of tropical fish that my dad kept. The first pet I asked for was a canary. He lived to be 20! Somewhere in the midst of all those critters I also had gerbils. My brother had a rabbit and we eventually had guinea pigs. I miss having guinea pigs, but I think my current zoo is well populated enough as is.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

There have always been dogs in my life...my Mom and Dad were both dog lovers. The very first dog I remember is a German Shepherd when I was 5. I can still picture him in our back yard barking at ANYONE who had the nerve to approach the fence but what is funny is that I don't remember ever interacting with him............. I do remember MY first puppy when I was 9 though! His name was Blackie( a little mutt ).... my sister's boyfriend smuggled him across the border from TJ one night and gave him to me. He told me he was a coyote LOL! ( he did sit on the porch and howl at night sometimes too! LOL!)He was my constant companion........in those days there were no leash laws so he accompanied my friends and I everywhere in the neighborhood! Unfortunately, one day he wandered down to the main street and got hit by a bus. I was 13 when he died.:Cry:


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## Poodlemanic (Jun 27, 2016)

My family lived in the country, so we always had animals but I think the first one that was considered my own was a kitten named Smokey. One of our barn cats had a litter and for some reason our parents let themselves be persuaded to allow each of us kids keep a kitten as our own. That never happened again! Anyway besides Smokey, the first dog I can remember having was a rough collie named Penny, given to us by a family who moved away. All of us kids loved Penny, and she was one of those dignified, obedient girls who seemed to understand conversations. She was old when we got her, but we sure enjoyed her senior years. We also considered our favorite calf, goat, chicken, duck, pig etc. to be our pets but Smokey and Penny were the more typical family pets


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

My Mom was also not a pet fan and that made me the exact opposite. I cajoled my Dad from a hamster to a Toy Fox Terrier we named Wolf, (Win!), but he doesn't last long. I was pacified with a blue parakeet I named Twinkle. When I had a had a yard and a kid who was five, we finally got a dog. Parakeets do not cut it.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Mine was a gorgeous cream minipoo - she was so gentle and patient and my 6th birthday present. I'm thrilled that my current minipoo has a similar temperment.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

Collie and German Shepard mix his name was Bing, and he was the sweetest dog, I got him at about 3 years old. We lived the the country and there was not kids around so he was my best bud. Loved him dearly


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## StormeeK (Aug 3, 2015)

I was horse crazy from the time I could read. Drew pictures, read every book in the library, begged every night for a horse. Wouldn't, couldn't happen...until much later.

So my parents did buy for me for 50 $, huge amount for us in the 1960s, an American Eskimo ( back then called an Eskimo Spitz ). Since I couldn't have a horse and really wanted to ride hunt courses, I taught her to do obstacle courses in my backyard. This was before dog agility was even a thing so I just laugh now when I think of what we were doing back then. We have old home movies of me and Sugar jumping picnic tables, walking balance beams, climbing ladders and doing tricks in the backyard. I would invite neighborhood kids to watch "the dog show".

She was just the sweetest dog who put up with everything ( including riding in the basket on my bicycle). I found out much later that the American Eskimos had been imported as circus dogs and everything made sense!


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

My family got our first dog when I was about 5 - a dalmation named Jet. He was supposed to be everyone's dog but he really was just mine. He would occasionally growl and snap at other family members but never at me. The next dog I will never forget -a female black labrador. Wild Fowler's Cover Girl (nicknamed Covey, my family name by her first owner, my father's best friend) He gave her to us after she went deaf and he thought that she could no longer be a working retriever. Covey lived for the hunt and was thoroughly dismayed at being left behind when Dad and friend and my brothers would go out to hunt - so I had the idea to teach her hand signals so that she could still work in the field. Yup, me and some teenage determination and no guidance successfully taught her hand signals and how to retrieve using signals. She went back in the field and continued to be a most useful member of the hunt for many years to come. My, I loved that big black dog.


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## Poodlemanic (Jun 27, 2016)

I was just thinking about how many of us had parents who did not care for dogs; my parents thought they were okay but I doubt they would ever have had one unless it was a working dog, if it weren't for us kids begging and negotiating for a dog. Certainly they did not like them in the house. But I got a kick out of thinking, what will our own kids say in a forum like this? Mine would probably say, "My mom had 5 dogs when we kids were growing up. I used to wake up in the mornings before school to the sound of her talking to them." (that is true--the kids have asked me to keep it down in the mornings as they don't care to get up at 5 a.m., lol)


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## Beautiful Blue (Apr 24, 2017)

Poodlemanic said:


> I was just thinking about how many of us had parents who did not care for dogs; my parents thought they were okay but I doubt they would ever have had one unless it was a working dog, if it weren't for us kids begging and negotiating for a dog. Certainly they did not like them in the house. But I got a kick out of thinking, what will our own kids say in a forum like this? Mine would probably say, "My mom had 5 dogs when we kids were growing up. I used to wake up in the mornings before school to the sound of her talking to them." (that is true--the kids have asked me to keep it down in the mornings as they don't care to get up at 5 a.m., lol)


 "I got a kick out of thinking, what will our own kids say in a forum like this?" 

Good question!! I think mine would say, "why did we not get to have a great dog or cat while we were growing up, and yet you now always have some sort of pet?" 

Allergies would be the answer though, and they know that. Daughter allergic to dogs. I was not as a child, but grew in to a severe allergy to cats. We tried a rescue dog, but could see almost immediately that it wouldn't work for daughter. So there were the birds. Canary was lots of fun actually and lived for 12 years. The dog I mentioned on the Gardening thread, Nugget, was brought in to the family after daughter had left for life on her own.

Also, for a good portion of their raising, I was a single parent; and until I remarried in their teens, simply had enough on my plate for one person as it was.


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## Sammy the spoo (Jul 7, 2016)

My first pet was a pet rat . She was so cute and so smart! She always managed to break out of her cage. We had to install a secondary lock system so she would stay in her cage. My DH (bf at the time and living together) had two cats. The rat ruled the house though. My rat made sure the cats knew their place hehe. 

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

I was about 5, and my first pet was a cat named Snowball. Of course she was white, lol. But I don't really remember her that much. She lived outside, and I didn't have a lot to do with her. But Lady, my family's Cocker Spaniel, was my first dog. This was back in the 1960's. She was 2 years old when we got her, and she lived to the age of 12. My dad never allowed pets in the house, but he did build Lady a real nice doghouse, and she lived in that, which was in the shed. She loved coming with my mom, brother, and me when we walked across the fields to pick berries and beans in the Summer. She'd stay close by somewhere in the shade, and then walk back home with us in the afternoon. 

After Lady passed away, we didn't have anymore pets. My first pet that I was totally 100% responsible for, was my cat, Puddin, and Fred and I got her in 1975. We got our first dog in 1977. Our Toy Poodle named Tinker.


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## galofpink (Mar 14, 2017)

We always had pets of some sort growing up. I think in general, my parents were animal lovers (both grew up on farms) and they appreciated the responsibility that pets taught kids.

The first family pet was a springer spaniel that my parents had together and he lived until he had to be put down (he exhibited rage like symptoms, likely the result of a previously unidentified brain tumour) when I was probably around 6 or 7. 

When I was 10 my parents adopted (rehomed for someone) a collie x golden retriever from the classifieds. Cinnamon was a bit spinny (untaught and left in the backyard for her first year of life), but she turned into a beautiful dog - smart, obedient, fiercely protective of the property and us kids. She was a gentle giant, but she put on quite a show when unknown people came to the house. She would bark fiercely and stick her back hairs straight up. She put many people back into the car; she was fine as soon as you called her off and she had every family members vehicle memorized and would bound down the drive, barking her welcoming bark. 

We had a couple abandoned cats outside from time to time as well. Ugly the cat (he was an emaciated, shy, wild, battle scarred, white and orange tabby that was pretty ugly when he came to us; he became quite an affectionate cat) and Cinnamon would put on quite the dog vs cat chasing show when people were around, but if you happened to get home from school early you would find them curled up together on Cinnamon's bed. 

My first pet (that I got to choose, not the family's) was an outside rabbit (garage in the winter) - Frosty, a white albino. My dad took us to his brother's neighbour's house who raised rabbits for meat. We just went for a visit and to see his operation, but the neighbour insisted that every kid needs a pet rabbit! So I picked out Frosty and we got another one to keep her company - Cottontail, a white and brown spotted one with deep brown eyes and a crooked stumped front leg. She was my brother's choice.

My brother had Hammy the Hamster for a while in there too. He was an escape artist that would go on night time food collection missions under the stove and fridge. He would return to his cage, but forget to close the door. Took us a while to figure it out, but eventually we clued in that it wasn't my brother being forgetful and leaving the cage door open. The hint: we found french fries in his little dome home the one day. 

We had a bunch of fish for a spell - algae sucker, blue paddy, two guppies and a goldfish. One by one, they kept disappearing every time my mom cleaned the tank. My one cousin wanted fish, so my Mom re-homed our aquarium with him. He watched the goldfish eat the algae sucker and then she croaked. 

I followed my first, with my second pet at 16. Someone dumped a litter of kittens in a ditch by the farm I worked at in the middle of March (cold, snowy winter). One of the farmers' kids, who hated cats, found one survivor and rescued it. I pleaded with my mom to bring her home. She was a beautiful, long haired tabby cat with blue kitten eyes that changed to beautiful green. I've never been much of a cat person, especially in the house, but there was something about that kitten. 

Then of course, my first dog was Rocky who I got when I was 19.

The only pet we were never able to have was a bird. The sound of wings flapping triggers something in my mom and she's extremely terrified of them when she can hear the wings; so we had lots of other four legged friends through all of our days growing up. Those pets enriched our lives and taught us responsibility and compassion, so I am really thankful my parents always allowed us to have pets and allowed us to have so many different types of pets.


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