Animal Life

 My mother loved animals and we grew up surrounded by them:  dogs, cats, ponys, goats, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, including bantams, ducklings, birds, goldfish, even a turtle or two. My childhood special dog was Lassie, a spaniel, not a collie, and my favorite cat, Joris.  I also had a hamster named Elgius and a rabbit named Harvey. 

  Later, in my own home, we always owned a dog and a  cat. Our collies were Chance, Lex and Cosmo, who was  Dave's pride and joy. We started out with a cat called BlackCat, and then a kitten named Tiger, followed by Roger, Nike, and  Napster. 

 ( Maybe also hated being groomed, even though mostly by traveling vet.)

Our kids had some pets of their own, a rabbit named Argyle, goldfish and other aquarium creatures. 

  Except for a few tragedies on the speedway in front of our house, most of our pets lived a normal life span.  Somewaht ironically, because time now passes so quickly, our last pet, Maybe, had the longest lifespan of any of the dozens or even hundreds of the animals in my life. 

  Maybe was born on June 9, 2005, the offspring of a purebred Persian mother and a purebred Maine Coon Cat father, and she died at home on October 20, 2024. She was 19 years and 4 months old, and was never outside the house except for vet appointments. She hated traveling. When I brought her home as a young kitten, she had hated the car ride, escaped from the cat carrier she was in and clung to the roof of the car, which was a kind of fabric. I had to stop in Clifton Park to peel her off and put her back in the container and stack some books on top. When we got home, I let her out of the carrier  and she disappeared. I searched all over and couldn't find her.  I was the only one home and didn't think she could have gotten outside, but what else could have happened. Someone asked me if I had gotten a  kitten and I said maybe. Joe T. helped me search the next day, and located her under  the hutch in the kitchen. I had already looked there and could only assume that she kept changing hiding places. So my answer of maybe I have a cat changed to maybe I'll keep her. And we lived together for almost 20 years.