Beyond the Book: Pets

I’ve had pets ever since I was a little girl. In fact I remember my first pet, a little black and white spotted terrier that in my part of the South we called a fiest. Her name was Peanut. I remember what a good mama that dog was. She had a litter of puppies that died, and she took our cat’s kittens away and tried to raise them herself. 

One of my favorite pets was a little Siamese cat called Spooky because we got her at Halloween. She was more like a dog than you’d believe. She loved playing fetch with a small ball. One night I woke in the night to the sound of someone in the bathroom. My husband was still in bed so I went in there to see who it was, and I saw Spooky using the toilet. No one had taught her to do this. It was just something she did.

I think my all time favorite pet was a white dog called Rascal. Rascal was as smart as a whip. He knew how to open the door, and if it caught it just right with his paw, he could do it. He ran faster than any dog we’d ever had, and could jump almost as high as my head. He died eighteen months ago when he jumped out of the car and hit his head on the pavement. 

So have I ever had an exotic pet? No, I haven’t, and I don’t have much desire to do so. Dogs and cats offer such love and devotion that I’ve never even been tempted to look at other creatures. I saw a meme on Facebook the other day that said, ‘What did we do to deserve dogs?’ What indeed. As long as my dog and cat love me as they do, I won’t be looking at any other animal.

That's my grandson dressed as Batman in the picture, and the dog is Rascal.