Listography: The Pets I've Had

The first pet we've ever had was a Cocker Spaniel, we named Paul. Or should I say my sister named Paul, after Paul McCartney. We called him Paulie Baby. We loved him even though he was a high strung, biting loving, non-obeying trouble-maker. He didn't listen to anyone and bit as many of us as he could. I was one of the lucky ones who never had his teeth sunken into.

One morning we woke up and much to our delight, there he was. He was the offspring of a dog named Spanky that my uncle and aunt owned who was a biter, too. Luckily for my parents, after we had him for a year or so we moved to Puerto Rico and they didn't want to take him with us so they gave him away to a friend of my grandfather's. The truth is, I don't know how much longer we would have kept him had we not moved away. Having small children with a high strung dog doesn't really work too well. But we still loved him.

Our next pet was a duck that meandered it's way into our backyard one day. The boys named him Twaddle. He was more Greg's duck than anyone else's but having a duck was pretty darn cool. Except for the yucky mucky pool that he would float in from time to time. 

He was a good little duck and unlike Paul, didn't relish biting us and never ran like a wild child through the neighborhood. That still didn't save him from being given away when we moved from Puerto Rico back to the states. I think we all knew that he wasn't going to make the trip home with us and he was given to the neighbor children before we left. I often wondered how long he lived before they served him up for dinner. 

Our next pet was a rabbit, we named Rabbit (yes, we are very good at names in our family). Like, Twaddle, he just came into our lives via the backyard. He lived with us for almost two years, feeding off the grass, roaming freely in the confines of the yard. It was a sad day when he died because he was a good little rabbit.

We went for a long period without anymore pets, until dad got us another dog when we lived in Iran. It was a Lhasa Apso that Greg named Pepper. Like most of our other pets, he was mainly Greg's dog, but mom took Pepper under her wing, treating him like her 5th child. Like, Paul, he was high strung and while he didn't bite us, he was a growler and a grumbler. I liked him well enough, until it was apparent that mom liked him better than the rest of us, after which I became a little (or a lot) jealous of him.

He lived a long and privileged life in our house until he passed away when Matt was a toddler. Matthew's arrival took some of the glow off Pepper and he never really liked Matthew for that. As mom once told Matthew when he commented that Pepper didn't really like people..."He doesn't like YOU".

After much prayer, Belle entered our lives almost exactly two years ago. We brought her home from the Pasadena animal shelter. Matthew says that she often has a sad look about her and I always reply that we don't know what her life was life before we brought her home. Yes, she might look a little scruffy and a little sad at times, but the truth is, she's a little lovey dovey. 

She's a licker (lover) and loves to greet people with licks galore but that's because she is friendly and sweet. And sometimes, no denying, annoying. When Maximus was a baby, she could  barely contain herself because she wanted to lick him like a lollipop, but really she's so sweet natured that he can take his food and treats and bowl and she doesn't do anything about it. 

We have been so blessed to have her.