Do You Remember Your First Pet?

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
When you were young did you have pets? What was the first? Were there more than one at the time? Did you have a series of pets or none at all? Was having a pet or not your choice or someone else's?

My first pets were a bunch of goldfish on my dresser...yep it was messy until I got the tank...wahwahwah. I was a history nerd, still am so I named the fish after US presidents...little fish funerals in the backyard. My Mom always had a Siamese cat. She was so into that cat she carried a wallet of photos. One of each human child and the rest her cat.

When I got school age she agreed to gerbils. My brother's hamsters had been cannibals so gerbils were considered a bit mellower. She wouldn't get near them. She loved most animals but not rodents or birds. Birds weren't even a consideration. She was terrorized by farm chickens as a kid. She didn't even like to eat birds. The gerbils were more fun than fish.

Apparently they were having some fun of their own. At one point I had perhaps ten of them...plus babies. Then I figured out how to separate gender. By high school I was allowed to get a cat of my own, oh okay, three cats of my own. My Dad would have preferred no companion animals at all. But for my Mom and me he put up with them. The only thing was dogs.

While my Mom was pecked by chickens as a kid my Dad was chased by dogs. He lived in a small town in the 30's and dogs ran wild or were chained up as guard dogs. When he walked home from school he kept rocks handy I suppose. He was also a neat nick. His mother had a Cocker Spaniel I believe named Puddles. Well with that name you might realize where the problem was.

So tell us about your companion creatures
 

My first and only pet as a child was not really mine but belonged to my brother but we shared him. He was a German Shepherd called King, never forgotten him never will
 
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Yes, it was the family pet, dad brought home a German Shepherd puppy, loved Chopper with all my heart. We had many more pets in the home thereafter, but, Chopper will always remain my fav of the various pets that came through my life's doors. You never forget the first. :)
 
My mother's cat was Juliet, a lilac point Siamese. My Dad probably approved because she went well with the furniture. She was the offspring of show cats and had this huge pedigree. I still remember her Dad's name was Keppy Cat Yardley. All the names and passwords we forget over the years...and I can still remember my Mom's cat's Dad's name. I've always been happy with plain old alley cats. Juliet had attitude. Then again I was a mischievous little kid...poor cat.
 
When I was about five we had this great big red Chow, and I can remember feeling safe when he was around. He was so big, my brother and I used to hook him up to an old goat cart and ride down the dirt road. He must have liked it as much as we did, because he would wait for us next to the cart to come outside and play.

My mom would have to chain him to the end of her bed at night, because he hated all uniforms, and my dad wore a grey uniform for his job. My dad would get off work in the middle of the night, and that big old chow would lunge for him, dragging the bed all the way to the doorway where he had to stop. I always wondered why my father didn't change clothes before he came home.
 
Heidi was my first real pet, a mixed mutt from the pound that my Mom surprised me with one day after Kindergarten class.

I spent so many hours playing with her in the backyard, many happy memories there. She lived to a ripe old age and passed as we held her, at which point of course the whole family burst into tears.
 
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My cat Bootsie..black with white paws..when I was 8. He lived long enough to see me graduate high school. He slept on my bed and outsmarted my mom's Pekingese dog, Pee Wee. Good memories.
 
My first pet was a small black and white Cocker Spaniel named Patsy. I have no idea why the family said she was my dog. We first got her when I was maybe 3 or 4 and she died when I was about 10 or 11. I never cared much for animals as I always thought they were a lot of trouble. So when she died I felt obligated to cry since she was my dog and I could tell my mom and others were sad about it. Maybe my older brother was sad cause he had to dig the hole to bury her in. Anyway, I just wasn't able to work up a cry for Patsy, which I guess is weird. I'm sure she loved me a lot more than I liked her. Seth and Minnie Mouse are the first (and only) pets I've ever really been into. Now that I think of it, I wonder if my granny and her boyfriend who lived next to us (they loved in a float house on the water and we lived on land) is the reason I never liked dogs. They had 30 or more cocker spaniels of all sizes and colors that had the run of their place. Most of them were kept in a big kennel but they were let out to run pretty often. If we went to town in the woody wagon with them he would let 6 or 7 of those dogs go too and I'd get fleas on me and they stank and made too much noise. When I was growing up we had dogs and for a short time we had cats, diary cow, Shetland pony, geese, chickens and ducks, a turtle and I didn't really care for any of them except the baby ducks and chickens and a darn fox got them! :(
 
My first pet was an Airedale named Jim. He was a year older than me, so I guess he was really my father's dog. He was my best buddy until I started 1st grade. Funny thing I'll never forget about him, I only heard him bark 2 times voluntarily---both times were when we came home from two long trips to California. I think he was smarter than your average dog.;) Later on I taught him to speak. It was a deep pleasant sound and he would work up to it, so you had some warning it was coming. Great dog.

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Ruth I love your picture too, both you and your puppy look very sweet. Nancy, Jim was so cute, love Airedales, see a lot of them at the park. I wasn't allowed to have any furkids when I was young, first pet I remember was a gold fish.
 
Ruth that dog is smiling! Funny though how our parental figures I have influence us. I held my first bird last year. A very sick parakeet in a retail emergency. Poor bugger probably died where It put him...for as much as they cared. Dogs? How would I have guessed how awesome dogs are? Not cats of course....
 
My first pet was a dog that my father brought back from Japan. Pop had found him as a puppy on a sinking Japanese ship, rescued him and he became the ship mascot. When Pop was discharged, he had to wait three extra weeks in Japan to get permission to bring the dog back on a Navy ship. I just found the paperwork and a photo of the puppy when I was going through old photos.

He was two years old when I was born and they were afraid he would be jealous. To the contrary, he was my protector and babysitter; my mother would put me out in the yard on a blanket and tell him to "guard". Nobody was allowed to enter the yard without being barked at and if I crawled off the blanket, he would sit on me and bark for my mom.

He lived to be 13 and was a loving and loyal family member. I wouldn't say he was the smartest dog in the world and he didn't do tricks, but he did climb trees and if there was a ladder leaning against the house, he would be up on the roof like a flash. He was only a medium-sized dog but as they say, it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. He was a fierce fighter and every dog in the neighborhood knew not to start anything.
 
My first pet was a kitten named Julia who scratched me to pieces at age four. I had no clue how to handle a cat. Later I adopted strays all the time, always being the tender hearted member of the family. :eek:
 
I'll never forget my first pet. He was a dog just like the one in the movie "Old Yella (Yellow)" for those who might have seen that movie. I loved that dog with all my heart and he was my best friend. One day my school bus driver ran over him and he died....I was devastated and cried for three days straight. We buried him in the back area of an acre lot the house we lived in was on. Some times I used to wake up at night and look out the window and actually see his ghost running around. I still miss my Old Yella.
 
I had a rat terrier named "Mickey." One day, while the ice man, that's right, I wrote "ice man", was at our home, he pretended to take away my candy and Mickey bit him. Today, there would have been a lawsuit, however, back then, the ice man took responsibility for his actions and no litigation transpired. Wherever I went, Mickey went. My dad used to give him a saucer of beer now and then. Mickey would lap it up and then go take a nap. Funny stuff.
 
Great thread fur, and thanks for sharing your story. All of my childhood memories include animals as part of our family, but the first pet that I claimed as my very own was a chicken that I named Blackie because she was solid black. I was 5 years old. My dad, being the kind hearted soul that that he was, rescued her from a neighbor's chopping block. Blackie apparently had an identity crisis, as she would sit in my lap and crow like a rooster while laying an egg!
 
Dopey was a cat that was named after the dwarf in Snow White which was the first movie that I ever saw...
 
When I was a kid the first animal I remember was 'Bruce' a German shepherd dog. It was not a pet as such more of a guard dog and was not permitted in the house, but it would sit by my pram outside guarding it, (not that it was necessary!) We also had heaps of cats too, but they were purely for rodent control purposes on our large property, and not permitted in the house either.
 
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