
Chocolate, Cheep, and Cookie
I always wanted a breeding pair of zebra finches (since I couldn't have real zebras). I've always loved how happy they sounded. So I bought a pair from PetsMart along with a small cage and a book on the care of Zebra Finches. Shortly after installing them in the new cage, I decided it wasn't big enough. So back to PetsMart . I bought a larger cage, a stand, and a coconut shelter. The bigger cage really did the trick and soon there were three eggs in the coconut. Chocolate


You Can't Call the Puppy "Jerk"
After the incident with Max, we didn't have a dog for many years. My father just didn't want to go through the pain again. Then one night in late November 1979, my parents decided to go out to eat. While driving to the restaurant, my father almost ran over what he thought was a bag in the middle of the road. Luckily the "bag" lifted its head, and the headlights caught his eyes. My father stopped within inches of a puppy. He picked it up and put it in the open back of the


Parakeets With Personality
While I was living in my first purchased home, I purchased two blue parakeets and named them Pete and Repete. They were quite the characters and happily filled my home with their chirps and whistles. Pete never really became hand-trained, but Repete was a pro at it. So at least once a week, he had the privilege of being cage free for a few hours. When he was cage free, his favorite spot was my large front window. He would cling to the curtain and report to Pete everything


The Duke of Jordan
Duke is the first pet that I can remember. He was a beautiful liver and white English Springer Spaniel. He was the family pet. Duke was no show dog…he hunted for a living. In fact, if he flushed birds three times and you didn’t bring one down…that’s it he was done for the day. He would meet you back at the truck. And as I became aware of my surroundings there was Duke. My first memories revolve around Duke and my baby brother. (Okay…so I was only 14 months older than my


A Goat Named Dawn
My father wanted another kid, so my mother bought a goat. My sister, Jennifer, was born nine months later. So now what do we do with a goat? Well first off, we had five acres that was full of boulders and brush. You couldn’t get any machinery to cut the brush or even move some of those boulders. So along came the goats. My first goat was named Dawn. She was three years old and was due to have a kid in two months. I was super excited because she was my first all-my-own an