This week Diane is giving us Pets, we've known and loved.
Normally Mimi is also participating.
I did not have many pets as a child. Our parents did not think that a dog or even a cat was a good idea, as we lived in a city. And as a grown up I first lived in small apartments, and loved my traveling summer holidays too much, then we had many children (and still we traveled), and now I dream of traveling once again, so no pets incoming.
I actually never was keen on keeping pets. Apart from those listed in the poem I once had a white mouse that died after only a few days, a crazy, inbred cat, which went blind and even more crazy with each passing day. And then my sister had a couple of Guinea pigs, a giant, multicoloured male, and a tiny white female called Snowwhite. We had lots of drama keeping the male from squishing poor Snowwhite. I don't remember what happened to them.
In the vine that once grew in my backyard
Lived both spiders and bugs and some bees.
To keep them alive was a small start
I also kept earthworms, not fleas.
We began our career with some ladybugs
They were pretty and shiny - a blight
But they all ended up in a hole we dug
Goodness gracious those critters could bite.
In the backyard we had an old fishtank
Which was home to both spiders and worm
We named them and fed them and got spanked
When an earthworm escaped with a squirm.
As I later went on to keep wild bees
- I was not very wise at that age -
I caught all of the bees in our pear trees
But they did not stay long in my cage.
As the last in the line was a red cat
Just like Garfield, so lazy and fat
He ate cucumbers, mice and a single rat.
And he died on the mat where he sat.
The 'tune' comes from John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes, suiting for this apocalyptic time:
Oh I'm burning my brains in the back roomSorry, dear John, to have maltreated your fine poetry.😉
Almost setting my cortex alight
To find a new thing to go crack-boom
And blow up a xenobathite
Next week we'll speak of Writing.
I didn't know that ladybugs bite? I was obviously very lucky.
SvarSletGrowing up we shared out lives with lots of animals (often concurrently). We had cats, dogs, chickens, birds, a turtle, fish, guinea pigs, snails (one brother loved them) and the house was crowded with children and animals. It was not a quiet or a tidy place. As an adult I have always had at least one cat. For me at anyrate a house needs an animal or two before it is home.
I suspect that Mr Wyndham would be totally chuffed to know that his words are still inspiring people long after his death.
"A home needs an animal or two before it's a home" If chicken count, I totally agree. I'm missing them very much, and as soon as the restrictions imposed by coronavirus are lifted, I'm off with a neighbor to get us some new ones. Br'er fox made off with the old ones in late Autumn, and as the coop needed a through cleaning and some major repairs we decided to wait for Spring. We shouldn't have.
SletI have imported snails into the garden too, the big ones that some eat. We do not eat them but enjoy watching them. Actually I DO like pets, only they have to be the kind of pets you can leave at home when traveling. Hens fit that bill, there's always someone willing to feed and water them and collect the eggs in exchange ;) And snails too - which reminds me that I also have to remember to 'import' some new ones come summer so as not to get inbred snails :)
You sound like a girl after my own heart! I loved bugs and worms! But not spiders. They were just too . . . spider-y.
SvarSletPerfect poem!
Bugs and worms and spiders are great, too. Although we never kept them as pets, i've enjoyed studying them.
SvarSletYou had some very interesting pets! Like EC, I didn't know that ladybugs could bite. We can learn something new every day if we pay attention :)
SvarSletExcellent poem, MotherOwl. And you've reminded me of Wyndham's The Chrysalids, which I need to reread soon.
Thank you all. This was kind of hard to write, but it threw a different light on my childhood, which I am sure will be incorporated in "susan-stories" to come.
SvarSlet