As you see all over my site, Deke and Delaney are a big part of family life here in our house. Nothing better than snuggling up with the pups with a cup of coffee in the morning. I look forward to our daily walks as well. I’m the annoying dog parent….I understand….and I don’t care. They bring a lot of joy to life, as do all pets if you take the time with them and treat them right.
Many years ago, starting with my senior year in college, I really missed having pets around. I grew up with dogs, my grandparents had a cat at one time, a canary….always some sort of pet in the house. So when my birthday rolled around my senior year in college, I decided I was going to get a pet. I knew a dog wasn’t feasible considering my situation….so I purchased two parakeets and named them Frankie and Lola (a reference to a Jimmy Buffett song). Once I graduated, they came with me to my small apartment in North Jersey. And then a year or so later, I decided they needed a friend as well. So this time I purchased a cockatiel. Her name was Desdemona (Desi, for short), also named after a Jimmy Buffett song. A couple years after that, I figured why not get another pet. This time I purchased a Savannah Monitor Lizard (I’m not kidding). His name was Tonga. He used to curl up as a baby lizard in a tiny, water filled glass ashtray. Once full grown at almost 3 feet long, I let him swim around the bathtub for exercise.
I loved having them around as it brought life to a lonely apartment at times. Traveling was interesting as I would have to transport all 4 of them down to my parents house in South Jersey and let them “baby sit”. They were a lot of work but they were all worth it! They lived good lives for sure…especially Desi. Desi could be let free in the house. She would sit on my shoulder while I watched TV, she could sing the Notre Dame fight song, if I opened my mouth…she would stick her head inside and sing to hear it echo, and she would sit on her toy and feed my parents’ dog Cheerios by flipping them down onto the floor. She was awesome. Desi ended up living the last several years of her life with my parents until she was almost 19 years old!
I have great memories of all of them. Pets come in all shapes and sizes..not just the dog and cat variety. What pets do you have? If you have any pictures of your pets, please send/post them in the comments section or tell us about them. I genuinely love hearing about other people’s pets!
Sorry for the quality of pictures…I don’t even have anything digital of them since it was a long time ago. I had to take a picture of an actual picture!
