PETS OF YESTERYEAR

Hmmm... what pets do I have in the box of the photos my children grew up with. Well, here is the first one, if this guinea pig had still been alive he would be at least 33 years old! His name was Hannibal, named after Hannibal the Hamster (I know I know our Hannibal was a guinea pig).

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He was given his name from the Hannibal the Hamster books my small children so loved as they grew up. THIS Hannibal however, did not ferret around in the wild, but lived a very privledged life. He was quite tame and would run about the lounge for short periods of time, and was put back in this cage for HIS safety! Small children love to chase any moving creature with shrieks of delight. Hannibal used to lie on my lap, on his back, for ages. I loved his furry tummy!

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The only disadvantage was that dad was so allergic to him that if he simply picked him up he would sneeze uncontrollably (dad, not Hannibal). We moved during his time with us from Salisbury to Triangle, the magical place we lived in on a Rhodesian sugar estate when the girls were 2, 3 and almost 5. The pets traveled via Pet Travel, we simply collected them all at the Buffalo Range Airport, which is 10 kms from the Mozambique border. When we left Zimbabwe as it had become, he had to go to another home. He was too old to travel to South Africa by then.

We ended up in Pretoria, and we became the proud owners of Jess the bull terrier. She was a birthday present to my childrens' dad from us all. If I could have seen into the future, I am not so sure that Jess would have become a part of the family! She was like a bulldozer, so pleased to see us each morning that when let in by the children we would hear her galloping down the passage, for self preservation we would quickly pull the blankets over our heads because she would take a flying leap from the door and land directly on us, squealing with joy and licking us with wet slobbery "kisses"! Schrieking laughing kids close behind her, it seemed it was a treat for all!

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She used to bring us presents too, our neighbours prize curly feathered chickens, and she would dismember them on the lawn, and there were enough feathers strewn about to stuff a mattress. We had MANY warnings from neighbours to control her. We did the best we could anyway, watching her like a hawk so that she did not bring home any more prized pets belonging to others.

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We eventually had her put to sleep at the ripe old age of 14. She had trouble moving about and it was the kindest but sadest thing to do, the hard part of owning pets. In my next post you will see how patient this bull in a china shop was with a new baby, and despite her toughness, she had a very gentle heart.

Well, what do you know, PANDA. We did not have children when he joined us. He was the kitten of a ferral cat who lived in the surrounding bush of our flats in Salisbury. The gardener caught him for us. This particular mommy cat continually had kittens this minky colour and I loved it. We came home from work one day and heard spitting from the bathroom, and there, behind the loo, was this very tiny fierce kitten.

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We put a shoe box into the bathroom, and he eventually slept in that. He was so small that he only took up a quarter of it!

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When we were in the bathroom we ignored all his angry hisses and spitting, which was so cute coming from such a small creature who was going to "take on the world".

For 2 days we could not get near him with gloves. We decided to leave him and feed him where he was as he was obviously very afraid.

We woke one morning to find this wee creature curled up at the end of our bed. From then on he never looked back. He grew into the hughest, laziest cat we were ever to own. When he was 2 years old I had Shirley, my first daughter, a mom herself now. Panda immigrated with us to South Africa when we left Zimbabwe, taking only our caravan, all we had in the world apart from one another.

I still see the faces of the pets who immigrated with us staring at us through the caravan window, for they had been sedated before we started our historic immigration from the country we loved so, we had lost so much, we were not about to lose the pet family too.

Shirley was 16 when we had him put to sleep, and Panda was 18, good innings for a cat who would never have survived the wild! I was devastated when he went as he had been our 1st "baby".

Here we are in Pretoria at last, with the animal kingdom no less. We have Panda, Jess and Caesar, an Alsatian cross, who also immigrated with us in the caravan!

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Caesar was a timid soul, but he loved my mom and he was one of her favourites. He lived to the ripe old age of 15 years. His back legs started to give way. He joined the family when the girls were babies and their dad was gone most of the time on border duties. Caesar was timid as I have said, loved digging holes all over the garden and stealing other dogs food dishes! We were always trying to find the owners of all the dishes he collected! He could clear 5 foot fences too and would disappear for hours, how he made old bones I will never know!




Hey Shirley, look what I have here! Ice Baby and 3 of her 4 pups! I am not sure whether you ever saw the puppies. The first one was stillborn, he was enormous and would have been the pick of the litter.
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Shirley shared a flat with her best friend Ingrid in Johannesburg where they attended college. Ingrid had a pet rat, Elvis, who ran about the apartment freely. Guess who became their owners when the girls moved on and could not take their pets with them. No prizes for guessing me.

Ice Baby was passed around the family for a while, Kerry had her on the farm in Ermelo, she came back to us and when Shirley married, she took Ice Baby back. So Ice Baby just loved everybody! Read Shirley's blog, link is on the right hand side of this post. http://www.shirleyathome.blogspot.com/.


Well family and friends, there are the tales of most of the animals who are part of the tapestry of our lives.
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There were many others though, and if your read "He links my worlds" you will read of crunchie the tortoise, who came into my life when my son was 5 and he followed me into the present where he lives with Andy and me, my second husband of 15 years to this day.

Ours is a life of tortoise and parrots. As soon as our new baby parrot arrives, you shall be introduced!
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All these memories we have, and they are special as no one can take them from us, and they are to be shared!
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Love your pets and treat them well, and your reward will be great.