"No Siblings, No Pets"

I'd like to first point out that there is no second title for this blog entry. At the request to stop creating two titles for each entry by a certain girlfriend of mine, I decided to give it a try. I'll grant her this wish for now but we're gonna have to see how it feels...

Now, to explain the one title that I do have, "no siblings, no pets" is a phrase I have repeated many times during my life. This is because it has been a true statement for me for the past 24 years. Anytime I'm having a conversation with someone about family life, it comes up that I am an only child and that I had no pets growing up. I'm not sure which is the more rare occurance but I always felt a little "special" telling people that this was my situation as a kid. Both have their advantages and disadvantages as you can imagine: No siblings equals no sharing, no hand-me-downs, no fighting, and no divided attention from parents. On the other side of it, no siblings also means nobody to talk to, play with, or generally relate to on a deeper level than with just a friend. Not growing up with pets means no extra chores like cleaning up after or feeding them and it also saves one from the sadness coming from the inevitable loss or death of a pet. However, it also means having no "man's best friend", no company when you're lonely, and no learning to be responsible for something besides yourself. Either way, I decided I was tired of not having any siblings or pets for so long and after all these years I was ready for a change! And since I can't really do anything to change the no siblings situation, I decided to tackle the easier task and achieve goal #18. Get a pet!

My parents had a cat before I was born so I was always kind of perplexed as to why they never got another pet. Maybe no other pet could replace it? Maybe my parents didn't want to deal with the whole ordeal of training another animal? Perhaps they just wanted to deny me of any fun growing up?? Who knows, but it didn't really seem like too big of a deal not to have a pet. Most of my friends had cats or dogs so when I would go over to their houses I could play with them but at the end of the day go home and not have to deal with all the negatives. But through these experiences, I realized what it might be like to have a pet like a cat or a dog. There's the age old question: Are you a Cat person or a Dog person? I've always said I like cats more, which is not exaclty very masculine, but dogs tend to be too big, poo all over the place, smell like "wet dog", and just slobber over everyone. Cats do tend to shed a lot and can act pretty prissy sometimes but they seem like they would be a lot easier to deal with. Regardless of my preference, I didn't have either one growing up so my parents made some very feeble attempts at substituting a pet for me.

I had fake fish as a kid. Yeah you heard me right. Fish, possibly the easiest pet to take care of, was just too much for me to handle apparently so my parents got a fish bowl and filled it with mechanical fish!! It must have been a fad at one point back in the 90's or something but this just sounds absurd. I don't remember very much about them (obviously they weren't worth remembering). I think they just moved back and forth in the bowl moving their mechanical tails. I don't remember if we wound them up or they had batteries or what but these "fish" were definitely not even close to being worthy of the title "Pet".

Next on the list of non-pets I owned were...Sea Monkeys! Now this was for sure a big fad when I was growing up and I remember them clearly. These pets are essentially brine shrimp who are made from water and some sort of crystals. They start out as tiny specs of sand and grow to slightly larger specs of shrimp. I looked them up online as I was writing this and all the joy and wonder of the Sea Monkeys instantly came rushing back as I was reminiscing about these magnificent creatures haha. For all of you who don't know what I'm talking about and even for those that do, I strongly suggest you watch this Youtube video on Sea Monkeys. It'll give you a good laugh about how dumb people were back in the day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LihMtfUu7qM&feature=player_embedded

Ok so we've visited my petless childhood, moved past the mechanical fish, and enjoyed the good ole days of Sea Monkeys. Now we warp to the present day and find ourselves at my list. Getting a pet was actually one of the last items I thought of to put on my list of things to do. I debated whether or not to put it on because then I would actually have to go out and get a pet! I knew I probably wasn't going to get a cat or a dog because I wanted something more simple and low maintanence but also entertaining at the same time. A small turtle was looking like a possible choice but I didn't want to limit myself to only one type of animal. So, I added "get a pet" to my goals and was going to keep my mind open.

As it just so happened, I took a trip to the mall in Pasadena one weekend with Marcella not too long after creating my list. We walked into Brookstone and right in front of me was my answer. FROGS!! Now I know what you're thinking, "Who would want a frog as a pet??". Well these frogs were slighlty different than the ones you're probably thinking of. They are small, fit inside a water tank, and swim! You get the tank, living gravel, colored rocks, a bamboo plant, and two little swimming frogs. You only have to feed them twice a week and they're supposed to live up to 4 years. Basically, they require the same level of maintanance as fish but they're more entertaining to watch. My birthday just so happened to be coming up at the time and I knew Marcella was thinking about getting the frogs as a gift for me. I was slightly embarrassed when I opened the present at a fancy restaurant but still really glad that she decided to go through with it and buy me my very first (real) pets :)

Right now I have the tank sitting on top of my bookshelf and I take a couple minutes each time I enter my room to glance inside and see what my little guys are up to. I'm a little paranoid that I'm going to look in one day and see them dead for some reason but I hope that doesn't happen! Also, the naming situation has been a little tricky. I guess their names don't matter too much since I can't really tell them apart anyway and it's not like I'm calling out to them or anything. But, I've gotten some varying thoughts:

Dennis and Mr. Wilson - Marcella
Hippity and Hoppity - Jim
Ihop and Bubba - Me

I guess you can weigh in on which names are the best but I'm most likely going to stick with the ones I chose because, well....I chose them haha. And that's about all there is to my little pet frogs. Now, when I have those conversations with people about life growing up, I can finally say that I have joined normal society and own a pet. I am really happy about my decision to put this one on my list and actually follow through in completing goal

#18. Get a pet

Until next time...