Pets

I have never had good luck with pets in my family.

For one thing, I never had them growing up. That makes it difficult to deal with them when you are older.

Second, I’ve never had good luck with actually getting GOOD pets from any real source. Allow me to explain.

I had a carnival fish growing up. It died. Big shock there, I know.

Next, I had 15 goldfish that I actually paid for. Those fish grew up for about a year and got quite big. They followed my mother around in their tank. They waited for us to come feed them. It was kind of cool. However, one day it was time to get rid of them and I had to find a place for them. This is where my lovely wife (Then Girlfriend) came in to play. I asked Andrea if she wanted them. Of course, she was the giggly girlfriend  at the time and she was happy to take them. Well, over the course of the next few months she grew tired of them (As most people do) and opted to let them die off. So, she didn’t feed them and didn’t change the water. FOUR MONTHS LATER…. They are still alive and kicking. I think they were eventually just flushed. They were just feeder fish after all.

Lets fast forward a few months, Andrea and I are running some farm animals back and forth. We had a few ducks, a rabbit, and a goat I think. We were dropping them off at a party my brothers place of work was throwing. After the party, we were offered a duck.  We said yes. So, for about 7 minutes we owned a duck. I think we decided it was a bad idea and we wound up letting it go in the wild. Not sure how it turned out for the duck honestly.

Hmm, after that came a Rabbit. We named her Onyxia. She was grey. We had her in Haydens room for a good solid year. We were getting ready to transfer and we wound up giving her to my Chief from work. He promptly took her to the neighbors house and they made stew. We never told Hayden. Andrea didn’t even find out till about 6 weeks later what happened.

After that came JJ. He was a beagle. We owned him for a week flat. After he decided my things make good chew toys and was too skiddish to play with the kids, we decided he had  to go back to the pound.

And then there was Rosy. She’s a big fat 5 year old female cat. I still own her. She doesn’t do much. Just sits there. Eats. Poops. And rubs up on you after the kids go to bed. Shes terrified of Lillie. And honestly, if I were that size, I would be too. I can’t help but chuckle at that.

And then came Issabella. A pure bred german shepherd puppy. Her brother had to be put down due to a neurological issue, so I only owned her for about 2 weeks before she was given back to the man that purchased the two of them.

And now I’m left with a cat who doesn’t even live with me right now.

Honestly… my luck with pets has really stunk.

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SSSHhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Let go ahead and roll the clock back a few years. How about all the way back to 1995.

I’m sure it was a good year, even though I don’t remember much in the way of specifics from then. But, what I do remember, is the big part of this blog post.

I’m in Grand Haven Michigan right now for the Coast Guard festival. It’s a bit of a party. Lots of tours. Standing around in uniform. Doing grunt work that we shouldn’t have to really be doing in the first place. And then there is the long days and high temperatures. Well, with all of that noise aside, I found myself in need of an internet connection that wasn’t being monitored/controlled by a government agency. (Conspiracy theoryists hush right now)

Anyways, so I rode my bike down to the public library. I wasn’t thinking anything big about it honestly. I walked in, looked around for a few moments to get acquainted with the place. I found a table, I plugged in my laptop. Plugged in my mp3 player, put in some headphones, and started to work.

I sat back to take a breath at one point and I suddenly had a smack in the back of the head from the nostalgia monster. (Big grey fury guy with GREAT hair!)

I looked around and realized I had been here before. Not this library, or this spot, but this same scenario.

I was sitting in the Kitsap Regional Library in Bremerton Washington 15 years previous. Sitting at a table, using a computer, my CD player on the desk next to me with my headphones in my ears. The same dank musty smell of books, the darkened lights, the natural glows coming from the windows on the other side of the shelves, the quiet hum of the ventilation system.

This is was reminiscent. I smiled a little bit, then I had to write a post about it.

The big difference this time? I’m not going to be waiting in front of the building for my sister or mother to come pick me up to go sell candy.

well….

Maybe….

I’m gonna be going back to the boat in a little bit to do tours probably. It should be fun.

Anywho.. back to work.