My Past and Present Pets

When I was very young, my grandmother won some goldfish at carnivals. Those were the first pets I remember. At about the same time, we received two turtles from some relatives. However, all these aquatic creatures only survived a few weeks.

I later begged for a rabbit, so my parents bought one. I enjoyed it, but it grew fast, and we no longer knew how to take care of it. I also began to neglect it, so my parents gave it away. A few years later, a tortoise wandered into our backyard and became our pet. A few months later, we lost interest, and realized that it must belong to someone else, so we set it free.

Two weeks later, a friend gave us Yuri, a beautiful brown and white collie. I enjoyed playing with her, and she helped ease the grief over my grandmother’s death. As the years passed, we became busy and picked up other interests to the point where my brothers and I neglected her. During my high school years Yuri developed old age complications, and we had to put her to sleep. It was a big loss, and I wish I had spent more time with her. I decided that I was never going to have another pet.

Winning two goldfish at a carnival my freshman year in college changed my mind. I began to have goldfish as pets, and later added bettas. Guppies and tetras joined my junior year. I had to keep replacing the fish. The following year, I also had had newt and dwarf frog for about a month before they died.

About this time I bought my first hamster. This cream-banded Syrian was vicious: it kept biting and growling at anyone who approached the cage. Two weeks passed, and I exchanged it for Albert One, another cream-banded Syrian. He was just active and restless from the beginning, and grew fast. Two months later, right before my college graduation ceremony, I added two female Syrians. Picky, my dove-banded, was self-centered and picky, while Carefree, a cinnamon, was easy-going. It was about this time that I realized that I couldn’t live without pets.

The three hamsters followed me to all my apartments, and I soon quit having fish, because they died too easily, and as a student, I have to move often. Fish are a hassle when it comes to moving.

One day, while at my parents’ house for my first Winter Break in grad school I found Carefree sleeping. I picked her up to experience my first hamster death. I finally gave her and the others names. Picky followed her the following March. That was when I bought Yuri. I named her after our late collie because of the fur color and friendly personality. Actually, she was a cinnamon-banded. For the second female, they kept selling me males by mistake. During the confusion Albert One, who hadn’t had any health problems, suddenly became paralyzed on one side of his body, which quickly led to death, and I replaced him with a second cream-banded, Albert Two, who was picky, self-centered, restless, and flirty.

I finally found a female, and received her at the last minute, so I named her Lasmin. She was cinnamon, and often liked to hide. Yuri and Lasmin were replaced by Sugar and Spice in December 2002, while Albert Two was replaced by Sucrose in April 2003. Sugar is cream-banded and is

sweet and friendly while Spice is golden, strong, aggressive, and self-centered. Sucrose is a sweet, social, and flirty cinnamon-banded.