All About Pets

My Childhood Pets

I am going to combine all my childhood pets into one post, because I don’t remember some of them as well as others. In addition to a variety of birds, hamsters, rabbits, and fish, I grew up with dogs throughout my childhood.

The first pet I remember was a beautiful Irish Setter named Ginger. I don’t remember too much about her because we only had her until I was around 4 years old. I vaguely remember her having puppies. Everyone was shocked when she ended up having 10 puppies…not to mention that our beautiful red Irish Setter had 10 BLACK puppies – not a single red one in the litter! I don’t really remember much else about her because I was so young, but the rest of my family still talks fondly of her.  

When I was around 5 or 6, my parents brought home a new puppy. She was a little white furball. Actually, she was more of a light beige color than pure white, so I named her Taffy. Taffy was the pet that I shared my entire childhood with.

We never knew what kind of dog she was. She was an all-American mutt (which I still believe is the best “breed” of dog.) She had slightly curly hair (just like me) and she looked like she may have had some terrier or poodle in her. She was a medium-sized dog, which was bigger than we expected. Her fur would grow long and think and she almost looked like a sheepdog. Then, in the warmer weather, she would go to the groomer and come home looking like a poodle.

She was a very smart dog. We taught her the usual tricks – sit and give her paw, but I also taught her to give kisses by putting a little bit of peanut butter on my cheek. Whenever we’d ask her if she wanted to go out, she would run to the kitchen door and starting jumping – almost a foot and a half off the ground!

My father would take her out after he finished reading the newspaper, and she came to know the sound of his glasses clicking shut after he took them off, and she would immediately run to the door, ready to go out.

She was a good childhood companion. Sometimes she was the only one who would listen to me. She lived about 12 years, until I was 19 or 20, so the two of us really grew up together.

I think every child needs a furry friend to grow up with.

Well, that’s about it for my childhood pets.

Until next time…Maureen

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