Friday Five: Pets

Sophia over at Revgalblogpals writes:

My son's tiny beloved lizard, Elf, is looking and acting strange this week. His skin/scales are quite dark, and he is lethargic. We are adding vitamin drops to his lettuce and spinach and hoping and praying that he is just getting ready to shed his skin--but it's too soon to tell. Others in the ring have also been worried about beloved pets this week. And, in the saddest news of all, Songbird has had to bid farewell to her precious Molly, the amazing dog who is well known to readers of her blog as a constant sacrament of God's unconditional love.

So in memory of Molly, and in honor of all the beloved animal companions who bless our lives: tell us about the five most memorable pets you have known.

1. Our first family pet as a child (sort of a training pet) was a hamster named Jenny. She escaped the first week-end we got her and had an adventure exploring our house until we found her by leaving little peanut-butter lids full of hamster food around the house.

2. Our second family pet was a kitten named Fluffy. Our cousins also had one of the kittens from this litter; they named her "Flower" after the skunk in the Bambi movie. We kids liked Fluffy to sleep on our beds. Fluffy liked to hang out by the hamster cage.

3. Our third family pet was a little dog named "Charlie." He was also "Charlie Brown." We gave him baths and then sprayed "Charley" perfume on him to make him smell good. He was part poodle and would go for grooming on occasion. In this picture he was allowed to be the mutt he really was. He got cataracts and went blind sometime while I was in college.

4. My sister's two black cats: Rheinhart and Kelzel. Rheinhart was a gift from her husband when they first got married, and lived with them in their tiny efficiency apartment. Kelzel arrived a couple of years later. The cats were their children until my neice came along. They are buried out in the desert in a beautiful place.

5. My cat Kiki, the playful beautiful Siamese mix. I also had a farm-cat who I named Clark, and who lived out on the South Dakota prairie with me. He was wilder than I expected, and could not make the adjustment to city life. So I had to leave him behind. Clark loved to chase mice.

Kiki died four years ago when Scout (the much-blogged-about canine) was a puppy, so they never got to know each other.

P.S. If I find pictures of the other pets, I will post them later.

P.S.S. I almost forgot virtual dogfriends Cub, Grendel and Rowan! All have blessed me in their own ways. Please check out the wonderful video of Cub here.