An Introduction To All Of My Pets Past And Present

Over the years I have owned a variety of different fun pets!  There have been dogs, cats, fish, ponies... However, despite what I may have said as a child to my friends, in hopes of sounding fun and unique, I most definitely did not own a snail that we had to get rid of because it bit me!
Here is a list of every pet I have ever owned and some fun facts about each!

Firstly I'll start with my 2 goldfish: Gold and Goldie.  I got them for Christmas one year, it felt like they lasted for a lifetime when in reality it was probably like a month.  I was convinced I could tell the two fish apart but let's be real... 

I literally have no pics of them

Now let's get to the serious real pets that I could actually bond with and build an emotional attachment to!
My parents owned 2 dogs called Benji and Sandy before I was born and they were still around when I came along.  Sandy would eat absolutely anything in sight, I think I take after him.  The day he died my mum sat over his body crying and I poked him in the eye just to be sure he was really dead.  Then I phoned my dad at his work and shouted down the phone "SANDY IS DEAD AND MUM IS CRYING AND I POKED HIM IN THE EYE BUT HE IS DEAD! REALLY DEAD!" Not exactly the best way to break bad news to someone.  The next day they buried him in the garden and when I ran outside to play I tripped over the slab he was buried under and burst my knee open...  Benji hung on longer, once in his old age, after he had become kind of incontinent, I picked something up off of the sofa telling my mum "I've never tried a truffle before!" She quickly advised not to eat it because it was in fact not a truffle I'll let you put 2 and 2 together... Close call.  

Me and Benji, around the time of
the truffle incident 

Benji and Sandy

Me and sissy on Kipper

Next, before Benji departed this world, I got a Welsh pony called Kipper.  He was the light of my life!  We would go on adventures around our field - no hat, no saddle, no bridle because nah that aint me (much to my mothers dismay).  Literally every day was spent out in the field with Kipper, going on secret missions, learning how to jump, learning how to horse ride in general.  Eventually we moved Kipper to a riding stables and then when I turned 11 Kipper was passed down to my litter sister.  This was the most traumatic moment of my life - my parents gave my sister a card that read "Merry Christmas from your new pony Kipper" and I freaked the eff out, he was mine all mine!! We kept Kipper in our family until the day he passed away - way into his late 30s at least - from colic.

This is what most of my childhood looked like

My last day with Surprise

Continuing on from the Christmas story above... My parent's then gave me a card that Christmas which had a picture of a random Dun/Cream coloured pony which read "Merry Christmas from your new surprise pony" and I was so grateful but still heartbroken about Kipper until I reread it and realised that it actually read "Merry Christmas from Surprise, your new pony". Surprise was my favourite pony from the stables.  Her owner had outgrown her and noticed how much time I spent with Surprise - yes I was a lame preteen - and so offered her to my parents because they knew I'd look after her.  I've already written a whole blog about Surprise but here are a couple of fun facts - she was often mistaken for a boy which made me mad, once while out trekking we got chased by an out of control dog and her old owners used to only feed her organic carrots #fancy.  

Having some summer fun

Baby Nacho -not black and white!

Harvey

Next I'll tell you a little something about Nacho and Harvey, but just a little something because I've blogged about my cats a few times now.  Harvey is an ex obese, current diabetic.  Harvey used to be very fat, antisocial and he sacred me and so I payed him little attention.  We got Nacho - who was advertised as a black and white kitten - and he was so cute and I loved him.  Before moving out of my house for university I noticed Harvey had become skinny and sleepy, turns he had a bad case of the diabetes and since then hes been such a lovely cat!  Nacho was not too happy with us when we brought a puppy home with us to stay.  Nacho can be cute and cuddly when he feels like it, Harvey will cuddle in most of the time.  Harvey is too lazy to object.

Nacho now

he loves a hug

in da woods

Any finally, when I was in my final year of high school my mother decided to let us get a dog!  She decided we were getting a black lab which at first I was totally against but then I realised they were actually really cute! We travelled to the Scottish Borders to got visit a new little family of black lab puppies and fell in love and so as soon as he was of age to leave his mother we went to pic that little puppy up and bring him home.  None of us could agree on a name and so ultimately we let my grandad name him - he chose Riley after one of his classic cars.  Fun facts:  I often call him Boo Riley because I was ready To Kill A Mockingbird when we bought him, he loves shower time, he loves the cats even more and he thinks he's still small enough to sit on my knee - he is not!

Rocking his Christmas jacket

So there you have it, that's my pets.  Currently we still have Riley and the cats.  The moral of the story is that if my pets were Finding Nemo character's they would not have one tentacle shorter than their other tentacles, they wouldn't be H2O intolerant... they'd be obnoxious!  Every last one of them.  In the best of ways
xoxo
Queen G