Critters

Most people have now or did have some type of pet involved in their life. Puppies and kittens, hamsters and the whatnot; they get to be a part of your life. But when yer from the country like me you tend to call em all critters!

Now me, I adore critters of all kinds, I think they are just sweet and wonderful to have around, even if it is just a squirrel in a tree that you watch out your window. If you life in the country you’ll toss some corn out and from then on that squirrel is your critter and you will proudly tell everyone ya have a sit down with all about your squirrel you took in.

I was the child always brining home stray dogs and cats among other critters. Basically if I found an animal outside and it wasn’t fast enough to get away from me, it became one of my critters. Don’t get me wrong we had a huge variety of domestic animals too.

When my Dad worked for the sheriff’s office he was constantly pack’n home critters he would find or have given to him when he was at someone’s house on a run. One time it was Siamese kittens, and damn were they mean! Those things would lay and wait till you weren’t expecting it and then attack. I got more bites and scratches out of those kittens because I was so persistent in try’n to tame them down!

Then t here was another time, it was a snowy April morning, Dad came home from work (he worked a lot of midnights) and he told my brother there was something out in the cruiser for him. Said it was in the back floorboard on the passenger’s side. Well, the surprise was a little Norwegian Elkhound puppy! She was a beauty too and just as sweet as could be. So my brother named her, Satan, I have no idea why, but it stuck and we had our Satan! Smartest dog ever she was too. But I will give her a full blog of her own when I get the chance to get out some pictures.

One other time he brought home a lamb for me, I named her Fluffy. She was a good lamb, and very easy to housebreak so she got to stay in the house for a while. It was always funny how she loved take’n a bath in the bathtub. She soon got too big though and we had to give her to someone with more space for her.

My other brother was responsible for bring’n home a few critters of his own too. Flying squirrels are just as cute as can be! But one time they got out at night and swooped on Mom as she was going to the bathroom. So it was time for the fly’n squirrels to hit the outdoors and be set free. You see that was the catch, we had tons of critters, but the wild ones, always got set free when they were grown and ready to go.

Most were always ready to take off back to the woods, but then there was Rascal. My brother brought rascal to us when it was a baby. We even fed her with a baby bottle at first because she was so young. Now if you ever get the chance to own one, raccoon’s make great pets! Such a precious thing, with their little hands and fingers constantly working with them to touch everything they run across. Curious and playful to no end, always up for a game of anything you wanted to play, there was no holding them back. Rascal eventually outgrew the indoors and had to move outdoors. For a while at night she would use those little hands and unlock the door and come back inside. But eventually she liked being outside more and more. Even Satan liked her; they would wrestle and play for hours. But the call of the wild eventually won out and she went to the woods and stayed. Another time we had found baby raccoons by t he road, Dad let me catch them and pack them home but they were already way wild and in no mood to play with me so we turned them loose too. They went lickety split to the hills and stayed, they wanted no part of people handle’n them at all.

There were more baby bunnies, squirrels, groundhogs and birds packed in by me than I can even remember. Even Dad’s best rabbit dog, a beagle named Shorty got in on it with me. If he was track’n a rabbit and run across a nest, he’d dig em up and pack em home to me. Then I’d have to follow him and find the nest to save the rest of em since he obviously had torn a nest out.

And there were even the poor little snakes, just wanting to be left alone. But nooooo….. I couldn’t have that now could I? For one my Mom was always afraid of snakes so just for reaction alone there was nothing like pack’n in a little green snake, garden snake, or a ring neck black snake. I still seem to have to pick up snakes when I see them. A few years ago when I was moving some wood for Bobby, I found a little ring neck black snake in the stack and I caught it and took it in the house to show Bob and the kids. Well much to my surprise, every single one of them freaked out on me! Seems they never did have anyone catch a snake for em before and they just weren’t ready for it either haha! My love for animals was another thing Bob was totally dumbfounded by, he’d never had anyone in his life that was so into critters.

What other critters can I name off, let’s see, well there was a mustang pony my Aunt won in a contest at the local Ford dealership. We named him Thunder, oh what a fabulous little paint she was too. My dreams come true, I always wanted to ride horses and have my own. They failed to inform us though that she was a wild pony so rides were limited and they got rid of her one time cause my brother got behind her and she was try’n to kick him, no one cared that it was his own fault he made her mad, but that led to her having to go to another home.

From the barnyard basics of chickens to the wild world of critters such as hoot owls, we’ve had our share of them in my homes. I guess that’s something that will never change; I’ve got my two dogs for now, HoniDee and Pearl. Both are as sweet as can be, but now I have Damian to consider, so hopefully I’ll be back in the situation where I can start letting him pack in critters for Memaw to take care of for him. :o)