Pets

It's almost a year since Paul died. He was our pet Shitzu-Poodle dog for six years. We adopted him when he was already 12 years old. At that time I was praying that he would live at least a year. Otherwise, I would blame myself for not taking care of him. He outlasted anyone's predictions. The last two years of his life were difficult with the onset of medical conditions. In the end, I truly believe that he waited for Brian to get home from a one month stay in China. The day after Brian got home, Paul got so sick we had to take him to the vet to be put down. It was awful.

My friends would ask if I was getting another dog. I told them that I couldn't bear another loss like that. Perhaps it hurt so much because it brought back memories of my father's illness and having to give the DNR order just a year earlier. I swore I would never make that decision for another life, yet I had to again.

We do still have our turtle as a pet. He (or she) has been with us over 20 years -- longer than the children.

When I was growing up, we had fish most of the time. But, I also had hamsters and a chinchilla named Chubby. After I got married, Chubby was our pet and then I bought hubby the turtle for our first Christmas. Since then, we have also been caretakers of fish, hermit crabs, tadpoles/frogs, caterpillars/butterflies, snails, and a guinea pig.