Since I mentioned that my dog Pearl is keeping me company in my last post (along with a couple of photos that do not demonstrate how nuts she is), I thought my next list should be…

Pets I have had in my 35 years of life:

1. Cats – I’ve had five cats total. Growing up at home I had Satan (no really!) and Sargent. Since moving out I’ve also had Cricket, Caesar, and Angel. I still have Cricket. She would be keeping me company too but she’s neurotic like you wouldn’t believe and hides in the bathroom all day. This is Cricket:
   
2. Dogs – I had a dog named Baloo who was the Most Perfect Dog Ever but alas, he lives with my ex, I haven’t seen my sweet puppy in about ten years. I hear he’s getting old but doing well. And now I have Pearl who may end up giving me more gray hair than my kids will.
3. Lizards – I had an awesome iguana named Henry and a Tokay gecko named Liz (Liz was unexpected, I found her when I moved into one of my apartments, the previous tenants had abandoned the poor thing).
4. Rats – When Hayley was little we got “her” (me) two rats, Mozart and Nicodemus. Totally cool pets but they don’t live long enough. This is them, Mozart was the beige one, Nicodemus was the dark one.
   
5. Hamsters – We’ve had two hamsters named Henry since Hayley was born, and I had two at my parents’ place named Gypsy and Cara. Also don’t live long enough.
6. Rabbit – I had a super awesome dwarf rabbit named Socks, I miss her.
7. Fish – Tons and tons of goldfish.
8. Random odd pets – Sea Monkeys which were kind of cool and I once had a baby crow that I rescued about 11 years ago, but it didn’t survive the internal injuries it sustained after falling from the nest and being attacked by a cat. I did my best with advice from a vet but it died in my hands two days later. His name was Beaker and he was ADORABLE.

Lots of pets. I think I was a zookeeper in a past life!