Memories: Nick as a child...

 

Nick has always loved critters.  When he was 4 we moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area.  Our backyard was a wonderland for a young boy because we had a run-off creek that was home to many interesting animals.  After a day of kindergarten Nick wouldn’t even come in to change his clothes before he was out in the creek looking for crawdads and turtles, etc.  There was a chance to run into poisonous snakes, which was a bit of a worry for me, and the other concern was that the dirt was hard, red clay and it was nearly impossible to get the stains out of his clothes.  Of course, he was unconcerned about any of that.  Nick and Dan once found a crawdad.  Roy cooked it up so they could taste it.  It was only a small bite, and they said it tasted like mud.

When we went to the beach, which was often because we only lived a few hours away from the ocean, Nick loved to dig thorough the sand for crabs and any other living creatures.  On one trip, Nick and Dan found a sea cucumber.  It was a slimy thing, but they put it in a bucket and played with it for about as long as we could stand to stay out in the sun.  When he was an adult, he still loved doing the same thing when we went to the beach—look for critters.  We took the whole family (minus Dan and Elise, Dan was in Korea and Elise was in Portland) to Mexico on a cruise.  In Puerta Vallarta, we took a taxi and found a beach.  Nick would catch sea creatures to show to the rest of us.  He had a great time catching puffer fish and getting them to puff up. 

As a boy, Nick very much wanted a pet. 

Sometime during our years at 835 Crab Orchard Drive in Georgia, we experienced owning a bunny.  Nick and Dan both loved this pet.  I don’t remember a lot about it except that it was a gray, lop-eared bunny.  We built a cage and kept it outside.  Eventually it died, but we weren’t sure if it was died from over-heating or if it ran out of water.

The first pet that I remember well was a parakeet named Freddy.  Freddy was the best bird.  He would let Nick hold him and he’d sit on Nick’s shoulder.  In the years since we haven’t found a bird like Freddy.  One afternoon there were several friends at the house and Nick took the bird down to show him off.  We don’t know if the bird got frightened or stepped on, but the next day I found him dead in his cage while Nick was at school.  I knew he was going to be devastated.

He wanted to replace Freddy, but at this time we were thinking of moving, so we told him he had to wait until we moved to our new house.  Since we were planning on building, we knew this would be a little bit of a wait.  In the meantime, Nick started researching.  He was told he couldn’t have a dog or cat, so he began his research.  He got books from the library on all sorts of animals. 

Fast forward a couple of years to finally getting into our new home in Georgia.  Nick didn’t forget that now we were in our new house, his parents had to honor their promise that he could have a pet.  First we got chickens, but I think that was Roy’s idea.  I don’t think Nick counted these as pets, but he seemed to enjoy the new experience.  Both he and Dan thought it would be great to eat one of our chickens, so Roy took them out and had them help him catch and slaughter a couple of chickens.  This didn’t go over well, and it was about 20 + years before Dan would eat chicken again. 

In our Cumming, Ga. house, we again were lucky to have a run-off creek in our backyard and the boys still hunted for animals in the woods.  Once they found rabbits that had been released from some other home when someone no longer wanted to take care of them.

I think they kept those two rabbits for a while, but I don’t have a great memory of it.

Another animal they found in the wood was an alligator snapping turtle.  They captured it and put it in an empty garbage can in our garage.  I went to put a liner in the garbage can and about jumped out of my skin, it scared me so badly.  

One afternoon, after a Sunday morning spent at church, I got into our 15-passenger van for the ride home.  We hadn’t driven very far when Roy said, “Look what Nick found?”  I turned around in my seat and there was Nick in the very back of the van with a large iguana.  The first words from my mouth were said emphatically, “YOU CAN’T KEEP THAT.”  We kept the iguana approximately one week while Nick called around to all his friends from school and finally had a taker. 

During this time, Crista came down the stairs one afternoon and told me, “Mom, there’s a monster under my bed.”  I told her we didn’t have any monsters, but she persisted (she was about 3), so I went upstairs with her and looked under her bed.  There was a huge monster, the iguana, under her bed.  I didn’t realize it could get out of the very large box we had been keeping it in.

Nick was still researching pets but hadn’t found exactly what he was looking for.  On one of our frequent trips to Florida, we stopped at a pet store on our way home.  We happened to be in Alabama.  In the store they had a darling set of hedgehogs.  The female was pregnant.  Nick and Dan were excited and thought it would be great to start a business. They would buy the hedgehogs and when the babies were born, they’d sell them to a nearby pet store.  We succored into this and bought the hedgehogs. 

We were keeping them in an old fish tank (we had fish on and off for many years) when the mama had her babies.  With all of Nick’s research, none of us had read up on what to do when hedgehogs had babies.  I walked into the room, saw that the babies had been born, and saw that the daddy was trying to eat them all.  I removed daddy and tried to rescue the babies.  I was able to save 3.  Nick came home and dressed the wounds in one of the three.  What we didn’t know was that the mother would eat the one that was injured.  So, we ended up with two baby hedgehogs.  Nick called the pet store after they were a few weeks old and was told that they couldn't purchase them; hedgehogs were illegal in Georgia.  This was because, when some people tired of them as pets, they’d release them into the wild where they would eat eggs from ground-nesting birds.  I’m not sure that the hedgehogs from Alabama knew enough to stay out of Georgia, but I had two very good, law-abiding sons.  They didn’t want to deal in illegal goods, so they didn’t want the hedgehogs anymore.  Luckily, we found a preserve that were thrilled to take the hedgehogs.  They would go around to schools and talk about their preserve, and hedgehogs were the perfect animal to take with them.  They were just prickly enough for kids to handle them carefully, but they were also very nice, tame animals.

We were again petless; more research was needed.

I don’t remember having any more pets in Georgia.  When we got to Utah we agreed to birds and we had a couple of Cockatiels.  Nick was their caretaker.  They were fine, but not as nice as Freddy and therefore not as much fun. 

One Christmas Jennie was asking for a pet.  We agreed to a bird and got her a beautiful dwarf peach conure. (parrot). 

Tango, or at least a bird that looks like Tango

We told the older kids that Jennie was getting a bird, so  “No other Pets” for Christmas!  One pet is enough!  But, Nick thought it would be great to give Crista a hamster.  He went out and got her the hamster, the cage and all the accessories.  We think that it was Nick that secretly wanted that hamster.  Crista was fine with it, until she realized that cleaning the cage weekly was not fun.  The hamster also managed to escape from time to time, and that gave her anxiety.  It was Nick who could always find the hamster and return him to his home. 

By investing in a larger bird, we learned that all birds are wild and it’s difficult to train them not to bite.  This bird did bite occasionally, and it hurt, but the bird wasn’t big enough to do damage.  We named it Tango,  The kids had fun with Tango, and were even able to get it to say a few words.  The biggest problem with this pet is that for 1 hour, every morning, Tango exercised his lungs by loudly screeching.  Tango managed to escape twice.  The first time we put out signs and were able to reclaim him.  It was sad, though, because the person who found him had gone out and bought a cage and was excited to keep him.  The 2^nd time he escaped, we didn’t find him.  I felt badly because it’s most likely he didn’t stay alive very long, but I didn’t feel badly that the screeching had stopped permanently. 

The hamster lasted a little bit longer, I think.  Finally, Crista got tired of cleaning the cage and we gave this pet to the family that had been the reason our bird had escaped.  They really loved animals.

And that was the end of our family pets.  Although we do have chickens.

Nick, however, is married and has the power to choose whether or not to have his own pets; and he hasn’t changed very much.  I did manage to instill in him that a dog and a cat are too much work; but since he’s been married, he has tried out the pet thing again.  Twice he tried rabbits.  The first time he bought too many and the work of cleaning up after them convinced him to sell out.  But, he wasn’t quite done because he tried it again. 

After getting rid of the 2^nd set of rabbits, he thought he’d try his hand at chickens.  Well, when Nick does something he goes all out (thus too many rabbits…) and this time was no different.  He had two coops and about a dozen chickens in a small backyard.  His need to have things clean caused him quite a bit of consternation as he was cleaning up both areas every week.  Sara won out.  She was tired of the chickens and so Nick sold off all his equipment, coops, egg containers, etc.  Nick told me, “Mom, the next time I want an animal; Tell me NO!” Of course, I have no more authority over him in any area, except that he respects his parents, our opinions, and sometimes our advice.

Well, that time has come.  Nick has discovered that snakes help him when he feels anxious.  They calm him right down.  He’s discovered a place in Springville where you can hold the different snakes and other reptiles for several hours for just a small fee.  He goes down there often.  He wants a snake, but so far Sara says no. 

In the past, just about every time Nick decides he wants an animal, Dan gets on board, too.  Dan currently owns a rabbit, chickens, and Hyeji has a snake.  Nick hasn’t been able to convince his wife, yet, but she says he can go down to Springville and handle all the snakes he wants (I think the reptile place is only open on Fridays).  Below are pictures of Nick’s new hobby!

As you can see from the pictures, Nick has had the support of his family as he engages with this most recent animal of interest.  So far, Roy and I haven't been able to go to Springville with him, but I'm guessing it's only a matter of time!