Angela had a lot of hamsters in her life. She named all her hamsters Gus Gus from the mouse in Cinderella. She loved buying toys for her hamsters. Their favorite toy ("their" favorite toy was both Angela and the hamsters) was a plastic ball that the hamsters rolled around in and Angela chased after, singing and laughing hysterically. I'd be talking on the phone and see the hamster ball roll by followed by Angela skipping behind it. What was really fun was when all three siblings were skipping, hopping, and singing manically behind the hamster ball. They were like the von Trapp children without all the Nazis trying to kill them.
Along with hamsters and baby roaches, our house hosted turtles, fish, gerbils, birds, and dozens of cats and dogs. They would all pack their little creature luggage however (all but the hamsters) because they refused to live with the baby roaches that had survived the recent air raid . We would try to reason with the creatures, "They came with the house! We're trying to kill them!! They won't die!!!! "
I didn't blame the creatures for wanting to leave. I recall an evening in high school when I was having a Bible study and a baby roach showed up. No doubt, baby roach desperately wanted to hear the Gospel. He made his courageous journey by way of the brownies I had made for the group. When I saw his little head pop up, I gave a knowing smile (silly baby roach), placed him in a napkin, gave him a good talking-to, and feed him to the turtle.
Angela also had dozens of birds. She named all the birds Petey (at my nudging). Three things need to be said about this. Firstly, Dumb and Dumber had just come out and I thought the line, "Our pets heads are falling off!!" was freaking hilarious. The headless bird was named Petey but don't tell Angela!! Secondly, Angela named each creature group the same name over and over again. The girl does not like change. Thirdly, we watched too many movies.
All her Peteys were allowed to fly freely around the house. She usually had at least two birds at a time, both named Petey. The Peteys loved to run back and forth on the windowsill and my younger siblings called them "Petey races". Angela, Ryan, and Haley would watch them do this for hours. I would walk past them with my classic teenage eye rolls reminding them how stupid all this was and how NO ONE GIVES TWO BIRDS THE SAME NAME!
I recall a tragic weekend when our grandparents came down to visit. Because our house was constantly full of animals, my grandmother let in a stray cat thinking it was ours. Because Peteys were allowed to fly freely, our living room soon became "a lovely room of death". It was chaos. Everyone was chasing the stray cat while trying to save the Peteys. Angela was upstairs at the time and came running down only to find feathers hanging out of the cats mouth. She was very sad for many minutes until she adopted the stray cat and named him Petey. Seriously, the girl doesn't like change.
Another pet adventure was Angela's sandbox picnics. These picnics were for her and her turtles only. She would always lose the turtles in the sand until one bit her. To this day, I have never seen anyone so happy while their fingers were bleeding. The picnics involved plates, cups, and blood. Not to be confused with cups of blood. That was a really dark statement...back to the tea party! My role in the tea party was to bandage her bitten and bleeding fingers, bring more water to her finger biting friends, and make fun her the entire time. Yes, I was mean, but I wasn't going to let her bleed to death or let the turtles dehydrate in the Texas sun! I'm not a monster!
I think back on those days and wonder what the frick we were doing living with baby roaches, biting turtles, free flying birds, and hamsters rolling around creation? Seriously, that's insane! I discovered recently that we lived this way because we were actually living in a mental institution doing alternative pet therapy ran by my father. This explains a lot about my family. Life was weird but it was fun!
Welcome to my world.
