…related hobbies. Yes I do. For instance, I have quite the collection of animals. Note I did not say pets. Sure I have some pets, including a cat and three dogs among others; but I also have a collection of animals that are not pets in the sense that I play with them, or love them, or have joined PETA because of them (perish the thought, I just about puked just writing that).
What I have is an interest in herpetology and hepetoculture (a made up word maybe, but not made up by me). In other words I keep reptiles and amphibians. I have done so since I was about 4 or 5 I guess, when my uncle Ken (Unkie - back in the day) bought me a Red Eared Slider, a turtle, from a pet shop on Broadway in
It was earlier tonight - after I had gotten done cleaning animal enclosures, after I had gone to my local herpetological society's monthly meeting (LIHS), after I had stopped at the pet shop to buy some things like guppies and a couple of tadpoles, after I had stopped at Home Depot to buy bird seeds (and I do not have any birds) to feed my rodents (and to feed the local wild bird population), after I did some more cage cleaning, after I fed the menagerie, after I watched them all for a while - that I realized I have one heck of a collection of animals; and more so I realized that I have one heck on an interest in animals.
I have kept hundreds of different species/subspecies of reptiles and amphibians over the years. I have bred a fair number of them, nothing grand but quite a few. I have also collected them from the wild, observed them in the wild, and even made a meal or two of them while camping out. Did I mention that groups like PETA and I do not see eye to eye. Yes I hunt, fish, and have bred animals for food (both the type for human consumption and the type for consumption by my herp collection). I used to dream of becoming a veterinarian, or a game warden, or a biologist, but those dreams fell through and I wound up doing something else for a career. Yet I keep in touch with that side of me on a regular basis through, at least in part, the animals I keep, the animals I observe in nature, the animals for which I hunt and fish, and so on.
As for the animals I keep, right now I figure I have about:
1 frog
2 tadpoles
2 turtles
2 tortoises
2 lizards
20 snakes
Besides the slimy and scaly animals, I also have some furry ones. These include about:
50 Guppies
12 adult mice
25 baby mice
5 Dwarf hamsters
In addition to these I have the aforementioned 3 dogs and 1 cat.
I also have a number of plants that I keep in with my herps, I figured I would add these in since they too are a form of living thing I keep.
That first red eared slider surely led me to a life long interest in animals; a fun one and a practical one, as to the practical one I remind you of the hunting and fishing.
There is only one person in my life to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude for helping me to develop this interest - that is my uncle Ken. If he ever reads this I hope he realizes how much that little turtle, so many years ago, wound up meaning to me. Well, I guess there is one other person to whom I owe a debt of gratitude if only for allowing me to further my interests, thanks mom. Without her okay, I would not have kept many of the critters that crossed my path over the years. Uncle ken, is her brother, but she in no way shares his or my love of animals. She was usually terrified by most of them, but she let me keep them just the same.
So why am I bringing all of this up here in my rant. Certainly, it would have been enough just to share the these thoughts with my readers; but I guess there is another reason too, one that could make this read more worthwhile to you. You all know, if you have read my other blogs, that I am into guns and shooting. I am into hunting. I recently took my son on his first big game hunt, and he bagged a black bear. That is another animal we have at home right now, what is left of it anyway, and that is in the freezer. Well, while my son is into shooting, and hunting and fishing, he is also into animals.
For many years, Brendan accompanied me to meetings of the LIHS. Lately he has been working on Sundays, which are the meeting days. He works for a veterinary hospital. He is a kennel worker, the guy at the bottom of the totem pole. Yet, he has ambition. He thinks he might like to become a veterinarian; and who knows maybe he will be a bit luckier than me in keeping true to his dreams, or maybe he will just choose something else. The thing is, and this is important, he has this interest in animals, sort of the same as me. Heck, he is 16 years old, will be 17 before the year is out, and he still likes to do things with his dad. You may have read my earlier rant on this, or may have seen my writing on it in a forum somewhere or another; but here it is again in case you missed it, or it did not sink in the first time around!
What is it that to which I refer when I say I say 'here it is'? It is the fact that if you want to have good times with your children, if you want to establish and keep a lasting bond of camaraderie between you and them, if you want to be your kid's friend, if you truly want to enjoy yourself more than you can in any other pursuit, then you had best enjoy doing things together with your kids; and you had best start developing that mutual enjoyment when your child is young.
I have shared my hobbies with both of my children. I used to take my daughter Celina hiking, camping, fishing, and shooting. She went out with me to catch frogs and snakes. Then we also brought her brother along. Celina kind of drifted away from the enjoyment of those things once she discovered boys. Oh well. I keep trying to get her interested in something that I understand, but it is more difficult now that she is 21 so to be 22. Hopefully I will get her interested in shooting again. I may just have to invite her latest boyfriend for a day at the range; I would bet that would do it if he says yes, and he seems the type to go for it. Of course, my daughter still also has an interest in animals, but pretty much just the dogs, but that is okay by me. I figure when she is out on her own or married someday, one of her first acquisitions will be a puppy of some sort. That is good, better than drugs for sure because if you overdose on puppy all it means is you get licked to death.
I guess it is not only me who owes a debt of gratitude to my mom and to Unkie; it is my kids too, because they got that love of animals from him through me. Of course they also have to thank their mom Linda for her putting up with all the critters. She has little love for any pet except the dogs, and a past bird or three we had. Of course I had best thank her too, because she puts up with me and the whole menagerie. Thanks dear, love you all the more for it. (She will never read
this, but it is nice to hope she might.)
Oh well, you get the idea, its a family thing these animals, and a lot of fun, interesting, and educational too.
All the best,
Glenn B
No comments:
Post a Comment