This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Pets Are Animals Too
Feb
17
2009
Don’t get a pet that you can’t take out by yourself. “Take out” does not mean a nice evening on the town…
Pets, deep down, are wild animals. They may behave nicely most of the time if they are domesticated, but they are still animals. They may decide to do something uncivilized and start harming people. Animals just do that from time to time. The bigger animal you have, the bigger gamble you are taking with your life or someone else’s life.
Growing up on a farm-like setting, I was able to see various animals and pets in all stages of life. I got to see day-old kittens – very precious. And I saw kitten parts scattered over the lawn after some predator (maybe a hawk, maybe a grouchy tomcat) found the kittens too. All that was good, because it made me realize what exactly animals are and what they do.
If you don’t have a well-rounded view of animals, then you run the risk of ignoring the problems. If all you’ve ever had are cute housecats, you might not realize that it is not a good idea to take a cute baby raccoon into your house.
If you do want an animal as a pet, consider what would happen if the animal decides to be undomesticated one day. Would you be able to control it? Would you be able to win if you had to fight for your life (or a friend’s life, as the lady with the chimp had to do)? That’s why cats and parakeets make good pets. And fish and turtles too. But not chimps or lions or panthers or elephants.
“But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,”
– 2 Peter 2:12
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 5:49 pm and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
We ordered ants for the ant farm. They should be coming soon.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
They aren’t fire ants, are they?
February 18th, 2009 at 7:40 am
You ordered some? If you wait until summer, I can get you some for free!
February 18th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
There are WAY too many people who don’t have a realistic view of wild animals. A few months ago I was searching for good ways to drive raccoons out of the attic, and when I read the comments on one article with some good ideas (some of which were distinctly harmful to the raccoon), I was annoyed to find a number of people condemning the ideas that would harm the raccoons. It was as if they thought raccoons were generally pleasant creatures that would respond to polite requests, rather than the conniving, invasive, ill-tempered pests they actually are.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
They aren’t fire ants. I will probably dig some up this summer, since the ones that come in the mail will all die in a month or two, with no queen. It’s illegal to ship queen ants in the mail in the US. So that’s two things now I could do in the UK but not in the US: gamble on sports and ship queen ants.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:02 am
I think Lydia had it right – she adopted a ladybug she found in the bathroom. She carried it around for 2 days in a small tupperware. The third day someone accidentally left the lid ajar and pet ladybug disappeared. No harm, no foul. No animals were harmed during this comment.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I always liked those big hairy black and brown caterpillars.