Do you remember your first pet? Was it a dog, cat, bird, turtle, fish?

[csziggy]

83. The first pet that was all mine was a little red dog

My Dad found it abandoned out in the woods and brought it home. There had been other family pets, dogs and cats, but this one bonded with me and followed me everywhere. When I started school, he would follow me to the point where I had to cross the road with help from a crossing guard. Then he would return home and would be waiting at the crossing when I got out of school.

One day he wasn't there but my Mom was. She'd been crying and told me my dog had been hit by a car and was dead. Later she told me he'd actually been bitten by a cottonmouth and died from the bite. (I think that at first Mom & Dad thought he had been hit by a car but the vet realized it was a snake bite.)

Until I got my horse at thirteen I never had another pet that was just mine while I lived with my parents. Other animals that Dad brought home - he had a habit of "rescuing" abandoned animals - went to my sisters. None ever had that bond with me until I got a cat when I was in college.

As to the breed of my dog, I don't know, he was just a mutt. I had memories of him being collie sized but I found a very blurry picture of me and the dog when I was five or six. He only came to my waist so was pretty small since I've always been short. I guess you could say he was fox sized. He was red and his coat was very collie like, but he had no white markings.