Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
I grew up with two older brothers, and I often wished I was a boy so I could have a turn with the Nintendo controller and could play with my brothers and their friends. Instead I watched the gaming and bugged them and their friends in the way that every little sister is good at. But having two brothers meant I wasn’t into girlie toys like Barbie or dolls, and I hated dressing up. I was a tomboy, much to my mother’s dismay.
The only girlie toys I loved were animal-related ones. I wanted a dog so bad, but I wasn’t allowed to have one. I loved animals of all kinds, but I considered the toy variety as the best I could hope for. I did have a hamster and many goldfish, but those aren’t nearly as awesome as a dog, and my parents only let me have those pets to try to pacify my desire for a dog. It didn’t work.
My remembered Christmas toys are these miniature Pound Puppies. For five years (4th grade to 7th grade) I loved these things! I still have many of them because I’m pretty sure my future daughter will love them too. I had my eye on this Christmas set of Pound Puppies the year they released, and my parents didn’t disappoint me. I spent hours after Christmas naming each little reindeer puppy and the Santa mom. I don’t remember the names now, but it was so much fun to pretend I was in a world where these were my real dogs.
I carried these reindeer puppies and many of the others with me to school, Sunday school, and choir rehearsals. I’m sure I drove the teachers crazy with my distractions. 🙂 Thinking back on it, I’m embarrassed at how silly I must have been, but I really was still a child.
Thankfully, I finally got a real dog the year I turned 17, but these tiny, cute pups helped me through those years until my parents decided they actually were okay with my having a dog.
Did you have pets when you were growing up? Did you love a certain kind of animal that your parents wouldn’t let you own?
I know you’ve all seen pictures of Snippet, but here he is as a pup.
I grew a tomboy too, not because I had older brothers though, I was the oldest, with a little sister. I’d play with dolls and Barbies to appease her from time to time, but then we got to play my games.
We were dogs on a journey far from home, or surviving in an abandoned pack like in Disney’s Oliver and Company. Or…well I think you get the idea. I, too, was obsessed with animals, specifically canines.
My parents finally let us get a dog. He was a sweet, chocolate-colored beagle named Wellington Duke of Hobarth, Willie for short. Two years later, Cozette, Cozy for short, joined the pack.
Eighteen years later I am a dog trainer with three dogs of my own, and Willie and Cozy’s faces grace my dog training logo. They will be missed, but never forgotten.
I had a Pound Puppy! He was gray and I named him Bowzer. Now, we have a Schnorkie. We had pets growing up–two cats, which I never liked (I still don’t care for cats) and we had several dogs over the years. I only liked the beagle, Jasmine.
Your real puppy is adorable!
I’ too had fish and a hamster because my mother wouldn’t let me have a “real” pet. I was finally allowed to adopt a cat, but he had to sleep outside at night and could only come inside when I was home. To this day I can’t understand why my mother didn’t love animals.
Such a fun post. I was a magnet for stray and unwanted animals growing up so I had almost every pet imaginable (dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, lizards, fish, birds, gerbils, hamsters, and even turtles). Even with all those pets, my favorite toys were still animal related 🙂
I remember Pound Puppies! This is a great post. Loved the family photos. My poor mother tried buying me dolls and it was Hot Wheels cars for me. I really was a tomboy too.
We didn’t have a pet until I was a bit older–12, I think. My father was petrified of dogs, having been bitten by one as a child. He was a mini-dachshund we named Fritz.
Thanks for sharing with us today, Rachel.
Thanks for sharing the pictures, Rachel! What fun!
We had to pacify my daughter when she wanted a bunny. The problem…we had a 100-pound dog who would have eaten bunny in a single bite. So my daughter got a Playmobile bunny farm set. We didn’t fool her. But she loved the playset!
Loved my pound puppies as a kid, but we had a ton of pets as well: the family dog, a cat who had one litter of kittens after another, birds, fish, guinea pigs, etc. But what I really wanted was a horse. My next door neighbor and I used to pretend that we owned a stable, and we kept a binder with a profile of each of our horses: pictures clipped from magazines, name, breed, height, etc. We rode our imaginary horses in the field between our houses.
My dad even tried a few times to get us a real horse (he and my mom both had horses growing up), but we never lived in a place where it was practical. I still think maybe one day.
Pets? I had more that could be counted: Cats (numbering in the dozens), many dogs, tadpoles, a handful of pet chickens, a gerbil, a mouse, hamsters, several turtles, hundreds of fish (mostly guppies), a rabbit, and I am sure there are more that I don’t remember.
But now there are no pets at our house — just a grandpuppy who periodically visits.