Time Travel Tuesday ~ Favorite Pet Edition

Did you have a favorite pet as a child? What was it?

Where did it come from?

What was the coolest thing about your pet?

This week, Annie has asked us to share memories of our favorite childhood pet. For me, this is a tough one. Growing up, we had all sorts of animals at various times. At one point, we had a blue doberman and a red doberman, a white terrier mix named Rags, and Egore, our favorite long-haired gray "man cat." Boy did he have attitude! They were all wonderful pets and we were very attached to each of them. None of them can compare to Grumpy though.

My step-dad worked (and still does) for the power company when I was growing up. One day while he was working, he happened upon a baby groundhog. It was very small and apparently had been abandoned by its momma. Fearing that the little guy would wonder into the road, my step-dad scooped it up, put it in a shoe box, and brought it home. At this point, the little thing was small enough to fit into the palms of our hands. My brother and I would feed him and he tolerated us petting him pretty well, for a wild animal. Our thoughts were to help him grow big enough so that we could safely release him.

Grumpy continued to grow and his home became our basement. He was pretty gentle for the most part and loved supper time. At this point, "Grump" was a "teenage" groundhog but we hung onto him because he was so much a part of our family. One day after school, I went to the basement with a bowl of milk, which was Grump's favorite meal. He must have woke up in a bad mood that day because he started to make some very scary noises at me as I carried the milk. The problem was that he wanted the milk and he wanted it right then. He didn't care that I was taking it to his normal feeding spot. He just wanted the milk. The noises he made frightened me so much that I remember jumping to the top of our washing machine. When Grump started to drink the milk, I made a mad dash back upstairs. I decided right then that I no longer wanted to feed him.

I can't remember the circumstances leading up to his escape but Grumpy did indeed escape. While I loved the idea of a pet groundhog, I was quite glad to see him go. I can't imagine what would have happened if he had gotten mean enough to bite me. I would have been scarred for life! I love to tell the story of him though. Most of my friends thought we were crazy. Maybe we were, but little ole' Grumpy was our favorite pet groundhog.