Now, I must just clear this up first. My sister and I are both animal lovers. As children, we always had animals which included dogs, cats, terrapins, gerbils, hamsters, fish… the list goes on and on.
So, we were talking the other day about pets and how, unbeknown to my nine-year old son, he is getting a guinea pig for Christmas. My sister, who already has a guinea pig, advised me against it. Simply because of the mess. “It was easier when we were kids… Mum cleaned them.”
Yes, now we are the skivvies, er, slaves, er, mums.
But being a know-it-all, I have ignored all her advice. My son, Jamie, has been begging for an animal for the last few years, and he doesn’t care what kind. So, the elimination process began.
First, hubby is scared stiff of dogs, horses, and parrots (go figure!), so they were first off the list. He is also allergic to cats. Strike two.
Fish? Na. He can’t cuddle a fish… although I wouldn’t put it past him to try. Rabbits? Nope, I could not leave them outside – it just feels wicked. So, that left rodents. Now, gerbils are too quick, and trust me when I say I know this from first hand experience. Hamsters are really blood chomping vampires in disguise, and again comes in the first hand experience. So I opted for an adorable, cuddly guinea pig. Sorted.
But, and the whole point of this blog, was the story my sister told me during this conversation. It was about her fish, who is now like Jaws. She had gone away on holiday and while away, the fish tank pump broke. When she returned, the water was green and the fish was lying on its side. She grabbed it, lay it flat, and proceeded to give it mouth to mouth. The story went like this, “I breathed into its mouth then dipped it in the water. Breathed into its mouth, then dipped it in the water. And it lived.” It is still alive today, and now bigger than ever.
Apparently, this isn’t an isolated incident. Check out this news story.
So, my question to you is – how far would you go to save a pet, or an animal? Is there a line that even you would not cross. Have you ever done anything like my sister? Let me know.
If you want more of me, try checking out: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, You Tube, and Linkedin.
Join my email list and be first to hear about upcoming releases and offers.
P.S. Have you checked out yours truly being interviewed over on Julie Glover’s blog? Well, go read it…. now.
The story my stepdad tells about his cat going into distress on their long drive from Illinois to Florida is hilarious. Apparently the cat had not liked his carrier, so they’d let him out. He started walking around the front of the car. When he decided he liked the front dash area best, he asked my mom to hold the cat in her lap. Visibility issues. The cat is a little fat. At some point, mom dozed & the cat began exploring. Somehow he made it not only to my stepdad’s lap, but under his seatbelt. He began to choke and have issues with his airway. My stepdad had him up against the steering wheel, trying to drive, give the cat CPR, scream my mom awake & do chest compressions. Oddly enough, when he finally pulled over to continue his ministrations, the cat began acting normally once more. After much contemplating and discussing, they realized that the seatbelt had choked him for a moment, then caused the cat to panic. He’d been fine the moment he’d been tangled. My stepdad had just added to his trauma and dislike of travel. 🙂
LikeLike
LOL!
LikeLike
now that’s funny~
LikeLike
Really? fish mouth to mouth? OMG – LOL here! My son won goldfish at a fair. People said they didnt last long. Not these fish. They seemed like they would never die. Finally after THREE years they did. All 3 and 3 days in a row. I would hear my son wail and knew another one kicked the bucket. Thinking, YEAH – no more fish tank. Not so. Had to of course go out and get 3 new ones. We have a fish graveyard on the side of our house now with sorrowful epitaphs. “Swimmy: the best fish a boy ever had.” And here I am, awful mom, trying not to laugh about it all.
Cats are another thing. We have 2 crazy brother cats and YES I would so give them mouth to mouth if they showed signs of death. They tried for 3 years to get the fish, but are apparently better mousers than fishers.
Good luck with the hamster, Donna!
LikeLike
Donna, my sister and I have many stories about our cat….. and that’s all I am saying on that 🙂
LikeLike
Only you would have a sister that’s given mouth to mouth to a fish! Awesome story.
Cheers!
LikeLike
LOL. Nigel, you gave seen the stocking post, haven’t you? After that, why would you think my sister was normal?
LikeLike
Fair comment, that one slipped my mind.
Sorry sis.
Cheers!
LikeLike
I love my pets, but I can’t even imagine giving mouth-to-mouth to the wonderful cat I’ve had for 15 years. That fish story is hilarious.
By the way, a mother of boys told me that the best pet they ever had was a python. It eats once a week and poops once a week. She did, however, refuse to be there when the mouse was swallowed; that was dad’s job.
So glad to have you on my blog, Donna!
LikeLike
My mum was in a pet shop and saw that very same thing… scared little mouse just waiting to be eaten. Mum complained and demanded the shop let her buy it. The assistant agreed but said they would only replace it after mum left. Mum came home and cried her eyes out.
LikeLike
I don’t know if I believe this story, Donna! LOL. WHAT?! I guess I’m not a fish person because all I was picturing was that this fish had to be covered in gross algae water and your sister had that on her lips! EW!
LikeLike
There is a joke there, but she would kill me if I type it 🙂
LikeLike
Yes this is a true story, I am the weird sister. The fish is still going strong and over 13 years old now.
LikeLike
Notice how my sister stays in hiding and doesn’t add a picture. But you can all see her over in my FB page, lol.
LikeLike
Wow. That fish thing sounds very Harry Potter like. In fact it needs to be a scene and an ongoing gag in a TV series.
Enjoy the Guinea Pig. I have not had to administer mouth to mouth to any non-humans but I did something more painful than that. I gave a vet $800. to save my preschooler’s turtle and the turtle still died. The turtle was doubly precious to him because it had been a gift from his grandpa. My boy was heart broken.
Note to all young parents. Give them a Guinea pig. They have a better survival rate than reptiles.
LikeLike
My dad and I were also going to pay £200 for my sons guinea pig to have an X-ray, but sadly for the guinea pig (not our wallets) the vet later phoned to say they had to put it to sleep before they could x-ray it. So Donna comes from a long line of animal lovers (or weirdos) that includes her dad and mum.
LikeLike
Tracy, Mark freaked when he read that. I told him he wouldn’t even be told about it 🙂
LikeLike
You know, Jay. You may be on to something there. I think I will add this into my new series idea.
And, $800 to save a turtle? Shows you have a massive heart…. and a very large wallet. Good for you, though. I would have done the same thing – right before administering CPR for hubby’s heart attack 🙂
Very sad the turtle died, though. 😦
LikeLike
When our kids were six and eight, our dog was diagnosed with cancer. We had been saving for a family trip to Disney World that summer. It was save the dog or go to Disney World. We voted unanimously as a family to save the dog. The dog had surgery and suffered tremendously, only for us to find out the biopsy was wrong. It was a different type of cancer that wasn’t even curable by surgery. The dog died five months later. No dog. No Disney World. Sorry to be such a bummer.
That’s a hoot about the fish. I would never have thought that possible. 🙂
LikeLike
Well, I don’t know if it would have crossed my mind to do that to a fish :D. Great thinking.
I would do anything for my pet. I had dogs, a cat, a duck, a hamster, parrots, fishes in my life. But my favorites are dogs.
I was 24 years old, alone in the house, at noon. At that point, we had a huge (apprx. 60 kg / 132 lbs) 2-year old German shepherd, a 13-year old cat who was very kind and sweet tempered, and my younger brother’s parrot in a large cage. I was on the internet and I had closed the dog in the next room, because he was messing with the telephone cable, thus interrupting my job search on the internet. I had taken the parrot in my room, feeling sorry for him, (although I wasn’t fond of him), because my brother was out and the parrot was lonely and calling out.
First earthquake. The apartment danced a little, and the first thing I did was to free the dog from the other room, in case the door gets stuck. I waited. 3-4 minutes later another earthquake, this time stronger. Okkk. Things got serious :). I got up to go to the living room, taking the parrot with me. Of course, the dog followed me and I put a leash on him on the way there. The cat was dozing in the kitchen. I called the cat, she answered, but she didn’t come because she didn’t like the dog. She was old, he was young and playful, and she was chasing him away all the time. She was the leader.
A third earthquake, even stronger than the previous, hit 4 minutes later. Seriously considering to get out of the house. I grabbed the cat, she squirmed, jumped off, ran and hid under the table in the kitchen. How to get the cat out and in what? Grabbed a travelling bag and of course the cat wouldn’t stay in it ;P. Under the kitchen table and chairs. Darn.
The dog was barking at me for chasing the cat, the cat meowed in contempt, as I was chasing her under the table with the bag in hand, the parrot was loudly imitating the cat. Infernal noise, me scared the hell out with the earthquakes, around the kitchen table, cursing the cat for not letting me catch her.
Finally, I grabbed the cat, put her outside the apartment, and closed the door in her face. She was loudly complaining outside the door, she couldn’t understand why I closed her out. I sat down on a chair, leash in one hand and parrot cage in the other and waited, exhausted and thinking that it will take a hell of a fourth earthquake to get me out of that chair. About half hour later, I was still in the chair and the cat was still meowing out the door. 😀
LikeLike