I call them our other children, they are the pets that people keep. The longer we have them, the more we tend to think of them as more intelligent than they are. There is a theory that states that people will begin to look like their dogs and cats after awhile. I thought that this sounded really crazy until I noticed that some people do actually look like their cats and dogs in a weird way. As a matter of fact, once you notice this, you begin to laugh at some people with their animals and this is not only insulting to the people, but it is not a nice thing to do. The problem is that when you say to yourself, DO NOT LAUGH, it just seems to make matters worse. I don't know much about the different breeds of dogs, so you will have to excuse me for the way I describe them. There was this guy and he was walking one of those dogs that are small and have the pushed in noses and a lot of hair. I happened to glance up at his face and I saw this wild hairy looking guy with a flat nose. It was terrible, I laughed so hard that I almost lost my lunch. I turned around and hoped that he didn't see me and I guess that he didn't, or I am sure that I would have heard about it.

Now don't get me wrong, sometimes people also have animals that are the exact opposite of themselves. I remember seeing this huge woman walking around and carrying, what at first seemed to be, a large mouse. It turned out to be a very tiny dog. This dog was so small that it could fit in the palm of an adult's hand. The bulk of the woman even made the dog look smaller. It I tell you that it was a ridiculous scene, I would be putting it mildly. This time it wasn't only me that thought this was strange. The lady was in the street and strolling along and several passers by saw her and I could see them snickering as she walked by. I can not believe that the woman didn't realize the bizarre nature of her situation. This might not have looked so bad somehow, if the woman had been carrying a cat. I think the fact that she had this tiny dog seemed to indicate to many people that this was more like a comedy skit than just a walk to the store.

I have also seen, what I consider a very bizarre situation when I went to Provence Town in Massachusetts. There were two men holding hands and walking their dogs. I personally don't care what people do, that is up to them, as long as they didn't try and hold my hand. The men were dressed in motorcycle jackets and hats and here is the strange part, so was one guy's dog. There he was, a bulldog or boxer, I am not sure, wearing a black leather zippered motorcycle jacket and a tiny hat that was held on by a strap. Believe me folks when I tell you that it was a strange sight indeed. I couldn't resist asking them as they walked by me, if they would mind if I took a photo of the dog and they said sure. I searched for this photo for over an hour, but with no luck, too bad. Most of us tend to think of cats and dogs when we think of pets, but there is a large section of society that doesn't necessarily think of things this way. An example of this might be a country where what we consider a pet is considered food. I know that this disturbs us, I am talking about the idea of our dog being someone's meal, but if we trace the history of these countries, we find that they were forced to eat anything that they could get to survive. If you look at things from that point of view, you will still feel sad, but you can understand it better.

Some people would be lost without their snakes. I have talked about this before and mentioned the fact that I have a friend that raised snakes. This is not for me, especially the part where you feed them live mice and rats. He would think nothing of grabbing a mouse by the tail, and hitting it against something to stun it, before feeding it to his snakes. I asked why he did this and he told me that he didn't want the snakes to get scratched up by the mice. He went from raising mice for the snakes, to raising rats. I think that when he reached into the rat community to take one out, they must have thought that this was the hand of God coming for them. These rats were not your ordinary gray rats, but a variety known as hooded rats. Actually the rats were much cuter than the snakes. If I had them, I would have fed the snakes to the rats. Just kidding folks. I remember him telling me that the snakes got to know him. That was before one bit right through his hand. He told me that wasn't the fault of the snake, because they don't see very well and the snake thought that his hand was food. Yeah , sure. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. in all truthfulness, I wouldn't be a very good snake keeper, because I would have a hard time getting past the smell.

Then there was the guy with the African Pygmy Hedgehog. I don't know how many of you out there have ever seen one of these? They are tiny and sit in you hand. They are also one of the cutest things that I have ever seen. They have little front paws and a very cute face. Their body is covered with what looks like bristles from a brush. I never had a hedgehog as a pet, so I don't know what their nature is like, but they look harmless enough, not like the fresh water flounder that I had. Yes you heard me right, I owned a fresh water flounder that was only about 3 inches long and he was a resident of my then 55 gallon fish tank. One day I reached in to it to get something that fell in and the tiny mite went pyranha on me. They have teeth like needles. I yanked out my hand and the fish still had my finger and was hanging off of it. My kids were laughing so hard that they were rolling on the floor. Even my wife couldn't contain herself. I shook my finger hard over the tank a few times and the fish finally let go and fell back into the water. This was like a scene out of Dumb & Dumber. Hey if it didn't hurt so much, I guess that I would have been laughing too. That was the second time a tiny pet bit me. The other time involved a Hermit Crab. It was about the size of a silver dollar in length and about half as wide. I picked it up and it got a hold of the skin between my thumb and forefinger. Since it was my grandson's pet I didn't want to hurt it, so I held it under the faucet and ran cold water over it and it let go. Believe me when I tell you that they may be small, but their pinch is mighty.

I was in a pet store one day and there was a pair of Fruit Bats for sale, for what the owner said was the bargain price of only $800 per pair. Wow what a bargain, I hardly could resist, but I did. That would be all I would need, bat dung all over the house. Somehow I think that my wife just might object to these creatures. In all honesty they look like scary flying mice to me. Some people who have gotten bats in their homes have called the exterminator to get rid of them. Keeping this in mind, I just can't see paying good money to acquire them. You could always buy a pair of Peruvian Mice for a fraction of the price and paste wings on them. Frogs are somewhat popular with some people as are toads. They are cheap and the kids love them. You won't see too many people taking their toad for a walk however. Then there are those like the guy I saw a photo of, walking a full sized lion on a leash on a street in one of those Arab countries, I don't remember which one. He had the entire sidewalk to himself, because everyone made sure to stay far away from him and I can't blame any of them.

While not exactly a pet, Koko the gorilla that speaks sign language is a strange, yet great animal to have. She is so smart that they had her answering questions on the Internet. It was a brilliant arrangement. The scientist that owns her, Dr. Penny Patterson, would translate the questions into sign language, Koko would answer them and then the scientist would tell a typist the answer and she would type it for all to see. Koko is big and could easily destroy anyone, but she is also a very gentle and intelligent creature and has no inclination to do harm. Koko actually likes people and when they come to visit her she likes them to recline and to bring food and drinks. It is really strange to be able to talk to an animal and sometimes get very intelligent answers. While Koko knows the most words of any Gorilla, there is at least one other gorilla that can sign. Now that is some kind of pet.