Chapter 11: Early Pets

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Early Pets.

The first pet we had as a family was a budgerigar. I was very small, not much more than a baby and even then I had a terror of birds.

I can’t remember if he was blue or green, but I remember his name was George, or Georgie. My brother, unlike me, was always fond of birds so I think it must have been his pet.

Whenever George was let out of his cage for it to be cleaned out, I was removed to another room. This total fear of birds and feathers stayed with me until the last ten years when circumstances forced me to get over it. I don’t remember anything else about him.

The next pet we had was much more to my liking. Milky was a black and white tom cat who came from a farm. Although he was often very affectionate, Milky had a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, with a persistent wild streak that would appear quite out of the blue.

There was one time when he was in the kitchen and he saw another cat through the window. Within seconds he had flung himself at the glass, spitting and yowling for all he was worth. Another time he was on the house roof, fighting with another local cat. That ended when he came straight down the chimney, bringing a lot of soot with him. Luckily there was no fire alight at the time.

Apparently, totally unprovoked, he gave me a scratch on my face from my eye to almost my chin. My mum told me about this, I can’t remember it happening at all. I also have no recollection of what happened to Milky in the end, but maybe the house being by a busy road had something to do with it. He was the last pet we had at that house.

My paternal grandmother had a Shetland sheepdog called Sally. She looked very much like the famous Lassie. I know both my brother and I liked visiting, especially because we’d get to spend time out in the garden with Sally.

My maternal grandparents had a dog too, called Scamper. He was a poodle, not a small one but quite big, at least to my young eyes – probably a standard poodle although I always remember him as being a giant one. He was either black or very dark grey and he was such a gentle dog.

Funnily enough I can remember that my grandparents always kept a large bag of dog biscuits for Scamper. It wasn’t unheard of for me to sneak one and eat it myself, especially the black charcoal ones.

Both Sally and Scamper lived to old age. My maternal grandparents never got another pet, but my other grandmother later got a Border Collie who she named Woofles.

Submitted: February 24, 2025

Non-Fiction death memories grief