Pets

Yesterday my kids were telling me gecko facts that they learned on "Animal Jam".

"A gecko has no eyelids, so they lick their eyes to keep them wet." they said

It took me back to Phillip and his geckos. We lived close to a pet store, a 5-10 minute walk. Phillip and I both loved to walk down to the pet store (B.J. provided the name for me! It was All Pet Complex!) and peruse the animals. I was much more into the rodents, and Phillip was into the lizards. He would gaze at the geckos, iguanas, turtles, spiders, snakes, etc. My mom was pretty open to all pets, excepts rats, mice, snakes, and spiders, but everything else we could have, and practically did have everything else. Those geckos were pretty cheap, tiny little green ones that I think we meant to be feeders for bigger animals. He bought quite a few of those, and they never lasted terribly long. He had an iguana for a few years as well. That thing was FAST! He inherited a turtle from somewhere, and the previous owner had fed it lunch meat regularly, so that turtle was a meat eater. Sadly that turtle ate one of his geckos. I still remember Phillip's sad crying face as he removed the half shredded gecko from the cage, cursing that darned turtle. He couldn't have been more than 10, maybe younger.

Once Phillip came home early from a birthday party. My mom was a bit surprised. Phillip said he had found a turtle on the way home, in the middle of the road. He was so excited and ready to find everything it needed to be his pet. He was in 1st or 2nd grade, I would guess. Not too long after though, the birthday boy's mom gave our mom a call. Her son's turtle was missing, and Phillip had left early. Yeah, lets just say he got in a little trouble, and did not get to keep the turtle as his pet. Maybe that's why later my mom got that turtle for him.

He really loved animals. We had a dog, a Husky mix, I think. Her name was Tinker, she was beautiful, white fur and blue blue eyes. She was a puppy and rambunctious, Phillip was in kindergarten and a rambunctious boy as well. One day before afternoon kindergarten he and Tinker were tearing around and well, I think her fingernail caught Phillip's ear and he ended up with stitches. I remember trying to find him after school to walk home with him, and he wasn't there, so I rushed home to see why he had not gone to school, and saw his bandaged up ear. He was a tough kid though, I don't remember much whining, I think he kind of wore it as a badge of pride.

Phillip also loved our other dogs, Muffin, Spunky, Cinnamon, and Shasta, among others. We had many much loved cats and kittens as well. We loved when our dogs and cats had puppies and he was always loving on them. We had a lot of puppies over the years, and Phillip and I were often the ones that would sit outside the grocery store trying to sell them for $5 each to anyone we could.

As he grew older he had other dogs that he just loved, I never met those dogs, but they were like his first kids, I hear. I do remember him telling me about how much he wanted a "rotty". I'm glad he got to have some, his Diablo and Cyrus, among other animals he had.

 

Phillip, Calvin and Shasta

 Phillip and Spunky

Phil and his dogs

 

 

Not every one is an animal person (sadly, I am not as much as I always thought I would be. lol), but Phillip sure was. He loved having someone to take care of and love, and love him back. He was good with those animals. I'm sure he's being his rambunctious self in heaven with many of them right now!