All I Want for Christmas is My Own Petting Zoo

December 28, 2012

I love animals, and I have for as long as I can remember. My parents helped instill this love in me by constantly having lots of pets around. Growing up, we always had several cats and dogs at my house, and at one point, we even had a bunny, a hamster, and a chicken (the latter hatched in my elementary school classroom and was adopted by us after much begging by yours truly).
 
During my college years, I lived in the dorms or in apartments that did not allow animals, so I had to suffer through some separation from my furry friends, only seeing my dogs when I returned home to visit my parents.
 
My first "adult" (aka post-college) apartment didn't allow pets either, but I found a loophole by adopting two aquatic frogs that I dubbed classroom pets and promptly moved into my 2nd grade classroom. I think I was much more excited about them than the students were, and as a result, my new frog buddies spent a lot of time sitting on my desk.
 
When my husband and I moved to Council Bluffs, we’d finally moved into a building that allowed animals, and the real adventure then began. We started out with a 10-gallon fish tank and 10 tropical fish. I was excited, but I wanted a pet of a more snuggly variety. Under the guise of buying fish supplies, I would constantly cruise the adoptable cats at Petco, reading their bios and subsequently falling in love. My husband is a little more hard-hearted than I and was able to stave off bringing a cat home until last March. The employees were cleaning out the cages and asked if I'd like to hold her, and it was game over. She immediately came home with us and was renamed Jules (Short for Juliet).

This summer, my husband and I moved back to Missouri and bought a house. Now that we had a fenced in yard, he inherited the dog his parents had gotten for him while he was in high school. Her name is Sadie, and she is very happy in her new home.

I know to most people (my husband included) a cat, a dog, 10 fish, and 2 frogs may seem like plenty of pets, but I am still yearning for more. I have always wanted a hedgehog, a pygmy goat, a tea cup pig, and possibly a tortoise and some colorful frogs. Ideally, my ultimate goal is to have enough animals that I could start my own zoo. I’m willing to start out small with a petting zoo and eventually work my way up to full scale zoo someday.

For now, I can only dream and live vicariously through movies like We Bought a Zoo, as well as pick out my "someday" pets by reading lots and lots of books on animals.

~Marissa P.
Parkville Branch