| RABBIT | My 5th Easter I was given a real rabbit. White, with brown spots. It spent its first and last night in a wire cage on the back lawn. In the morning it was gone. My mother said it climbed out and ran away. I guess this is "missing," not dead. But since rabbits don't live 27 years I'd say it counts. |
| One December we dug three lizards out of cold sleep. We kept them in a jar and tried to feed them flies. We took them to school for Show and Tell. They went back to sleep. Lizards don't like flies in December. |
LIZARD |
| MOUSE | My field mouse lived in the house. It was well-fed, fat and furry. My mother said, "Put that mouse on a diet!" I did. No, that wasn't what killed it. Later my house mouse moved outside to enjoy the summer weather, fleas, and wild mice. We all got the flu in July. The doctor said, "That mouse must go!" |
| It was as big as a grapefruit. The clerk had a three inch scar across his palm. "That's the one that did THIS to me." He didn't want to sell it, it was old and he didn't know how much longer it would live. Who does? Two years later it hung limply from its shell. No scar to remember it by. |
TREE CRAB |
| CAT | I kept no pets for many years, figuring, if I don't have one, I can't lose one. But life is risk, so I adopted a small black kitten and named it Coco. She slept on my bed, crept into my lap while I read, and raced across my keyboard whenever she could. I let myself love her. She was hit by a car. |
| My mother bought me a pacman frog: Ceratophrys Ornata. Okay, the green kind. I named him Mercer and fed him crickets. One night I fed him a live baby mouse. It squeaked. The mouse didn't agree with Mercer. He went into permanent estivation. I'm tired of dead pets. |
FROG |
| FROG II | In October, I bought another frog, an orange one, and named it Lydia. But just in case, I'll leave some space, right here, at the end of the page... |