I’ve been told that I should tell some animal stories about
my experiences with various animals.
While my mom and dad were not particularly interested in accumulating
animals, they were always supportive of me.
The other day, a friend visited from Flagstaff (where I grew up) and
said, “I just never imagined you on a farm.”
However, I don’t think my parents were surprised.
When I was eight, my dad ordered two chipmunks from the back
of a Field and Stream magazine (or some similar magazine). We’d always had dogs and cats and my uncle
gave me his kids' rabbit (and dog) while they were out of town. But the chipmunks were my first ‘exotic’
animals.
I was excited to get them!
They were so cute. They came in a
little cage. The cage probably wasn’t really big enough for them, but it had a
wheel and a hideout and it came with them, so we thought they were fine. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them –
until they bit me! I was astonished and
a little afraid. I tried feeding them
goodies, but I kept my hands well away from their vicious little teeth!
Then one Saturday in the summer, the East Flag's Kid’s Day Parade was
happening! Wallace and Ladmo would be
there (they were two guys that had a kids’ show on TV that I watched) and there
would be prizes for pets. Pets in
costumes, pets doing tricks, etc. Well,
how can anyone beat having pet chipmunks (even if they bit!!)? That day I carried them around in a pocket
and I had to handle them to show to various people. By the end of the day, they didn’t bite
anymore. My sister and I also won a
trophy for the “Smallest pet – Chipmunks.”
 |
| Hard to read after all of these years, but it says, East Flag Kids Day Parade 1964 Kathy & Julie Banning Smallest Pet: Chipmunk |
Sadly, chipmunks have a fairly short life span (about 4-6 years), but I
carried them around with me after that – too bad I didn’t have a bonding bag,
but we managed!
What I learned from that day at East Flagstaff Kids’ Day
Parade was that it was fun to show off your pets. But more importantly, I learned that you have
to tough it out and handle the animal you bring home even if it bites. I’ve been kicked, bitten, and scratched
(There is a great book about a school for animal trainers by that name) and I’ve
survived. Usually, just like my
chipmunks, once the animal finds that I won’t give up and I won’t hurt it, it
calms down and I can handle it. Most of
the time the animal LIKES to be handled once we get past the biting. They bite because they are afraid. My job as their owner is to help them become
less afraid and to trust me to protect them. What I learned from those two little chipmunks had helped me deal with animals all these years!
