UNUSUAL PETS....

[OutdoorWriter]

In the "One Photo Per Day" feddoc mentioned having a bobcat for a pet, so I thought it might be fun to see what else UNUSUAL other members had for a pet. So post 'em up.

In Africa, it's common to see cheetahs as house pets. The one below named Savannah had the run of the resort where I stayed outside Krueger NP on a photo trip. Here we are resting after dinner ....

 

[whiteantlertip]

 

[whiteantlertip]

He flew away when I was a kid

 

[EVILNR]

I had a domestic cat named Chuck once. Had to get rid of him after he mauled several people.
I bet Savannah could light you up!!

 

[OutdoorWriter]

I bet Savannah could light you up!!

And I thought that was about to happen!! Here's the humorous tale.

My buddy & I had spent 10 days hunting near Port Elizabeth, then flew back into J'burg & rented a car to drive north to the resort near Krueger. We got lost on the way & didn't arrive until well after dark at the guard house. A locked gate blocked the road leading into the lodge, but there was a bell & intercom.

A guy finally came on and had a us wait while he drove out to let us in. It was another mile from that gate to another one in the tall critter-proof fence that surrounded the resort. We entered, and the guy showed us the way to the chalet we would be staying in for the next week or so.

He left & I parked our SUV just outside the door to the screened-in area at the front of the chalet. After we turned on the lights we started to empty our gear. Just as I walked out the door for a 2nd load, I saw a big, low-slung shadow out of the corner my eye. It was coming around the corner of the building about 15 feet from me. It didn't take me long to realize it was a very large cat-like critter. At that point, I just said "oh sh!t' and quickly retreated into the chalet. Seconds later it came into the light where I immediately saw what it was.

I hollered for my buddy, who was inside the main house. He was as awed as I was at having such a critter at almost arm's lenght. The cheetah sniffed around a bit, even walking close to the screen door that was protecting us -- sorta. Then it just wandered off into the darkness again.

The next day after visiting with our hosts, we mentioned our astounding encounter of the previous night. That's when we heard, "Oh, that's Savannah. She has the run of the compound and likes to greet all the new guests."

Sure enough, there she was at breakfast waiting to visit with all the guests as they filtered in to eat. The photo I posted was after dinner the 2nd night we were there -- once I felt a bit more comfortable consorting with a female feline capable of doing a great deal of damage to the my physical well-being.

A day later, one of the guides we had asked to get us up early so we could drive ourselves into the park, came into the chalet. He had Savannah with him. We had left the door to the screened in area open to the bedroom. Before I knew it, she had climbed up on my bed and curled up at the bottom.

 

[eelgrass]

And I thought that was about to happen!! Here's the humorous tale.

My buddy & I had spent 10 days hunting near Port Elizabeth, then flew back into J'burg & rented a car to drive north to the resort near Krueger. We got lost on the way & didn't arrive until well after dark at the guard house. A locked gate blocked the road leading into the lodge, but there was a bell & intercom.

A guy finally came on and had a us wait while he drove out to let us in. It was another mile from that gate to another one in the tall critter-proof fence that surrounded the resort. We entered, and the guy showed us the way to the chalet we would be staying in for the next week or so.

He left & I parked our SUV just outside the door to the screened-in area at the front of the chalet. After we turned on the lights we started to empty our gear. Just as I walked out the door for a 2nd load, I saw a big, low-slung shadow out of the corner my eye. It was coming around the corner of the building about 15 feet from me. It didn't take me long to realize it was a very large cat-like critter. At that point, I just said "oh sh!t' and quickly retreated into the chalet. Seconds later it came into the light where I immediately saw what it was.

I hollered for my buddy, who was inside the main house. He was as awed as I was at having such a critter at almost arm's lenght. The cheetah sniffed around a bit, even walking close to the screen door that was protecting us -- sorta. Then it just wandered off into the darkness again.

The next day after visiting with our hosts, we mentioned our astounding encounter of the previous night. That's when we heard, "Oh, that's Savannah. She has the run of the compound and likes to greet all the new guests."

Sure enough, there she was at breakfast waiting to visit with all the guests as they filtered in to eat. The photo I posted was after dinner the 2nd night we were there -- once I felt a bit more comfortable consorting with a female feline capable of doing a great deal of damage to the my physical well-being.

A day later, one of the guides we had asked to get us up early so we could drive ourselves into the park, came into the chalet. He had Savannah with him. We had left the door to the screened in area open to the bedroom. Before I knew it, she had climbed up on my bed and curled up at the bottom.

If that had been me, I would have asked the host "Where can I buy a Cheetah tag, after the fact?" But you probably weren't armed at the time.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

If that had been me, I would have asked the host "Where can I buy a Cheetah tag, after the fact?" But you probably weren't armed at the time.

Ironically, I had just wheeled my gun case in because we didn't want to have them in the car while driving inside the park. So I set it on the floor of the porch and was going back out to get my regular duffle. Troy had gone into the john to pee.

 

[eelgrass]

When I was in high school I walked by a trash can one morning before school started. I heard a noise and looked in the can to find a baby raccoon. He must have got in there and couldn't get out. Long story short I got it home and made a pet out of it. I had it for about a year. Raccoons are destructive but it's just their nature. Everything I fed it, it took it over to his water bowl like he was washing it before eating. I think they have weak saliva glands or something.

I decided one day to give him a sugar cube. He took it over to the water dish and it dissolved. He kept feeling around for it but it was gone. Raccoons can get a wtf look on their face. He never did figure out why we laughed at him.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Since I started this thread, I've been wracking my brain trying to come with an unusual pet I had.

So...all this talk about shellfish in theother thread reminded me of my days as a small boy. If someone would have mentioned eating a raw clam back then, I would have come unhinged.

See, I had a pet clam that I named a gender neutral "Lump." I was gonna call it "Itsy," but that gender neutral name was already taken by my goldfish that lived in the same bowl as Lumpie (the endearing nickname I sometimes used).

My aquatic pets seem to get along well until one day when I took the clam out for his daily walk on a leash. When we returned home, Itsy was sprawled in a prone position on the living room floor, the likely victim of a suicide leap from the confines of the bowl. Later that night with damp eyes, Lumpie & I held a vigil for Itsy and then entombed the dead fish with one flush, never to be seen again.

But all was not well. Lumpie apparently took Itsy's death worse than I imagined. Within a week, my dear clam began to sulk, wouldn't eat and refused any sympathy I offered. Our daily walks ended, too. Two weeks after Itsy's demise, I walked into the living room and saw Lumpie languishing in the sand, his/her shell slightly agap in the final throes of death. Minutes later, it was all over. I buried Lumpie in the yard that afternoon and swore I would never own another pet clam.

Now you know the rest of the story.

Here's a photo of Lumpie taken the last time we went to the beach on his birthday...

 

[notdonhunting]

Since I started this thread, I've been wracking my brain trying to come with an unusual pet I had.

So...all this talk about shellfish in theother thread reminded me of my days as a small boy. If someone would have mentioned eating a raw clam back then, I would have come unhinged.

See, I had a pet clam that I named a gender neutral "Lump." I was gonna call it "Itsy," but that gender neutral name was already taken by my goldfish that lived in the same bowl as Lumpie (the endearing nickname I sometimes used).

My aquatic pets seem to get along well until one day when I took the clam out for his daily walk on a leash. When we returned home, Itsy was sprawled in a prone position on the living room floor, the likely victim of a suicide leap from the confines of the bowl. Later that night with damp eyes, Lumpie & I held a vigil for Itsy and then entombed the dead fish with one flush, never to be seen again.

But all was not well. Lumpie apparently took Itsy's death worse than I imagined. Within a week, my dear clam began to sulk, wouldn't eat and refused any sympathy I offered. Our daily walks ended, too. Two weeks after Itsy's demise, I walked into the living room and saw Lumpie languishing in the sand, his/her shell slightly agap in the final throes of death. Minutes later, it was all over. I buried Lumpie in the yard that afternoon and swore I would never own another pet clam.

Now you know the rest of the story. View attachment 40212

Here's a photo of Lumpie taken the last time we went to the beach on his birthday...

View attachment 40211

Outdoorwriter
That is a good one, but sometimes I do think your writing skills get the better of you.

 

[eelgrass]

??

 

[OutdoorWriter]

When I was in high school I walked by a trash can one morning before school started. I heard a noise and looked in the can to find a baby raccoon. He must have got in there and couldn't get out. Long story short I got it home and made a pet out of it. I had it for about a year. Raccoons are destructive but it's just their nature. Everything I fed it, it took it over to his water bowl like he was washing it before eating. I think they have weak saliva glands or something.

I decided one day to give him a sugar cube. He took it over to the water dish and it dissolved. He kept feeling around for it but it was gone. Raccoons can get a wtf look on their face. He never did figure out why we laughed at him.

Oh now you reminded me!!

When we owned our resort at Vallecito Lake, Colo., we often had coons & bears visiting our dumpster. So I built a cage trap out of chicken wire and baited it with a can of sardines. Sure enough, the first night I caught big male. At first it was actually quite nasty if I tried to get too close. So I kept him in the cage for several weeks, and he started to get tamer. But then we were heading down to Phx to visit for a Thanksgiving weekend. & there was nobody to feed it. So I let him go and never saw him again.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Outdoorwriter
That is a good one, but sometimes I do think your writing skills get the better of you.

That's what happens when you take one too many creative writing classes in college.

 

[2lumpy]

Well..... I can’t fault your choice of names for your pet. It’s both appropriate and accurate. It and I look strangely similar.

ODW we may have spent some time in the same place. Can’t recall the name but it was near the gateway at Kruger N.P.

Wife went nuts.

Never owned any unusual pets myself however my neighbors claim there are some running around here.

 

[NVPete]

How long do you get to keep said "pet" to consider it a pet? When I was a lad of about 10, I happened upon a pair of good-sized gopher snakes mating. I thought it a cool find. Without telling my parents, I took them home and built a makeshift cage. Dumb fool thing to do, my mom and her neighbors were having their morning "coffee clatch" when I decided to show the ladies my "cool" new pets. Well, they freaked out- one gal sprinting a half-block to her home, the others in sheer panic mode! After a calming down period, I tried to convince my mom they would be good pets-to no avail. I returned them to where I'd found them! I learned that not everyone appreciates nature like I do.

 

[Bluehair]

I had a sonora mountain king snake when I was a kid. I had assured myself many times it was a king snake and not a coral snake, but I still sweated for a couple hours the first time it bit me.

Is a clam really a pet?

 

[DeerHunter53]

I was hunting in NM years ago on an Antelope hunt and when walking in the Desert I found a five toed red legged box turtle. I picked him up and brought him home.
My Granddaughter and I would feed it meal worms and would turn it loose in the Garden in the Summer and put him in his cage so he could hibernate in the winter. he would get water off the drip system and eat bugs all summer. When we would see him sunning we would go give him his favorite meal worms. Totally tame after so many years.
Had him for about 15 years and then one day a Raccoon got ahold of him and killed him. Didn't even eat him so now I have a vendetta against those little bas---ds. Hate em I'll shoot them if I see them.......

 

[feddoc]

Does Jessica Simpson count as an imaginary pet?

 

[feddoc]

Mortimer was the name I gave to the kitten I found one night while rabbit hunting with a friend. I think I was 10 or so. Anyway, I thought he was a Manx cat with his short stubby tail. No momma around, so I took him home. At the time, he could fit in the palm of my hand.

I bottle fed him for the first few weeks of his life. He slept on my belly, and sometimes crapped and peed too. But, he was my pet.

Then he kept growing. And that little stubby tail had this nervous twitch to it. It was about that time I noticed two things about Mortimer. One was that his rear legs were taller than his front and he had these curious little tufts of hair on the top of his ears.

He was an awesome cat and as he grew he would still sleep on me. We had wooden floors in our house. Sometimes if I wasn't up when he thought I should be up (to feed him), he would sit on my chest and paw until he exposed some skin he could chew on.

He was big at 35 lbs last time I weighed him. He mostly caught his own food...rabbits, quail, pheasant. Sometimes he would sit on some huge elm tree stumps we had in our back yard. Magpies would land at the edge of the stump and look at him just laying in the sun. He never moved. Yet. They would fly away, then come back and land a little closer. And a little closer.

Once he moved, there was a flurry of feathers and he had lunch.

One day he just didn't come back from his morning hunt.

 

[Anaconda]

In my late teens and early 20s I kept rattlesnakes.

I started with garter snakes and gopher snakes.

After I learned how to catch (without being bitten) and how to build an escape proof cage, I caught a rattlesnake.

I had it for a month before my parents figured out that it was not another gopher snake, they were not happy.

After I moved out, I had several. Would keep them for a year or two, let them go and catch another.

 

[DeerHunter53]

In my late teens and early 20s I kept rattlesnakes.

I started with garter snakes and gopher snakes.

After I learned how to catch (without being bitten) and how to build an escape proof cage, I caught a rattlesnake.

I had it for a month before my parents figured out that it was not another gopher snake, they were not happy.

After I moved out, I had several. Would keep them for a year or two, let them go and catch another.

I tried that and my wife flipped out, she said get that feffen snake out of here NOW. LOL

 

[Homer]

I had a sonora mountain king snake when I was a kid. I had assured myself many times it was a king snake and not a coral snake, but I still sweated for a couple hours the first time it bit me.

Is a clam really a pet?

red to yellow can kill a fellow.......red to black is a friend to Jack...

 

[CatfishKev]

Not as cool as a cheetah but these are somewhat unusual. Hedgehogs are groovy man!

 

[money]

The father-in-law of one of my good buddies had a pet badger growing up. He found it as a brand new baby and took it home. They raised it and house trained it. It ate dog food, used the doggy door to go outside to go to the bathroom and even loved getting his belly scratched.

He said it was the coolest/best pet he ever had and that it never hurt a soul. After they owned it for a 2-3 years a family built a house about a quarter mile down the road. One day they couldn't find the pet badger and so they went down to the neighbors to ask if they had seen it. The badger had wandered over to the new neighbors to say hello and it freaked them out so they shot it. Their family was torn up about it because it was a wonderful "dog" to them.

It's made we want to try one as a pet ever since but i'm not brave enough and I would think they would stink too much. But he said they bathed him regularly and he didn't stink.

 

[Captain_coues]

I never had any unusual pets. One girl in High School had a pet bobcat. I stayed away from it. My buddy would play with it and one day it took a swipe at his face. It cut his nose enough to where there’s still a scar 28 years later.

I always thought it would be cool to have a monkey. They would be great entertainment at parties. As I get older, I see that it could have its disadvantages like poop throwing, stealing food, and mood swings. You don’t want to be around them when they’re pissed. They will bite off fingers and rip your face apart.

 

[eelgrass]

red to yellow can kill a fellow.......red to black is a friend to Jack...

That's the rumor anyway. Not sure I'd bet my life on it.

 

[Homer]

Not as cool as a cheetah but these are somewhat unusual. Hedgehogs are groovy man!
View attachment 40242

Looks cuddly...lol

 

[foundation]

We adopted a desert tortoise. He is pretty cool, and gets into more trouble than I would have imagined.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Well..... I can’t fault your choice of names for your pet. It’s both appropriate and accurate. It and I look strangely similar.

ODW we may have spent some time in the same place. Can’t recall the name but it was near the gateway at Kruger N.P.

Wife went nuts.

Never owned any unusual pets myself however my neighbors claim there are some running around here.

Honest injun, I didn't name the clam after you. I didn't even know you 70+ years ago.

It took me about two hours of googling because I couldn't recall the name of the lodge with the cheetah either, but it was was the Tshukudu Game Lodge. Besides driving around Kruger, we also got a tour of its own private preserve.

With the array of lodges around KNP, it would be crazy if we stayed at the same one.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Is a clam really a pet?

Hey, don't knock my pet clam. I actually teared up when I wrote that story about Lumpie.

Do you recall the fad several decades ago where some idiot made a fortune selling pet rocks??? I bought one, but I had to get rid of it when it grew up & turned into a boulder. Just took up too much room in my family room.

 

[2lumpy]

Ah hell OWD, don’t worry bout it. Like I said, Lumpie and I have a lot in common, an get more so, as I approach maturity, I’m actually flattered my Mom named me after such a handsome quahaug.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Ah hell OWD, don’t worry bout it. Like I said, Lumpie and I have a lot in common, an get more so, as I approach maturity, I’m actually flattered my Mom named me after such a handsome quahaug.

I'm about to ingest a dozen or so Lumpies with lemon & hot sauce is a little bit. Gonna get to shuckin' 'em in a few.

 

[3TOE]

Many years ago my ex wife brought home a mallard hen chick. I raised that goofy thing for 2 years. It would follow me around like I was it’s mother. We named her Cracker. It was actually Quacker, but my daughter was young & pronounced it cracker. Lol We let her come in the house, the kids & dog played with it, she would actually curl up next to my beagle & sleep with her. She was pretty damn cool. I loved the damn thing.
Then my ex “accidentally” poisoned & killed her. That’s not the only reason we divorced, but I never forgave her for that.

 

[2lumpy]

Regarding the Cheetah... it’s hard to say, we were just there in 2017 and we were hop, skipping and jumping from one place to another and weren’t hardly paying attentions to the names of the locations. We weren’t driving ourselves so most of the time we weren't paying attention to where we were on the map.

It was all amazing, from the cheetah to the masked weaver and every critter in between. Lots of UNUSUAL pets to be had...... on the African Continent.

 

[SlinginLead]

While growing up as a kid, we had an array of pets, Spider Monkeys, 2 horses, homing pigeons, chickens, ducks (Mallards), snakes, lizards, Desert Tortoise, Tarantulas, Tegu, dogs and cats.
But when I had kids, things got a little out of hand with snakes.
When my kids were old enough to go on hikes, we would hike in a canyon I frequented when I was a kid. We kept finding snakes and bringing them home. Sure enough, the kids wanted to keep them, so I made some really nice cages. Soon, we had had a male & female Gopher snake, a male & female California Common King snake, and a male & female California Mountain King snake. As you may guess, they all mated, and in no time, they produced some clutches. I made some home made incubators, and before long, the eggs all hatched. This went on for four years. At one point, we had 40 snakes!
It got expensive to buy the pinky & fuzzy mice, so I started breeding them. As the kids started getting older, they began to loose interest. Ultimately, I let all the breeding pairs go. As for the baby snakes, we would keep them for a year, then, when we would go hiking, we would let them go.
I do miss the big Common Kings, we would catch baby rattlesnakes and feed them to the Kings; they would devour them down like spaghetti. All the neighborhood kids would love to watch. Those were the good old days.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

I get all creepy & goosey when I read about snakes. Not sure if I hate them or spiders worse.

 

[eelgrass]

I get all creepy & goosey when I read about snakes. Not sure if I hate them or spiders worse.

Every time I get a pet spider my wife sucks it up with the vacuum cleaner.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Regarding the Cheetah... it’s hard to say, we were just there in 2017 and we were hop, skipping and jumping from one place to another and weren’t hardly paying attentions to the names of the locations. We weren’t driving ourselves so most of the time we weren't paying attention to where we were on the map.

It was all amazing, from the cheetah to the masked weaver and every critter in between. Lots of UNUSUAL pets to be had...... on the African Continent.

That bird is amazing. Before I switched to journalism, I was a biology major. Some of the creatures in this world do some incredible things where it really makes you wonder if they can actually think things thru.

 

[2lumpy]

That bird is amazing. Before I switched to journalism, I was a biology major. Some of the creatures in this world do some incredible things where it really makes you wonder if they can actually think things thru.

For sure. There must be a fine line between instinct and cognitive reasoning. Makes you wonder, which came first, thumbs or 2 plus 2.

About that bird..... or so I was told, the male builds the nest, works his butt off, in a fevered rush to mate. When he’s got it built, with all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, he gets on top of it a starts raising hell, in a ritual dance, to attract a female. The females watch him carry on for a while and eventually one decided to check him out. She flies over and goes inside the nest. She casts a critical eye over his master piece. If she’s impressed, she stays in the nest and they mate. If snot, she come out and leaves him standing there, with his pants down. The minute she leaves, the male abandons the nest as well and immediately begins to build a new one. This goes on, until a female eventually stays in the nest.

Whether that’s instinct or cognitive thought, I can’t say, but if sure sounds like a typical female/male relationship to me.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

For sure. There must be a fine line between instinct and cognitive reasoning. Makes you wonder, which came first, thumbs or 2 plus 2.

About that bird..... or so I was told, the male builds the nest, works his butt off, in a fevered rush to mate. When he’s got it built, with all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, he gets on top of it a starts raising hell, in a ritual dance, to attract a female. The females watch him carry on for a while and eventually one decided to check him out. She flies over and goes inside the nest. She casts a critical eye over his master piece. If she’s impressed, she stays in the nest and they mate. If snot, she come out and leaves him standing there, with his pants down. The minute she leaves, the male abandons the nest as well and immediately begins to build a new one. This goes on, until a female eventually stays in the nest.

Whether that’s instinct or cognitive thought, I can’t say, but if sure sounds like a typical female/male relationship to me.

Indeed. Seems like a lot of trouble to get some nookie.

The last two dogs I've owned have been adopted Labs from a rescue organization. The last, Hershey, was a chocolate about 4-5 yrs. old when we got him.

His fav toy was a plain ol' tennis ball. He would lie on his back with the ball in his mouth, then cradle it between his paws and raise it straight up. I would take the ball, put it back in his mouth & he repeated it. He would also lie on his tummy with his legs spread. I would roll the ball between them, & he'd use his nose to push it back to me. I taught him none of it, but I'm guessing someone did.

BUT... when we would go down to our timeshare in Mazatlan, we'd leave him with my oldest son. So one year my son is out in his garage working on his truck with the big door open. His driveway was fairly long and sloped toward the street.

Hershey was out there with him and had a tennis ball. He would take the ball, drop it at the top of the drive and race own to the street to catch it., basically having a game of catch with himself. Then he did all over again. My son said he did it for 15 mins. before he got tired. I can't imagine that anyone taught him that.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Every time I get a pet spider my wife sucks it up with the vacuum cleaner.

Don't get me started on those and stuff like ticks & scorpions. I've had too many not-so-fun encounters with such creepy crawlers.

 

[Longun]

Does taking a pic at Walamrt count???

 

[NVPete]

In the "One Photo Per Day" feddoc mentioned having a bobcat for a pet, so I thought it might be fun to see what else UNUSUAL other members had for a pet. So post 'em up.

In Africa, it's common to see cheetahs as house pets. The one below named Savannah had the run of the resort where I stayed outside Krueger NP on a photo trip. Here we are resting after dinner ....

View attachment 40175

Remember the "Pet Rock" thing aways back? I gave one to my wife, expecting her to throw it at me! Still has it with her "keepsakes"

 

[Hunter1]

A couple of decades ago I was doing a construction job in Phoenix and living in one of those chitty individual unit motels on East Mcdowell. One Saturday morning we heard a woman screaming and went out there. They had a pet Ferret and while she was in another room it had climbed up in the crib and chewed both of the babys ear lobes off while it was sleeping. At the screaming the Ferret had ran out the open door and disappeared, a bunch of us looked for it but it was never seen again. I can still see the image in my mind of her clutching her baby with two bloody ears. Somewhere out there is a twenty something with no ear lobes. Not a fan of Ferrets.

 

[OutdoorWriter]

Remember the "Pet Rock" thing aways back? I gave one to my wife, expecting her to throw it at me! Still has it with her "keepsakes"

Indeed. I mentioned it earlier in this thread:

"Do you recall the fad several decades ago where some idiot made a fortune selling pet rocks??? I bought one, but I had to get rid of it when it grew up & turned into a boulder. Just took up too much room in my family room."

 

[elkassassin]

Coyotes Make a Nice Pet!

A Little Rough on Silverado Interior though!

 

[Homer]

coyotes??.....eyes closed when found will make a pet.....eyes open will not....

 

[Tikka]

I’ve had a couple of foxes over the years... This one absolutely hated my wife but loved everyone else...