We got Ralph (a Wren) and his sister Gertrude when they first hatched. Gertrude died about 3 years later when she had an egg bust in her and infected her before we found out. 

At the time we moved, we had Ralph and Sam. We moved into an upscale neighborhood and had reservations about taking a duck into the neighbor. We thought about turning him loose in a pond but knew he would never survive. We decided to take him with us. As it turned out, the neighbors loved him. He had a small pen with a small pool but he loved to get out and mess around in the yard. We finally ended up allowing him to remain loose in the yard. He never left the yard but stayed in the yard. One day we came home and found him in the front yard with his neck broke. We later found out that a dog as seen in the neighborhood. We figured out maybe the dog had chased him and caught him. In our neighborhood, dog were not allowed to roam free. Ralph was fifteen years old when he died.

Ralph walked with a limp as he got under my feet when I had my arms full and I did not see him and stepped on him and broke his leg. We took him to the veterinarian said he could not set his leg but if we keep him in a small area he might heal. His leg did heal but he did have a limp.

I believe Ralph thought he was a dog because he would come to me when I would whistle for him.

Ralph is buried in our yard and has his own tombstone. I will add more pictures later.

My wife and myself went to Johnson City to get a puppy. My wife said that we would take the first pup that came to us. Sam was the only one that came to us, as the others were busy playing with each other.

Sam had many special traits.

One, about five minutes before my wife would arrive home from work, Sam would leave the bedroom where he spent the day, and wait for her at the top of the stairs. He knew the time she got home and did not “hear her car” as he would still be there the same time the days she stopped by the store. How he could tell the time, we do not know, as daylight savings time did not mess him up.

The second trait has to do with Christmas. Sam enjoyed playing with rubber squeak toys. His first Christmas, we got him a couple toys and put them under the tree with our presents. I gave Sam his present and he studied it a few minutes and tore the paper off any played with it.

The next year I wrapped his toys and put them under the tree. The next morning (not Christmas morning) we woke up and he had his package opened. I got him another one and put it under the tree under other packages so he would have one to open. The next morning he had it opened. He had dug it out from under the other packages. He did not bother the other packages other than a couple of small tears where he dug his out. From then on, we had to wait till Christmas morning and put his packages under the tree. He would get them and open them.

Sam also enjoyed playing with a tennis ball. He could catch it in the air and would bring it to you and sometimes tease you with it. However, he enjoyed it so much that he would play until you could no throw it anymore.

At he end of Sam's eleven years, he developed a heart problem. The veterinarian tried to treat it using drugs for humans, but he had to figure out the correct dose due to Sam's size. Toward the end , he suffered so much that my wife had to have him put to sleep. As my wife handed Sam to the veterinarian, Sam looked at her as if to say thank you for taking such good care of me and providing me a home and now it is time I depart. My wife said Sam then laid his head on the veterinarians shoulder as if to say it is ok.

We still cry to this day.

Sam is buried in our back yard and has his own tombstone. I will include a picture of it later.

Sam is on Mark Levin's Web. Click here to go there. Scroll down about halfway. (If not on the page, click on "previous entries" on the bottom of the page. Sometime as Mark adds new ones, Sam gets push back.)

Pete was a Boston Bulldog. He belonged to my stepson and when he married and moved out, he left Pete for us to watch as he did not want to take Pete with him. Pete liked to sleep completely under the covers as he did when he slept with Craig.

Pete developed problems and Craig had to take him and have him put to sleep. He is buried at Craig's house.

Nick got his name because of a small nick in his right ear. We gave him that name. Nick had a very, very bad start in life. We got him from a man that kept him in a very small transport cage. It was so small his water would not fit in the cage and Nick would stick his paw out through the cage and get his paw wet and lick the water off of his paw. He continued to do that the rest of his life even though he had a bowl of water. Nick also could not smell. We believe this is because he had to smell his urine as his cage never was cleaned. Yes, I cry because of the way he was treated before we got him. He died from feline leukemia. Well we actually had to have him put to sleep. My wife left him with the vet to "dispose of" his body so I could not buy him a stone for his grave. He deserved one as well as the others. But I was out of town and my wife could not bury him. I tried to give him a wonderful life while we had him and that gives me comfort.