What Pet Have I Not Yet Had?

I can't remember a time when I didn't have some species of animal at my house. Normally that was an outside cat and dogs of various breeds. As I write this my bedroom has ten ducks in it. Six of those are ducklings and the other four are in an incubator still developing in their eggs.

"Every boy should have two things, a dog, and a mother who will let him have one."-Anonymous

That is a good quote. It is a true quote as far as I am concerned. Kids need dogs, a home isn't a home without one in my opinion. But, the second thing is quite important. Parents that are willing to allow their children to have pets. Even if the child is older and doesn't forget to walk the dog or feed the cat the children aren't buying food or paying vet bills. I say that because people buy their children pets to teach them responsibility and most do it knowing that at some point they will be the one taking the dog out at 3AM in the rain. Your child won't do that, even if they could, I don't know a parent that is going to want their younger child out in the middle of the night by themselves.

If you follow me on facebook or twitter or instagram you will have seen my numerous posts about the animals at my house and those I want to one day have. I'm no stranger to animals and there hasn't been a time when they didn't fascinate me. I'm the type of person who will probably not bat an eye if a person dies in a movie or book but I don't want to watch a dog die. While I grew up with dogs and cats, I had parents that let me have almost any pet I asked for over the years. Lizards, snakes, gerbils, birds, fish,guinea pigs in fact the only thing I can remember asking for and not being allowed to have was a Killdeer egg I found while fishing. I wanted to take it home and hatch it while in High School and my dad said no. Thus far wild birds are the only thing I've been told I can't have (I've tried with various song bird eggs around the house most every summer). My parents even let me attempt to hatch snake eggs my father found. Those snake eggs actually turned out to be box turtles that we had to let go after they hatched.

There are plenty of children who beg for a pet and never get one. I'm fortunate that I never needed to deal with that. I'm not sure I'd have actually handled that well. I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't have that exposure. Because of the way I grew up I am comfortable with just about everything, though I'm not a fan of tarantulas or mice and rats (they creep me out). It's been interesting over the years at work while talking to the kids about some animal or another and being able to say I used to have one of those. Most of the time they look at me like I'm crazy. More recently as I show them pictures of chickens and duck eggs they laugh and ask if they can come see them.

I realize that my upbringing isn't average, not on that front. Which is why I'm all the more thankful to have had it. Most children do not have such freedom to fulfill their wishes of more exotic pets. Over the years I've basically lived in a zoo and I look forward to being able to continue that tradition. Though I will draw the line at tarantulas and mice, everything else is fair game.

As I plan for the farm I hope to own and the goats,pigs, sheep, and cows I want to fill it with I find reassurance in knowing that God saw to it that I was raised for such a life. He gave me an interest and then put me where I needed to be so that it could be explored. While I've gotten older and no longer seek to make pets of lizards,snakes, or rodents  (still hoping for that wild bird though), the domesticated beats lure me in with the call of those who came before me, a toil that is rewarded with the fruits of hard labor and satisfaction of watching what I raise grow and flourish.

As I start this new adventure with ducks I can't help but be thankful yet again that I'm one step closer to farming and have parents that don't discourage me from seeking a life that is far from monetarily affluent and instead focused on using what I'm learning to send the gospel to the nations where I can't yet go.