Dogs, Cats or .... goldfish? gerbils? What's your pet's personality?

I've been enjoying some articles debating dogs vs. cats in the past few days. The articles have been funny, with some serious sentiments tossed in, and nobody calling anyone a Nazi for liking the wrong type of animal. The best type of article. I like cats and dogs equally, but tend to argue on the side of cats since they're so undervalued. My NV interests led to a good discussion with some friends after work, talking about our first pets, current pets, etc.

I had two goldfish at one time; Peppermint Patty and another poor forgotten goldfish. First grade. I remember watching them poop, swim through their poop, eat their poop (hey, a first grader is fascinated by bodily functions), and otherwise just float while they opened and closed their mouths. Not much excitement going on there. Then I got to watch them just float while not opening their mouths, and had my first funeral.

In second grade, I pulled a pretty good con on my parents so I could get a pair of gerbils. To this day, my mom - who is 77 - uses that against me when I meet her friends. So what if I gave them to my dad as his birthday present, after asking my mom for a dollar so I could buy Dad a present ... after my parents sent me to my room while they discussed it, they were apparently laughing their butts off but not wanting to reward me for my deception. But no, Mom will never let me live that one down.

Kept the gerbils; and what is surprising is that they really do have unique personalities. The first two had babies, and each of us kids (3) had gerbils for many years after that. My first pair were named Montrose and Odessa. Montrose had a unique habit of climbing up on the water bottle and curling up there. We let them run around on us while we sat on the sofa, and they spent a lot of time climbing on us. At some point one of them would fall or climb onto the floor; there would be a call of "mouse down" and we'd all get down on our knees with a long tube to catch them.

Oh, the tube. You know how if you buy wrapping paper on a long roll, the inside of the roll is a cheap piece of cardboardish paper? Back in the day, if you bought Christmas paper, you got it on a tube that you could probably shoot a few fireworks through. Thick cardboard. That you had to walk through 3 feet of snow to buy.

We'd put the tube down on the floor (we called ours the Montrose Tunnel, which only CO people will get) and at some point the gerbils would come up to check it out, run inside it, we'd cup our hand over the other end and put them back in their cage. Mine got out of their cage once, climbed up my sheets, and woke me up by sniffing my face. These little furry mouse-like things (but cuter) who were tame and didn't stink like hamsters or mice!

After Odessa died (probably from having 5 babies every month for her entire life), Montrose seemed to truly feel lonely - he moped around the cage for two weeks, and even after that he never climbed up on the water bottle again. I'm probably just anthropormorphising (sp?) but there was some type of emotion going on there.

So, even the lowly gerbil can show some sort of emotions, and can be a good pet. And it's fun to try to figure out the ways various types of animals show their personalities. What stories do you have about a pet's personality? Dog and cat stories are welcome, but if you have a great turtle, frog or ferret story ... just to get the debate opened up more ... chime in!

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