A Bit of a Pig

I've got another A Bit of Me(Me) post this week (hosted by There's a Book).

The question for this week is "Are you an animal person?" I guess this is the part where I confess to being a librarian and not liking cats. I'm not really much of a dog person either. I'll admit a huge part of this is because I am allergic to most hairy animals. However, I have had pets in my life and I thought it would be fun to mention them.

I come from a big family, so my parents probably felt like taking care of eight kids was enough without a pet. Then came the day my sister got to take home the class guinea pigs. There were two of them - a black and white one with a crazy head cowlick, and a white, orange and grey one. She named them Wooshka and Booshka. Though we all enjoyed the squeaking and the fun we had with them in our back yard, my dad fell hardest of all for them. He would imitate their squeaks and talk to them like small children. He simply adored them. We even found some home video footage he took of himself squeaking and speaking to them while feeding them carrots. But, obviously, when they died rather violently at the paws of a neighborhood cat, none of us wanted to become quite so attached to the little creatures again. We did get my dad another, called Oynque, but after he died as well, there were no more. He prefers to stick with stuffed animal pigs - they don't die and break your heart. So, we've been a pretty pet-less family since then.