Holiday Pets

[Soliel]

[COLOR=GREEN]Okay. As you can tell by the title, this thread is about any pets you guys have and any ties they might have to the holiday season. Have you ever recieved a pet as a present? Or do you do anything interesting with your pets for the holidays? I was also wandering if anyone's pets, besides mine, have any interesting querks that they display around this time of year.

For me, two of my 6 pets (one of my dogs and one of my cats) have strange Christmas habits, both of which involve our Christmas tree. My dog, ever since she was a puppy, likes to think she owns the tree. She sleeps under it on the tree skirt and will even push the presents underneth it away so that she has room. My cat's habit is a bit more distructive. She will climb up in it, knocking down ornaments as she goes. To this day, the tree at my dad's house can't have lights or any fragile ornaments.

Well, that's what my animals do. What about you guys?[/COLOR]

[wiccansamurai]

I received a bird when I was about twelve. I loved my birds, and my parents had gotten it despite the fact they hate them. It was so cute, a cockatiel. It was grey with bright red cheeks and a yellow moehawk thingy.

My dog ate it Christmas night.

Once, a little after easter, someone snuck into our barn. They had, appearantly, gotten a cute little duckling for easter. Unfortunately, ducklings can't stay cute and yellow forever, so they left it in our barn in a small cage with goat food in there. We named it after the first two words out of my mother's mouth when she walked into the barn.

"What The" the duck was shortly after eaten by a coyote. We aren't very good with birds.

[Sara]

[size=1]The animals at my house reside rather consistantly within glass tanks, so none of them has any special part of a Christmas tradition.

On the other hand, we did get one of our newts (and the whole aquarium/terrarium/newtonarium ensemble for Christmas several years back. I suppose that counts for something, heh.

Actually, there's a rather funny little story about that. My brother and sister had been wanting a pet newt for some time, but we didn't have a place for it to live, and whatnot. Well, one day they were fooling around in the storage room, opened a box and--behold! An aquarium, filters, heat light, bags of rocks....just about anything you could think of to need for a pet newt. Besides water and maybe food.

Well, they came to me (because, you know, I'm such a sage), asking what they should do. Did our parents even [i]know[/i] about this stuff? Maybe we should tell them, and then we could have a newt!

I reasoned that it was probably a gift, and they stashed it back away.

Now, the way our family Christmas works (or did, when we were younger) was this: On Christmas eve, we would go to church, perhaps meet some relatives, and then come home. Once home, we would snack on various cheeses, meats, crackers, and vegetables as the adults talked and we kids got increasingly impatient. Finally, we'd get to open the presents under the tree.

Then, Christmas morning, we would go downstairs to discover another gift, and our stockings mysteriously full of candy. Santa Claus and whatnot, heh.

Well, this Christmas eve came and went quite aquarium-less, and the next morning, direct from Santa, was an entourage of everything a little newt could possibly need to be happy.

I was about ten, and had been fighting for several years to [spoiler]hang onto the belief that Santa was real[/spoiler], and I was quite bitterly disappointed by the whole ordeal.

So that was probably the worst present I ever got. Nothing against the newt itself, I suppose, as it wasn't really his fault (although adding to my personal misery was the fact that only my siblings, not I, had wanted the creature) and he's rather endearing. You know, as far as amphibians go. But anyway, heh.

rockin' around the Christmas tree,
Sara[/size]

[Queen Asuka]

[color=hotpink][size=1]I always think about how our bulldog, Bandit, will HIKE HIS LEG ON THE TREE NO MATTER WHAT!!!! It's part of the Christmas tradition, I guess. I don't know, all I can think about it the tree not having any water because the dogs insisting on lapping it all up. But it's just so much fun. ^_^

My dogs Hercules (who is dead, RIP) and Honey used to have little Christmas stockings on the tree. I don't know what happened to them, but now we're up by a few chihuahuas and cats and so yeah, too many pets to have individual stockings. [/color][/size]

[Sara]

[quote name='wiccansamurai']"What The" the duck was shortly after eaten by a coyote. We aren't very good with birds.[/quote][size=1]I feel bad for laughing, but...that was really funny. /

I had a pet fish...for a week...and he died. / Not surprising, really, nor as interesting as the fish we used to have in our newt tank who simple [i]disappeared[/i]. One day...he just wasn't there any more. We think the newt ate him. o0

Not too hot, not too cold,
Sara[/size]

[Panda]

The only pet I have ever received around the holiday season is my cat Harrison. I brought him home from the vet clinic I was working at right before Thanksgiving. He was brought in by a client who thought he had broken legs. He actually was born with a major birth defect. Due to his special needs they didn't want to keep him. So I adopted him. ^_^

All my pets have their own Christmas stockings with their names on them. They all get presents under the tree and in their stockings. Treats, new toys and sometimes new collars.

One thing that we do just for the pets every year is the decorating only the top half of the tree. We never put any decorations at the bottom of the tree since the cats will pull off the decorations and when my dogs wag their tails they swat them off! So the bottom of the tree looks a bit naked! Oh well.

Happy Holidays everyone!

[Soliel]

[quote name='Panda']All my pets have their own Christmas stockings with their names on them. They all get presents under the tree and in their stockings. Treats, new toys and sometimes new collars. [/quote]
[COLOR=GREEN]Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about my pets having their own stockings and getting presents. I have a total of 4 dogs and 2 cats. of course, they're spread out between my mom's house and my dad's house. The two dogs at my mom's house (also the two oldest) have always had stockings and get presents every Christmas we've had them. The two dogs and two cats at my dad's house, until last year didn't have any stockings; for some odd reason we didn't hang stockings at my dad's house. Then last year, "Santa Claus", [SPOILER]aka- me[/SPOILER] left everyone new stockings, including the dogs, Sadie and Harley, and the cats, Sandy and Suri. Everyone was really surprised, especially my little brother.[/COLOR]