It's Been a Lifetime of Love.

     Unlike the rich and famous, I don't mind telling anyone my age. I won't hide behind some fake tale, pretending I wasn't born in 1961. There really is no other year people could be born in our lifetimes that can be turned upside down and still be the same year they were born -- I was born in 1961, and I am very proud of that fact; thank you very much.

    I tell you that to tell you this: I've been an animal lover all my life. Not since the day I was born, no. I am quite sure I could smell and hear the animals in my parents' home before I was born. We have always been animal people—mainly dogs, I will say that, but I have been a friend of the reptiles since long before I could spell "reptile," and that, because of my upbringing, would have been around age four. 

    I got my library card on my 4th birthday, which should give you a clue as to what I was into and just how long I've been into it. My mom is a prolific reader. Like her, I didn't watch a lot of television, preferring to read stories and entire books by the time I was in the second grade. I was reading tweens by age ten and then the heavy stuff like Agatha Christie when I turned twelve. You know, I thought I was cool. 

    Reading is one passion I grew up with, but so are reptiles. Though I'm not sure if the two really go together, I can tell you that I found myself walking one mile north of my house to the library at the age of five to "read" and then again, walking over 1.5 miles west when I wanted to go to the big TG&Y because it had animals. I couldn't go alone until I was bigger, so around seven, I was making that trek.

    Once I got to the store, I would go to the office and tell them I was there, and they'd call my mom to tell her I made it. It was a good system. It was also 1969, so times are a little different these days. I would go to TG&Y and head straight back to the back of the store where they had the pets and pet supplies. The managers and workers let me stand on the bags of dog food to see into the reptile cages (enclosures), and that was my Saturday morning from about 10-12 before walking home, eating lunch, and going back out to play. We didn't see much of the inside of our houses back in those days.

    TG&Y had snakes for sale. That was just too cool. My mother was not going to let me have one, but she did take me to the Oklahoma City Zoo and let me go into the herbivore house where I could really get up close and personal with many different species. We must have been "members" back in the day, because we went a lot; either with my parents, other people's parents, churches, schools, clubs, or someone. I went a lot.

    I had a lot of little turtles growing up. Some we bought, most we found. I didn't have many snakes or lizards that were allowed into the house, but we had horny toads and five-line skinks all spring and summer long. I do remember chasing them everywhere until I was in my teens, and suddenly, with all the houses going in, the varmints became more scarce.  I did have a king snake that hung out near the barn where I played, and I would play with him - I said him, I never really knew. I think I "kept" him in someone else's field for at least four or five years.  They saw me out there, but didn't bother asking me to stop playing with the snake in the barn.

    We always had dogs, and someone always had horses I could ride, which makes me think now that I must have had an amazing childhood. I reflect on it when I see the sheer idiocy in today's society - we lived life to its fullest at such a tender age. I don't think my knees had skin on them until I went to high school. I don't know if I stopped falling off my bike or climbing trees in shorts, but I wanted to be prettier for the boys instead of beating them at everything we competed in that didn't require strength.

    I remember being so angry at Satan when I was a kid for turning himself into a snake to deceive Eve. I loved snakes. Preachers often talked about them being evil; of course, the venomous ones were untouchable. Still, I never put too much stock into the snakes I was holding as being anything but interesting potential roommates. At least, if I have done NOTHING ELSE with my life, I have instilled into my own three children that holding, loving, and caring for small creatures (and of course, the big ones too) is a good thing. God makes really fantastic creepy-crawling things. You should look closely - you might just agree.

    NOTE: Don't try to outstare a snake - it will only leave you feeling inferior. (They can't blink) 

    

They call them "Texas Brown Horned Toads" but we called them "Horny Toads" and we lived in Oklahoma, so they weren't Texas anything.

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