My dad's college roomate had one. Said it did 3 things. Picked it's cage lock, played with itself, and trashed their apartment....
Remember some years ago in the back of magazines like OUTDOOR LIFE and FIELD AND STREAM there were ads that said if you paid for just the shipping you would get a free Anole "lizard" in the mail. So I being a a gullable kid sent away my $4.95 for shipping expecting to get this lizard sent to me from Texas. No lizard. Well about 6 months later I go to get the mail and to my shock is a small box, with air holes that says "live animal inside." I open it up and sure enough there inside is this 6 inch small lizard. I set up my aquarium, started buying crickets and within 3 months he had developed a tumor about the size of a grape on the side of his head which one day split open and killed my d@mn lizard. Poor fella.
We hand fed a lot of wild crittters when I was a kid, but none were actual pets. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and a cow bird. The rabbits ate vanilla wafers, the squirrels & chippies ate peanuts & the cow bird ate saltine crackers. You could stand on the porch & call them & they'd come in looking to eat. My brother had a box turtle & I'd catch the random garter snake, feed it for a couple weeks then turn it loose again. We had tons of snakes at my house.
Had a Barn Owl that was caught in a trap. Lost one of it's legs and was as close to death as anything I'd ever seen. Nursed it back to health for about 3-4 months and he/she ultimately stayed with us until he died 2-3 years later. We kept it in the house for quite a while until it got healthy enough to remember it was a nocturnal creature, then he raised all kinds of hell at night. you could NOT sleep with that thing around making all the noise it did. It would catch the food we threw to him, bob it's head when we talked to him, sit on your shoulder for rides on the bike, etc. Really cool critter.
I had four Iguanas when I was in my 20's. My largest ended up living at my buddies Tattoo shop until he passed away. My Godfather had 3 pet pigs that were house trained and like dogs. My father had a pet Raccoon when he was in high school but it drank too much beer at a party and died
My stepmom is a Vet so we had a LOT of weird animals come into the clinic that needed a home and stayed with us for various periods of time. Some stayed in the clinic for an extended stay, others turned into long term pets that came home. Probably the strangest was a baby blue jay that got knocked out of the nest and brought into the clinic in 1993. My parents still have this bird (Jay Bird is her name) and so far she isn't showing any signs of aging.........we have done a lot of research and there really isn't any good info on how long they live so we aren't sure if she's old or what. She absolutely loves to eat grasshoppers in the summer, she will grab them out of your hands, tear the legs off them, and let them sit in the bottom of the cage for while (still alive) before she decides to eat them........lol.
I did have a monkey in Vietnam for a very short time.... maybe 2 or 3 weeks. I traded some engineers an AK47 for him. He used to sit and ride holding onto the butterflies of the 50 cal. He left the first time shots were fired. I got some pictures of him somewhere. I'll try and find them. He was a nasty pet. Liked to bite and pick his butt.
When I was really young my old man had a fox, a raccoon and a de-scented skunk. When I got older we had a few deer for a couple of years. Unfortunately the enclosure they were in wasn't quite sturdy enough to stop the buck from fighting with another buck and busting it open. He got out and a local hunter shot him. It's a shame, that poor deer was about as friendly as your average dog. He would walk right up to people and eat out of your hand. At one point in time we also had a duck and a squirrel (both in the house). The squirrel kept escaping from his cage and running around on top of my old man's mounts. So one day he got cranky and threw him out in the backyard. That was the last I ever saw of him. For a short period of time an orphaned fawn as well. Mamma got hit by a car and we nursed him for a few days until we found someone with a valid license to take him. Cute little bugger he was. Funniest thing, driving around with him in the back seat of my dad's pickup and he pee'd all over the place.
Red Tail Boa Constrictor and red bellied Piranha's. Now I have a homicidal Muslim Schnauzer .......when he's not drinking...
Didn't think they were weird at the time but I Grew up with two flying squirrels and two fox squirrels. We had a neighbor that owned a logging crew and he would bring them to us as he found them over the years. Raised them all by using an eye dropper. The flying squirrels made wonderful pets but the fox squirrels were cool but had a mean streak when they did not get their way. And found out that a fox squirrel can beat down a house cat any day. Fond memories.
It was all before I was born, but my uncle used to have some cool pets. He had a Siberian husky/wolf mix. My uncle was 6'3" and I've got pics of this dog standing on it's hind legs with it's front paws on my uncles shoulders pretty much looking him in the eye. Gorgeous dog. He gave it away to a farmer who had more room for it. The dog got into a bag of rat poison and died. He had indoor squirrels and coons that drank from the water faucets. He raised deer. And he found a new born coyote pup once, raised it as an indoor pet. He said it was just as tame and like every other dog be ever had. He also had a bad *** golden retriever named Chip that killed a couple coyotes. That dog looked for coyotes when they'd walk the woods. Chased more than one and actually killed 2. He was a huge golden retriever!
