Our first pet was a collie-shepherd mix named Sandy. After him we had a series of dogs, mostly beagles and hounds and two cats named Fred and Ethel, who behaved badly ad ended up as barn cats on my Aunt Lois' farm in Columbus, Ohio. For my14th(?) birthday. I was given a six-week old Siamese kitten I named Ming, who lived sixteen years. When I was thirty, Ming took a piece of calf off the leg of one of my mother's more stupid friends. There was blood on the carpet, and the next day my mother had Ming euthanized. By 1970, my brother Randy had collected hamsters, gerbils, and many small excitable dogs who peed everywhere when company approached the door of the house.
