Some pets we've had

Emily called the other day and said she was drawing pictures of the pets her mom had when she was growing up. She was asking questions about their names, what they looked like and so on. Could we remember any details about our small number of pets? Not much. So we went to the family albums a dug up this set of pictures for everyone to see.

Parents: BE SURE TO SHOW THEM TO YOUR CHILDREN.

From 1974, Derek and Stef with Explodie. Derek named him. He said he looked like he had exploded.

Another 1974 picture of Explodie

Explodie was the son of Mama Cat. So here is their two-generation picture while eating.

At the end of 1979 I want away on an extended business trip to Georgia. When I got back, Stef had a new dog. She named him Trisket. This is him and Stef at "dog obedience" school. He was probably the least well behaved dog there.

A few months later, here is Trisket lounging around on our cement patio. How uncomfortable! But Trisket was not one to complain. In fact, he rather enjoyed it.

I used to ride my bicycle and take him on an exercise run around the neighborhood. I pedalled as hard as I could up and down the streets. Trisket would lope along in front of me and wonder why I couldn't go any faster. Here is Stefani gaving him a well deserved drink out of the garden hose.

This is a picture of Rameuptum in 1982 who aopears to have taken lessons from Trisket about lounging around. However, she chose a more comfortable spot.

Somewhere in 1982, a small yellow kitten showed up on our doorstep. We kept him for a while but one day he just never came around any more. We have no idea what happened to him. Pretty little kitty, though.

In 1983, we had another cat named Wamba. I don't remember much about the details about this one but it looks like Shannon checking out his eyes.

But she also made him feel right at home with a comfy bed.

This is Halloween in 1985. Is Rameumptum trying to blend in with the jack-o-lanterns?

The picture below will serve to explain how Rameumptum got her name. No matter where she was resting, she always had to be at the highest point. For instance, if she climed up on the coffee table, it just wasn't enough to be on the table. She had sit on top of even a single sheet of paper which was also on the coffee table. When we organized our garage one time, we had boxes sitting out in the driveway. She had to climb up to and sit on the top most box in the stack. The picture below shows her sitting on top of some boxes on the top of a bookcase.

So because of her penchant for high places, we named her Rameumptum in honor of the rather apostate Zoramites in the Book of Mormon who prayed each week from their very tall "holy stand" named the Rameumptum. We called her Rami for short. I took her to the vet one time and was asked to explain how we came to give her that name. It was a good missionary experience but the vet wasn't interested in learning more.

Ocassionally, Rami would get inside a box... but only if it was upside down and she couldn't climb on top of it. She did the best she could under the circumstances.

This is Shannon in 1986 man-handling Rami in the back yard. Rami never seemed to mind this at all. In fact, occasionally Shan would drape her around her neck as you would a fur piece.

Here's Stef feeding Rami some ice cream (1986)

In 1987, Rami helped Shannon unload the dishwasher making sure to get the silverware in the right slots in the drawer.

In 1987, we (Derek, I think) adopted a stray cat. For lack of a better name, he became known as just "Yellow Kitty" or "Yellow" for short. How creative, you say! It doesn't look like we were feeding him enough 'cuz he decided he wanted some of our breakfast cereal.

1989: Rami having a well deserved nap on the back of our couch.

Rami napping again on the foot rest of the couch.

No garden hoses for this cat to get a drink.

1990: Rami is waiting for that all important phone call.

1992: Rami doing some weird contortions while lying aound on Shannon's lap.

1992: Yellow goes for getting drinks out of the swimming pool

1992: Yellow resting on a bench

And he finally goes off to dreamland

After the winter weather (1994-1995), Rami's coat had grown so thick and matted and she smelled so bad that we took her to a pet grooming place to see what they thought. The suggested that she be shaved to the skin and let the hair grow out again. They shaved everything but her head. So here she is in her most humiliating moment... afraid to be seen in public and wondering what had happened to her. By this time she was 13 or 14 years old. It wasn't too long after her hair grew back again that she died.