My First Pet

My first pet was a guinea pig called Sandy. He was called Sandy because he was sandy coloured. I don't remember naming him, I don't remember the first day he arrived, I don't remember being asked if I would like a pet, I don't remember much about him at all.

Too be honest I don't even know if he was a boy - I think we just assumed he was.
I don't think he lived long. He lived in a hutch in the garden and was fed a small bowl of bran every day. I think he might also have got bits of veg. He lived in his hutch outside. Looking back, I think in winter, it got too cold for him and he died from hypothermia.

Sandy's hutch got cleaned once a week. Dad built it out of old bits of wood and he cleaned it out - us kids watched (pretended we were helping). I think my parents had decided having a pet was a good middle class thing to do. - Less responsibility than a cat or dog. However, I certainly don't remember being desperate for a pet when I was a kid.

I liked Sandy, he was my pet, but when he died I don't remember being upset. I think Dad just dug a hole in the garden and buried him. I think I just accepted Sandy was dead and life carried on.

I remember talking about him to my friends at school. Some of them had cats & dogs which I suppose were common pets to have in the 1960's but I don't remember anyone else that had a guinea pig.

My cousins had a hamster - my mother said, that was a stupid pet to have because hamsters sleep all day and only come out at night to play on their wheel. Certainly, whenever we went to my cousins we never saw the hamster because it was always asleep in its little nesting box. But I was always jealous of my cousins because they had a dog and a cat - though if I remember rightly the cat, a grey one called Smokey, got run over. Again, it didn't seem to be a traumatic event - it was just a case of, 'the cat's been run over? - and life carried on - no big deal.

But to get back to Sandy. Sandy, the guinea pig was my first pet. I don't know how old I was when I got him - 5 or 6 I guess. I liked him, but I knew he wouldn't live forever.

In the 1960's the death of living things was a lot more acceptable than today. In a way death was just a way of life. Your pet dies, get over it - a relative dies, get over it.

No one had counselling. Death was just a part of life.

My guinea pig died - I got over it very quickly.

Will be writing more about death in future blips.

........................... And just incase any one is interested - today's blip is of my dog's paw. Obviously I can't blip a dead guinea pig?!