Anniversaries & Listography

I quit smoking two years ago today. It is (unfortunately?) how I remember my friend Erin's birthday. Happy Birthday Erin, Happy Smokefree Days to me.

A while ago I got a book called "Listography" from Chapters or some such thing. Turns out the author of the book also runs a website called listography.com which is kind of neat. I bought it because I thought it would be blogger fodder but ignored it... for more than a year.

Now I've decided that every 5 days or so I will do a list from "Listography: Your Life in Lists". This is today's list.

List the Pets You've had & Their Names

1. Puff - german shepherd/husky cross who died when I was around 5, I think. I've been told that I was with her when she was hit by a car, but all I remember is a strange lady taking me to the Gunter's house and asking them if they knew who I was and where I lived. I was more than a block from my house and the only possible way I could've got there was to run through the woods and down the hill through someone else's back yard on to Water St.

2. Wendel - a goldfish named after the star of all the sports pages during a time that I flirted with being a Leafs fan (like my dad would've let *that* happen). Wendel met a tragic end when the neighbour we had entrusted to watch all three of our goldfish (Julie & Tracey each had their own) when we were on vacation left them in a sunny window on a sunny day and made goldfish soup. (I forgave you a long time ago Mrs. Ralph)

3. Sadie - border collie/something-or-other cross that was our early Christmas present in 1986 (man, if I got that year wrong, mum's going to have words with me) She was a good dog, who loved mum and dad totally differently, could hog a bed like you wouldn't believe and loved to play "goalie". She would lay in front of the fridge, we would sit at the opposite end of the kitchen and we would roll pieces of kibble at her and she would "stop" them by eating them... except when she missed. I wonder how many peices of abandoned kibble were found when mum & dad replaced their fridge a while ago. It still breaks my heart to think of the last time I saw her.

4. Bast - completely grey with yellow eyes short-haired domestic who lived with me on McDonnell street. When my crazy live-in brought a dog home, she chewed her way through a screen that night, and was never seen or heard from again.

5. Casper - actually Simon's border collie/something-or-other cross with blue eyes that was part mine when I lived with Simon. He was a great dog. Did weird, flaked out things, was overly devoted to Simon but was just so happy to be anywhere, except when Simon was being boring. Which was a lot of the time. He died in May 2008. It still breaks my heart to think of the last time I saw him too.

6. Lemony - completely grey with yellow eyes whose ears had fallen off because of frostbite short-haired domestic who lived with me in Belleville. When I decided that I was going to move to Vancouver, my roommate said she couldn't come to her house, so Finn made arrangements to have her stay with friends of his until I got "settled". When I finally got settled the people with the cat had moved and I wasn't speaking to Finn. When I finally figured out who had the cat it was more than a year later and she was really, really happy ruling the roost over three other cats and having the run of a very, very cat friendly home (it had a kitty hamster trail and I just can't compete with that). I miss her and look for her doppelganger at least weekly. Well, except her doppelganger has ears. I hope she's okay.

It appears that I am bad luck to dogs and fish, and cats would rather live than anyone but me.

Weird.