Life's a zoo

My three younger kids are animal lovers. That is their dad’s influence. I can take one cat and that’s what I’m used to because my family always had a cat when I was growing up.

One cat that my older sister brought home was a Siamese. She called her Kio Hoshimoto. She was a great cat though somewhat aloof as Siamese can be. Kio moved with us from Willmar to St. Paul. At the house in St. Paul, there was a long hall that ended at my bedroom which didn’t have a door. My bed took up most of my room. Kio would race from one end of the hall and across my bed at night, back and forth.

My kids have cats, a dog, and a horse at the farm. In town they have an aquarium. My husband put some minnows in the tank to start things off. They are pretty. I’ve never really looked at minnows. My kids bought a goldfish and a few other fish. One of the girls wrote the names and descriptions of the fish on masking tape on the tank:

Orangey; Limey; Swimmy; Bubbles, a spotted blowfish; Nemo, a distorted tail lake fish; Hermes, a lake fish with scratch on right side; Lumpjaw, a lake fish with a fat belly; Apollo, a light-colored lake fish; and Korn, a snail who comes out of his shell a lot.

There are six cows at the farm: Emmett, Lightning (has a lightning mark on his forehead), Spud, Ann, Ralph and Thunder/Jasper. The last one there is some dispute over — my son calls him Thunder and his sister insists his name is Jasper.