What Is The Weirdest Pet You've Owned??

I had pet crabs to, but the doctor gave me some medicine and they went away. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

I had a cat that would suck on the pad on the bottom of its front paw like a child would suck on its thumb. I guess it was separated from its mother too early or something. It did this whenever you'd pet her.<P>I'm sure there's weirder pets out there, but I think that a cat that sucks on its paw is pretty unique.

Uh...I had a fish that managed to survive for 3 weeks without any help whatsoever... View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

2 large iguanas.<P>They're potty trained...guess that's unusual.<P>-Moj

My neighbor used to have a pure white cat. Stone deaf. Most deaf cats are all white. Did you know that? Anyway, this cat could jump higher than any cat I've ever seen. My neighbor had these wooden beam on his ceiling that were about 7 1/2 to 8 feet up in the air. It used to get up to a little run and jump up and grab the beam. It would then swing its hind end up and grab on with the rear legs. Then it would hang there for a few minutes and drop back down. Weirdest thing I've ever seen.<P>One day the cat walked out onto their driveway and laid down. It died right there. Right in front of us. No sickness. No trauma. No nothing. One minute, hey look at me. I'm a happy cat. Then boom! I think I'll die now.<P>Weird ass cat.

Twin 8-year-old brothers... they're the coolest View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I had a pet snail...named Herman. I got him in an auction during 8th grade from the biology dept. It was a quarter so I figure why the hell not. <P>So I have him for about a year, he lived in a plastic turtle tank think (quite old) and I kept a crochet mesh mat over the top to stop him from getting out. <P>Well one day I get home from school and Herman is gone. I clean my room, can't find him....I moved everything out of my room and still couldn't find him. <P>A couple years later I got to move into my sisters room when she graduated college. I found the shell. I was thinking oh crap....I looked through that stack of magazines 50 times! I thought I saw something in the shell (it had gotten bigger) and so I decided to run some water into the shell. Well Herman came out. I ended up giving him back to the bio department where he lived happily for awhile. <P>I miss my pet snail..He was so cute

I had a cross-eyed cat that had no depth perception. I would constantly bump into walls and other objects.<P>I once had a collection of cockroaches. The Madagascan giant hissing cockroach. They can't fly and move pretty slow so they are good "pets"

I had a bat with an injured wing for a few years. He eventually died of a combination of old age and lack of exercise, since he couldn't fly. I've had Sugar Gliders before, those are pretty interesting and odd. I've had a pet squirrel, lots of snakes. The weirdest ones right now are a pair of Emus. They follow you around like dogs. Gets a lot of weird looks from people driving by for sure, going to get the mail with two 100lb birds following behind you.

Feret would be the oddest I've ever had, had some wierd dogs, like a German Shepard that would sleep in the middle of the road in front of our house.

No we buried him in their backyard. Just assumed it was his time. This was one of those cats that never got taken to a vet.

I had a defective cat when I was a kid. She rocked. She was crosseyed, and one eye was blue, the other green, so when she looked at you it was almost impossible not to laugh. Also, all the bones in her tail were fused together so that instead of a normal ~8" flexible tail, she had this lumpy knot of bone that was like 2 inches long. She also REFUSED to drink out of a bowl. The only way she would drink water was if you turned on a faucet, she'd drink from the stream.<P>She was a sweet sweet cat though. We decided to let her have kittens and she died of liver failure 2 days after giving birth. Didn't get another cat for a while after that...

I want a ferret or hedgehog.<P>They're so cute. Too bad I live in CA where ferrets are illegal, and I'm not even going to inquire about hedgehogs cuz I don't want to be disappointed again.<P>Had a kitten that wasn't weaned all the way that would sit on your chest, and then sneak up to your face and start sucking on your lip, or your earlobe, whatever.<P>Had a cat that would drool when she was happy.<P>Which was especially bad when you'd fall asleep and she'd wander onto your chest and have her face above yours, and then she'd drool on you.

Anyone ever heard of a schipperke? Its a crazy Belgian breed of dog.<P>Crappy pic:<P>View image: http://www.hoflin.com/images/image772.gif

Maria Stillman, I was 14 and man...(it was her Idea to be my pet). I said ok,now what's the difference between that and a G/F. I asked her, well see as yer pet I dont have to care about you you only have to care about me. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif <P>Sadly it only lasted Summer School...

The strangest pet I had was a rat.<P>Her name was "Baby"...she lived to be about 2 years old, which is old for a rat.<P>I used to take her all over the place. I had long hair so she would sit on my shoulder and hide. It was k00l.<P>-T

HAHA! My cat drools as well. You start scratching underneath his chin and he starts purring really loud and drools all over the place. He's 14 years old. So what is that...80 something? I'll probably be drooling when I'm 80 as well. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

I had pet pigs as a kid, for a few months anyway. Good bacon. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif <P>Friends of mine also had sugargliders , they are quite fun/cute/odd.<P>CF

i have 5 rats (3 male 2 female) in a 4 foot by 5 foot enclosure that i built my self. right next to them i have 3 guinnea pigs in an enclosure half the size of the other one.

A Tarantula I caught at lake Powell View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

You mean hedgehogs right?<BR>And that link ruled. I totally want a sugarglider. But gee...I live in CA...doubt that...<P>GRRRR!!! View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif<P>There some sort of cool exotic pet license I can get?

I have owned so many pets it's incredible....Let's see, I've always had dogs, and cats, with the occasional bird. Right now my Mom has two large parrots, a cockatoo and a macaw. I used to breed cockatiels, as well as various small animals, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, etc. I have owned a few Iguanas and Bearded Dragons, Leopard Geckos, various Salamanders. Always had a fish tank too...my favorite fish was a lionfish I had named Oscar the grouch.<BR>I've owned ferrets, and other adopted pets that I would take in for a little while, and then release or find a home for.<BR>I don't know if any of them were considered strange, or even exotic by todays standards, but they were all really cool pets to have. Any pet is cool in my book, though.<P>-Vix

I had an Octopus. <P>His name was Fugly.<P>View image: http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/animal/PIX/Octopus.jpg <P>View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif<P>I got Fugly after a friend went scuba diving, brought up a shell, and realized it was occupied.<P>Fugly was a common Atlantic octopus, <I>Octopus Vulgaris</I>, and after noting the shape and length of one of his tentacles, I judged Fugly was male.<P>Fugly had his own tank, since NOTHING else could survive in the tank with him. He was voracious. <P>Unlike many octopi I have seen in public aquaria, Fugly was quite active, and would come out of hiding and interact with people when they looked at the tank.<P>It was truly amazing to see the constant ripples of color that would pass over his skin. The way I figure it, red was pissed off or excited, shades of brown were normal happy healthy hues, black was pain, and white was fear. His skin changed shape as well, going from smooth to almost leafy, like an underwater rock, with little "horns" over his eyes.<P>Fugly was also quite smart, and due to the fact that his tank was in the kitchen, soon learned that when the freezer was opened, it usually meant that he was going to get some shrimp or squid as a treat. (I fed him live crabs I collected as well.)<P>Once I went into the kitchen, opened the freezer, took out some microwave food for myself, and shut the door. Fugly grew quite agitated at this, and as I left the room without giving the little brat his shrimp, BOOM! He inked the tank, and I had to do an emergency major water change. Hehe. <P>(The ink can be toxic to the octopus in a closed system if not removed, luckily I always kept plenty of bags of salt mix handy.)<P>I had to octopus-proof the top of the tank, as they can fit through VERY small spaces. However, sometimes when I was in the mood, or was working on cleaning the tank, I would open the top, and he would literally sit on the edge of the tank, and squirt water at my face with his siphon.<P>They're right when they say Octopi have good vision. Fugly could nail me in the eye from 20 feet away. I swear he laughed as well when he did this. Heh.<P>His favorite toy was a plastic Spatula, which he "stole" from me at one point when I was trying to get him back in his tank after a squirt session. He previously had played with some plastic balls and whatnot, but he loved that spatula. <P>I owned Fugly for around three months. In this time, he got fat and happy, and grew from around merely the size of my palm, to over a foot in length. (From tentacle tip to tentacle tip) He was fat and happy.<P>Then.... <P>I went out of town for a weekend. I fed Fugly, and instructed my loser roommate not to mess with him.<P>When I came back, the top of the tank was open, and Fugly had crawled out, crawled to the kitchen counter, and dried up. <P>My roomate swore she didn't do it, but considering that due to the way the top of the tank was fastened, and the way it had been opened, and also considering that she lied about many other things as well and wound up leaving me with a 500 buck phone bill after I ousted her slimy white trash ass, I think she was full of shit. <P>(Even I had trouble getting the top of that tank open, it was very solidly taped shut, and I had made doubly sure of that before I left...) <P>Also, by the fact that Fugly was clutching his Spatula, which had been relocated to the kitchen counter, I could tell some monkey business had gone on.<P>The way I figure it, the roommate and some of her jarhead friends had decided to play "Taunt the Octopus", and had in the process somehow gotten Fugly's spatula away from him. <P>Fugly then must have perched on the edge of the tank and squirted water at them. They must have freaked, and left the room, and put the spatula on the kitchen counter. Fugly saw it, and decided to go after it and get it, but it was too far away. <P>I buried Fugly under the back steps of the house.<P>R.I.P Fugly. <P>You were truly the oddest pet I have ever owned.<P>View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif<P>Now, my old Ferrets, Nickle and Terra, were close runners up for the weird pet award, but that's another story for another day.<P>View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I can't remember why, but my dad brought some baby pigs home from his farm for a month or two years ago. We fed them milk from a bottle and kept them in our garage during the time.<P>Ramen - that's an awesome story! Hmmm, pet octopus. Sounds interesting.<P>[This message was edited by Rold Gold on April 20, 2001 at 15:57.]

Ramen, given the somewhat unusual subject of that account, I nonetheless found it to be very touching.

I think one of my guinea pigs is gay. Does that count?<P>I want a chinchilla some day.<P>[This message was edited by max4677 on April 20, 2001 at 16:10.]

I had never thought that you could keep and octopus as a pet.<P>That is really freaking weird. Sorry to hear he died though.

View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Thanks guys.<P><BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I had never thought that you could keep and octopus as a pet.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Hehehehe<P>Well, I was a Marine Bio major at the time, and I had access to a wealth of info from my professors and the school library about how to properly care for an Octopus. <P>(This was in the early '90s, before the internet got big, so I had to do my reading up on subjects the hard way. Hehe)<P>It's tricky, and takes constant maintenence, but Fugly was an awesome pet, and I appreciate the sympathies expressed concerning his fate. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif<P>I had hopes for the little guy too. Most female Octopi die in about six months, after they lay eggs, but I am 99% sure Fugly was male, due to the shape of a specific front tentacle, and I had high hopes of keeping him around for a good long while before my roommate screwed those plans up.<P>He was doing so well, too. <P>Hmm, maybe once we finish house hunting and I have the time and space to set up a second SW tank other than the one I already have, I'll set out some octopus pots somewhere and see if I can score me another friend.<P>If I do, it will be later this summer, and I'll let you guys know, and keep you updated.<P>I'll call the next one Bugly, to continue the tradition. <P>View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

I had a pair or Tokay Geckos for about 15 years or so. They lived in the attic. I'd only see them in the summer when they would bark out a mating call. The are from SE Asia and when I was in Viet Nam we called them fuck you lizards because that was the sound they'd make. These either lived a long time or kept reproducing and caring on. They would eat palmetto bugs (very large roaches), and rats and mice. I think the neighborhood cats got one. The other wandered away. I could hear him calling from down the street, which was just as well, since I had to have my house tented for termites last year. I would have hated to have to catch them up in the attic. T.

I have a 5lb pet fungus/Bacteria culture. It's in a 3 gallon Tupperware. I've had it for 7 years. It started out as Chocolate pudding. It has gone through some amazing changes. Pudding-> liquid-> chunky liquid-> green cake-> brown cake-> white liquid-> tan filaments-> right now it's back to pudding with a brownish greenish cake layer on top.

Not me personally, but my friend has had an assortment of unusual pets. The most abnormal that comes to mind is a pet skunk. Yes, you can keep them as a pet so long as you have a certain license to do so. It was quite odd to see a skunk going on walks like it was a dog, but whatever, to each their own. BTW- It was de-skunked, or whatever the word is to say that it couldn't spray you (Eck, what a horrid smell).

My cat was retarded. No seriously he was. High fever when he was little and he was never the same since. We wuved him, but he kept crapping in the living room so he had to go. We actually paid someplace like 100 bucks to take him, but the will not kill him ever. It nobody adopts him, then he will just stay where he is. I didn't go, but my mom said it was a real nice cat place, just a big house basically with cats just laying around all over the place.<P>KS/382 OUT

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Once I went into the kitchen, opened the freezer, took out some microwave food for myself, and shut the door. Fugly grew quite agitated at this, and as I left the room without giving the little brat his shrimp, BOOM! He inked the tank, and I had to do an emergency major water change. Hehe. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Every single time I read this part I laugh. View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif<P>Great story, Ramen. How big was the tank you kept him in?

Ramen, Fugly sounded pretty cool. I thought about getting one for a while, as keeping fish have little interest to me, but an aquarium pet would be nice. I looked into those blue ring octopi, but they seem to have such a short lifespan, that I'm not sure it would be worthwhile. I'm thinking an eel might be better.<P>MonaLisaOverdrive, Sugar Gliders are little marsupials that have extra skin on their sides, and fly like flying squirrels. They pouch carry their young, are very smart, and very cute. Lots of personality. They are a lot of work to keep though, very demanding of your attention. There are a ton of web pages out there on them.<P>Good Glider Description Here