[speaker001:] all right uh you have uh pets I understand a couple of them what are they
[speaker002:] I I well I have uh these well I don't know if they consider themselves animals anymore they actually you know sort of take over the place and and we're kind of their pets
[speaker001:] pets get like that don't they they think they own you
[speaker002:] they don't they really they own the place and naturally these are cats so
[speaker001:] okay these are cats I remember one time uh I used to get a chuckle out of out of Pogo that dates me quite a bit you probably don't know Pogo
[speaker002:] oh Pogo sure
[speaker001:] yeah he when Beauregard was talking he was the dog remember and he used to say pets can be most as much trouble as kids
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] as kids if they work at it a little bit may and even more when they work at it a little bit and I think that's true actually
[speaker002:] I agree I don't know I I I think that um my husband and I are in such a situation that uh um I'm kind of um not able to do a lot I'm I'm kind of in a wheelchair and I mean I kind of am but um
[speaker001:] oh uh-huh
[speaker002:] yeah I've got these two cats that hang around with me all day and I don't what I'd do without them
[speaker001:] they just good company huh that's neat
[speaker002:] it is and
[speaker001:] you know it's funny how pets get to be so they really you you really do mourn them after when things happen now we don't actually have a pet right now
[speaker002:] the okay
[speaker001:] but uh but we have had some and and I can't it's it's always hard for me to believe how close I've gotten to them we had a little uh um oh dog it was a little uh I got it so it wouldn't wouldn't shed one of French poodle a little French poodle
[speaker002:] oh my oh really
[speaker001:] yeah and uh he used to I used to come down stairs in the morning to feed him you know and I'd let him up out of the basement where he was sleeping and he would just dance around the floor and I just got and we only had him about three or four weeks before he was hit by a car but I cannot believe the whole family just
[speaker002:] oh oh
[speaker001:] he just got in to to us so quickly I could not believe it
[speaker002:] that yeah that's
[speaker001:] I I have to tell you about our most interesting pet though
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] uh we had an iguana living with us for about uh oh about two years
[speaker002:] oh by choice
[speaker001:] two and a half years I guess it was about uh oh three feet long about three feet long it was a beautiful animal name was Clyde
[speaker002:] Clyde the Iguana
[speaker001:] Clyde the Iguana and uh my son Dan went to uh to uh Hawaii for the summer and when he came home uh he didn't bring the iguana with him but for some reason or other he had a thing for them I don't know whether he'd I think there was one in the school uh zoology department you know
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] or biology department one or the other anyway uh and anyway he just he went and found this guy in in Dallas somewhere who had picked up one in I guess in Texas in Mexico I don't know where but anyway he brought this home and I looked at him and I said you've got to be kidding I'm not going to live with a lizard but you know I visualize that animal racing about and you know like you think of lizards doing but they don't do that they're very much like uh well the thing about them is that they hold so still you don't notice that they're there and then they move and about scares you to death sometimes
[speaker002:] did you have him in a cage
[speaker001:] no he had full run of the house he just loved to sit on the back of my dryer where the hair the heat came up out of the dryer you know it was he was really a neat pet and though I
[speaker002:] oh no oh no oh no uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know he'd ride when we'd have family home evening and everybody would sit in the living room and the fire would be burning he'd walk across my feet sometimes and it it was a long time before I could really pet him and
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] but I fed him and he he knew how to get me to feed him he'd come out to the kitchen just kind of look at me till I went and got him something out of the refrigerator
[speaker002:] uh oh no I mean you don't argue with an iguana do you
[speaker001:] but he was really a neat animal he he'd lay in Dan's lap you know and just uh when he'd pet him he'd just stretch and you know you could see him just enjoying it like a cat does
[speaker002:] oh no
[speaker001:] it was kind of interesting but he did a lot of interesting things and uh Dan carried him around and he liked to ride on the back of his up on his head you know with his tail wrapped around his arm so he wouldn't fall off and and scare everybody to death and
[speaker002:] oh my goodness goodness
[speaker001:] kids loved him kids just loved him kids just came from all over to come and see Clyde and visit with him and and he tolerated them you know he'd even tolerate him petting though he didn't like them too well at first but he he got tame you know so that uh people could go in there and Dan was a drummer
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and he didn't he the only thing he didn't like very well was the drumming when Dan would drum he'd sit there and scrunch up you know like he was trying to hi protect himself and then he'd leave the room
[speaker002:] was the drumming and cover his ears isn't that funny the way we put you know um human characteristics on an animal like that and and
[speaker001:] oh yeah they really are they're interesting well they take on human characteristics like
[speaker002:] as a it's I guess they do
[speaker001:] uh our other animal the next year our our son Ken went to Hawaii and well while Dan was in Hawaii Ken decided he wanted a dog and he and he looked around a long while and he found a Norwegian elkhound
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and he just brought this Norwegian elkhound and home and he was so funny uh for a while they built a a run for him out to the side of the house you know he'd been on the patio but they put the run out there and he didn't like this run because there were no people that came by and sometimes he would just make a racket until you came and got him and one night we'd forgotten to put water out for him and and Hal and I were in bed and all of a sudden there was all this noise out to the side the house and and he'd pick up his dish and throw it in the air
[speaker002:] huh he used a classic illusion
[speaker001:] and then bark and march around you know and then he'd pick up his dish again and throw it in the air until we came out and gave him some water
[speaker002:] oh I forgot to ask you did the iguana catch flies for you
[speaker001:] did what
[speaker002:] did the iguana catch flies for you
[speaker001:] no he didn't eat flies no they eat uh they greens uh we fed him the outside leaves of lettuce you know I'd get lettuce at the store and he'd eat the outside leaves
[speaker002:] he didn't eat flies oh oh
[speaker001:] and then in the summertime you could put him out and he'd eat outside oh except you had to keep him away from the garden because he liked to eat the little peas as fast as they came up you know
[speaker002:] yeah I bet
[speaker001:] it was really it was really a glamor and of things that were fresh sprigs you know he liked that
[speaker002:] well can we ask you whatever happened to Clyde
[speaker001:] but well yeah when uh when Dan went to college up at Ricksun Idaho he took him with him
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and uh everybody was used to him and they just loved him and what not and this his roommate put him out one day and Dan didn't know it and it got dark and he didn't get him in again and they searched and searched and searched for him but uh
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] uh it got too cold up there and he he died in a tree that they found him the next day in a tree he was dead
[speaker002:] oh my
[speaker001:] so you can't you have to be pretty tender with them we had a he had his own heat lamp and uh and uh hot pad he laid on you know that was another funny thing he had a hot pad and it it burned up one time and boy it was that was funny too watching him kind of burned up but anyway and we got him a new one he had a blue one before and when we got him a new one it was brown and he wouldn't lay on it till we changed the covers
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] no he wouldn't lay on it
[speaker002:] because that was like what he was used to
[speaker001:] but so they really are they really pick up things he was he was a clean animal uh we had he went to the bathroom in the bathroom
[speaker002:] how did he do that
[speaker001:] put well we put some papers on the floor underneath the john and he went there to go to the bathroom
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] you had to be sure you left the doors open you know he didn't like to go anywhere else he'd he'd scratch and do all kinds of things to get you to open the door if you happened to close it on him or something you know but
[speaker002:] oh no
[speaker001:] but even when he went when he had an accident or something uh if you just let it dry it dries kind of like uh especially when he was inside and eating just lettuce it dried up a little bit like ashes and you could just vacuum it up
[speaker002:] oh my goodness
[speaker001:] in the winter time there was no smell at all no odor at all to it in the summertime when he was outside and eating outside the smell was a little bit like a cat you know
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] but uh
[speaker002:] but that that's incredible it's a different little things to
[speaker001:] yeah he's a he was a really interesting animal
[speaker002:] oh that's
[speaker001:] I I just uh we just really and you know to this day I still miss him and that's been years ago
[speaker002:] well see I guess it's because you lived with you know him an and overcame some fears to get used to him and
[speaker001:] yeah he was just yeah yeah I think I guess so but it it it was interesting well
[speaker002:] yeah definitely
[speaker001:] what do your cats do besides sitting and purring and letting you pet them
[speaker002:] oh my goodness these guys they well actually they're my husband's pets
[speaker001:] yeah oh and you just kind of took them over huh
[speaker002:] well well actually it's like he's the cat person you know and I have I was always kind of nondescript in that category because I always liked dogs
[speaker001:] um-hum uh-huh
[speaker002:] and they've kind of taken over and and uh you know they
[speaker001:] a little bit easier to have cats in this kind of country though isn't it uh
[speaker002:] maybe it is I they're so independent well I'm glad we have two of them otherwise I think they get neurotic if there just one of them
[speaker001:] well I think yeah that could be could be
[speaker002:] they get real crazy but there brother brother and sister from the same litter they look totally different they are they well they are Siamese cats but one is
[speaker001:] oh pretty ones
[speaker002:] one is uh um they're both registered you know one's a seal point she's the little girl and then uh Newhart Newhart is the uh the
[speaker001:] Newhart
[speaker002:] the he is something he's like a dog he really he just flops for you he just wants his belly scratched and that's it you know
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and he's just the warmest thing in the wintertime he just sits on your lap sits on your lap but they're like seven years
[speaker001:] yeah