Bonus Post: Thing 49

100 Things I've Always Wanted To Say But Never Did And Now Maybe Should Since The World Might Be Ending -->

Thing 49:

File this under "'tis better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all" ... but if the world ends in just 49 days (boy this countdown sure does move quickly, eh?), I feel like honoring all of the creatures that I've associated in some way as belonging to "me and mine" over the years.  That list would be:  all of the unnamed menagerie I see surrounding me in pictures of my youth whom I can't recall, the German Shephard that bit me on both sides of my hips (he got me coming and going) when I was walking to 2nd grade in Jonestown, the mutt Tippy that we had in Lebanon that was my first dog, Fluffy the attack poodle that protected my paternal grandmother, Tuppy the giant cat at the Woodwards, Smokey the illegal kitten we had in our dorm room in college, Shelby and Monty that adopted me as their own just as their masters did, Little One (the American box turtle) and then the other one named Little One (the ferret I got from Ben and Naryia), Gracie and Sassy who made a full house in Harrisburg, Cici and Chadford and Chloe and Lucy and Mauser and Gunner-Bunny nearby in Indiana, Counsellor and Barrister (and the third one whose lawyerly name I can't recall) who were the strays in the early days of Logan Square that the dastardly neighbor trapped and relocated to the forest preserve, and then Scooby and Shaggy and Scrappy who hung out in that same back yard from right before the move to Wrigley who would come to me when I called.  And, of course, special shout-outs to Demon the Staffordshire pit bull that I got for DJ and then ended up inheriting, Mauler whom I rescued from the woods of Gretna and Mystery (the litter mate of Murder) who left too soon.  Lest someone report me as an animal hoarder -- please note that's an inventory covering 40 years and that not all of them lived with me at the same time (if at all)!  Clearly though ... I missed my calling and should have found a job with animals!