Where Bloggers Live: Pets/Animals Who Rule My Heart

Welcome back to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live! I am lucky to have joined a terrific group of bloggers who give a peek into the places and spaces where they spend their time.

Today's topic is...Pets/animals who rule my heart, and I could have dedicated this entire post to my top 2 pets/animals..but instead I am going to flush it out to my top 10. First the top 2, then the remaining 8 in alphabetic order because it wasn't really possible to rank them all the way down.

#1: House Cats

Cats were my very first love, and I have had the pleasure to live with four of them. Sam, the white cat, was already around when I was born and was with us until I was 4. Mittens (I couldn't readily find a photo of him) was with us while I was in elementary school; he had a rather short life, brought down by feline leukemia. Tiger, the stripy grey cat, is the main cat of my and my sister's childhoods and is the cat I always think of when I think "cat." I can't over state how much I love that guy. Bell, the orange cat (pictured snuggling up to my husband's face), was originally my mom's sister's cat, but he came to live with my parents when I was in college. I've never actually had my own cat as an adult because it turns out I'm allergic to cats! Surprisingly, Bell was completely non-allergenic, though; he could literally sleep on my face (which he did many times; it was weird to wake up and open your eyes and you can't see because cat) and I wouldn't have any reaction. And Bell was not a fancy breed of cat marketed as non-allergenic either; he was literally found as a kitten in a dumpster!

#2: Rabbits

Rabbits in all their forms reign over my heart, as you probably know if you've been to this blog before. I'm not sure if I'm allergic to rabbits, but I am definitely allergic to grass and therefore hay (which rabbits live on)! UGH! WHY?! I did have the great pleasure of several (too brief!!) years with the beloved Kate & Leo, two mini rex rabbits who taught me how completely wrong I'd been in thinking that rabbits "don't have personality." Hahaha. So wrong.

Starring the Rabbits of the Minnesota State Fair

It is my determined intention to have both house cats and house rabbits again in the future.

Now on to my favorite animals who I have not had as pets...

#3: Big Cats

It is natural that a young house cat lover would also be a big cat lover, and indeed, as an elementary school kid, my vision of my future career shifted from being a veterinarian to a researcher/doctor/midwife to tigers. So, yeah, tigers are both my favorite big cat and my favorite non-pet animal! But all the big cats are special to me.

African Lion - Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE

Amur Tiger - Como Zoo, St Paul, MN

#4: Birds

My mom has always enjoyed birds so we paid attention to birds when I was growing up. But it wasn't until I met my now-husband that I (over time) became obsessed with them. My favorite bird category is the kingfishers (see #6 in this post). My husband's favorite bird is the Harris's hawk. But I'd be hard pressed to name a kind of bird I'm not interested in... Well, maybe it's not too hard: gulls. I have nothing against them, and I am happy to see a new species of gull. But my interest in gulls is not deep. I know that I am not very interested in identifying whether a given gull is, for example, a glaucous-winged x western gull hybrid or exactly how old a gull is by its plumage.

#5: Butterflies

Many a birder has become a butterfly watcher due to a simple matter of timing: when you hike out somewhere watching birds (particularly in warm seasons or in a warm climate like Texas), there comes a point on that return journey that the birds have mostly settled down...but God was kind to us and marked the end of the bird activity period with the start of the butterfly activity period. It helps that butterflies are absolutely stunning to see/photograph and can make for some interesting challenges in identification, both of which birders groove on. (See also: dragonflies and damselflies. Didn't know damselflies are even a thing? Check this out.)

#6: Elephants

Though elephants are not the obvious beauties that the previous animals are, they make up for it by being smart, social, and having a crazy cool trunk. I could spend all day just watching elephants eat and interact with each other. Elephants were the favorite animal of our friend Iris so I now have an extra reason to love them - they make me remember her (and with their famed prodigious memories, that feels apt).

#7: Fish

Like birds, this is another broad category of animals, but I am a great fan of aquariums, where I can happily watch any kind of fish doing their fishy business. The great variety in fish forms is amazing, and it's always interesting to see different types of fish living together. I came to appreciate fish more when I was working at a state natural resources agency, frequently collaborating with my counterparts in the freshwater and saltwater fisheries departments who knew all kinds of nifty stuff about fish. I've low-key always wanted to have a fish tank, but I will say that having learned how difficult it can be to keep fish alive in one, I am not as naively enthusiastic about it. (However, when I designed my own personal space in a text-based multi-player game in the mid-1990s, I had an entire wall that was a fish tank...where everything was completely structurally sound, zero maintenance, and literally any kind of fish could live happily and safely together by magic! That was living the dream.)

#8: Frogs

This is a bit of an odd choice because even though I really like frogs, I don't know why. I don't have any particular experiences with frogs that have made them sentimental favorites (I mean, I don't think I even read The Wind in the Willows or the Frog and Toad book series as a kid). There is just something irresistible and endearing about them. They are weirdly cute, they hop (which I definitely like in rabbits and kangaroos), and they sing (which I like in birds). When I see a frog, I'm just like, "Hey little buddy!" So maybe their smallness is also appealing.

#9: Polar Bears

Moving away from small and weirdly cute, we return to another large and majestic example of "charismatic megafauna" with the polar bear. I would say I like bears overall, but the polar bear...ah, what a gorgeous and impressive animal!

#10: Turtles/Tortoises

When listing my favorite animals off the top of my head, I say: rabbits, tigers, sea turtles. But I am also a big fan of other turtles/tortoises. Again, this is one where it's hard for me to say why. For sea turtles, I think it's watching how beautiful they look swimming in the water; there is something graceful and serene in their movements which feels a bit surprising given their physical shape. Regular turtles are fun to see plopping into water or hoisting themselves out of it, resting on a rock or branch, basking in the sun. Tortoises are another weird cute animal, and watching one moving at their top speed always makes me laugh. Turtles/tortoises have been around since before the dinosaurs, which gives them this cool ancient animal energy. Tortoises are also the longest-lived land mammals on earth (generally 80-150 years, though individual ones have lived up to 250 years). Looking at a tortoise, I kind of feel like I'm looking way back into prehistory and I think about all the things this particular tortoise and tortoises in general have seen.

Ringed Sawback Turtles - Newport Aquarium

Honorable Mention: Walrus

I couldn't help adding one more animal - the dorky cute walrus (aka Odobenus rosmarus: "tooth-walking sea horse"), who looks awkward on land but always seems to be having the time of his life in the water. I am not a creature of the water myself, but even I find something almost aspirational in watching a walrus. Of course it helps that the walrus features in Alice in Wonderland.

Pacific walrus - Indianapolis Zoo

For the obvious potential favorite pet that didn't make my list...where is the dog love, right? I do like dogs! I am kind of obsessed with small dogs with curly fur. Just last week I met a new dog in the hallway of our apartment building - small with curly chocolate brown fur, friendly as can be - and I just managed not to pick him up and run away with him, but it was tough to control myself because he was THAT CUTE. When I first told my husband that I wanted to get a dog, he said, "Are you going to take him out for walks and potty when it's -20 degrees outside?" I said, "Yes!...No (sigh)." There are a lot of reasons having a dog just doesn't make any practical sense right now, but maybe some day!

For more of my favorite animals [which no longer exist in our world and hence are not in this post], check out my post in which I fantasy time travel to the Age of Giant Mammals! (Yes, Smilodon aka Saber-Toothed Tiger is on the list.)

Next month's topic is Daily MVPs: Things in My Home That Get Me Through the Day...and I have to decide how I am going to approach that one that isn't all the rabbit art/collectibles in my apartment that I rely on to have "enough rabbit" in my life. (See some of them here.)

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers as they share about the pets/animals who rule their hearts:

Bettye at Fashion Schlub

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks

Em at Dust and Doghair

Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style

Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After Again

Iris, always in our hearts, from Iris' Original Ramblings

Now to you: what are your favorite pets and animals? Have you had a lot of pets in your life? Is there a type of pet you'd like to have but never have done? Are there animals you're always eager to see? Are there any animals you love but you don't know why?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.