According to my close personal pal the internet, the average Canadian owns six-to-eight pets during their lifetime.
Well, it's nice to know I'm above average at something.
My interest was piqued recently when I was flipping TV channels and stumbled across a piece on an older couple who had owned a macaw for close to 50 years.
Now, that's how long pets should live.
They really are members of the family, so the sense of profound loss and grief when they cross the rainbow bridge after just 10 or so years is always hard to deal with.
"Self, how many pets have I (we) had so far?" I asked myself.
Self, not having the information immediately handy, had to start jotting it down.
As a tyke, the first pet we had was a cat named Dilly (my Mum's favourite poet was Dylan Thomas), a feisty Calico who did live into her twenties. We added Patches, a portly black-and-white fella who didn't make it to 10.
Next were Samoyed pooches Cujo (that's what I called him, he would lash out in anger for what seemed like no reason but turned out to be a brain tumour) and Misty, the sweetest ball of white fluff ever. Then there was KC (Kitty Cat) and Fatty (my sister's cat) completing the list of childhood pets.
When I bought my first house, it was imperative we had some pets, so we got kitties Smokey and Bandit (original naming skills, to be sure). It really blossomed from there.
Cats since the original two moved onward and upward have included Tommy, Oreo, Taco, Chevy, Jubs, Widgets, TJ, Wookie, Gimps, Sushi and Vader. I'm fairly certain an extra one or two have been glossed over, since Taco had a pair of litters and we kept a couple for a spell. (Quick note: one was definitely glossed over, as I just remembered Link, the cuddly, ravenous tub of goo pictured with this piece).
The much-ballyhooed cat distribution system for us basically consisted of my son's mother bringing new ones home whenever the count slipped below three.
Dogs included Aiko, the most mushbaggy Malamute-Wolf cross of all-time and fellow rescue pooch Sam, a giant Anatonial Shepherd; then black labs Diesel and now Charlie.
There were a handful of fish, a very temporary bird or two and one lone hamster (Hammy) that I didn't add in the final tally, since they were mostly very temporary. So by my count, that's 23, with the current tally at four cats and one pooch.
Almost all with unique and interesting backstories, which make the memories that much more special.
I asked some of my Carpenter Media colleagues how many pets they had over the years, and many were in the above-noted 'average' category, with a few more well into the teens, with those pets including cats, dogs, horses, seahorses (do those count?), a chinchilla, parakeet, a praying mantis and a handful of assorted farm animals.
How about you readers out there? I'd love to know how many pets you've had; any interesting acquisition stories and wild names. Please share your tallies and stories (bonus points for pics) via the email address below.
PQB News/Vancouver Island Free Daily editor Philip Wolf welcomes your questions, comments and local story ideas. He can be reached at 250-905-0029 or via email at philip.wolf@blackpress.ca.