Having described in previous missives our life-long preponderance for pets, some of these were acquired at Easter. One Easter we received 2 white baby chicks that were dyed red and green respectively on their backs. I assume these were “living chick” marshmallow candies which are ubiquitous during the Easter season. The dye seemed to last forever even as they approached their mid-growth stage. During the day they ran around the yard and scratched and pecked and do whatever chickens normally do.  However: for some reason, they became rather mean.  We never knew why as opposed to all the generations of pigs that we continually teased and that had a reason to be mean.  As we would run to and from the school bus, both red and green backed chickens would chase us and try to peck the back of our calves and heels. As a result, when we both boarded and exited the school bus, we had to be on the lookout for the chicken ambush that was sure to come. As Tim and I recall this, we both agreed that they weren’t attacking us in a playful “puppy dog style”, but they had an unadulterated dislike toward us! We came to this conclusion as we recalled the angry look they had while chasing us. Maybe they blamed us for their unnatural red and green colored feathers on their backs. Our attack of the angry chickens soon disappeared when one of our dogs decided to have a 2 course chicken dinner one day. I must confess that being an avowed animal lover, neither of us missed these two bonsai chickens as we could once again return to our previous normal behavior of leisurely walking to the waiting school bus each morning.  Among other “painted pets” we acquired from time to time were small green turtles with their shells painted with a nice colorful design. You Baby boomers remember those little green turtles with the red stripe along their necks that you could get for 25 cents in any Dime Store in the 50’s. You also usually (as we did) buy the clear plastic container with the ramp that led out of the water to an island with the plastic palm tree. We used to get them at Woolworth’s in Norwalk. Eventually they stopped painting their shells because we heard it “made them soft”. Sadly now days, thanks to the animal rights wackos, you don’t see baby turtles or parakeets or canaries in Dime Stores anymore. Although I certainly would never advocated deliberate cruelty to any animal, I certainly do not go to the ludicrous extremes of PETA! Rather than wasting space here to give a thorough, logical, theological, and complete refutation of the PETA Wacko thesis, I will give my usual cursive “one liner” to those people. “If God had not intended us to eat certain animals, He wouldn’t have made them taste so Good!!!”  Speaking of turtles, which I have covered in previous stories, we used to carve our initials and the date on the bottom shell of any box turtle we found.  Of course, since turtles live longer than we do as a general rule (unless their shells are painted when young), anyone who eventually might find the same box turtle we carved all our info on may be worn off by then.  Then they might do the same. Hmmm, you have to wonder if every box turtle is just a traveling billboard? If I ever find one that has “Eat at Joe’s” carved underneath it or has an AOL Free Trail CD taped underneath it, then I will know for sure! In addition, usually around Easter, we would get a small lamb for a pet. I’ve always like sheep, but our father would never get any when we were kids. When we asked why not, he always said that, “They’re too hard to keep fenced and they ruin pastures”. (Huh? Worse than hogs that root everything up). Oh, well, I guess for whatever reason, fact, or fiction, we only were allowed to get one lamb at a time for pets. We had one called “Misty” that I have some swell slides of that I want to post among many other slides of many other subjects as soon as I get around to getting a “Scanner Slide Copier Kit”. (Hey, those are expensive for my now retirement income and I don’t want to work for someone else again unless/until I absolutely HAVE TO!!!) (Any of you faithful fans have one I could use for awhile???). As a sideline, Tim got a lamb for a pet a few years ago they named “Baby”. It was nice to have, accept that it got literally as wide as it was tall. Tim started called it “Jobba the Hut” since it was so fat! When Tim explained to people about the grossly overweight sheep his answer was definitive indeed, “Well, it lives in the feed room”! I just called it The Mutton Glutton”.  It had a long and fat life indeed until it finally “dyed” happy and full…