My Animals

I have many interests in my life. Obviously I'm a huge nerd about Star Wars, Doctor Who and other various sci-fi movies and tv shows and books, but one love that I've had since I was little has been the love of animals. I always wanted a dog when I was growing up but we lived in a small apartment so it wasn't possible until we moved in to our own home. That's when I got my first pet that didn't live in a 5 gallon fish tank.

My cockatiel named Guy, who is actually a girl

After we moved into our house I started to press harder to get a pet. I still wanted a dog, but I also had an interest in birds and I spent a lot of time convincing my mom to take me to as many pet stores as possible. Finally we went to one local pet store and I met this adorable baby cockatiel. In my research about birds I'd learned that cockatiels made nice pets and might even learn to mimic sounds or words from people. I fell in love with that little cockatiel as soon as I met him and I convinced my mom to get him.

We brought him home and he quickly bonded with my dad, which I thought was unusual. He never learned to whistle, but I was ok with that. It wasn't until we had had Guy for about two years when I noticed some small little white things in his cage.

Yep, they were eggs. So we now know that Guy is actually a girl. But she learned her name and responds to it so after almost three years we didn't see a reason to change it. Besides, it makes for a good story.

My lovebird, Saphira

For my 16th birthday my cousin, who breeds lovebirds, said that I could choose one of the baby birds that had just been weened from baby food. There were quite a few very pretty and adorable baby birds to choose from, but a particular blue one caught my eye. More like she chose me because she came right over to the cage to see me and was quite friendly with me right away. The moment I saw her I knew what her name was going to be: Saphira. Yes, my dorkiness comes through once again.

In case you don't know, Saphira is the name of the dragon in Christopher Paolini's book "Eragon".

Saphira and I have similar tastes in music. She likes to sit on top of my computer screen when I play my music. She particularly likes System of a Down and Green Day and Blink 182. When any of those bands are playing on my computer and she is sitting on my screen she will walk back and forth on top of my computer, happily flapping her wings and chirping and bobbing her head.

Kara Reiko, my Pekingese and Shih Tzu mix

And then I got Kara. That was in August of 2007, three weeks before I started college. When my cousin, the same one who gave me Saphira, called and said she had two puppies and wanted to give one to me I was very hesitant. I knew I was going to college soon and my dad had just moved out of the house two days earlier. I decided it couldn't hurt to go visit my cousin, and while there see the puppies she had.

The moment I walked in to the pet store there were two little white fluffy faces sticking out at me from behind a clear door at the other end of the store. I knew right then I wasn't going to be able to leave without one of them. I went straight to play with them both and they were both very affectionate and loving, but one in particular would not leave me alone and kept insisting that I play with her and pick her up, to the point of ignoring her sister even though the two had been playing quite happily before my arrival. She was just 1/4 lb smaller than her sister, and everytime I picked her up she would lick my face, or lick my hands when I tried to put her down. One of the first things she did when I picked her up was lay on her back so that I could rub her belly.

Being 1/4 lb smaller than her sister made her the runt of the litter, but I could tell she had a lot of spirit. And from the moment I decided that I couldn't go home without her I knew what I was going to name her. I chose the name Kara, after Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace on the latest Battlestar Galactica series. I chose her middle name Reiko because Shih Tzus are from Japan so I wanted to give her an appropriate middle name, and Reiko came up when I was looking for a name. It also happened to be the name of an actress on the show 24 who played Michelle Dessler.

So that's the story of my animals. Naming my animals is always a lot of fun, especially considering the wealth of names I have to choose from in sci-fi things that I like. I love my animals so much and it's fun to come up with names that fit their personalities so well.