Saturday 5 March 2011

Pets

This week Rachel went on a "field trip" to Chester Zoo with sixth form college.. I must point out the picture is of one of the residents that may be found there and is NOT Rachel !
Zoos are funny places that can provoke various reactions. Some feel animals should be out in the wild, others would argue that a well run Zoo can benefit the worlds wildlife with the programs and study they promote and perform. I think it depends on the Zoo, some are obviously there to make money from exhibiting what they have.
Rachel enjoyed her visit as part of her Biology studies and we had fun at dinner that night discussing DNA, Rachel pointed out how close our DNA is to that of monkeys. To be fair monkeys are probably brighter than some humans !! We did have to correct her error though, when she tried suggesting that humans share 98% the same DNA as Bananas !!! I know some slippery characters but they aren't yellow ! In fact we only have 50% DNA likeness to bananas its chimpanzees we have a 98% similarity too. Mind you having said that, there aren't many musical notes, but Alice Cooper's music nothing like that of Mozart, limited number of notes multiple combinations.

Rachel has now decided she wants a Monkey as a pet,which is about as likely to happen as me becoming a banana, Jake thinks it would be cool walking a monkey down the street, just so it could show off its opposable thumbs to the neighbours inferior pets !! Ruth is probably just thinking that sharing her bedroom with a second  monkey is a bit much !

We are not really big on pets, partly due to busy lives we wouldn't make very good pet owners and partly because having 3 children is enough responsibility. We had a rabbit for a few years that Mrs RJR and I ended up doing all the work for, despite original pledges of support. I think there are times in the summer we still look to the corner of the garden where "Frostie" used to roam in a big enclosure. We also had chickens for a while. You really cant beat a fried egg that was just laid !!! But like most things in life they all "pass away" Currently we have a couple of goldfish "Mike and Chelsea" who seem indestructible !

One animal that always seems to around is the grey squirrel, they seem more noticeable with the spring, they like the trees behind our home, but collect nuts put out by the neighbours across from the front of the house. Our driveway is like a squirrel main road some days and they get braver each year ! So who needs any other pets, I'm sticking to viewing animals in the wild !

Of course the grey squirrel is not as agile as the British native the Red.....




Enjoy !!!