This story was originally written by my sister, with additions by myself.
The Mitchells lived in a village nearly an hour from the city. They had lots of kids, and a wide range of pets as the kids grew up. This is a story about their pets.
They had a dog, called Bear. She was the wussiest guard dog ever. She was a mix of alsatian and kelpie and had long, soft, brown and black fur. Bear barked at strangers, foxes and possums, but when patted, she just wagged her tail.
Two cats lived on the farm. Mouse was a runt. He was the tiniest kitten, and could fit in the palm of a hand when he first arrived. Mouse was a browny grey colour.
Hector was a large ginger and white tom cat. He was very aggressive and would push Mouse and Bear out of the way.
A number of guinea pigs have lived in a rabbit hutch, but they didn’t live for very long. Pirate was a large white guinea pig with a black patch over one eye. He was the father of the baby guinea pigs.
Steak and Schnitzel were two gingery brown females. They both had babies a few weeks apart. Steak eventually got eaten by a neighbour’s dog and Schnitzel ran away.
| The first budgies were brothers, Frank and Ernest. Frank was blue and was always being picked on by Ernest. Ernest was a green budgie, and he used to pull out Frank’s tail feathers. Ernest died when he was 7. | |
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| Frank lived for a very long time. He had a stroke when he was 12, and lost the use of his wing and foot on the left side. He learned to climb up to his perch and survived another two years. | ||
After Frank died, the Mitchells got 4 more budgies. One flew away on the first day. Bert and Spud got sick and died. Compass was too young and never learned to fly. No more budgies.
The Mitchells had goldfish in a large fish tank, and more in the disused boat outside. The ones outside didn’t have names and never get fed. But they still grew the biggest.
The ones in the inside tank got replaced as they died. Some were suicidal and jumped out of the tank. Some learned to surf against the current of the filter pump.
Once, the Mitchells had an axolotl in with the goldfish. It wasn’t a fish, but an amphibian. It never had a name, but was the stupidest animal ever. It would swim hard until it crashed into the end of the tank, shake its head, then turn around and swim to the other end and do it again. They had to waggle live worms in front of its nose for several minutes before it would realize that the worm was lunch.
On the day that the axolotl was brought home and put into the tank, it swam around at first, then settled under the plants. Late that night, Allen came into his parent’s bedroom. "Is the axolotl supposed to have an orange frill around it’s mouth?". The whole family trooped out to have a look. It had tried to eat one of the fantail goldfish, but the fish was too big to swallow. Only the tail was sticking out. Dad said "We’ll see in the morning. There’ll be one less goldfish, and either a stuffed axolotl, or it’ll spit it out." Next morning, the goldfish was alive and swimming, with chomp marks near its tail. The axolotl never again tried to eat a goldfish.
There used to be about 5 chooks and a rooster in the henhouse. One day, the gate wasn’t shut properly, and a fox got in during the night. He ate all of the chooks but the rooster escaped. Since then the rooster slept on the fence near the house. He had to be picked up after he had gone to sleep and put into the coop, or he crowed at 4 in the morning under the window.
The Mitchells often raised poddy lambs. The first one was called Lambie, but then she grew up, and then there was Lambie’s Lamb. Max was the tamest. He liked to stay near the henhouse and steal their wheat when they were fed.
Once, when the youngest kids were sent out to feed the chooks, Max and the other sheep came running for the wheat. They pushed so hard, that they rounded the kids up, instead.
But the wackiest of all on the farm were the kids.
Peter was tall and always happy. He was the best gardener in the village and had a magic touch with plants. Peter planted a vegetable garden near the fence and kept the whole family well supplied.
Allen was blonde and quiet, but with a deadly sense of humour. He knew everything about computers.
Jane was the fun of the party and always had a new boyfriend.
Micky was the practical joker. He drove trucks in the daytime and was a DJ at night.
Mel was the smallest and bossiest of them all. She became a chef, but was too busy to cook for herself.