Zero to Twelve

By Jenesis Mariani

- age 14, State College

I still remember when we didn’t have any pets. My mom never wanted any. Days kept going by. I always wanted one. I always wondered what it would be like to have a pet. I was three when I decided to ask my mom if we could have a pet. She said “NO!” I was sad. We decided to move to New Jersey. I thought maybe I could have a pet. That day came again; I asked my mom if I can have a pet. She still said “NO!”

I was going into third grade. We moved to Pennsylvania. Everyone I knew had a pet. They would always talk about them. I wanted one to talk about. I went home after school. I made myself ask my mom for a pet again. Before I went to ask for a pet again, I thought maybe I should find out why we can’t have any pet. I went to my brothers; I thought maybe they knew why. I asked but they had no clue why. That didn’t help me at all.

Eventually I thought “Why not just ask mom?

“Why we can’t have any pets?” We were watching TV in the living room when I asked.

She answered “I don’t want any pets, because you have to take care of them (be responsible with them).” I asked how about a cat?

She answered “They will break all my furniture.”

How about a dog?

She answered “No, you have to wake up and walk them and they take too much room.” How about a fish?

She answered “Do you want to clean a fish tank with these big fishes in it?”

One day I convinced my mom to go to the Wild Side Pet Shop. They had these two adorable ferrets. One was blackish, brownish, the other was white. A lady came and she noticed I wanted those two little ferrets. My mom was behind me watching me. The lady talked to her about how ferrets were. They were great. Finally I thought I could get a pet if my mom loved them too. We left the pet store. My mom was thinking about them.

Days went by. I came home from the bus, after school, SURPRISE! There were the two adorable ferrets. I went and got them and let them out of the cage. I fell in love with them even more. I asked why she bought them. The lady who told her about them made her buy them but before that happened she said she stayed at the pet store for 3 hours just trying to train the boy (blackish, brownish one). He would always be biting everyone. She got him to stop. Then she got both of them because she didn’t want to leave one behind. They would be happier together.

Happy days went by. They were the best. My brothers and I went to a carnival and we each won a fish. So we got three fish. We bought a fish tank and had those fish for the longest time and my mom bought more fish because one died. Months kept going and she kept getting more and more. Eventually they were all dead with the years that went by. I wanted fish again; the fish tank was just too empty.

My dad visited us and I asked if he can buy us fish. We had a fish tank at home, why not have fish in it? We went to a pet store. They had tropical fish, my favorite kind. I picked the two most beautiful ones. We went home to surprise to my mom, we had fish. She took it better than I thought she would. She put them into the fish tank.

One of my mom’s friends had these two cats and he never took real good care of them. I loved the cats when I met them. They were outdoor cats. One was a boy and one was a girl. The one boy was not always looking so good so my mom asked if she could take him to the vet, the friend said “Yeah.” He noticed the cat didn’t look so good when he heard from the vet. He said if we wanted him because we take real good care of our pets. My mom felt bad so she said “yes.” We went over to check on the girl cat he said she was missing. I decided why not look for her, didn’t find her. The next day we went back and I found her hiding under his deck of the house. My mom saw her, she look fat. My mom checked her chest to see if she was having kittens. My mom noticed she was. She asked the friend if she can take her to the vet. He said “yeah.” Vet said she was pregnant. My mom felt bad so she brought her home.

She eventually had her kittens. She had five. There were three girls and two boys I decided to tell the boy cat the good news. The boy cat hugged me. The cats all got neutered because we didn’t want any more pets in the house.

Still this day we have all the pets in one small house. Two ferrets (Jubilee, and Grace), seven cats (Nelly, Jade, Mitsi, Ashes, Dawn, Bear, Tiger), and the tropical fish eventually died but we got two more fish (Jungle, and Dough), they’re all beautiful and amazing animals.