The Animal Bucket List

I hear so much about “bucket lists.” I decided to come up with one of my own.

While I started writing my bucket list, I realized my “must do before I die” list has everything to do with animals. Those who know me will not be surprised, as I’m the one who prefers having ground hogs in my backyard to a garden; the one who stops to pet each and every dog I meet in passing;  the one who longs to someday live on a farm; and the one who always has cat hair on her clothing.

So, here it is — My Official Bucket List (with the ones I’ve done already striked through!)

Ride a camel

Hold a koala bear

Ride an elephant

Own a ball python

Hold a baby pig

Swim with a dolphin

Own a pocket-sized poodle

Own a Chihuahua

Own an Italian Greyhound

Own a ferret

Come face-to-face with an eel while snorkeling! (which is why I no longer snorkel!)

Ride a horse on the beach with my husband (how romantic is this one?!)

Milk a cow or a goat

Eat frog’s legs (didn’t like them, tasted too much like chicken)

Hold a monkey

Watch a cat give birth

Watch a dog give birth

Hold a baby squirrel

Pet a baby tiger (make that “pet every cute baby animal there is on this planet!”)

Smuggle a grasshopper from Florida to New Jersey (I did that when I was 9, and the grasshopper lived in New Jersey until the end of the summer!)

Ride a horse, English-style, Western-style AND bare-back!

Teach a pet a trick (make that an impressive trick, I don’t think teaching a cat to go crazy for Super Goo counts!)

Continue to treat my cats with such love that they live until at least 20! (They are 16 and 18 now!)

And a few things that weren’t on my animal bucket list, that were not so cool 

1. Got bit by a pig

2. Got bit by a squirrel

3. Got thrown from a horse

4. A pony stepped on my foot when I was 10 (a pony !! and it hurt like hell!!)