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!!)
May 2014, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Drawing by Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta, 2005
