Junior Jasmine Haas wakes up early every day to take care of her pets. When hearing the word “pet,” many envision Haas to be taking care of the standard dog or cat. However, in addition to her two dogs and cat, Haas also has many other pets, such as parrots, chickens, ducks, horses and a corn snake.
“It’s really different [to have] a lot of different animals. Growing up, people have said ‘Oh, [you] live on a farm?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I just live here in San Mateo, and I just really like animals and I’m really passionate about them,’” Haas said. “It’s just it’s a really fun thing that I love to do, and it’s really just part of who I am.”
Sophomore Celine Wen has had a fair share of different and unique pets. Her childhood pet was a tortoise, but not just any tortoise — a large, 24-inch-long Sulcata tortoise.
“I had a variety of pets including five tortoises, one lizard and one rabbit. However, we had to give them away since we moved to a new country. Now, we constantly contact their current owners to check on them,” Wen said. “My all-time favorite pet was a Sulcata tortoise.”
Wen lived in China before she moved to California. She recounts when her parents first brought her tortoise home when she lived in China.
“Turtles and tortoises … represent longevity in many cultures; therefore, my family decided to buy a Sulcata tortoise when it was a few months old and only the size of a human palm,” she said. “It grew up with me for thirteen years until we moved [to America].”
Haas emphasizes the importance of properly taking care of pets.
“When you have an animal and you take care of it, and you put a lot of time and effort into it, you can kind of see it grow up; you get to take care of it. I want to also be zoologist when I grow up, or work in the animal industry. I have all these pets, and I think it prepares me for what I want to do in the future and kind of who I am now,” Haas said.
Taking care of an unconventional pet also creates many different and unconventional needs to which the owners must accommodate.
“Every animal does have their own specific dietary needs and … their habitat and stuff. It’s really important to meet their needs to make sure that they’re doing well,” Haas said.
Wen elaborates on the maintenance involved with caring for a giant tortoise.
“It was so heavy that we had to roll it with a cart in order to bathe it occasionally. The tortoise was extremely active. It would crawl around the house and follow [us] wherever we [would] go,” Wen said. “Every day the tortoise has to eat specialized grass mixed with nutrients. We fed it twice a day and bathed it once a month.”
Haas stresses the importance of commitment when taking care of an animal.
“Before you adopt any animal, make sure that you’re ready and you’re fully committed to the animal because there’s a lot of instances where people get the animals that they cannot properly care for,” she said. “Then they have the animal for a few months or a few years … and they don’t know how long [it] can live for. Like rabbits, for instance — a rabbit can live up to 15 years and a lot of people … [expect rabbits to only] live for two years, and then it’ll die.”
Haas further highlights the importance of responsibility and how a pet requires a lot of maintenance and time.
“The best thing that you can do before adopting this pet is make sure that you have all the available resources and the support system that you need to adopt [the] animal,” she said.
When Wen lived in China, she found others were often surprised by her unusual pet.
“A tortoise as big as ours is extremely rare, especially in China and as a pet. People are usually amazed by it. Fortunately, no one was really afraid of tortoises.” Wen said.
No matter how unusual these pets are, they all seem to offer common characteristics: love and affection for their owner and families. Wen recalls a fond memory of her tortoise.
“Our tortoise once kept attempting to push my mom to the house door. We were all confused by the action and ignored it,” she said. “The next day we discovered that an earthquake actually happened in our city … Our tortoise sensed it and tried to warn us. After this incident, we cherish[ed] its existence even more and believe that it will bring us good luck.”
Having an unorthodox pet poses uncommon as well as odd challenges, but it also provides unique experiences and memories. Keeping an open mind can help with finding a pet that fits one’s personality and lifestyle better than a conventional dog or cat might and can provide a loving new addition to the family as well.
