When I was about 6 my babysitter was telling me about this other girl she babysat for and didn't really like. She said "She's got this kitten that she goes on and on about. She thinks the sun shines out of that cat's bottom". I had never heard that phrase before and was amazed that someone my age could really believe that about a cat. Oh dear, looks like I was the stupid one...

Beth

I used to believe that all garbage bags on the side of the road were filled with kittens that people had thrown away. I think it originated from a Tom & Jerry cartoon. I would cry and beg my mom to stop and pick up the bags but I wouldn't tell her why. I thought she would refuse because we already had 2 cats. It was torture on road trips but mom just thought I was environmentally conscious.

erin

When I was growing up, I always wanted a German Shepard dog. My Mother told me we couldn 't have one because no one in our family spoke German so the dog wouldn't be able to understand us, and we wouldn't know when he was hungry or had to go outside...

Jules

I thought all poodles were female...i mean how can you be a male poodle and live with yourself?

Anon

i used to believe that the tails on animals were meant to be their own personal leash.
i found out otherwise when i tried to take my cat for a walk ...

gloom

One time, when I was about six years old, my grandma took me to a carnival. It was a hot day, so a lot of people had brought their dogs. I was playing with my balloon animal when my grandma said "Look, it's a German Shepherd." I turned but saw only a big brown dog. I was disappointed that I had missed a German guy with a cane and a couple of sheep.

Katie

I used to believe that Poodles were a cross between a sheep and a dog.
I believed that until I was 18 and I started vet school!!!
Bit embarassing.

Amy

This comes from my father. He was told in school that when Huskies are in the snow, and get very cold, they would breathe through their tails. He envisioned a dog covered in snow sticking its tail in the air and breathing through it.

He found out probably 40 years later, watching The Discovery Channel, that Huskies will cover their noses with their tails to make breathing the cold air easier. It finally made sense.

Christopher

I used to believe that dogs from other countries had different languages. So a dog raised in Japan wouldnt be able to understand the barking of an American dog. Actually, that still sounds kind of plausible to me...

Michelle

My dad sold pure-bred dogs. When a buyer came to get a hunting dog, he saw my mixed-breed pet, and really liked her. He wanted to buy her, too. My dad told me, "Mary, this guy says he'll give you fifty dollars for your dog.'

I said, "Well, okay, but I don't know what a dog would do with money."

Anon

When I was about 5 we moved to a new house, which scared the willies out of our (already timid) cat, Roger. Every time he heard a noise he'd run to hide, and his favourite hiding place was inside our electronic organ (there was an opening above the volume-pedal...) Well, for a while there, I was pretty convinced that inside our organ was this giant cat-city where Roger was royalty, and the reason he went there so often was because his feline subjects needed him.

Actually, despite the fact that I grew out of that belief, I still felt a twinge of surprise when I actually looked inside the organ, and instead of the vast, softly lit city I'd always imagined, there was...the back of the pedals and keys, and a whole lot of dust. Bit of a disappointment, actually,.

loyal subject

When I was around 3 my dog Sparky got hit my a car and died. I did not know this, and when I asked "Where's Sparky?" the only answer I got was "He's with God now" To which I was upset, that this guy named God had my dog. "Where does God live?" I asked. My mom pointed up and said "He lives up there."
For quite a while I thought this strange guy named God lived up in my attic with my dog.

Jeff

I used to believe that my dogs could talk to me...all I had to do was practice barking so I could understand them.

JamesBP

When I was 4 or 5 years old, I witnessed our cat, Petal, pooping live mice out of her rear end. I was sure that that was what was happening. I had seen cats in cartoons swallow mice live, it made sense to me that that was how they would come out, squirming and gooey from the trip through the cat. Later my Mom explained to me that Petal had had a litter of kittens! D'oh!

Ben

When I was about 5, I asked my mom why her friend didn't have any kids. She told me that her friend had cats instead of children. I took that to mean that one could choose whether to give birth to humans or cats, and decided that I would have cats when I was older.

T

I used to believe I was a kitten. Simply because we had alot of cats aka "my mom's babies", so I thought since our cats were her babies, I must have been a cat, too. I realized that I wasnt, when finding out that I didn't like the taste of the food, that was set out for my "brothers and sisters".

Catwoman.

Once I asked my mom what the little specks flying around in a ray of sun shining through the window were. She said it was "flying dust". I misunderstood, and thought she said "flying dogs". For years, I imagined these microscopic cats and dogs flying around in rays of light.

Liz

When I was little we lived on a farm, and there were a lot of wild cats. My sister told me that the reason the cats never came near people was because I was evil, and they could sense that. She told me that all that cats had been friendly before I was born.

traumatized by older sibling

Once I was playing at my friend Corey's house and his dog was following us around the yard. I wanted the dog to play fetch like on cartoons, but he was only interested in the stick if I held it, so I let him chew on it.
Corey looked over and screamed, "Stop feeding sticks to my dog! He's a robot dog and you'll jam up his gears!"
When I said I didn't believe him he said, "Oh yeah? Well if he's not a robot dog, then why do I have to feed him battery acid?"
I believed him, and when the dog was hit by a car a few months later, I knew my sticks were the REAL reason he died.

Kendra

I used to think that my cats knew much more than humans do--regarding the meaning of life. I always thought they saw and talked to God...and knew what Heaven looked like.

Anon