I used to believe that cats could steal our breath while we slept. Our big orange cat would love to curl up on my chest and put his face close to mine. I would always roll over onto my side so that he couldn't steal my breath.

Joanie

when my older sister and i were little girls, we had a dog named Winky 'cause he had one eye. well, one day, we couldn't find him. so, to be the good sister she is, my sister told me that Winky had been flushed down the toilet. for a long time, i feared the potty.

xxxxBritxxxx

I misunderstood when someone used the term "I'm getting my dog spayed." I thought they said "sprayed". I, for a long time, thought that the vet sprayed on something to keep your dog from getting pregnant!

Jessica

I used to believe that all cats were girls and all dogs were boys.

jordan

I used to believe that the dog on Sesame Street was real. Can you imagine- a 6 foot tall dog? Not only that, but I even asked for one for Xmas.

Megan

i used to believe that my aunt robin drowned my dog muffin. my family lived in california and the fleas were so bad we sent muffin to live with my aunt in illiinois. when my mom told me muffin died i had dreams that my aunt tied a rock around her neck and threw her in the lake. it was actually a dog illness going around that killed her but my aunt still has the letter i wrote her at age 7 forgiving her for killing my dog.

Kelly

When i was around 5 or 6 years of age, I discovered my pet poodle locked in coitus with the neighbors mutt. The were yelping and squealing and joined at the behind. I ran screaming to my mother and she told me that they were stuck together with chewing gum!!!

Myra

I used to belive that if you watched a dog poop and you laughed at it, it would be so embarassed it would never poop in public again.

Toni & Nikki

i used to believe that if you got barked at by a dog you would die in 45 days

woza

When I was little, I had a cat named Pepsi. I used to believe that cats grew up to be lions or tigers. And I knew even then that we wouldn't be able to keep him once he turned into a lion or tiger, so I would always (this is awful, I know) try to take his food away so that he couldn't eat and grow up, because I didn't want to have to get rid of him.

Amanda

my dad always said his "dogs" were tired (meaning his feet),so when I was around 3, I thought my dad's feet really were dogs. my mother has pictures of me talking to and playing with my dad's feet.

stephanie

When I was a kid, 7 or so, the neighbor boys told me that when a dog laid upside down it would suffocate. Consequently I awoke a dog and never let it lie on its back.

Denise

When i was about 6 it became apparent that I was allergic to cats. We had a siamese which me and my little sister loved very much. The memories are blurred thanks to age, but my parents told me that 'we gave to pussy to a nice couple in country'. When I was old enough I realized that the cat was put to sleep. I used to tell the story sometimes as an example of the classic tale of pets vs. allergy. When I was about 30, I talked with my folks about the cat, and they told me that actually the cat _was_ donated to a nice couple in the country and they had pictures to prove it. Double standards seem to be sometimes created by your own mind.

Anon

My mother recently told me that I believed our dog was highly intelligent and mimicked human behavior. I thought this because oftentimes when I was sitting on the floor playing, he would come up behind me, rear up on his hind paws, and drape his front legs over my shoulders. I thought he was hugging me as an expression of his affection and had learned this from watching us. I don't think an explanation is needed as to what he was actually doing... Lord only knows how my mother didn't laugh in my face when I proudly informed her the dog had hugged me again!

Meg

When I was a little girl, I used to chew on my hair. Dunno why, I just did. And we've always had plenty of pets, particularly cats. So to get me to stop chewing my hair, my dad took me to our hallway and pointed to a hairball one of our cats had thrown up and told me, "If you keep chewing on your hair, you'll throw up hairballs like the cats."

Needless to say, I never chewed on my hair again.

Rose

When i was little, my dad told me that tires on cars were made from dog noses. i believed it until fourth grade.

Lindsey

I used to think an evil spirit type thing called Wango lived in my dog. I was terrified of that dog.

Franklin

I used to think that when a cat would rub up against me, that it wanted me to get out of its way...

Anon

I used to believe my cat was a spy and he spied on me. I thought he told God about what I did.

Agathe, a French student in eighth grade

When I was 4 years old, I thought that rabies was a disease that turned you into a cat, if you were bit by a cat, or a dog, if you were bit by a dog. I was nipped by a cat one day, while playing. It didn't break the skin but I didn't know that an animal had to bite you hard so I thought I was going to get rabies. I knew that you had to get 20 shots in the stomach (this was back in 1975) so I didn't want to tell my mom I'd been bit. But I was terrified that when I woke up one day, I'd be a cat and my mom would find out that I had rabies and I'd get in trouble. I never did wake up as a cat!

Julie