animals

When I was about 7 we lived close to a fast flowing creek, which a couple of kids had drowned in over the years. So in order to stop me and my two brothers from going down there our parents told us that there were beavers down there, and they are really aggressive animals that attack kids and chew their legs off.............Needless to say we were freaked out and never went down to the creek.

But, after we moved away they never told us the true story about beavers (very scared, non aggressive animals). So when I was about 18 (!) I made a complete fool of myself by loudly exclaiming to by boyfriend and his father "Don't go near the beavers nest- They'll attack you!!!"
Hmm............

When i was younger i was told that my two rabbits (one male, one female) could not be put into the same hutch as they would fight.

The true reason only dawned on me 3 years ago at the age of 22.

My brother Adam once believed that when a person said a bird "soared" through the sky that it was "sore". One day my mother commented on an eagle that was soaring through the sky, and he got teary eyed. He felt so bad for the poor eagle for being sore.

While on a car journey with my grandparents when I was about 6 years old my nan told me that you could tell how much milk a cow had inside them just by looking at how white they were. So obviously a cow that was mostly white was due for milking and a cow that was mostly black had recently been milked.

I beleived this for years!!

My brother went into school one day really upset and told his teacher "Wobert's died". The teacher asked to speak to mum and shared her sympathies over the death of "robert", to which my mum displaying confusion ask my bro who "robert" was. It turned out that everytime (over a couple of years!) he found a woodlouse in the house he thought it was "Wobert" and would play with it, until one day he found a dead one.

Because of the family film, I thought that Beethoven was a dog. I once found a book in my kindergarten classroom featuring pictures of "Beethoven's violin" and "Beethoven's piano" and I wondered how a dog could possibly have a violin.

I used to believe that dogs heads were used to make drums. This stemmed from the fact i once found a plastic Drum beater. And my dog. And found that the dogs head made a pleasing sound.

I asked my mum, "Are drums made from dogs heads", and she said yes. She says she thought i was kidding, but i believed it for years.

I used to think alsations were called owlsations

As a small child, i had a habit of running around naked until my Grampy would tell me that the blackbirds were on the way to come and peck "it" off!

I tell my own kids the same now!

I used to believe that really, my first dog (a bearded collie-cross bitch) and all other dogs could talk if they wanted to but nasty scientists would probably take them away so they kept quiet. :) I also believed that I could talk to my cat and fish and spent time making noises and miowing.

When I was younger I used to believe that goats actually ate tin cans and garbage. Now that I have my own goat as a pet I know for sure they don't!

For those of you that believe they do eat garbage, let me correct you, they don't! Although occasionally the curious goat will chew on clothes, paper, and other objects, not actually eat and digest them.

This is to do with my brother (he's 12). I was talking to him about 'big, hairy yaks' and he said, "Hairy? You mean feathery, don't you?" After a few quick questions it turned out he thought a Yak was a big black bird. Glad I caught that before anyone else... it took the Cambridge Encyclopedia to convince him I was right.

Until i was about 8 I thought that all cats were female and all dogs were male, thanks to some cartoon stereotype. Suddenly I realized wait! Where do puppies and kittens come from then?

When my younger brother was about seven I told hime that some sheep had green marks on there coats because they had passed their gree cross code test and could now cross the road safely and that the sheep with red marks couldn't and had to always stay on the same side of the road. He believed me for ages!

I LOVE insects, spiders, slugs, worms, and invertebrates in general, always have. I think they're absolutely amazing creatures, I study them and I keep all kinds of them as pets (I have a baby madagascar hissing cockroach and I REALLY want a giant banana slug someday!) and have absolutely no fear of any "bug"...except for ticks. I, a future entomologist, can't handle one little bitty tick. Even dead ones make me shudder. Why? When I was very little I thought that they actually burrowed completely under your skin and would never, ever, EVER come out. Even though I know this is untrue, I still have such a severe phobia of them that I avoid going outside in the summer sometimes, I stay far away from dogs and cats that have been outdoors and I panic if I brush up against one little bush or tree!

And yet, I still think ticks are cute and interesting animals.

I used to believe…

about three years ago wheni lived across the street from a university campus, with a pond with ducks that had their wings clipped, so anyway they never flew, that summer when we were in maine with a river, isaw a group of ducks take off and fly, i lookede at my mom and was so surprised. '' i didn't know DUCKS could fly''!!