Looking after school pets for holidays

I remember my Nan house sitting for a daughter who had 2 kids. There was a dog and 3 piranahs to look after. We popped round and Nana was very upset because one of the piranahs had taken a big bite out of one of the others and killed it. She was very worried that it would somehow be seen as her fault, so she had extracted the dead fish and put it in the freezer as evidence.

My daughter decided to give the schools hamster a bath, needless to say i had to replace him.

I once looked after my friends two cats while she was on holiday in Tunisia. Needless to say one escaped but she had a collar on so I put an advert in the local paper. After several misadventures we got her back and breathed a sigh of relief. A few days later my friend arrived at our house saying "Have you got the cat back?" They'd only had the local paper sent out to them in Tunisia and read the advert!!!

My DS came home with an aquarium filled with greenery and stick insects along with their eggs. I went into his bedroom and he had let them all out and they were all over the walls and climbing the curtains but this was 3 weeks after they went back to school or so I thought, he had kept some back to look after... erghhhh

DGS was in next door looking at their hamster last summer and the little one next door 3 yrs old got the hamster to swim in the water butt... it didnt survive

Looked after a neighbours budgie when I was a teenager, I opened the cage door to put fresh water in and the blooming thing escaped and made straight for the fireplace and went up the chimney. I did manage to coax it down but the feathers were singed and I think it was shocked because it never talked again. I was very nervous of telling the owner because he happened to be the Chief Constable of our town but at least the budgie wasn't telling his side of the story

These are all so funny now, but not at the time of them happening

Reminds me of the story of a neighbour looking after a rabbit. On the first morning she found it dead, so spent the next week searching for a new one that looked the same. On their return, the surprised owner apologised to her, saying that she had found her rabbit had died on the morning of their departure but had had no time to deal with it, and forgot to inform them.

When I was about nine we had a very timid blue budgie. One day it flew out of the window and my mum didn't know how to tell me. She went to the pet shop and bought a similar bird and put it in the cage. The new bird was young and fluffy, and very tame! From day one, it was hopping on my hand and was completely different to our lost bird. Every time I said the bird seemed different, my mum denied it!

I looked after a bowl of tadpoles too well. I felt sorry for them cooped up indoors so put them out in the garden on a sunny day for a breath of fresh air. An hour or so later the water had warmed up nicely and the tadpoles were all dead.

When my girls were young we took on the two school rabbits, a male and female in separate hutches for obvious reasons, for the summer holiday. We warned the children not to let the rabbits get at each other.

One morning I went to feed the female rabbit to find four or five babies. A virgin birth? No, one day whilst DH and I were out the children had opened both hutches to see what would happen!

Good experimentation, petallus. I hope the school appreciated their enterprise!

Actually, since they were 10 or so at the time I think they rather knew what to expect and just wanted to watch.

Anyway, I'm sure it was the beastly boy up the road who put my two girls up to it!

My then fiance and I clipped his father's budgie curled claws (we were careful to avoid the 'blood' line in the claw. The budgie took one look at the clippers and died. My future FIL was furious and gave it some brandy. Needless to say it didn't work.

His was cleaning out his goldfish tank and put the goldfish in the clean washing-up bowl. The fish immediately died. FIL was pulling them backwards through the water and giving them the kiss of life. His wife had bleached the bowl and forgot to tell him. He didn't speak to her for 3 months.

The girl next door had the same experience Maggiemaybe she had hatched some toad spawn and the tadpoles had grown into tiny little toads. She left them out in a big jam jar on a nice sunny day!!!

Went to my DDS no1's room to wake him one morning (he was about 9) and found about 50 snails climbing up the wall. His 'pets' were kept in a bucket under his bed.

My youngest DDS used to keep menagerie of creepy crawlies, He had a large netted cage of stick insects. Before we went on holiday we asked DDS2 to spray them with water every day and place fresh privet in the cage daily. We got back and I checked on the creatures to find they had all escaped - nibbling through the netting - there was no fresh privet either. I called my DDS2 and reprimanded him for not carrying out this simple task. He insisted that he had and I marched him upstairs to show him to evidence. 'Oh!' he said ' I have been putting fresh privet and spraying the other cage in the spare room (an empty butterfly cage)!!!!! Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Being a family of pet lovers who have always been asked to look after other people's pets too we have several of these tales to tell.
Tadpoles-my daughter had a tankful in her room, the smallest bedroom in the house. She hurtled downstairs one morning shrieking that they were all dead. On investigation there was a film on top of the water which we think must have been caused by her spray deodorant. Never used it since.
Snake - my son brought a small python home from school for the long summer holiday. It died the first day, all coiled up in the corner of it's tank. Like JessM's Nan, guilt set it. He was scared that school would think he had sold it and so this too went into the freezer. Well-wrapped and ready to be returned in it's very dead state at the end of the holiday. However, my ex husband mistook the parcel for a cumberland sausage, it did look similar. He realised his mistake as he returned to the kitchen with his snack only to be confronted by us shouting 'No, don't unwrap that!' You can see why he is an ex - can't you?
Kitten- The ex-husband had a work colleague who had just adopted a very young kitten but was going on holiday, so guess where they kitten came? It was almost feral and she had only had it a few days. It had been hiding under the table and I kept hearing the little bell on it's collar tinkling. I realised that this was virtually continuous and investigated. It had it's back foot trapped in it's collar and was rolling around unable to straighten it's leg. Wrapping the kitten in a blanket I tried to sort it out but found it's claw was stuck in the groove of the bell. I cut the bell of the collar but couldn't get the claw out and the poor little thing couldn't retract the claw. Phoned the vet who said bring it in. Off I went, kitten wrapped in blanket, spitting and cursing loudly in the cat basket. At the vets the nurse donned protective gloves, remember this kitten is virtually feral and not happy. We got it out of the cat basket, unwrapped it and couldn't find which foot was the problem. The bell had come off in the blanket!
Goldfish - tadpole murdering daughter was tasked with looking after our neighbours dog and fish whilst they were away for the weekend. She went across the road to see to them on the first morning and came running back, flinging open our front door, sobbing ' It's dead, it's dead!' Initially convinced by her distress that it must be the dog, I took the key from her and went to see. It was the goldfish. It belonged to a seven year old boy and it's bowl was in the hall. The first thing they would see on arrival home. Unable to bear the thought of his sadness I went to our local garden centre where, demonstrating a distance between my forefingers, I asked for a goldfish 'This big, please' The assistant looked me straight in the eye and said' You've killed one, haven't you?' Apparently this is a regular request. So, new fish duly placed in tank, I waited for the return of the family. Grabbed Mum and out of earshot of the child explained what had happened. Her response....' Oh B****r, I v'e been waiting for that b****y thing to peg it'
Dogs - The same family once left me a blank cheque to cover any disposal fees for their ancient dog whilst they were away for a whole week. He was very old, very smelly, very deaf and could hardly walk to the back door. Amazingly, he survived. Years later they left us in charge of another dog which managed to get their freezer open during the night and what a mess I found in the morning. No idea what had been in the freezer as most of it had been through the dog. I was assured, on their return that it was only sausages and ice cream.
Guinea pigs - a tiny, black guinea pig from school having a holiday at our house got a hay seed in it's eye and I took it to the vet. It was silent until I stood it on the vet's table and before he had even touched it the loudest screaming came from it. I have never heard such a small animal make such a racket. The vet, animal nurse and I just looked at each other in total amazement. We were speechless, which was just as well as we couldn't have heard ourselves speak over the noise anyway. The vet pulled out the hay seed and.... silence.The guinea pig dashed into it's box, muttering in the way that they usually do. The vet didn't charge for the treatment because he said he'd never heard anything like it before and it was a school pet so he'd treat it as a charity case.
We have several more stories like these but you're probably all bored by now so I'll stop.

I think it might have been a dying goldfish that set me on the road to atheism.

I remember walking along saying 'please God, don't let my goldfish die' and when i got home it was dead.

We had gerbils - my daughter brought a pair home from school for the 3 week Easter holiday - despite the fact that we had three very active cats! She was told to keep the cage in her bedroom, which she did, and looked after the animals very well, so well that they produced a litter of babies, can't remember how many, but evidently the school were delighted, they had been trying to get the gerbils to re-produce, and because they are evidently quite difficult to sex, were not sure if they had them correctly 'paired'.

We had the classroom hamster for seven weeks summer hols, I so feared it would die, how could I replace a three legged hamster

There would have been a way!

What a wonderful start to a day, I am laughing so much (not at the pets expense) the tears are running down my face, Thanks everyone

nonnanna, what a brilliant account of all your mishaps. You do tell a good story. I almost fell off my chair.

petallus, amputations are not one of my skills

Thanks annodomini Oh Anniebach I bet my daughter could have helped you out there. She would have claimed a mishap with the nail clippers. If anyone wants more we have amusing tales about a cockatiel, a mynah bird, a rampant rabbit, a dog and a cat flap, more cat flap tales (or maybe tails?) involving a school rabbit, a flea ridden visitor and PRINTMISS ...yes, we too have had the gerbils!