Ok here I go again....My vet was here today with her helper to check on a goat and while here the comment was made"of course I like animals I am the first born" . we talked about it and her thought is this....the oldest is more likely to be into animals and nature because of their independence. What are you in your family? I consider myself an only child,my 1/2 brother and sister are 17 and 16 yrs. younger. have a good one. be nice

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 08, 2001

Answers

I am the youngest of 7 farm raised kids. The oldest (my only sister) and I were the kids most interested in animals. I more so then, and now. I was the one who tube fed calves until they were strong anough to learn to take a bottle. I think 10 different neighbors brought their sick lambs and calves to me, but only when they were too ill for them to bother with. I think of all of my "babies" that I've eaten (especially calves) after saving them, naming them, and listening to them bawl under my bedroom window for their bottle, and I do get a little nastalgic. The neighbors up the road had a dairy, and I did end up with a few little black and white bull calves!

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 08, 2001.

I guess I discount this. Our oldest -- my brother -- wanted ducks, and once the novelty wore off, he wouldn't feed them or water them. That task fell to me, because 'You're going out there to feed your chickens and pigeons and pheasants anyway'. After a while he wouldn't even pay for their feed, altho they were his. He had to be brow-beaten to feed his hamster. He captured a young raccoon, and once the novelty wore off, same story. He had one dog because his wife forced it on him. I've had three dogs, chickens, pigeons, pheasants, a goose, rabbits, mice, parakeets, cockatiels, lorikeets, a conure, box turtles, frogs, newts, a chinchilla, guinea pigs, a hedgehog, gallons of tropical and goldfish, 6 horses and a pony, plus being an avid wild bird feeder. His wife hangs out a hummingbird feeder in summer.

I won't comment on how this affects the middle child...she might be reading this....

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 08, 2001.

I think it is more a matter of gender -- females like to nurture things, men eat them.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 08, 2001.

Hi Renee, hmmm....never heard this one. I'm the oldest of six, and the one most into animals. A couple of my siblings have cats/dogs, but only for their children. I'm still in town for another year or so, but every day I wonder if I could maybe hide a few chickens from the neighbors. I don't dare; I'm lucky no one bothers me about the three dogs and five cats. Once I move to my land in Missouri, I'll have laying hens, a dairy goat, and a recent post has now got me daydreaming about a pony, just because I'd like one! The rest of the family thinks having animals is weird. When we were kids, I made pets out of all the "food animals", (I was one sad little girl, I'll tell you!), and I've had lots of cats, dogs, mice, birds, rabbits and horses over the years. I even had a pet skunk once. I can't wait to get to the country again.

-- Cathy in NY (hrnofplnty@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

Hmmm, I'm not sure if the reason is correct, but the basic premise may still be correct even if the reason isn't quite right. I'm the oldest of five children, my sisters both have cats, and my brothers both have dogs, but I'm the only one who's gone in for livestock. One of my sisters does have a garden and does canning and sewing, all my siblings hunt, so there are some "homesteader-type" activities going on there, just not livestock! And one of my sisters, the one with the garden, who also happens to be almost the youngest in the family (by seven minutes!) has been talking about maybe getting a few hens. My oldest daughter is a softie for animals -- we have a kitten right now that had been abandoned near her place, she kept the male. She's talking about having goats, rabbits, ducks for eggs (her husband doesn't like chickens), and a pony for her little girls, as soon as they have enough room. Middle daughter is too busy working to take care of any animals right now, though she loves our puppy and our old cat, and was heart-broken when we had to sell her pony because we were moving (and the buyers came during her twelfth birthday party, too, which made it even worse!). But she insists she will never have a farm, or marry a farmer (too much hard, dirty work!! And I tell her she'd better never say "never" to God, because he has a way of putting us in exactly those situations we said we didn't want to be in!! LOL!!). Youngest daughter likes animals, but even at twenty she is still such a baby herself that she could never have full responsibility for an animal without supervision. (For those who don't already know, she's autistic.) Be interesting to do an imformal study on this, using all the people you know and their birth order and animals! (Of course, the study might be slightly skewed, since as animal-owners/homesteaders our acquaintances will probably run a little more towards animal-owners than normal.)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 08, 2001.

Renee - I'm the middle kid and out of three, the only one who loves animals. My two sisters can take them or leave them, and mostly they leave them. Of my two kids, they both like animals, but it's the youngest who is practically devoting her life to them.

-- Dianne (willow@config.com), January 08, 2001.

Yep-what JLS said,at least in my home!

Actually Nick likes raising things, too, but he seems to likes to eat them, even more.

I'm the fourth of five,and I was the animal nut, and still am.My mother took care of all the animals, and I was her sidekick,so there you have it.

Nick's Dad loved animals,and Nick thought the world of his father,so that is the influence for him. Nurture more than nature.

Now you want to talk personality.Well that's much more classic position in family.Try first born male in an 'old country' family and all that it entails!

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 08, 2001.

I'm the eldest. My brother didn't happen until 4 years after I was born, and we lived where there weren't many kids. My "friends" were animals, mostly the cat, as I recall. I also remember finding a frog (we lived on a lake) and trying to keep it for a pet. My mom cautioned me that the frog was probably lost from its mom since I took it away from the shore for a while. Sheesh. Talk about traumatic! I kidnapped a frog from its mommy! No wonder I'm nuts....

My brother loves animals, but mostly just the kind that play in his band....

-- sheepish (WA) (rborgo@gte.net), January 08, 2001.

Hi Renee, I'm number 5 of 10 kids, 7 boys and 3 girls and I'm also the middle girl! I'm the only one who has 3 dogs in the house and 1 more for outside. Would have the property filled with livestock. Still working on hubby for that. I think the oldest of us kids, who is my sister, helped mom out with the babies so much, she never had the patience or time for animals. She does have an outside dog, though.

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), January 08, 2001.

I'm the middle child. My older brother has one fish, for his children. Not that he doesn't like animals, he just doesn't want to deal with them. My little sister would have been a veterinarian, but she could spend more time with her own animals being a dentist, so that's what she's doing. I have dogs, cat, chickens, goats, finches and canaries. In the future hope to have many more in number and variety. I'm lucky enough to have a partner who puts up with my obsessions.

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), January 08, 2001.

I'm the oldest child. I love animals, I have 4 dogs, 3 cats, 3 horses, 21 chickens, and a dairy goat (she's bred). My oldest daughter likes animals but my youngest is obsessed like me.

My youngest is already worrying about slaughtering the pig and beefer that we haven't purchased yet.

-- Stacy Rohan (KincoraFarm@aol.com), January 08, 2001.

I am the middle child (2 older bros.,2 younger sisters). I have the wider variety of critters. My youngest sister is into showing boxer dogs (she's getting # 3 in s few weeks), but no one else in the family has the cats, dogs, rabbits and chickens (not to mention the bees) in the numbers that we do. I don't think it's so much the birth order, but perhaps the gender?

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), January 08, 2001.

I am the youngest of six. I was not spoiled. I got blamed for everything. I never got new clothes i got hand me downs, which i was satisfied with and sometimes so happy that i got my sister's favorite sweater! We only had a couple of cats when i was in grade school (except for the racoon that my brother brought home). We lived in a town of 16,000. Now i live on a small farmstead near a town of 1200 people in south dakota. I have 21 sheep, 10 ducks, 1 dog, six cats (that i know of) and a husband. I especially love the cats. I would have a cat farm of 10,000 if my husband would let me. so as to birth order and animals, i don't think it matters. All my siblings live in the cities and they have cats and dogs and probably treat them as dearly as i treat mine.

-- JoAnn (jonehls@excite.com), January 08, 2001.

Hey, this is fun, Renee! ' I am the youngest of five. Taking up the last place isn't always a position of being spoiled either. Hand me down everything including animals, and having less say in everything simply because of age.

I have 4 dogs in the house, but only in the kitchen if they are shedding real heavily or when it's wet out. I also have two house cats, one who inspired my email addy...she is the most insistent customer I have! I also have two barn cats whom I adore, I think I like them more because I don't have to "bus" a litter box for them. I also have goats and chickens and guineas.

In my family my eldest sister (#2) would always get animals and then I would inherit them when she got too busy for it all. I also was talked out of my life savings at ten to purchase the rear end of a horse with her. She likes animals, but I think she is more into the idea of it than the reality.

My brother (#1) only son.....took an interest in homesteading about three years ago and he and my parents now have cattle together and some chickens. My other two sisters like animals, one has two cats and one has two dogs, but when they came to visit me they said it was like being on Noah's Ark! They think I am fully nuts for doing all of this myself....maybe they're right, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), January 08, 2001.

I am the oldest, with 3 younger brothers. They all like dogs, but that's about it. Mostly they think I must have been adopted. I took wild baby rabbits and birds that my brother's naughty dog brought home and carried them around in a shoe box at school so I could feed them every hour or so.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

I am sixth out of seven. Out of those, I am the only one doing anything agricultural/animal related. Just dogs and cats, no gardens, for the others.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 09, 2001.

well,she seems wrong.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 09, 2001.

Well Renee, your theory fits my family. Hubby & I are both first born and love animals, our eldest does too. Eldest does most of the daily livestock chores, the youngest thinks the animals are only okay. My brother gets culture shock when he visits us (high-tech job, lives in CA), hubby's brothers & their wives have dogs & cats & small pets - no homesteading instincts with any of them.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), January 09, 2001.

Renee I and the 7th of 8 girls most of us were farm raised but #5 and myself are the only two that enjoy having animals that is livestock, the others enjoy birds and cats. Have a great day.

-- tracy emily in TN (emilyfarms@tsixroads.com), January 09, 2001.

I am the baby of the family. 2 brothers are 7 and 12 years older than me. My mom wanted a girl, and she kept tryin till she got one! She was 40 when she had me. Yes, I was spoiled, by everyone. We all rode horses, but I am the only one who took up livestock for a living, and has any now. I took off for the Wild West as soon as I finished school. My brothers are high-tech city boys now, not even a garden, just pet dogs. One works in a casino doing sound, and one is a computer and audio genius.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 09, 2001.

I am the middle child and I am the only one who has/or has had almost every animal there is! My oldest child(daughter) loves animals--any and everything. My middle child is more of a people person--animals are ok but she would not go buy one or bring one home. My youngest(male) is animal crazy. Brings everything home...Never found anything he didn't like!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), January 09, 2001.

WHAT!?! Am I the only "only child" on here? I am biologically an only, but seems like someone was always living with us. The young man I refer to as my brother lived with us for 9 years - try dropping a two year old in on a teenager and watch the fun begin! Bro has 2 younger half brothers who lived with his Dad/Step-Mom.

I have my cats and dogs and chickens now, and have had about every "normal" farm animal in the past. Bro lives in town and has a couple of pet cats. Hubby is a middle, he's had dogs; but his older Sis raises and shows Shelties and works at a no kill shelter. My daughter has an older half-sister but has been raised pretty much as an only - she has had cats, dogs, fish, rodents and now, a bunny. Mom wasn't all that keen on critters (7 out of 12), but Pop likes them about like I do (#3/10). Hmmmm - don't think I proved or disproved anything, did I!?

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), January 10, 2001.

I'm the oldest. My 1/2 sister Brenda might mess up her nails if she had to feed animals. My oldest daughter is studying to be a vet, my middle child is fond of animals, my youngest is nuts about chickens! When my oldest still lived at home we had a zoo. Everything from hedgehogs to tarantulas!

-- Linda (wklkmorgan@ifriendly.com), January 10, 2001.

I'm the middle child from Julie's family, and I am an animal lover as well -- I'm just not AS crazy as she is. I'm only on my second horse and the most pet birds I've had at one time was 15 (down to 10 now).

My brother, as the eldest and the only son, was catered to, and my sister, as the baby (and sometimes the squeakiest wheel), was catered to as well. It went to his head and took a LONG time for him to get over; as for baby sister, for all the spoiling she got, she also got a lot of tormenting, so I guess it evened out!

I think JLS has a point -- notice that it is mostly women/girls who have/had the menageries!

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 11, 2001.

I'm the youngest of two. My brother's into rock formations and jazz not animals.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 12, 2001.

Well, my brother and I both have menageries. He is exactly 6 years older than I am. He and I are both more Mothering than our spouses. Go figure! Between the two of us we have at least a dozen dogs, a dozen cats, chickens, cows and the assorted things that the kids drag in. His are all in his house in the city. We have most of ours outside in the barn. Very interesting question!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), January 13, 2001.

Interesting questions I'am finding on the forum today!! I am the oldest in my family and I would say I like animals only a little more than my younger brother of 6 years. But I do have three boys and the middle son is far better around and with animals than his two brothers combined. My youngest son does like chickens pretty good. I see him carying one around almost every day! Now My husband was raised on a dairy farm and he sees animals only for their eatebility. Not for pleasure as that takes money

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), January 13, 2001.

First born, died in the wool animal nut, my first words, according to my father, were "Draw me a pony please!" at 11 months old, which progressed to "May I have a pony please?" and "Why can't we keep a pony in the garage, Dad?" and on and on..... covering the gamut of all farm animals, didn't help that Grandpap was a dairy farmer and I saw and wanted all of the resident animals there monthly or more often.

My uncle says that I'm the re-incarnation of his Dad, and that as I get older, the more I act and think like him, and when we live, in the boonies in the foothills of the Allegheny Front, he would have adored. Pap was the counties biggest animal nut, life can be strange.....

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 14, 2001.

Annie! I think you're Julie's long-lost twin! LOL!

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 15, 2001.

Hi Renee

Both my husband and i are the oldest of three. We are both peaceful animal loving people. None of my siblings care much for animals and they sort of think i'm odd. My Husbands youngest brother is an animal lover too. Here is one for you! Visiting my Grandmother early in our marriage, i made a remark about my husband being so good with children. She said that men that are good with animals will be good with children. She claims it is a patience thing. Who can say, but my husband is and excellant Father and Uncle.

-- Shau Marie (shau@centurytel.net), January 15, 2001.

I am the youngest and the only one that ever showed interest in animals and farming. I was also the only one of us that took a job in a stable in high school.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 15, 2001.

Shau Marie, I'm thinking a man who is good with animals would also make a good husband!

Based on the variety of answers here, I don't think birth order has much to do with it. IMO, of course. Sorry, Renee!

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 15, 2001.

I am an "only child". Have always loved animals and had animals even though my parents didn't care for them much. Now have a wide assortment and three children. Twins who rode horses now could care less about animals and don't own any and a son who thinks all the animals are ok. I don't know how much money I could have saved without all the animals, but do know how much happiness they bring. Sometimes money does buy happiness/// (ya'll know what I mean...)

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), January 15, 2001.