Funny Memories and a coyote heart

I have become addicted to this blog Tierd. It is one of Hilary's friends (and I've never met her), but she writes about her family and especially her kids. I am completely addicted and always look forward to a new post, and she is really good about posting every day or at least every other day (unlike moi). Anywho, her posts sometimes remind me of silly/ funny memories of me and my sister - like this one.

In Madisonville, all the kindergarten classes take a class trip to my dad's vet clinic (or at least they used to) to see how a vet clinic works and learn about animal health, etc. My parents would remove all the animals in the kennels and would replace them with me and my sister's stuffed animals. So when the kids took a tour, they would see pink bunny rabbits, Care Bears, and Poppels behind the bars instead of depressed, sick dogs and cats. Anywho, my dad had an office in the clinic where he did his work. On his desk, he had animal bones, specimen jars, and other doctor type accessories, but one really caught my attention- a jar containing a coyote heart with heart worms.

However, I need to back track a little. My sister is four years older than me and was born premature - very premature. She was tiny at birth, and I believe her lungs weren't fully developed (but I could be making that up). Anywho, somehow as a kid, I learned this information and knew that when Abra was born, she wasn't completely healthy and had to stay in the hospital. So begins the delusions of a six year old.

When my class visited my dad's vet clinic, of course I showed off. I would point to the stuffed animals and say "that one is MINE, and that one is Abra's" and tell them their names, etc. When we got to my dad's office, and I think our teacher and my dad must have stepped out for a minute because I don't remember any adults being there, I began telling my classmates all about my sister's problems at birth. I pointed to the coyote heart and told them what I believed was the truth at the time. "That jar is my sister's heart. When she was born she needed a new one so my dad gave them the coyote heart, and they put hers back in that jar."

Yup, I told my kindergarten class that my sister had a coyote heart, and her "real" heart was sitting on my dad's desk in this vet clinic. Although this is a ridiculous lie, I really believed it. I have no idea when I realized that it wasn't true, but up until about 3rd grade I think most of my friends believed me. And Carnell Craft, a boy in my class, asked me about this lie whenever we graduated high school. So I'm sorry Abra that I told everyone you had a coyote heart, but isn't that a great story.