While today, we may cuddle with our cats, run with our dogs, and listen to our birds ask for crackers over and over and over again, folks back in the day had a different idea. Enter the wolves, badgers and Dik-diks that served as our parents and grandparents' faithful friends.
From raccoons to bears, here are 19 strange creatures our grandparents actually kept as pets.
1
“My mom with her pet deer Henry 1960.”
2
“My great-grandpa doing mountain man stuff with his pet bear cub. (1910).”
3
“Found this picture of me and my pet raccoon fishing together. He'd wait for me to catch and reel in a fish so he could grab it and eat it. Late-1980s.”
4
“My dad and his pet monkey. Circa. 1966, Guinea.”
5
“My grandfather in 1958 with his fresh new haircut and 5 pet flying squirrels.”
6
“My grandma and her pet mountain lion (1980s).”
8
“My great uncle and his pet badger, Digger (1960s).”
9
“My dad and his veterinarian mother, with their pet lion which they raised for two years, 1959.”
10
“My dad in the mid to late '70s with his pet bear. He rescued it from a biker gang that were keeping it held with heavy chains, to the point that it had worn off it's hair and was damaging the skin.”
11
“My Great Lakota Grandmother and her pet Raccoon.”
12
“My father and his pet lion, Priscilla // California 1970s.”
13
“[1996] A random man picked me up on a street in Arkansas and put me on his pet bear. It attacked a lady moments later.”
15
“My dad and his pet crow in the 1960s.”
16
“My sister and I with a friend's pet Dik-dik, 1968.”
20
“My dad in college with his pet cougar, Spencer. 1993.”
21
“A former teacher of mine drinking a pint with his pet fox, Gemima. Circa 1980.”
22
“My hippie mother holding someone’s pet raccoon some time in the late ‘60s.”
23
“My dad and his beloved pet duck that he raised from an egg. 1994.”
24
“My grandfather and his pet timber wolf 1970s.”
25
“My mom Circa: early 1940s. With her pet badger. She had two of them. One male, and one female.”
![“[1996] A random man picked me up on a street in Arkansas and put me on his pet bear. It attacked a lady moments later.”](https://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/2025/02/10/062529/87668246/Screenshot 2025-02-10 at 6.02.50 PM.jpg)
