Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 29

NEWS FEATURE SECTION SIOUX CITY, IOWA, SUNDAY, JULY 23, 1961 waa rets nring Infinite Variety Into Siouxland Households Smratal BY MARK MILLER JUNIOR comes home holding a garter snake and an i is ice cream cones, green grapes and pork chops. Their table manners aren't very good yet, but Melody is learning how to use a spoon. The two little creatures are intelligent, playful and affectionate. Their greatest excitement is to visit school once or, twice a year with Betty Bean, or go shopping with the They can identify the family car from all o.thers in a parking lot and chatter like 4 magpies they get within a 'block of home. Fortner's Collection Edward G.

Fortner, 1201 Linn, differs from other pet lowers in that his collection of animals is part of his professional life, Jle was graduated from Morningside college last June-and this fall -will teach biology at Leeds "high nounces that he is going to raise this reptile to snakehood as his personal buddy and pet, don't become alarmed, the boy is neither a screwball nor a beatnik. You have that on expert authority. In gone times pet meant dogs, cats or birds and that was about it. Today it's monkeys, snakes, alligators, skunks, turtles, chameleons, toads or what have you. And the pet shops are doing a land-office business.

During the days of Peck's Bad Boy when a kid put a pet white mouse in the teacher's desk with resulting uproar and hallabaloo, he could be'expelled from school, disgraced, shunned and get his hindside tanned good and proper by papa's razor strop. Today the chances are pretty good the teacher would pick up the mouse and say, "Well hello, blondie, what pink eyes you have!" Normal Turn "The turn to odd pets is perfectly normal and in Jceeping with the times," said Dr. Philip F. H. Pugh, psychiatrist.

"Today, schools teach more zoology than ever before. Children are now familiar with animals which were formerly considered creatures to -be avoided. Both children and parents are spending more money on pets and pet. shops have a greatly expanded variety of animals to choose, from." Parents generally are going along with the trend. In a left-handed way they are learning about animals from junior.

Time was when a boy brought home a little garden snake and proudly put him on the' floor, mama jumped on a chair and screamed like crazy. Bad behavior. This frightened the poor little snake half to death and he hurried under a davenport to hide. 1,000 or More Not less than 1,000 "odd" pets populate Siouxland according to pet shop operators, not counting dozens of those domesticated directly from wildlife without going through commercial channels. Among the most enthusiastic of the offbeat pet lovers is Mrs.

Margaret Bean, 1418 Sioux City, whose two squirrel monkeys. Melody and fail to attract attention wherever they go. Melody is two years old and Dixie is 15 months. Their native home is the jungle of Peru. They came here from a pet shop in Florida.

Melody and Dixie may not be the largest nor the smallest nor even the brightest monkeys in Siouxland, but 1 they are probably the best dressed. Between them they have 35 dresses and a suitcase full of diapers, coats, sweaters, bonnets and nightgowns. They sleep in their own beds, eat at the table like humans and suffer from the same ills that plague people, such as colds and flu. They will eat everything humans eat, buLtheir favorite food school. His collection, housed in his home, contains nine snakes, a 19-inch alligator, 100 red fox, a great horned owl, mice and turtles.

Most notorious fish characters in his aquarjum are two baby Piranha, one of most vicious forms of underwater life. They grow to the size of a bluegill and will attack anything alive, including each other. They have 36 rows of teeth, all sharp as stilettos. The 'gator eats 12 minnows a week, loves crayfish and will take off the end of your finger in one bite if he gets a chance. The great horned owl, night Cruiser that flies silently, eats birds and is fond of rats.

When excited 'the owl clicks his bills together and the sound resembles a pair ot Fortner's nine snakes, garter or garden, fox and bull are aUjna-tives of Siouxland and are plentiful along roads, lakes and streams. They are easy to catch, but wear a glove. The little ones under a foot long you can pick up with impunity. Longer than that, put your foot on his head and pick him up behind the head. In that position he is helpless.

Garter and garden snakes less than one-foot long have teeth so spall they can barely scratch human skin. They live on bugs and insects. See PETS on 2 1 I -ry J-' 1 jf "TJk 4Jf Photoa by Newman. itff Dhoiosranher "-w-w 1 f.X' lkjW 1. These are not a couple of endmen in a minstrel show, but Melody and Dixie, female squirrel monkeys and growing in popularity as pets.

They belong to Mrs. Margaret of South Sioux City. Their most exciting experience is to go to school with her daughter Betty, where they are the center of attention. 2v Baby alligators are common in pet shops, even though birds and fish are still the most popular for pets, excluding of course, dogs and cats. Here Jean Bolton of South Sioux City handles a baby 'gator in the pet department of the S.

S. Kresge Co. store. 3. When Edward G.

Fortner begins teaching biology at Leeds this fall, he will be equipped with several forms of animal life which can be used in classroom demonstrations. On his left Mr. Fortner holds a bull snake, with a fox snake at right. Both are classed as harmless to humans. 4.

This Australian honeybear takes a piece of banana from a clerk at the Lincoln Seed and Feed where he is available as a pet. He belongs to the cat family and both eats and sleeps upside down, usually hanging by his tail. 5. Skunks are commonly domesticated Into house pets. This one, Aroma, is described as a quiet, reserved and gentlemanly sort of skunk which has been deodorized.

Mrs. Bean, holding the pet, has been "babysitting" Aroma while his owner, Mrs. Mary Lou Timmons, 1711 Ingleside avenue, has been in California for two weeks. mi 1.