Cindy has always loved animals and we had many in our home while she was growing up. In this picture, she’s with her pet rat and Sammy, one of our very special dogs. The
rat was not special as far as I was concerned. It turned out the rat gave me a rash, but the dermatologist couldn’t figure out what was causing the rash until I’d had many skin tests. So in the meantime, he prescribed a certain medication, and I gave myself a shot every day. I first practiced on a grapefruit, pretending I was giving a shot to someone on the verge of dying. I saved many imaginary lives while I learned. When I got the hang of it, I started on myself, using the actual medication, not water. I became quite proficient at it and even considered going back to school for a nursing degree.

When I was through with the needle each day, Cindy and Randy, the boy down the street, would take the needle and play doctor. They would shoot up a rubber doll with water and also operate on the doll, sewing up its incisions with black thread Cindy says they got from my sewing basket. Now if that happened these days, I would be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of small children, and my children would have been taken away from me. Who knows what would have happened to Randy, and I’m sure his mom would have been really pissed at me. But Cindy and Randy grew up just fine, and no one was ever arrested. But they never became doctors, so all that training was for naught.

My dermatologist finally discovered what caused the rash after I told him what happened when Cindy put the rat on my neck! So the rat went to live at a friend’s house. I don’t see that friend anymore.

When I realized I couldn’t heal the rubber doll the kids had “doctored” - it had turned black from all the water inside it - I gave up the idea of going to nursing school. I don’t think I was really cut out for it. I had much better luck with grapefruits.