Nowadays pets can be all kinds of animals. People love and care for their snakes, iguanas, dogs, mice, hedgehogs and countless other species. These strange little animals are normally kept within the safety of their homes, because they’re not the best partners to take out for a walk around the block.
Although we may think that eccentric pets are a recent or millennial thing, we’d be wrong. History proves that weird pets have existed for a really long time and that people want to walk them and bond with them, no matter what their neighbors think.
Here are 5 of the strangest pets that have ever been walked on a leash:
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A Lobster
History says that this strange trend began a really long time ago, with the french poet Gerard de Nerval. During the mid-nineteenth century, he took up the habit of walking around his pet lobster through the streets of Paris. He led his beloved lobster with a leash made out of blue ribbon and when asked, he’d say that he enjoyed walking lobsters because they were peaceful creatures who knew the secrets of the ocean. Cool right?
Of course, a lot of people don’t believe this story because lobsters can’t live outside of water for long periods of time and they also have a lot of trouble moving in land, due to their claws and all. It’s still a cool story though.
Invisible Dogs
The hit novelty item of 1972 was the “invisible dog on a leash”, which was basically a rigid leash attached to a dog harness, that looked like you were really walking an invisible tiny dog. Why, you ask? No clue. The invention was developed by S. David Walker and he sold around 300,000 of these. People will really buy and use anything if it’s trendy.
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Pet Rocks
Pet rocks were created by Gary Dahl and introduced during 1975. The reason people were appealed to them was the fact that, unlike living pets, these rocks demanded minimal care and attention. Still, they came with a manual that said that the rocks could be taught to sit, stay and heel, and then they also started selling rock leashes, just in case you wanted your rock to exercise a little.
Roosters
Unlike the previous two, at least this is a living animal. During 1975 (the 70’s were a popular time for strange pets) residents of Ann Arbour, Michigan complained that their neighbor, Bill Strauch, had decided to walk his pet rooster, Rojo, every morning at 6:30 am. Rojo, being a rooster, crowed and woke the whole neighborhood up.
Cabbages
Chinese artist Han Bing has made a career out of walking strange items. One of his strangest ones was the cabbage on a leash that he walked at Tiananmen Square on 2000, part of his “Walking The Cabbage Project“, which launched his career. Since then, he’s walked iPhones, bricks and coal briquettes.
