My Dad occasionally rescued animals from his place of work (a 1960s lab). A few of them became pets. This may be how we got started with hamsters. Dad talked for a short while about bringing home a monkey, but that idea dissolved.
There were lines about which pets were okay, and which were not. We could have hamsters, but there was a ban on guinea pigs. Fish were permitted, but snails were prohibited. We held onto this caiman for a short time, but my Parents feared turtles because they can carry salmonella. For a few months, we had a wild rabbit—an animal that bit and couldn't be housetrained—but a cat could not cross the threshold. Complicated.
I think Dad turned the caiman over to a zoo after a while. I guarantee that it did not get released into the nearby Des Plaines River.
Suburban Chicago, 1963. Dad placed a plywood ledge in the tub so the caiman could look around.
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