"Animal House" is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. It stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulce annd Donald Sutherland.
The film is about a trouble-making fraternity whose members challenge the authority of the dean of the fictional Faber College.
This hugely successful film, critically and financially, was the first in a series of movies under the National Lampoon name.
[Film poster courtesy of Wikipedia]
During the 1970s and early 1980s, a few films were made as spin-offs from the original National Lampoon magazine, using some of the magazine's creative staff to put together the outline and script, and were cast using some of the same actors that performed in The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
"Animal House" became one of the highest-grossing comedy films of all time.
This article has absolutely nothing to do with the film, by the way.
Me and my animals
There are certain animals that I really love.
These include elephants, sea-horses, geckoes, tortoises, dogs and cats.
Clearly, I've never had an elephant as a pet, nor a sea-horse, but geckoes are everywhere, and tortoises from time to time. And since I've lived in Spain I've had a dog and three cats.
[Image courtesy of Freepik]
Elephants
I began collecting elephants in around 1980. I was living in Cheshire at the time and one of my neighbours, Mrs Williams, a widow, had a problem with her washing machine. I offered to take a look, did a bit of plumbing and fixed the problem. Her house was full of elephants that she had collected from all over the world.
I was impressed and started to assemble my own collection.
45 years later, now living in Spain, I still have a huge collection, which I still add to from time to time.
[Elephants by Easy Live Auction]
Sea-horses
These fascinating creatures entered my consciousness around 1998. I started a "liaison" with Anne, a colleague from Twickenham. Since I lived in Cheshire our opportunities to meet were somewhat restricted. We were both languages advisers for our respective LEAs so we had chances to attend conferences.
A sea-horse [Beachcombing Magazine]
Apart from introducing me to the groups Radio Tarifa and Buena Vista Social Club, she introduced me to a life I didn't know. On one occasion we were at a conference in Brighton and we visited an aquarium where we were fascinated by the sea-horses. Lo and behold, shortly afterwards I received a small plaster-cast of a sea-horse through the Post. I still have it. It hangs proudly on a wall on my roof terrace at Casa Real, Montejaque (Malaga).
I have others too, but Anne's little blue one remains my favourite.
Geckoes
We have loads of geckoes where we live in Andalucia (Spain). They're behind every light, picture, inside and outside of the house. I love 'em. They prey on mozzies. Yes!
Apart from these live pets, I have a number of ornaments and fridge magnets.
[photo of a gecko by Reddit]
Tortoises
Occasionally we come across a live one, but most are ornaments.
Cats
When we lived in Montejaque in 2009/10, I got Rita a lovely kitten, Cleo. Sadly she was murdered by a beastly German lady neighbour.
Elke admitted it and boasted about it, but when I reported the poisoning to the guardia civil, they did nothing about it.
We've recently acquired two strays.
Pauline (Paulinchen) as we called her, came to us from the rubbish dump 200 metres away. She had seemingly been dumped there by her owner.
Paulinchen was so sweet, we decided to adopt her. We went to the vet to get her checked out. He-deloused her, got rid of her fleas and injected a chip into her neck. Later when she was old enough he sterilised her. When she got injured he fixed her too. Pets aren't cheap by the way!
Recently, another little cat got hit by a car outside our house. Three days later I found her hiding at the back of our garden. She was injured so we brought her into the house and fed her and set up a bed.
Fritzi having a cat-nap [Photo: Paul Whitelock]
At the first available opportunity we took this second cat to the vet, where he examined her and concluded she had a dislocated hip. He thought it would re-set itself. He gave her a treatment for fleas and anti-biotics for the injury.
After two days living with us she "did a runner". Yet she constantly came looking for food. Fritzi, as we have named her, now sleeps in our house and eats there also.
So, she's basically ours now.
We've had her sterilised because she was getting a lot of attention from male cats. That's been done and the problem of visiting tomcats has disappeared.
Dogs
We've had one dog. A beautiful chocolate-coloured pointer called Berti. A rescue dog, and a total nut-case. Despite that she was a lovely affectionate animal.
Berti was a difficult dog. We acquired her during the Covid pandemic, which presented other challenges. Rita was seriously ill in hospital with the Coronavirus and I was at the end of my tether. Kind friends took Berti from time to time to give me a break.
Berti with friend Cocoa [Photo: Paul Whitelock]
Then, my friend Jose offered to take Berti off my hands. I agreed. Shortly afterwards Berti was run over and killed.
***
So, that's me and the animals in my "Animal House".
© Pablo de Ronda
Links:
Cat killer on the loose in Andalucian village - Olive Press News Spain
RIP Berti - Secret Serrania de Ronda
Covid-19 is a bastard! Don’t mess with it! A cautionary tale of our times
5 years of Covid-19 - The last post
Music by Radio Tarifa and articles about the band, sadly now defunct:
Radio Tarifa - Mañana (Official Audio)
Journey to the hard extreme – Extremadura – Part 1
Radio Tarifa - Wikipedia
Whatever happened to RADIO TARIFA? - Eye on Spain
Music and film by the Buena Vista Social Club:
Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan (Official HD Video)
Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan (Official Lyric Video)
Pictures:
Beachcombing Magazine, Easy Live Auction, Freepik, Paul Whitelock, Reddit, Wikipedia
Tags:
"Animal House", Anne, Berti, Buena Vista Social Club. cat, Cleo, Cocoa, convalescence, Coronavirus, Covid, Cuba, Dana, dog, elephant, Elke, Eye on Spain, fridge magnet, Fritzi, gecko, Jojo, Jose, kitten, Montejaque, operation, Paulinchen, Pauline, Pablo de Ronda, Paul Whitelock, Puntos de vista, Radio Tarifa, RIP Berti, Rita, Ronda, sea-horse, Secret Serrania, tortoise, The Olive Press, tumour, Wikipedia