When I was about the age I was holding the cat in the thread about boys, I lived up the street (Arena Avenue, no joke) from an older couple who had a horse. Since things in the home weren't pleasant, I spent a lot of time outdoors and one of my daily jaunts was over to this horse. He;d always walk up and say hi, this was before I thought to take him a carrot or anything. So I got it in my tiny head that I wanted to ride this horse, so I knocked on the door of the people who owned it and they invited me in and explained to me that the horse was too old to ride and he just wanted to relax. They told me his name was King and that he was a retired race horse, the man at the house showed me King's registration tattoo inside his lip, I was forever fascinated that he had a hidden tattoo. So once in their house, I noticed they had musical instrument cases. I was also fascinated with suitcases and brief cases and instrument cases. To make a long story short, they let me borrow their clarinet. I took it home and learned to play it by ear and joined the band. My teacher thought I was a savant since I could pick out tunes on the instrument with no lessons, so she put me in the middle school band. Bad idea because I never learned to read music and it hindered me in class a great deal. Anyway, just thought of that. I have no idea what prompted me to knock on a strangers door asking to ride their horse then to emerge with a borrowed clarinet. THey also had hibernating desert tortoises in the bathtub of their guest bathroom. That was beyond fascinating, that these animals slept nonstop for months. Then one day they'd wake up and scoot around the grassy area in their backyard like slow tiny Volkswagon Beatles eating flowers and lettuce. 
