general

When I was about 7, I was at my cousins house and she asked me if I wanted to see her 'gerbil'. I said yes because thought it was a type of precious gemstone!! oops...

Carla

My mother told me that we she was little, her mother (my granny) pointed to the fields at dusk and said "Oh, listen to the quail."

Mom was sure she said "...listen to the whale" and she thought she could she a whale running about in the nearly dark woods across the field. So she refused to play outside all summer for fear of the whale.

Goggy

When I was young, my brothers told me that hammerhead sharks killed you by literally hammering you on the head. I has nightmares about driving through a wave and then being pounded to death by an angry hammerhead!

Nico

When I was small we lived near a dairy farm and I loved cows so much that I invented, and nearly convinced myself, of "horse-cows". The idea was that hamburgers weren't made of cows (the horror!) but rather of meat-eating horse-cows that farmers had to kill anyway in order to protect the other cows. Farmers could distinguish horse-cows from the other cows only by virtue of the fact they whinnied like a horse instead of mooing. At some point I also imagined them to wear red bandanas.

Anon

When I was about 5, I honestly believed pheasants were robots made out of metal bins with wobbly arms and would sit in fields making strange bird noises.

Tanith

When my husband and I first met he shared with me that he believed all zebra's were extinct. He had never seen one and would not believe me until I took him to the zoo and physically made him look at one.

White or Black Stripes

While driving threw the mountains, my dad would barely swerve over to hit the rumble strips and he'd tell me they were mountain cows. Somehow, I could never see them. After awhile my older brother caught on and helped out my dad by telling me that mountain cows eat barbie hair. I had a death grip while holding my barbies head out the window, and when I'd turn away from the window my dad would hit the rumble strips and I'd yank my barbie into the car as fast as I can. I believed in mountain cows until I was about 8...

Kristine

That there was one dinosaur still left - the Rhinosaurus. When my teacher told me it's pronounced "rhinoceros" I thought, "poTAYto/poTAHto, it still looks like a dinosaur to me."

Mashplum

My parents bought a souvenir starfish back from the Bahamas. I used to believe if you place it in water it would re-hydrate and come alive, then stick to my arm or face and never let go. I somewhat still believe this and won't touch it!

Brittany

I thought cows and bulls were a separate species, which is understandable. You cannot blame me. You can only call nature ridiculous for making cows female and bulls male.

Trisha Gaurav

When I was a little boy I used to burn ants with a magnifying glass until my tree was in fire so I stopped that because my dad was very angry

Damso

Until I was about four and a bit my father had me convinced that Friesian cows were called "big cats".

Chris

I used to believe that if you encountered a skunk and it sprayed you, you would have to go home and get rid of all your clothes. I'd heard my folks talking about someone they knew who encountered one on a fishing trip "...and she had to burn all her clothes." I was terrified I'd run into a skunk because I had a dress at home I really liked and I wouldn't want to have to go home and burn it.

Kathy

I was raised in the city so growing up was not exposed to many animals. When I was 6 on a cross-country trip to visit relatives with my family. My father pointed out some cows and said "Look how fat those horses are!" I believed him and continued to think cows were just fat horses for a very long time.

quinn

I used to believe that dogs were male and cats were female, rabbits were male and squirrels were female, snakes were maaale and spiders were female, etc. I had all the animals paired up is similar fashion -- horses & cows, frogs & toads, etc.

Anon

I used to believe that DoorMice lived in your doors and that they would burrow through it into the house, leaving a small hole in the door.

Phill

When I was small, I sat up one night watching Jaws. It absolutely terrified me and gave me an incredible fear of sharks - so much so that as a child I would never even sleep in blue sheets in case Jaws would come and get me (blue being the colour of the sea obviously! Well, it made sense to me!).

NidNad

My older brother, a vet, brought home the hind leg of a horse for my birthday - in july when i was 7. I truly believed that he would be able to collect more bits for me and sew them all together and 'boost' its heart so that i'd have my very own pony!! I was devastated 3 weeks later when no more limbs had arrived and my 'horse' dissappeared from the garden - my parents had deemed it unhygienic and disposed of it!

Sarah

have you ever seen the commercials for the cadburry eggs they have at easter? it's basically just a bunny sitting there next to a basket of the eggs.

as a direct result of this advertising campaign, a friend of mine used to believe until 9th grade that rabbits layed eggs.

hester prynne

i used to believe (because my friend who owned a ginea pig said) that if pick up a ginea pig and arent careful, then its eyes will fall out

gorgeous b