general

I used to believe if i touched a cameleon i would change the color of my skin.

Sophie

I used to believe that getting an animal "fixed" meant giving it an operation to make it stop peeing. Now that i have a cat, i can see how that would actually come in handy!

Anon

I used to believe that to catch a rabbit I just had to pour salt on his tail. I never traveled to the country without a handful of salt in my pocket just in case.

essie

Not my belief excactly, but we have a factory right outside town that makes mattresses, and they have a green kangaroo for a logo.
As we were growing up, my friend was convinced that's where they made kangaroos.

Anon

I was walking with my family at the zoo when we saw deer, and my husband said to my children, "Kids, look at the reindeer!" I ARGUED with him in front of loads of people, telling him that reindeer do NOT exist; they're part of the whole Santa thing! These are DEER, not reindeer!" I finally caught on after many people started looking at me strangely... and I was well over twenty-five at the time. :)

A.J. Anthony

My grandma used to have a birdhouse in her front yard, and squirrels would always get to the birdfeed before the birds ever got any and so she'd never have birds flying around like I guess she wanted. She used to stand at the window and get really angry at the squirrels, yelling "Get away from there you little bastards!" and so I grew up assuming that the animals that were after the birdfeed were "bastards". One morning, I noticed them before she did and I could be heard o'er the land screaming "Grandma! Look! I see a bastard already!"
My mom wasn't impressed at the time but we all find it quite amusing now.

Kayte

I used to believe that the twinkling of the stars made the sounds that crickets made.

Anon

I used to believe that those little coin operated barbecues at the zoo were penguin houses and when you pressed the button, all the penguins would come out, angry.

Anon

i used to believe i could go back in time so i could see dinosaurs.

Anon

I used to believe that zebras have detachable stripes.

Anon

I used to think butterflies were made of butter.

Anon

I thought the Vietnamese must really care about their animals as on TV they mentioned Vietnam Vets so often and with such respect.

Silverfin

Yo know how when there are beams of light inside a house you can see the dust particles moving. Well when i was little i thought they were tiny animals like birds so i would put them in a fish tank and place it i my room. I always thought thy had escaped becuz i put them in areas without the light beams so i would run around the house with the tank looking for "them".

Danielle

As a kid, TV had led me to believe that mice were sweet and loving animals that would be my friends. So one day I tried to rescue one from the cat. I shooed Betty away and tried to help the injured rat - and was repayed by getting bitten on the finger! We had to go to hospital, and I received the "don't trust stray animals" lecture.

sophie

My old house used to have cubby holes where squirrels could sneak their way in and you could hear them at night. My sister, doing what older sisters do, told me that squirrels would eat your legs if you got to close. I spent a long part of my childhood terrified of the cute little creatures.

Jessica

My hamster, Charlie, had this annoying habit of running up the chimney when we let him out. I remember all the hours I spent with my family staring up the chimney, watching for any rodent-like movements. Anyway, each time he came down, he would be covered in soot. Since he had gone up a white hamster, and come down a black one, I reasoned that it was in fact a different hamster that came down each time. I thought there was this whole city of hamsters living in our chimney, and whenever one wanted to rejoin his family, he would go up the chimney and another one would be sent down. I think I must have had an overactive imagination.

Anon

i always thought that tigers and lions were the same animal except tigers were girls and lions were boys...i just found out a week or so ago that that's not that case... and i'm almost 16...

aubrey

My mom used to tell me (on long car trips out in the country) to look for the cow-pigs. They were cows with curly tails and pink spots. I would stare out the window forever looking for one (Funny how she always saw them just when I was losing interest but they would always be far off in the distance and I would have to look really carefully for more.)

laura

As a kid I remember being exposed to various books, some showing farm animals, including sheep. At one timd I got the idea that sheep were just as big as cows. Later, perhaps from never having seen any sheep that big, I went through a period of doubting the existence of sheep altogether, thinking sheep must be imaginary beasts that I had dreamed up.

Bryan

I was told by my Dad that mountain goats' right legs were shorter than their left legs so they could walk round and round the mountain, upright. I always believed this up until my teens and probably passed on this misinformation to many of my peers.

Ian