pets blog cover

English Listening Practice About Pets (All Levels)

Animals are fun to talk about, but pets are even better! It’s no surprise that, as a cat owner, I love to chat about animals. 😻

The first thing you find out about a pet is usually its name, and then what? I know, I know—and then everything else! Pet owners could talk forever about their pets. 😹

So, let’s do it! Let’s practice talking about every single thing we love to talk about related to our pets, shall we?

We won’t stop at their favorite toy. We’ll get into their quirks and even the lessons we’ve learned over the years (especially what we’ll never do again, hehe, lesson learned 🙀).

 Pet Descriptions | Basic

Pre-Listening

Write 9 animals that are good pets. 

During Listening

Listen to me describe 9 different pets. Guess which animal I am describing. Are they the same animals from your list?

Post-Listening

Check the transcript or go to the end of the blog post to confirm your answers. 

Choose one pet to describe. Can you describe it for 30 seconds? 

00:00:01

Pet descriptions.

00:00:05

Hi, this is Language Learning Report Card Podcast.

00:00:10

I’m Vickie Kelty.

00:00:12

I teach English online, focusing on speaking.

00:00:18

Today, I want you to talk about pets.

00:00:25

I am going to describe a pet.

00:00:30

and you have to tell me what pet I’m describing.

00:00:39

Ready?

00:00:41

Pet #1.

00:00:45

This pet is small.

00:00:49

It has two ears, four small legs,

00:00:58

It is usually a neutral color.

00:01:07

It’s maybe brown or white or orange, like a brown, orange combination.

00:01:24

It is different colors.

00:01:30

It is small, but it can move fast.

00:01:38

It runs.

00:01:42

It sleeps.

00:01:46

It likes to be in a blanket.

00:01:55

It makes

00:02:00

It is difficult to describe the sound it makes.

00:02:07

I guess it’s a chirping sound like eee eee eee eee It lives in a cage and

00:02:26

It has toys in its cage, so it can do the activities it likes.

00:02:34

And it eats vegetables like spinach or carrots.

00:02:43

Do you know what pet I’m describing?

00:02:49

The second pet is very small.

00:02:56

It is tiny.

00:03:00

It has fins.

00:03:04

It is different colors.

00:03:10

One common color is orange.

00:03:16

It is black or blue or lots of colors.

00:03:26

It swims.

00:03:29

It sometimes jumps in the water.

00:03:36

It makes a sound like glub, glub, glub, glub.

00:03:45

It lives in an aquarium or a fishbowl.

00:03:51

It eats fish food.

00:03:54

and its favorite activity is to go swimming.

00:04:03

Do you know what animal I’m describing?

00:04:08

The third animal is small or medium or large.

00:04:23

It has lots of sizes.

00:04:28

It has four legs, 4 paws, a tail, two ears, and it can have long ears or short ears, a long tail or a short tail.

00:04:50

It is

00:04:52

usually a neutral color.

00:04:56

It is sometimes brown or white or black or yellow.

00:05:08

My friends have one and theirs is gray.

00:05:18

It runs.

00:05:21

It jumps.

00:05:23

It sits.

00:05:26

It rolls over.

00:05:30

It plays a lot.

00:05:33

It loves the game fetch.

00:05:39

It loves playing with sticks or a ball.

00:05:48

It barks, which sounds like ruff, ruff, ruff.

00:05:57

It lives in a house or it lives outside in a doghouse.

00:06:08

It eats dog food.

00:06:12

What pet is it?

00:06:18

Pet #4.

00:06:21

It is a small pet or medium or sometimes very big.

00:06:33

It doesn’t have legs.

00:06:38

It has a long tongue.

00:06:44

It is green.

00:06:46

or black.

00:06:50

It has different colors.

00:06:53

It also has scales.

00:06:58

It slithers.

00:07:01

It doesn’t walk or run, but it moves fast.

00:07:10

The sound it makes is sssss

00:07:16

It lives in a terrarium, which is similar to an aquarium for fish, but the terrarium is good for animals that don’t live in water.

00:07:42

You can have your tarantula

00:07:46

in a terrarium.

00:07:49

You can have your turtle or your frogs in a terrarium.

00:07:57

And you can have this pet in a terrarium.

00:08:05

This pet eats small animals like mice or maybe baby rabbits.

00:08:16

It likes to escape from the terrarium and hide in your house.

00:08:30

Be careful.

00:08:32

What pet is it?

00:08:37

#5.

00:08:39

This pet is

00:08:44

small or medium size.

00:08:48

It has wings, a tail, a beak,

00:08:55

and two feet.

00:08:59

It is bright colors.

00:09:05

For example, blue or green or yellow or a combination.

00:09:14

It flies.

00:09:16

It jumps.

00:09:18

It walks.

00:09:21

It tweets.

00:09:24

which sounds like, tweet, tweet.

00:09:30

That’s my perfect imitation.

00:09:36

It lives in a birdcage.

00:09:40

It eats seeds and nuts.

00:09:46

Sometimes it talks.

00:09:51

What pet is it?

00:09:55

Pet #6.

00:09:57

This animal is small.

00:10:03

It has four legs, a small tail, and two big ears.

00:10:15

It is a neutral color like brown, maybe gray or white.

00:10:24

I think. It jumps.

00:10:30

I don’t know the sound.

00:10:35

Maybe similar to the sound of pet number one.

00:10:44

It lives in a cage.

00:10:49

It eats grass or vegetables.

00:10:55

It loves carrots for dessert.

00:11:01

Be careful because it likes to eat cords, like your phone cord or your computer cord.

00:11:13

So be careful.

00:11:16

What pet is it?

00:11:20

Pet #7.

00:11:23

is small or medium size.

00:11:29

Sometimes it is also big, but not as big as pet number three.

00:11:40

It has four legs, four paws, a tail, two ears,

00:11:50

usually two triangle ears and whiskers.

00:11:58

Some other pets also have whiskers.

00:12:05

It is usually a neutral color like brown, white, black, gray.

00:12:20

I have two of this pet and one is white and orange and the other is 3 colors, white, black, and a light brown.

00:12:42

This pet runs, jumps, sits,

00:12:50

and its favorite activity is sleeping.

00:12:57

It says meow.

00:13:01

It sounds like meow, meow.

00:13:07

It lives inside or outside.

00:13:13

It eats cat food.

00:13:17

What pet is it?

00:13:21

Pet #8 is very small, but it is bigger than pet #2.

00:13:34

This pet has four small legs, two small ears, and I think a small tail also.

00:13:47

It is

00:13:50

neutral colors like brown or white.

00:13:56

It runs and jumps.

00:14:02

It loves playing in a hamster wheel and running and running and running.

00:14:13

I don’t know what sound it makes.

00:14:17

Maybe it’s also similar to pet number one.

00:14:26

It lives in a cage and it eats seeds and different cereal.

00:14:35

Do you know the pet I’m describing?

00:14:44

Our last pet

00:14:46

Pet #9 is medium or big, but not big like pet #3.

00:15:02

It has a long tail.

00:15:07

It has four legs.

00:15:10

It has claws.

00:15:15

Some other pets also have claws, like pet number 7.

00:15:23

It is green.

00:15:27

It walks or runs.

00:15:33

But it loves climbing.

00:15:39

Its favorite activity is climbing trees.

00:15:44

And

00:15:46

It loves to be in the sun.

00:15:51

I don’t know what sound it makes.

00:15:57

It eats vegetables and it loves fruits for dessert.

00:16:07

It lives in a terrarium when it’s small.

00:16:16

Do you know what animal this is?

00:16:20

Okay, that finishes all nine animals.

00:16:30

Now, can you describe the pets?

00:16:37

What other pets can you describe?

00:16:42

Can you describe more information about my pets?

00:16:51

Before we finish, remember to evaluate yourself.

00:16:59

How comfortable do you feel describing pets?

00:17:06

Satisfactory or development needed?

00:17:11

Use this information to decide to listen to this episode again or listen to a new episode.

00:17:25

And remember, you can confirm your guesses about what animal I am describing, and also you can find more listening practice

00:17:41

At VickieKelty.com, that’s all from me.

00:17:46

Bye.


What you Should and Shouldn’t Do With Your Pets | Intermediate

Pre-Listening

Think of a pet. Use the first pet you think of.

List 5 things you should do with that pet. 

List 5 things you shouldn’t do with that pet.

During Listening

Compare what I say with your lists. Do we think the same about anything? Where do we differ? 

Post-Listening

Expand on your list. Include reasons for why you should and shouldn’t do the 10 things from your original list. If you’ve changed your mind about anything on your list, this is the perfect time to change your answer. 😉

00:00:01

What you should and shouldn’t do with your pets.

00:00:07

Hi, this is Language Learning Report Card Podcast.

00:00:11

I’m Vickie Kelty.

00:00:12

I teach English online, focusing on speaking, and today I want you to talk about what you should and shouldn’t do with your pets.

00:00:25

Not just any pets.

00:00:27

I have nine specific pets, and I’m going to share what I think you should and shouldn’t do with each of those pets.

00:00:38

But what I want you to do is share what you think you should and shouldn’t do with the pets that I mention.

00:00:49

Maybe we think differently.

00:00:52

It’s very possible.

00:00:55

So our first pet is a dog.

00:01:00

And I think that dogs should definitely have a place where they can be outside because they love to run around.

00:01:13

I think even those teeny tiny little dogs, like the little Chihuahuas, love to run around outside.

00:01:20

So they shouldn’t be holed up in the house

00:01:25

all day.

00:01:26

They need to have some outdoor time.

00:01:30

Don’t you think?

00:01:33

For cats, our second pet, I really think that they should have opportunities to play, especially if they’re like my cats, that they live only indoors.

00:01:54

I don’t think they need to live indoor and outdoor like a dog, but they should be free to, well, they should have a lot of space where they can play and run

00:02:18

even if it’s indoors, because they have a lot of energy and they need to have things that test their mind, I guess.

00:02:30

I know that my cats are naughtier when we don’t give them time to play.

00:02:37

The next pet is a snake.

00:02:43

I’ve never had a snake before, so I’m not

00:02:48

really sure about what you need to be careful about with snakes.

00:02:58

But I did hear on Drew Barrymore’s TV show that snakes can escape very easily from their cages or their terrariums or wherever you are keeping your snake.

00:03:15

So

00:03:16

I would think you should make sure to have an enclosure that is difficult to escape from if you’re going to have a snake.

00:03:30

What do you think?

00:03:32

You tell me what I should and shouldn’t do with a snake.

00:03:37

Although I don’t think I’m ever going to get a snake.

00:03:40

Definitely not.

00:03:43

Just in case.

00:03:45

Next we have birds.

00:03:49

This is another pet I haven’t had before, but I do know that you need to feed your birds.

00:04:04

So I think you should definitely make sure that you have the correct

00:04:12

type of food for your bird to eat that it will be happy and enjoy.

00:04:19

And maybe you should let your bird fly around in your house.

00:04:29

I think that sounds fun.

00:04:32

But since I haven’t had a bird before, you can let me know if that’s a good idea or not.

00:04:42

Next is fish.

00:04:44

I have had fish, so I would say you mustn’t leave the fish in an area that is too cold or too hot for them.

00:05:04

And you must be very, very careful about

00:05:10

things like their water and their food.

00:05:15

Little goldfish are super temperamental.

00:05:21

I was very lucky that I had some goldfish that lived for, I think, almost a year.

00:05:29

And then I had new goldfish that didn’t live very long.

00:05:37

And

00:05:39

I think the difference was that I wasn’t as careful with the temperature of their surroundings and changing the water.

00:05:51

So fish are really delicate.

00:05:54

And that’s my advice, but I’m not an expert, so maybe you have some different things that you would suggest.

00:06:05

Let me know.

00:06:08

Moving on, we have guinea pigs.

00:06:12

Now, I’ve never had a guinea pig, but I think that you should cuddle your guinea pigs, that you should wrap them in little blankets and hold them and talk to them because I see videos and pictures of guinea pigs wrapped in blankets and I think

00:06:37

They must love this, and that’s why there are so many pictures of them doing that.

00:06:44

So that’s one thing that I would suggest for guinea pigs.

00:06:49

Other than that, you will have to tell me what you know are great things to do with guinea pigs.

00:06:58

What do they need in their lives to be happy guinea pigs?

00:07:04

The next one

00:07:06

is a hamster.

00:07:09

Now, I’ve had friends that have had hamsters, but I never had any hamsters.

00:07:14

I always wanted a hamster.

00:07:17

And I think that hamsters need to have a hamster wheel.

00:07:25

Mainly, I think this because it’s adorable.

00:07:29

And in

00:07:32

videos and pictures, and when they are in cartoons, hamsters are always running in hamster wheels.

00:07:44

So they must love these hamster wheels, don’t you think?

00:07:50

I think it’s a definite must to give your hamster a hamster wheel.

00:07:55

But what other things should the hamsters have in their lives?

00:08:00

you’ll have to let me know because again, I have no idea.

00:08:05

Next is another pet that I’ve never had, but I did have a teacher who had an iguana as a pet.

00:08:15

So we had an unofficial class pet of an iguana that sometimes came to class.

00:08:26

And I think you really, really

00:08:30

must make sure that the iguana has a home that’s big enough for it because I think they get to be quite big.

00:08:44

I definitely think that similar to the bird, you really need to make sure you know what to feed your iguana.

00:08:58

And

00:09:00

similar to the fish, that you should pay attention to the temperature.

00:09:06

I think that there’s a special light that you can give the iguana so it gets the sunlight since it likes to be in the sun.

00:09:18

But I don’t know a lot about iguanas, so maybe you can fill me in and tell me more things that iguanas need in their lives.

00:09:30

And lastly, we have bunnies.

00:09:37

I always thought that bunnies needed carrots, but I recently read that you actually shouldn’t feed them a lot of carrots.

00:09:50

Did you know this?

00:09:52

I guess it’s just a dessert.

00:09:54

So carrots are the chocolate for rabbits.

00:09:59

So I would say similar to iguanas and birds, you really, really need to make sure you know what their diet is so that you can feed them properly.

00:10:15

And that goes without saying, you should do that for all of your pets so that they can live happy lives with yummy food.

00:10:27

And

00:10:29

What other things should you do for bunnies?

00:10:34

Probably you shouldn’t leave out a bunch of cords because I hear that they like to eat cords.

00:10:47

So that’s the only piece of advice I could give about bunnies.

00:10:51

You’ll have to let me know if you know anything else.

00:10:57

Okay, those are all of my different suggestions for what you should and shouldn’t do with these pets.

00:11:07

And what did I forget?

00:11:09

I’m sure I forgot a ton of things, so be sure to tell me what other things these pets should and shouldn’t do.

00:11:20

Now, before we go, remember to do a quick self-eval.

00:11:26

How comfortable do you feel talking about what pets should and shouldn’t do, specifically these pets?

00:11:36

Satisfactory or Development Needed?

00:11:40

Use your answer on your self-eval to decide whether to listen to this episode again or maybe try another one at the same level or a different level.

00:11:57

OK, that’s all from me.

00:11:59

You can find more listening practice at VickieKelty.com.

00:12:04

Bye bye now.

00:06:13 Bye now.


Pet Stories | Advanced

Pre-Listening

Reflect on pets you’ve interacted with in your lifetime – either your pets or someone else’s. Do any poignant moments come to mind? Spend 60 seconds rewriting or retelling the story of that moment. 

During Listening

How do my stories compare to the memory you had? What expressions, jokes, pauses, or changes in my voice do I use in my pet stories that you want to copy for your own story?

Post-Listening

Use your list to help you retell your pet story in 60 seconds. Notice what has changed before your first telling and your second version. 

00:00:02

Pet stories.

00:00:03

Hi, this is Language Learning Report Card Podcast.

00:00:07

I’m Vickie Kelty.

00:00:09

I teach English online, focusing on speaking.

00:00:13

And today I want to get you talking about your pet stories.

00:00:19

Share them all.

00:00:20

I want to hear them.

00:00:22

And I’m going to share mine.

00:00:24

Now, not all my stories are about my pets because some of these pets I don’t have, but I’m gonna share a variety of stories just to keep things interesting, hopefully.

00:00:38

First story on the docket is, bum, ba, bum.

00:00:44

I used to be a dogsitter, so I would dogsit for some of my friends.

00:00:50

dogs, obviously.

00:00:52

That’s why I use the term dogsitter.

00:00:56

And it was pretty easy to do.

00:01:00

I would stay at their house usually, and I would just take care of their little pups while they were on a trip or whatever it was that took them out of town.

00:01:16

So

00:01:18

The story though, let’s get to the point, is that one time when I was dogsitting, these just really cute little guys, I had to put them in their little sweaters because it was winter.

00:01:33

And so we wanted to keep them warm on their walks.

00:01:36

And I got them into their sweaters, took them for their walk.

00:01:41

It was my first time putting little doggy sweaters on a dog, but they were very obedient and they didn’t mind at all.

00:01:48

And yeah, everything went great.

00:01:53

I took pictures of them because they were so cute.

00:01:56

And then I gave the pictures to my coworker when she got back from her trip because I was dog sitting for a coworker.

00:02:06

And she just started cracking up and I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.

00:02:13

Well, it turns out I put the sweaters on the wrong dogs.

00:02:16

And I should mention that one dog was like medium sized and the other one was a smaller like dachshund sized dog.

00:02:25

I don’t really have an example to compare with.

00:02:27

It wasn’t quite the medium one wasn’t quite a retriever size.

00:02:35

a little smaller than that, I guess I would say.

00:02:38

But big difference in size between these two guys.

00:02:44

And, yeah, so I had no clue that I was putting the wrong sweaters on the wrong dogs.

00:02:53

I thought they seemed delighted by their little sweaters.

00:02:57

And it was really funny to find out that

00:03:02

I had switched their sweaters and she had photographic proof to always bring a smile to her face.

00:03:11

So that was my super, super hilarious dogsitting experience.

00:03:20

What about you?

00:03:21

Have you ever dogsat before?

00:03:22

What good dog stories do you have?

00:03:26

Next, continuing with the

00:03:30

taking care of pets for other people’s stories.

00:03:33

I have a catsitting story.

00:03:36

Well, really, I don’t have any special story about catsitting.

00:03:41

I just really enjoyed my time catsitting.

00:03:45

I catsat for a neighbor.

00:03:48

I did it sometimes for some friends, but my best memories were the times I catsat for my neighbor down the street.

00:03:58

And

00:03:59

I did it for two different cats that she had, not at the same time.

00:04:05

She only had one cat at a time, but one passed away.

00:04:08

And then I catsat for the next cat that she had.

00:04:11

And I would go there after school and maybe in the morning before school.

00:04:19

And I would read to the cats.

00:04:21

I would give them their food, give them their medicine because they were older cats.

00:04:24

And that’s probably the reason she had me care for them.

00:04:27

And

00:04:29

I just had the best time.

00:04:31

I don’t know how much they enjoyed listening to me read like my history book to them or practice my Spanish with them, but I think that they liked it because I remember that one of the cats would nip me on the chin while I was reading because they had

00:04:53

jumped into my lap and then started like rubbing their face against my face.

00:04:58

And then they would nip me on the chin and they were purring.

00:05:01

And my psychology teacher in high school told me that those were love bites.

00:05:07

And I was like, oh my gosh, the cat loves me.

00:05:11

So I figured I was doing a good job.

00:05:14

Come to think of it though, I haven’t received any love bites from my cats.

00:05:19

So

00:05:21

Maybe I need to step up my game.

00:05:24

What about you?

00:05:24

Have you received love bites from cats?

00:05:27

I hope that they were love bites and not bite bites.

00:05:30

We might have a bite story coming up here, but not yet.

00:05:34

Because next up is…

00:05:38

A snake story.

00:05:39

Okay, I didn’t really have a snake story.

00:05:41

So I was trying to rack my brain for some kind of story that had to do with snakes.

00:05:47

And all I could remember was once while I was in Nebraska and my husband was here in Spain, I think this was before we were married, that he told me a story about how a cat, a cat? so I’m still on the last story.

00:06:06

a snake, rather, had escaped from its enclosure and it found its way.

00:06:16

I want to say, and I might be making this up because it was so many years ago, but I want to say that it found its way to, I don’t know if it was in the same house or a neighbor’s house.

00:06:30

Keep the story interesting.

00:06:31

Let’s say that it found its way to a neighbor’s house and

00:06:35

her, what do you call it?

00:06:37

A toilet.

00:06:39

So can you imagine a snake in your toilet?

00:06:44

That would not be something that I would want to find.

00:06:47

It reminds me of Arachnophobia, the movie, when I think there was a spider in a toilet, and I was like, I’m never going to use a toilet again.

00:06:55

I don’t know why I watched this movie.

00:06:57

It wasn’t by choice.

00:06:58

It’s what they showed us at our after school summer sessions.

00:07:03

Like, this is my fear of spiders.

00:07:05

So I know that I just went off topic there, but it just reminded me of that.

00:07:12

And I had to share, which also reminds me that in an episode of Friends, Phoebe gave Joey a tarantula in the hopes of scaring Rachel so that Rachel would go back and be her roommate.

00:07:32

And

00:07:34

it turned out that Rachel didn’t have any problem with tarantulas.

00:07:38

But all I can think is that if that tarantula had escaped from its, I guess, terrarium that they had it in, oh my goodness.

00:07:52

I, yeah, I don’t even want to think about it.

00:07:56

Oh, why did I even say it?

00:07:57

So,

00:08:02

Moving on to the next story.

00:08:04

Animals escaping, but specifically snakes escaping.

00:08:07

They’re snakes, spiders, anything, any creepy crawlers.

00:08:16

That just, it gives me chills.

00:08:18

So

00:08:21

I probably wouldn’t do well in Australia based on the stories that people have told me.

00:08:26

If you have ever been there and have had to deal with creepy crawlers, don’t tell me.

00:08:36

Instead of tell me your stories, don’t tell me your stories on that one.

00:08:40

Okay, again, let’s move on.

00:08:42

So my bird story is

00:08:46

about a bird that I saw at a pet shop.

00:08:49

So I never had a bird as a pet, but sometimes we would go to pet shops or they would also have them in, I want to say, what do you call them, those gardening stores.

00:09:04

And so this particular, it’s probably a parrot maybe that they had at the store.

00:09:12

I was

00:09:15

I was captivated by the loveliness of this parrot.

00:09:19

So I went up to it and was petting it.

00:09:23

And because it was out in the open, it wasn’t in any type of cage.

00:09:27

And it wasn’t flying around.

00:09:29

It was just, you know, on its little perch hanging out.

00:09:32

But it bit me.

00:09:35

Yep, that’s my story.

00:09:39

I got bitten by a parrot at a pet store.

00:09:43

Fun times.

00:09:44

Yeah.

00:09:46

It didn’t really bleed, but it was painful.

00:09:50

I learned my lesson.

00:09:51

Don’t pet the birds at the pet store.

00:09:55

So what lessons have you learned at pet stores?

00:09:58

I’m sure they were just as interesting as mine.

00:10:01

No?

00:10:02

Well, you let me know.

00:10:04

Next up, we have a story about my sister’s suicidal fish.

00:10:11

So

00:10:13

She had this enormous fish tank, like it was so big.

00:10:18

And because I liked to let in cats from around the neighborhood to hang out in the house in the afternoons after school, like before my parents got home, because I didn’t want my mom to know, although she figured it out because of her allergies.

00:10:37

She was like,

00:10:39

Does somebody let a cat in?

00:10:40

Like, I don’t know.

00:10:42

Why?

00:10:43

Because your eyes are all puffy and you’re sneezing a lot?

00:10:46

No, couldn’t be.

00:10:48

Could not be.

00:10:49

I didn’t do it, I swear.

00:10:52

Yeah, so, bad Vickie, very bad.

00:10:56

But I would let the neighbor cat in sometimes and

00:11:03

Shock of shocks, he liked to go down to my sister’s aquarium and play with the fish.

00:11:12

Now, he didn’t actually get to any of these fish, but our theory is that these fish were just like, we’re going to have to save ourselves.

00:11:24

And so they, or they just,

00:11:30

didn’t see the point of continuing, and so they just jumped to their deaths on the little carpet.

00:11:39

Now, if we saw him in time, we could throw him back into the aquarium, but sometimes, we didn’t get there in time.

00:11:46

But mostly the cat would just get on its, little hind legs or hind paws, as it were, and hit the glass

00:11:58

of the aquarium, just like trying to catch the little fish moving around.

00:12:03

But other times it would get up onto like the little entertainment center, like the TV stand, and that was next to the

00:12:12

aquarium.

00:12:13

And so then it could reach into the aquarium because the top didn’t have a cover, which is also how the fish were able to jump out.

00:12:24

And then it would just like put its little paw in the water.

00:12:29

But I tried to stay with it when it was hanging out in my sister’s room so that it couldn’t get to any of the fish.

00:12:41

And

00:12:42

usually I was successful in keeping it away, and there were no fish murders on my watch, that’s for sure.

00:12:50

But sometimes they took matters into their own hands, they being the fish.

00:12:55

So that’s my little kind of sad fish story.

00:12:59

So if you have any other tragic fish stories, let me know, but not too sad, okay?

00:13:06

My guinea pig story is

00:13:10

not really a story because it’s kind of like the snake one that I never had a guinea pig.

00:13:16

So I don’t really have a lot of experiences with guinea pigs.

00:13:21

I think they’re super cute.

00:13:23

And I know what other people have told me about the guinea pigs that they’ve had.

00:13:27

And I

00:13:30

have seen really cute pictures from friends who’ve had guinea pigs of like them being swaddled in blankets like a little baby and the little conversations that it really feels like the guinea pigs are having conversations with their owners or with the person cuddling them.

00:13:52

And I think that that’s really adorable.

00:13:54

I wonder what they’re saying.

00:13:57

Hopefully they’re saying something like, I’m so happy being cuddled in this blanket.

00:14:01

I love being wrapped up in blankets and I love all the little pieces of lettuce and what else do guinea pigs eat?

00:14:14

Well, whatever the guinea pig is dining on as they curl up with their owners.

00:14:21

I don’t have anything else to say about guinea pigs because

00:14:27

I guess I just need to get one so that I have more guinea pig stories.

00:14:30

What do you think?

00:14:32

Should I add that to my plate?

00:14:33

My husband would say, negative, no way we’re getting a guinea pig.

00:14:38

And probably the cats would either be on board because they would want to eat the guinea pig.

00:14:45

I don’t know if cats would be friends with guinea pigs.

00:14:48

I guess it would depend, but probably better to get them like at the same time so they can be friendly.

00:14:55

Let me know if you’ve ever had a guinea pig and a cat at the same time.

00:14:59

Our next one is a hamster.

00:15:03

So I don’t have any hamster stories I want to share per se, but I do want to comment on this cartoon that I saw recently that I think it’s from a couple years ago, actually.

00:15:20

I don’t think it’s currently airing, but

00:15:25

Anyways, they were showing some episodes on TV, so I, of course, watched them because Lisa Kudrow is one of the voices for one of the characters.

00:15:39

So the show’s called Housebroken, and it has

00:15:44

a bunch of different animals that are people’s pets.

00:15:48

And they come together at one of the animals’ houses and they have like these therapy sessions.

00:15:54

And it’s just for me personally, I just thought it was hilarious.

00:15:58

I really got a kick out of it.

00:16:00

But one of the characters that goes to these therapy sessions is a hamster.

00:16:05

And this hamster is just psychotic.

00:16:08

And

00:16:09

he has a, or she, I don’t remember, but this hamster has a problem with having other hamsters in their cage or in their life.

00:16:23

And so they always end up killing the other hamsters, which obviously that’s not funny, but in the context of a cartoon, it is funny.

00:16:32

And

00:16:33

the two episodes or three episodes that I saw were just a riot.

00:16:38

I would definitely watch more episodes of this show if I could get my hands on it.

00:16:44

So if that sounds hilarious to you, the pets doing therapy sessions together with Lisa Kudrow as their dog therapist, then check that out.

00:16:58

Housebroken is what it’s called.

00:17:01

And

00:17:02

My iguana story is, well, actually, it’s interesting because we had a number of class pets over the years at, let’s see.

00:17:22

in grade school and in middle school, we had them.

00:17:26

I don’t think there were any class pets in high school though, I guess, because we were too old to have class pets once we got to high school.

00:17:34

But for grade school, there was a teacher that had an iguana and

00:17:43

I don’t remember it always being there, so I think maybe they just brought it in from time to time, or maybe it’s for a special occasion and it wasn’t actually our class pet, but I do remember an iguana in the class.

00:17:56

And I don’t know if this is really true or not, but I just remember being told that if the iguana was like trying to save itself from under attack or

00:18:13

something of that nature, that its tail would fall off.

00:18:16

Like if you’re trying to grab it by its tail in order, like self-preservation, it could make its tail fall off.

00:18:25

And I don’t know if it would grow back.

00:18:26

I would assume so, but if any of you have iguana info, you can let me know.

00:18:35

You can see that I don’t, I’m not fully informed on the lives of iguanas.

00:18:39

I mean, in the,

00:18:42

One of the other episodes for one of the other levels I was talking about iguanas, I thought they only came in green.

00:18:50

I didn’t even know that they came in different colors.

00:18:53

So I share what I know or what I think I know about things, but I am not a scientist.

00:19:04

Don’t take anything I say as fact.

00:19:07

Just enjoy the English experience.

00:19:10

So share your iguana stories with me, educate me, teach … you teach me about the iguanas and all the other animals.

00:19:23

And finally, we have a rabbit story for you.

00:19:29

Not a rabid story, but a rabbit.

00:19:34

story.

00:19:35

It sounded like I said rabid, like rabid bunny.

00:19:39

No, rabbit.

00:19:41

So again, we had a class pet that was a rabbit.

00:19:46

So we’ve had an iguana, a rabbit, and then there was my English teacher in middle school had a rat that was a class pet.

00:19:56

So we’ve had quite an array of class pets over the years.

00:20:03

The

00:20:04

science teacher is the one who had the rabbit in her room.

00:20:11

And what we had to do with the rabbit was we took turns taking the rabbit home over the weekend and we were responsible for caring for the rabbit.

00:20:20

So this was kind of like one of my first pets because I didn’t really have pets growing up.

00:20:25

And I did have frogs for a short period of time.

00:20:31

Those were my only

00:20:33

pets that I got to have.

00:20:35

My sister had the fish.

00:20:36

I had the frogs.

00:20:38

I mean, I did have the catsitting and dogsitting as I got older.

00:20:42

And I, yeah, I really didn’t have any other pets to talk about.

00:20:51

But I got this experience to take care of the rabbit.

00:20:56

And I, as you will hear in this story, I did such a good job.

00:21:01

I went to cheer camp.

00:21:04

And if you’ve never been to cheer camp, I highly recommend it.

00:21:08

Super fun.

00:21:09

You get to learn how to do these different cheerleading moves, different cheers that they teach you.

00:21:15

And I really enjoyed it.

00:21:17

was, I think, just a weekend or only a day.

00:21:22

So we went to a university campus and some of the cheerleaders there

00:21:30

or the cheer squad, whatever they called them.

00:21:33

They taught the camp and bada bing, bada boom, that was it.

00:21:40

But while I was at this camp, I either hadn’t closed the cage properly or the bunny is really smart and it got out of the cage.

00:21:52

We did have the room closed off.

00:21:55

So

00:21:57

It didn’t get far.

00:21:58

It was just roaming around that room that it was in.

00:22:02

At that time, it would have been, I guess, like a spare room.

00:22:06

So there wasn’t a lot of stuff in the room.

00:22:09

But when I got back, we did find little rabbit droppings everywhere.

00:22:16

They’re actually quite adorable.

00:22:17

Those little tiny, they’re not quite pellets, but they look like little garbanzo beans.

00:22:25

So little chickpeas all over the floor.

00:22:28

Don’t eat them.

00:22:29

And that was my rabbit experience.

00:22:34

So we’ve had some pets escaping their enclosures.

00:22:42

And we’ve had some petsitting stories and some, what was the other one?

00:22:52

The

00:22:55

Class pet stories.

00:22:57

So quite a mix in here.

00:23:02

I hope that you enjoyed hearing my different pet tales.

00:23:08

And it just goes to show that if you really rack your brain, you can find a story to share about almost anything.

00:23:17

And I hope that you will share some of your tragic, funny, or outrageous pet stories with me because I want to hear them.

00:23:30

What stories do you have?

00:23:31

Tell me, all your pet stories.

00:23:35

And before we go, remember to do your self-evaluation.

00:23:41

How comfortable

00:23:43

do you feel when you’re sharing pet stories?

00:23:49

Would you say Satisfactory or Development Needed?

00:23:55

Based on whatever eval you give yourself, then…

00:23:59

I recommend that you either listen to this episode again, listen to another episode at the same level or a different one, and just keep listening and speaking.

00:24:14

You can find more listening practice at VickieKelty.com to help you do that.

00:24:20

That’s all from me.

00:24:21

Bye now.

Final Thoughts 

You don’t need to understand everything perfectly. 

This listening is here to help you notice both familiar and new vocabulary and grammar, and to give you the chance to use it yourself.

And you know the best part? Repeating this kind of listening and speaking practice in English is what helps it all start to feel easier over time. 🥰

I’ll see you in the next episode. But if you don’t want to wait, you can talk about another common topic – the weather – with these episodes. 

Until next time! 👋

Basic Answers: 

1) guinea pig 2) fish 3) dog 4) snake 5) bird 6) rabbit 7) cat 8) hamster 9) iguana

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