Just 34 years ago . . .

Thirty-four years ago today my sister was "born".

When my parents were married, all they wanted to do was start a family. They were young and stupid.

They were also responsible. They waited until my father had finished college and found a decent job. They were almost 24 when they began trying to start a family. They both figured this would be very easy because they were both young and in the prime of their lives. Well, months went by and nothing. They were frustrated. My mother suggested adoption and my father only wanted to make her happy so he reluctantly agreed.

They filled out the papers and figured it would only be a matter of months before they had their new baby. Unfortunately, babies were in high demand, and the supply was low. The adoption agency told them it could be up to 5 years, and in the meantime they should continue trying to conceive.

My mother was heartbroken when she heard this, so my father researched other options.

He found one.

I'm sure you've all heard of the Psychology case where a boy whose . . . well you know . . . were destroyed during a routine circumcision and because of this his parents decided to raise him as a girl?

Psychologists were testing Nature versus Nurture. They believed that if they raised him as a girl, he would turn out to be a perfectly normal female.

Well, apparently they were also testing this with Beasts.

Adult humans were given baby beasts to raise as humans. ( Remember, this was all back in the 70's when everything was a little weird).

My Dad discovered this experiment in the local Pennysaver and told my mom about it. At this point, my mom was willing to do anything. So they filled out the paperwork and on October 6th, 1975 they took my older "sister" home.

The first 6 months were very difficult. My mom would turn her back for just a second and . . . I'll call her M . . . would be out in the backyard trying to hunt and kill gophers. Eventually they had to put bars on all the windows. The doors had to be locked at all times, and her bedroom was always locked from the outside at nighttime.

Over the years, it was constantly difficult. In grade school the teacher caught her several times with Rollie Pollies in her desk. Apparently she like to snack on them.

Luckily as she got older, she became more human like. She even went to college and grad school. Eventually science had progressed enough and she was able to have several plastic surgeries to make her look more human.

As a result of this experiment she studied Psychology in college and now has her PHd. She teaches at a University in Ohio and often talks about this case, but none of her students know that it is actually she who lived it.

By the way, in 1977 my parents were finally able to conceive naturally, and they went on to have 3 healthy, human children.