I loved games including animals. I remember being monkeys and horses with my sister – we had rubber bands that would create a “clip-clop” sound attached to our feet for authenticity, and we built elaborate obstacle courses in the backyard.
I had way too many stuffed animals and would often play “shelter” with those. On weekends, we would set up camp in our bright yellow play tent and find 13 lost dogs, one after the other, each with its own backstory.
With my best friends, we played “Dracula” – again, with animals. It involved three wild pets (dragon, wolf, and lion), and me being Dracula. I had a cloak and the highlight of the game was me “forgetting” to wear it. Everyone knows that without their cloak, vampires are naked. Hilarity all around.
We also pretended to be robbers. We had our own theme song and would sometimes kidnap my toddler sister or try to (humanely) trap one of the cats.
When I got a little older, I switched to playing with rubber animals. I had lots of little cousins and a much younger sister though, so there would still be role-playing games at times. I remember being the harried mum of 9 young “monsters”.
I don’t play many pretend games anymore, but I still have fun playing chase games. There are usually water guns involved. And I do still “talk” for the dogs an embarrassingly high amount of the time as soon as I’m with my sisters. They’re so immature.