As I was growing up, we mostly had dogs. A few times in between dogs, we had a cat or two...
We also had a few guinea pigs and a hamster in that erea as well...not sure what happened to the hamster (the cat ate it?), but our guinea pigs didn't seem to have a very long lifespan.
As I got older and lived on my own, I wanted a dog, but was unsure what to get that would suit my lifestyle, but Marriage decided that one!
After a long period of time, two jobs and one divorce, I had met someone who's parents had a pet Kockatiel (I spell it with a "K" because the filtering will delete it!).
We ended up "adopting" the bird, and eventually we increased it to having 4 Kockatiels now, but that's my limit!
In Japan, there is very little "yard space" and a lot of people seem to live in apartments, so having a dog can be rough. As for cats, they let out to run around in the neighboorhood (I'm also allergic to cats), but I found out birds can be a bit more "compact", however their bathroom habits have less to desire. I do get concerned sometimes whether the birds happen to aggrivate my allergies <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0">