Hi Welshcob, welcome from Aberdeenshire!
Yeah, I'll take you on - you can do whatever I'm supposed to be doing at the moment, I'll do the lab work for you...
(Will be counting sheep this coming week.)
In a way you were lucky; my parents would never allow anything bigger than a hamster or budgie! When I was 17, I smuggled in a cat. My mum loved it; my father - well, let's say, he tolerated it.