Athletes Show Off Their Pets

“I’ll turn around for a second and there will be a big bang and a trash can will be knocked over,” Shiancoe tells SI Kids of his boisterous ferrets, Smoke and Gee. Despite their rowdiness, Shiancoe is thinking of taking them on the road when he travels.

When freestyle skier Patrick Deneen isn’t careening down a moguls course, he’s living it up on his horse-and-hay farm with miniature donkeys, a donkey named Mr. Don Key, 26 horses and just for good measure, a few dogs.

You might think pro football player Ernie Sims is posing inside of a pet store, but that’s his house. “My parents know not to take me to a pet store,” Sims tells SI Kids. “Because if I go to a pet store, I have to get something.”

WNBA player Tully Bevilaqua uses her time off from work to help homeless dogs, volunteering for the Humane Society of Indianapolis. She also is mom to rescue dogs Chips, Aussie and a pet cat.

The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher has a cow named Marina on his family’s longhorn cattle farm, and Marina has been around for 15 years. Among Ohlendorf’s many tasks on the farm? Naming the calves.

For more stories about these athletes and their amazing pets, check out the latest issue of Sports Illustrated Kids, on newsstands now.