More Pets

After I got married, I knew the first thing that I wanted was a dog. Unfortunately, the man I was married to was allergic to dogs. Goodbye to a St. Bernard and any other dog. So, the next best thing was to get a cat, and we did. In my entire married life there would be nine kids and more cats then I can count, two hidden dogs, three turtles, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, goldfish, exotic fish, an iguana, and of course a few rabbits.

The animals in our lives left memorable footprints on our hearts and lots of smells and droppings in our home. We started out with one cat, Pierre, and then a second one, Barney, that we had for a long time. Then came Casey and Archie.

Years later, our friends were moving to California and needed to leave behind their 2-year-old Irish Setter, Rusty. We took Rusty and within the hour, my husband's allergy started. He coughed, he wheezed, his eyes watered, and he had a hard time breathing until he took an allergy pill. We still kept the dog. But five days later, my youngest son, packed a bag and sat on a table, tired and freaked out from having Rusty lie spread eagle on top of him. Rusty went back to his happy owners, and my son unpacked his bags and stayed.

My oldest daughter seemed to be the animal lover. She collected animals like little girls collected Barbie dolls. As a matter of fact, she never had any Barbie dolls. Instead she collected cats, which died or ran away. She had a 20-gallon fish tank, filled with tropical fish. Her younger sister knocked the tank over, and some of the fish died, our cat ate a few, some were stepped on, and three survived. Weeks later, my daughter would find one surviving fish in her desk drawer, swimming around a tiny pool of water in the corner of the drawer. She also owned an ugly iguana that grew bigger and went off to college with her.

We had two boxing turtles, which stunk up our home. My cleaning lady gave me an ultimatum, "It's the turtles or me." Of course I kept her.

But it was the rabbits that continued to multiply and smell up the house because my daughter kept the cage in her bedroom and the other cage in the family room. Some died, others were given away when the kids got tired of cleaning the cages on a daily basis. And there is one thing you learn with rabbits, their cages must be cleaned daily.

My one son took in a puppy that he thought he could keep quietly in his bedroom. Puppies like babies are anything but quiet.

My youngest daughter had a turtle that ran away when she was cleaning his cage outdoors. Runaway turtle? I doubt the validity of that statement!

Recently I had six cats. One was mine the others belonged to two of my kids who moved back to live with me. Thankfully, my daughter moved out and took two cats and left the oldest cat with me. I am down to three cats now; one is my son's cat, my foster cat and mine

There is no doubt that I love animals but I think that I am tired of being the only one who buys the food and the litter, cleans the two litter boxes (2to 3 times a day), and takes the cats to the veterinary.

When this group of cats dies or leaves - I am going to have to think long and hard if I want to replace them. It just might be nice to sleep in my bed without a cat next to my head, another one lying on my legs, cutting off my circulation. But then the flip side is that at least I am kept warmed and feel loved by those furry cats. Face it...animals love you unconditionally.