Pets

Oh My God, we have another pet. Marsha seems to have acquired a guinea pig, “Harold”. I’m not sure how it is we always end up with everyone else’s rejects, but we do. We’ve had quite the array of pets over the last 10 years. I do believe it all began with “Kelsey”.

Kelsey was the last of a litter of five. The boyfriend of a friend of mine was about to haul her off to the animal shelter when I “rescued” her. She was our supposed rat terrier, that turned out to be some odd mix between a terrier & hound…maybe. When we moved out of state and couldn’t find a house to rent that would allow pets, Kelsey became the loving pet of my in-laws. It was a good thing too; she is the spitting image of father-in-law…scruffy with a beard.

Let me think. In Washington, we had 3 goldfish that I killed. Grag will never let me forget that. Then, in an effort to save a full-grown German Shepard from the pound, we became a dog family. Let me warn you, I am not a fan of dogs, AT ALL. Besides the fact that I was pregnant at the time, which made me all the more pleasant to live with. I was MORE than relieved when the previous owners called from Korea and begged me to send her to them. Apparently, their kids were so terribly distraught at the loss of “Sandy” they were willing to pay any amount just to have her flown to them. K and I hauled that huge mutt to the airport and waved goodbye.

Later that year a friend of mine had a client that was the quintessential “old cat lady”. One of her many cats had a litter & thus, “Tipper” & “Shadow” came into our lives. Now cats I adore. I grew up with cats. They can take ya or leave ya…it makes no difference to them. Love you one minute & shrug you off the next. Little divas, they are perfect!

Shadow was a bit weird and ended up running off at some point. She wasn’t a big “people fan”. Tipper grew and had a litter of her own. Six to be exact. All were birthed under my bed, in the middle of the night, while Al’s parents were visiting. We decided to name each of the kittens for one of our kids. Marsha had “Angel” the runt that had to be fed through a medicine dropper. Greg’s was “Kosmo”, white with black spots. Jan had “Tigger”, I’m sure you can guess why. And Peter,“Ike” (we really just couldn’t think of any great “I” names). Bobby’s was a hoss named “Britches” who was completely white save for his black hind legs. And Cindy’s kitten was Missy. They all went to loving homes, which broke my heart because at that point I decided I wanted to be an old cat woman too. Nah, I really did want to keep Britches, but he had a bit of trouble with the litter box, so off he went. Shortly after Tipper ran off too, and we were again without any pets.

Off to Okinawa, where we have since had FIVE Betta (or Siamese fighting fish). All of my Bettas are named either “Sushi” (if purple), “Sashimi” (if red), and that one lone soldier I decided to name “N’Chips”. That makes them easy to remember and a bit of a conversation starter.

Less than a year into our tour here, I decided to give into the dog idea once again. As much as I would love to have another cat, it would mean giving up K, who is TERRIBLY allergic. So “Sumo” it is. He is a beautiful Golden Retriever, impeccably well behaved, and came to me already trained (my kind of dog). In Fact Sumo was such an amazing dog I went a bit insane and decided we need to get a puppy. “Rox” was our Canadian Newfoundland. Fluffy, stunning, and ROWDY. He ended up causing Sumo a great deal of stress (according to our vet), so Rox went to live on a farm.

Last year we had two Parakeets, “Dickey” and “Sunshine” both of which got sick and died…..odd. Now we have moved on to “Harold”. The neighbor girl said her mother was sick of him so I, like an idiot, said Marsha could have him. We’ll see how long this lasts. My kids are old enough to take care of their own pets, as long as they are caged and in their rooms! I’ll just stick with my Sushi, Sashimi & Sumo.