It's More Than Just Cats and Dogs

There will never be a time in my life when I do not have some sort of pet. If I do, my soul will be dead, and the world will end accordingly.

Needless to say, I find having an animal or two around to be a very important thing. But we all have heard those studies about how pets can calm the nerves and instill longevity, or whatever they said. So I won't go into that; this is a brief synopsis of my pets. Because I feel like it, that's why. ;)

My current living situation involves a cat (mine, of course) and a dog (my mom's). Now, this dog I like a lot more than the dog that lived downstairs (dtlds) in the apartment. This dog is a papillon (pronounced "pap-ee-on"). Papies aren't for everyone; they're very high-energy dogs, and they bark a lot. Yeah, they're a little yappy. During his puppyhood, I spent more time with him than my mom did because she was at work all day, so he and I have a very close relationship. I think that's the trick to me really liking a dog: I have to know him as a puppy. I did not know dtlds as a puppy, only as the big yellow dog he grew up to be. And that dog invaded my space unexpectantly, along with his cohort the husky, and I held that against both of them. Because that space belonged to my two cats, and once the dogs arrived, the cats were forced upstairs. Oh, and the husky bit off part of my current cat's tail (a very tiny bit of the tip, not that much). That was a very very bad day. I found their presence highly unfair and intrusive. In all honesty, I do in fact blame the yellow one for my one cat's escape. Really, she wouldn't have run out the door and halfway down the block if the dumbass hadn't been chasing her. (::Count to three, breath out::) But things happen. And this dog, my mom's dog the Papy, he likes my cat. My cat doesn't really like him, but she could care less. But we all get along well, and that's good.

Now, about the dtlds. During the week of moving, the (ex)housemate's mom came out and picked him up, taking him to live with her family. So the dtlds is out in his new home for about a week. They took him to their vet to get him any shots he needed and normal stuff like that. But they found out he was having some sort of kidney problems; he went home with antibiotics and it wasn't suppose to be a big thing. But then last week, the (ex)housemate called to tell me that he'd just got word that his mom had to put the dtlds down. He was a little devastated. And I feel really bad about it too. I mean, it's not like he was a bad dog — not by any means. He just wasn't my dog, and all the impact he'd had on my life was negative. But I am really sorry he had to go. In fact, I'm a little pissed off that he'd gone to his regular vet here several times in the past year, and that vet never caught this problem, which has been developing. But, he had a good final week though, playing in a little swimming pool, eating pizza and fried chicken, and running around with a little girl dog too.

So that is the only instance in which I've ever really liked a dog. Mainly and overwhelmingly, I'm a cat person. My cat is doing well. The fireworks being set off in the street the past several nights spooked her, but she survived. She pretty much lives in my bedroom — she's not a cat of many interests, and lounging in the filtered sunlight seems to do her allright. Plus she's sleeping on my bed at night, which oddly never did at the apartment. One night she was sleeping by my feet, and I rolled over and accidentally kicked her off; I felt pretty bad. The only problem really is when she sleeps by my head. Because she'll jump down, just before I'm really falling asleep, and drink a ton of water (loudly). Then she'll jump back up and stare at me expecting to get pet. Eventually, she burps. In my face. Which is usually when I escape under the blanket and try to create an airtight seal against the outter world. I love my cat, but she's not very lady-like.

When I said earlier that I will always have a pet, I more or less was referring to fish. Most of you don't know I have fish, as there's not a lot to talk about with them. You can't hold them or train them, or get pictures for your Christmas card taken with them. But I will always have a fish. I have a close personal bond with fish keeping; perhaps I identify too strongly with being a Pisces (because I'm really not fond of eating fish). I've written business plans for fish-related businesses just for the heck of it (okay it was for competition). For those of you interested in the technical specs, I've only ever kept freshwater fish, and never any tank over the 50 gallon size. But at my height three years ago, I had five seperate tanks running in the house. That was before my mom and I moved to this house, where that number was cut to three. And now, one. My biggest fish was an albino channel cat, which had its own tank on account of eating everything that swam near him. It was pretty fun watching him snatch up goldfish and bits of krill, and when I was cleaning the tank he never minded me touching him. Or maybe he was in shock at the giant dangly thing moving around; I couldn't say.

My tank right now is a 20 gallon, with angel fish, tetra, danios, and a banjo cat and talking cat along the bottom. I'm kind of a fish geek and put a lot of research into my tanks. You know how computer geeks overclock their computer? I can do that to a fish tank. But the fun part is always cleaning and arranging the tank. I have a gargoyle named Alfred who's been guarding my tank for many many years, and a large box full of rocks and shells and driftwood and even those plastic bits from pet stores to fill my tanks with. I'm glad to be back with my fish tank; it never went with me to the apartment. And today is tank cleaning day, which will be a long and arduous task because it hasn't been cleaned in about two months. Mmm, slimy green stuff. But I love my fishies, and hey, carting bucket upon bucket of dirty water to the sink, and bucket upon bucket of clean water back is quite a good workout.

Anyway, those're my pets. I like them. I plan to keep them. They make me happy. :)