I love pets.  We have a ridiculously sweet female rat named Lucy.  (Yes, rats can make nice pets.)  We have thirteen hens who lay the best eggs I’ve ever tasted.  We confiscated a stray cat after I kept seeing numerous flattened house cats on the highway.  I even had a horse, but a young, untrained female Arabian is a really gigantic responsibility for someone on the edge like me.  (She went back to her former owner after a year, much improved and me out $5000.)  I’d like a dog eventually too.  Pets are for people with big hearts.

I do distinguish myself from those individuals who will keep animals when they can’t afford them and say, “Would you get rid of one of your children because you can’t afford them?”  No one should take on a pet if you can’t even take care of yourself.  However, I also don’t see pets as mere animals that are easily discarded.  Pets do become family members.  It’s hard when everyone in the household doesn’t see it that way.  The pet can become a source of contention, and I’m for peace baby…

Some pets are just really wonderful.  I’ve had friends whose stories about their pets were so amazing, that I use them myself as confirmation that pet ownership can be life-changing and/or life-enhancing equal to human relationships.  I want that kind of connection.  If you can get love, entertainment, and inspiration from a pet, who needs a spouse, right?  Lots of great pets go through their whole life with no sex and are quite content.  One must ponder these things, no?

Our cat is really cool.  He just had his gonads nipped and seems no worse for wear.  I feared his “cool-cat” personality would be affected by the surgery.  He is perfect, if not better, because now I don’t have to worry about him spraying his tiger scent on my furniture when he comes inside.  He was a tiger in a past life for sure.

I found Gato outside an office building.  I had interrupted his lizard chase by my noisome admiration after which he turned to me with much to say.  How can you argue with an angry cat?  I just meowed right back at him, without the spite, of course.  He was young, still small, but healthy-looking.  He looks like a black and gray tiger to me.  And the way he hunts, I knew he was not playing chase.

My older son and I had been talking about getting a cat for months, so when this fierce hunter let me pick him up and seemed agreeable, I decided to take him home.  There is the shadow of guilt that maybe he actually belonged to someone, but he had no collar and was still sporting his virility, so I justify my actions by knowing he has a great life on our two acres with lizards in abundance, we absolutely adore him and he is my nineteen year old son’s best friend.

Most great pet stories involve dogs.  At least the ones I have personally heard of.  My friends and family members who have owned these dogs will tell you their pet had an immeasurable impact on their lives in a soul-deep way.  I’ve been waiting for a dog like that all my life, but I will know when the time and the dog is right.  Some things you just have to put in the arms of fate.  Though I love our cat, and my daughter’s rat Lucy, and even the hens which have made eating dishes made from store-bought eggs almost impossible, I’m still waiting for my special “friend.”  I am very patient.  I hold fast to the hope of having a great love in my life and things like that can’t be forced, they just happen.

 

p.s.  The drawing above was one of my favorites done with pen and ink after I stopped drawing wolves.   Rubius was the best friend of a girl my daughter went to school with.