How many pets do you have?
The answer, quite simply, is none. Thanks so much to our own oldest two-legged creature, his allergies to any kind of animal with fur have kept us from having any extra bodies sharing the heating vents on cold mornings. (By the way, this allergic condition extends beyond the domestic household animals. Horses, deer, and oxen who blow snot on his neck are included, among other friends. And yes, he's allergic to ox snot as evidenced by the large hives that immediately came to life.) We did try to babysit my niece's two beta fish while her family lived in Japan for a year, and we did quite well for a long time. Then we thought we had killed them ourselves until we found out they had lived long past their life expectancy, and very old age was the culprit. But Jennifer, I'm still sorry!
Growing up, I was exposed to any number of animals...like when I was in first grade and we lived on 1 1/2 acres in California with 3 cows, 2 sheep, 6 geese, a bunch of ducks, a parakeet, 60 chickens, and 2 dalmations who liked to eat chickens for breakfast. Nothing like starting your day picking up fresh chicken parts from the back lawn.
And I'm still not sure why my parents would send a tiny seven-year-old into a small coop full of feathers and sharp beaks to collect eggs.
Need I point that that to this day, I'm still quite afraid of chickens?
Then it was a succession of dogs and cats and rabbits, including my favorite best friend, Souffle (Souffie for short, thank you). She was a poodle/cocker spaniel mix, and she was my buddy for eight years. David grew up with three different dogs over the years, too.We always thought we'd have at least one dog roaming the yard as our kids grew up. Not so. We've had any number of family and friends try to share their pet abundance over the years, but we've had to turn them down...much to the chagrin of our daughters. But we love the fact that any of us can walk barefoot in the lawn and not step in any presents left behind.
So for pet fixes, we take the kids and a bottle of Benadyl to my parents' home, where at this point, two poodles and one blind cat rule the roost. And so I leave you with the only related pet picture I can find in a pinch...Christmas 2006 when my mom took our family photos in her home photography studio and Rebekah was sure that one of their newest puppies--Miles--needed to be in this particular shot.
Not the best photo in the bunch, but it's us...and a makeshift pet.
What about you? Are you a pet person?
4 comments:
my mom was also deathly allergic to animals, but m brother is 13 yrs older than me, and he and his wife got a boxer named Misha when I was in 8th grade that I loved to death and considered my own (she just died last year), He also had a golden retriever named shelby (only for 2 years while her owners traveled) and THEN when I was freshman in HS, my parents surprised me with a Maltese puppy because they have hypo allergenic hair and he could live in my house, roll in my mom's clothes, and poop on her bed without any allergic reactions. It's a shame he was such a terrible dog! SOOO naughty! he ruined our carpet, snipped at my little neices and nephews, cost my parents thousands in vet bills (he snorted a foxtail, got worms, staff infections, eye illnesses, you name it). And he yapped. When we were newlyweds I would beg for a boxer puppy to snuggle, but now that I have babies to snuggle (and clean up poop from) I don't really have any desire for a pet.
Oh! and a different Kristen has a research blog. She started it because she has a new baby and she checks every single consumer report, recall, product rating, etc. known to man before she buys anything for her baby...so she decided to blog about all her motherly research to make her knowledge public to moms everywhere. You're off the hook for now....unless you happen to know where discarded letters to grandma end up?
Hi Kristen! It was SO good to hear from you! I had no idea that Jennifer had linked me on her blog, but I'm sure glad she did. :) I will definately check-in with you often. I'm not so good at updating my blog very frequently---there aren't many exciting things in my life to blog about! :) Don't be a stranger! Oh, you should check out Deseret's blog! Her link is on my blog. Tell everyone "hi" for me! Love ya!!
I love that picture of your family! We do have a dog named Skip {used to be my brother-in-law Mark MacCabe's dog}. We wouldn't mind getting rid of him because he like to escape and roll in his poop. Otherwise, he is a good dog. A little Jack Russell. I love your music on your blog...you rock!
You will NEVER meet a more 'Not-a-pet-person' than me....ever.
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