So How Many ARE Too Many

Pets. Many people have them. Here in the south most keep them outside. I’m not sure why that is. Why would you have a pet and then keep it outside? What good is it then? It doesn’t greet you at the door, it doesn’t protect you, it doesn’t keep your feet warm on a cold night why have one. My pets live in the house with me. They sleep with us, sometimes taking over the bed.

Pre, our dog, alerts us when there is someone at the door; whether she would do anything if someone came in to hurt us is an entirely different matter. She is a good dog, though. We acquired Pre one late winter afternoon. Piglet #3 came running into the office to tell me there was a family of dogs in the yard. It was a lovely picture, Momma, Daddy, and Baby all taking a walk through our back yard. We went to the front door to watch this walk progress, here came Momma, there goes Daddy. We waited…..Baby never came. Therefore, to the back yard we went. Calling “Wait for me!” was this little black fluff ball. We brought her inside and that was that. Piglet #2 asked Earthpig if we could keep her and now we have Pre.

Cats, we have a lot of them. Six total, all fixed so there will be no little kittens running around. They live with us as well. At any given time there will be one under your foot, one on the chair you want to sit in, and one running pell-mell through the house. It can get interesting but never boring. We kinda acquire cats the same way we get dogs. The first, Freeway, came from a freeway onramp. Pouring down rain it was, and there in the middle of the road was this thing. It was moving so we stopped and picked it up. I brought it home and asked Earthpig if we could keep it, now we have Freeway.

Then came Corona, Piglet #1’s cat. She just wanted a cat and her friend’s cat had kittens so she asked Earthpig if she could have one, now we have Corona. Maybe about here I should tell you that Earthpig had said at this time that we could have no more animals in the house. We were at, what he deemed our house limit, 3 animals and that was enough.

Earthpig comes home one day and says a co-worker has a cat that just had kittens, do we want one. I said sure, what’s another cat in the house. What did I care, I love cats, dogs, snakes (oh yeah, Piglet #1 had a snake too at this time, and Piglet #2 had a lizard), lizards whatever. So, in 8 weeks we would have another cat. “But, no more animals after this”, said Earthpig.

Two weeks later Piglet #1 calls up, I answer the phone, “Momma, we found this kitten in a friends duct work in the house. It just recently opened its eyes. Can I bring it home; they will kill it because they don’t like animals?” What do I care, I told her she would have to ask Daddy. He said ok but it probably wouldn’t live if it was that young. Now we have Aurora. (Piglet #1 named her cat Corona after the beer, Earthpig decided to take the celestial meaning and follow that trend.)

Now, remember we have another kitten coming in a few weeks. Home comes our blue kitten his name is Borealis. At this point our count is 4 cats, 2 dogs, (We already had one German Shepherd, which we had to get rid of later, and a Rat Terrier who belonged to Piglet #1 and moved out of the house when she did) and an edict.

Earthpig comes home 3 weeks later and says co-worker can’t get rid of the last kitten, do we know anyone who wants a kitten. I said just bring it here we’ll keep it. He said are you sure? I said what’s another cat. Remember HE’S the one who proclaimed the animal rule, not me. So home came Jellu (pronounced Hey You). I would like to say we are complete, but that would be a lie. We still have one more cat to speak of. See, we had to get rid of the Shepherd, which was Piglet #3’s dog. So we went to the SPCA and got her a cat. She loves Penny (the name she came with) and Penny does well in the family.

Last year we got another dog. Her name was Molly; we had to get rid of her last week because she was attacking Pre. It was a sad time for the Earthpig family but Molly was smaller than Pre and she didn’t understand that when she fought Pre SHE got hurt. I hope she goes to a good home.

So how many IS too many. My Dad thinks we have too many. I think we have not quite enough. Earthpig is probably of the opinion of: maybe one more dog would be ok. Jinx outdoes us by 3 dogs and has 1 less cat. TJ only has 1 dog and 1 cat, maybe 2. The Geek thinks that is more than enough. Jinx and I think they need another dog. I’ll let you know if we get any more. I’m sure you’re sitting on the edge of your seat wondering!!