Pampered Pets

Am I pet person?  Not lately.  I used to be.  I love animals -- well I used to.  And I still do but now they annoy me.  Well,. the ones I have annoy me anyway. 

I grew up with animals.  We always had cats around - those were usually mine.  We had two dogs - kind of all of ours.  We also had numerous fish of every variety.  We had parakeets - they were cool.  We also had turkeys, chickens, rabbits, pet mice (not sure why I wanted them that time), gerbils, and I always had a pet turtle.  They were my favorite.   We also had raccoons and squirrels that Dad would find in the timber and bring home because the poor things were left without a mother when he chopped down their home (tree).

My kids always had animals while they were growing up.  They had everything - dogs, birds, fish, lizard, and one time believe it or not Tarinda had a pet tarantula.  Yes, I know that one's hard to believe knowing how absolutely petrified of spiders I am.  The front yard of our old house is a virtual pet cemetery. 

When we moved to Tulsa we brought with us one dog and two cats.  The dog was mine - Little Bit.  She was a toy Pomeranian and was pretty spoiled.  Well, kinda.  She didn't weigh much of anything and when the older girls were home a couple of them used her for a football.  There was one place we lived that had a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement.  While I was at work they liked to put Bit down the laundry chute.  Poor thing - no wonder she had arthritis as she got older.  I had her about 17 years before she died. 

We also had two cats -- 8-Ball - who ended up at our house as an orphan kitten.  8- Ball is going on 15 years old.  I'm hoping she dies soon.  I'm getting tired of her.  Although I will admit when I'm taking a nap it's kinda nice when she curls up on my side. 

We also had Shoes. This was K.C.'s cat.  K.C. moved back from Texas to Missouri with 2 cats - Socks and Shoes.  K.C. could not have cats in her rental so Mom got them.  Socks got catnapped and Shoes stayed with us even when we moved.  Shoes wasn't very old - only a couple of years old when she died after we moved. 

About 4-5 years ago a stray kitten showed up on our back porch.  Boy, was Chris excited when he called me at work to ask me "Guess what I found on our back porch when I got home from school?"  I very quickly told him not to touch the cat, not to feed the cat not to even look at the cat.  Stay away from the cat.  I did not want the cat.  Gary had different ideas when he came home and he gave the cat some milk. 

This cat was very, very small.  I seriously did not think she would survive but she did and we named her Bandit because of her unique coloring on her belly.  She kinda reminded us of a raccoon.  I believe her mother was a neighborhood cat and the dad was one of the neighborhood raccoons.  This thought is enforced every time I find a sock in the cat's water bowl.  Stupid cat - she has a thing for socks.  You cannot leave a single sock out because she will take it.  I wake up to a trail of socks from the bedroom to the kitchen every day.  And she is always leaving at least one sock in the water bowl. 

Now I told you her name is Bandit - but it did not take long for me to rename her Psycho Cat.  Stupid cat!!  She doesn't just play like most kittens will.  She actually hides and lays in wait to attack you.  My grandkids are scared of her - well Remington is.  He will crawl over and under furniture to stay as far away from her as he can.  The cat is just crazy!  For no reason at all, I've seen this cat just jump up from the spot she was laying in sleeping and run and attack a person. 

Now you're probably wondering why I titled this Pampered Pets.  Well, much as these cats annoy me I tend to go out of my way not to disturb them. Don't ask me why - I don't know.  Example:  they like to sleep in bed with us.  It is not uncommon for Psycho to be at the bottom of the bed by my feet and 8-Ball to be at the top of the bed by my head.  Don't know why they want to sleep by me.  Gary is much nicer to them than I am. 

When they come tromping into the bedroom at night I talk mean to them.  I tell them they better be behaving themselves if they plan on coming to my bed and that doesn't mean that they can tromp all over me while they try to get themselves settled.  And don't be trying to play with me - it's bed time - settle down or get out. 

When I wake up in the night and need to turn over or go to the bathroom I am very careful to move myself around the animals to keep from waking them up. Why? They do nothing but sleep all day anyway. It won't hurt if they get their evening nap disturbed. But every time I try to be very careful not to bother them.   So yes, they are pampered.

They must think I like them because if I sit very long in a chair at least one of them will come crawling up in my lap.  I tell them they need to go see Gary or Chris who actually like them but they insist on continuing to hang out with me much of the time. 

So yes, we have Pampered Pets.  Not pampered like some people pamper their pets.  No extra special food or special dishes to eat and drink from or special clothes to wear; but pampered in the fact that I don't disturb them when they are sleeping in my bed at night.