Some of My Best Friends

I mentioned "my non-human companions" earlier. Sometimes I think my house is a zoo. We have cats and rabbits. Six of each. Yikes! We did not plan to have all these critters, but it was sort of a "one thing leads to another" situation. It goes something like this: You have a cat. Someone has a cat they've found and don't want to keep. They call you up, knowing you have a cat and will probably take it off your hands. Bingo! You have two cats. It's sort of the same story with the rabbits, but we started out with three (one for my daughter, one for my son, and one for me)--and, no, they do not cohabit and we are not producing our own stock. And we absolutely do not eat them (the rabbits, not the cats; well, we don't eat the cats, either! Good grief!). These are our beloved pets. However, three of the beloved bunnies started out elsewhere and ended up in our care.

We also have two pet mice who belong to my daughter. And a tarantula that I got for the museum where I used to work to use in their bug camp programs, but no one really was thrilled with the idea of having to take care of it, so it lives here, too.

That's all we have at the moment. In the past we have also had a dwarf hamster, a red corn snake, and a leopard gecko, but natural lifespan does have a way of catching up with all things (no, we didn't feed the hamster to the snake!).

Having pets is a wonderful way to love and be loved. They are also great teachers. One of the things they have taught me is to stop being the recipient of other people's found or unwanted pets.

If I could have only one kind of animal for a pet, I would be hard pressed to choose between rabbits and cats. They each have their own special attributes. They almost always manage to be able to make me smile. Of course, there are times when they make me want to pull my hair out, too!

Cats are beautiful and elegant creatures. They move with such refinement and grace--especially when they are rolling around on the mantle and fall off or miss the mark when trying to leap from the arm of the sofa to the chair on the other side of the room or go into an all out slide across the tabletop and fall into the space between the table and the wall. They recover their dignity quickly. Then they look at you with an expression that says, "I meant to do that."

Rabbits just make me happy. I believe that God gave us rabbits so that we might have a smile now and then. They are so silly. Think about it. They have great long ears and hardly any tail at all. They have tiny little front feet and great huge hind feet. Their noses are in almost constant motion and if you have ever watched a rabbit eat anything close up, you just have to smile.


This is our beautiful Pushkin.
A very elegant girl.



Twinkie sleeping on the shelf in the kitchen. Notice how she has
rearranged the objects to suit her needs.








Stormy snoozing and PetCat keeping watch.





Pester Allcolor looking at you.



Periwinkle, my mini Rex rabbit, showing you those famous rabbit feet.



Lillie Bun.




And the famous Matilda nose.