Fast forward to my parents getting a cat after retirement. The same man who said, "Cats have fur--put 'im out!" in a Michigan January was making sure his precious Kimsy was inside every balmy NC night.

My parents did the same thing! After years of "when I was young, our pets only ate table scraps," my mom now treats her new cat like a king.

Cindy, as much as I love my pets, I envy your no-pet-having self. Paying a dog sitter when we have to go, paying vet bills and food gets expensive. Not to mention cleaning up--because even the most well trained animals will have accidents or get sick is a pain. Mac gets reoccuring ear infections that are gross and I have to clean her ears daily. Sam's too skittish for the groomer to clip his nails so I have to do it and we're looking at hip surgery for him in the future with dysplasia.

They're a LOT of work. There's reward, but still a lot of work. And money. And hair.

Yes. These are also on the list of justifications. I still feel badly for the kids, though. I'd get a bunny, but I hated it when my bunny died, too. And we have wild bunnies in the yard. I already have a problem with keeping any sort of pet that has to be kept in a cage/aquarium/terrarium (sp?). And I can just see the wild bunnies coming up to the hutch and being all taunty-free pants.

Well, that makes it pretty clear then: your kids need a pony.

Doesn't live inside, doesn't use a litterbox, doesn't keel over after one year, can be petted. It's perfect.

My step-mother refused to have the animals inside, so my father, who was a big old softy, built a condo for the cats on the front deck, with bedding and a heat lamp. (The dogs already had a chalet).

What we really need is a cow, and ability to pasteurize milk.

My step-mother refused to have the animals inside, so my father, who was a big old softy, built a condo for the cats on the front deck, with bedding and a heat lamp. (The dogs already had a chalet).

My father was like unto a Disney Princess where animals were concerned. Wild and domesticated, they flocked to him. It was really sweet.

My parents did the same thing! After years of "when I was young, our pets only ate table scraps," my mom now treats her new cat like a king.

My dad bitched and moaned constantly about the animals - "they've never yet found a cat skeleton up a tree" was his response when the cats were missing or treed.

He still does. But if you catch him when he doesn't think anyone's around, he postively dotes on Lucy. He'll carry on whole conversations with her, responding as if she'd been answering him. And once I moved away, he calls me a lot more than he ever used to, and half the time I swear it's just to tell me to say hi to the dog.

Mom, Cindy made me miss "Uncle Lennie" again! Sniff... Not that I still don't want to be interrogated by Mike Logan...but CI is so not the same! And ita pushed my Hill Street button. Don't let anybody tell you your teenaged viewing habits don't affect you. I was horribly imprinted by "The Pizza Man" at a formative stage and now if a character doesn't have a drinking problem or tons of personal issues, I can't love him. EHC is too damn funny! Never been earwormed by the sound, ita, but I heard VO a lot over the Shiavo case.

snakes and iguanas are pettable.

then there is always Furby, but you might want to shield the kids from [link]

So at 4:15 this morning, I'm awakened by by a tongue licking my face. It was Max. The friendliest he's ever been, and that's saying a lot.

Maybe he wanted breakfast (we've finally got him to stop jumping on the counter -- most of the time -- while we're fixing kitty meals), except that Hubs usually has breakfast duty (I usually have dinner duty).

And FTR, I've found that scooping the litterbox isn't usually a big deal. Scoop whenever the kitchen garbage can liner gets changed (about every 3 days, for us).

Awww. He wuvs you!