Pets

These puppies, along with another litter mate, showed up at Mr. Pott's business and of course, they just had to be brought home. We found out they belonged to the neighbors across the road and they let us keep these two. The first one is Tigger's and the second one belongs to TheLittlestPrincess.
This brings our total of dogs up to four. I've lost track of how many cats we have. I think the cat population is finally under control with all of the females spayed now. Needless to say, we never even see mice. SmokeyBear is begging for a German shepherd puppy so I'm suspecting when he earns some of the money, we will be adding one more dog to the mix.

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Five dogs and 8 or so cats may seem outrageous to some but with seven kids and twenty-six acres it doesn't seem so bad, especially since only the westie and two of the cats are allowed in the house. (I have had to be firm with my crazy mother who has tried to talk me into making our huge Great Pyrenees a house dog! I can't imagine!) The indoor cats go in and out and don't even have or need a litter box. They actually meow at us and run to the door like a dog when they need to go out. Sometimes they just sit patiently by the door and wait until someone goes out.

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We lived in town in a smallish house when I was a kid so one dog and one cat were the maximum amount of pets allowed. I remembered longing for a German Shepherd or Siberian Husky when I was a young. I wanted to raise and train it myself. I even checked out books on dog training from the library and put the methods to practice on a twelve year old cocker spaniel. Of course the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" was recited to me during the beginning of my attempts. We had to guard the door when we went in and out to prevent her from dashing out and disappearing down the street and she had to be put out on a chain to go potty. If you tried to walk her on the leash, she would pull as hard as possible, dragging you down the street the entire way. She went from that to being able to walk down the street without a leash, heeling at my side, stopping and sitting when I stopped. I trained her to be able to stay in one place until I walked away and called her to me then she would come immediately in front of me and sit. I never got to practice training the dog of my dreams.

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After I was married, I actually did buy a Siberian Husky, but after having children to love and train, I just didn't have the desire to put all of that effort into a dog. Instead he just seemed like a hassle and when my babies were crawling around on the floor picking up pieces of dog hair, I was not happy. Having a flea on my baby did it for me. I didn't want indoor dogs with babies any more. When he disappeared one day, I was actually relieved.

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Experiencing such intense longing as a child makes it really hard for me to say no to my children when it comes to pets, especially now that we don't have any babies or toddlers. Mr. Potts is no help. He grew up with such unusual pets as a baby raccoon and a squirrel among other things - and they did not live out in the country. Hopefully, my younger children won't know about this post so they won't try harder to exploit this weakness. :)