It's not that I'm anti-pet. We had dogs, parakeets, turtles, Guinea pigs, and a cat when I was growing up. I loved them and enjoyed having them around. The Dennis Brown family's last two dogs - Lionel the poodle and Buck the doofus - are legendary among the brothers.
So our absence of pets in the Mark Brown family has not been because I don't like them. I do. The real reason I've been hesitant about pets is that I'm too much of a softie. I don't like the idea of becoming attached to something that I know will probably die before I will. I don't like loving something that can get run over in the street, you know?
We had a cat in Twin Falls - the infamous Jackie Joe Johnson, the world's most psychotic, angry, inexplicable cat. One moment, he was sweet and friendly and affectionate. The next moment, he had his fangs sunk into our couch, our comforter, our feet, our HEARTS!
Our relocation to Michigan necessitated Jackie going to live with a nice family in the country. (I am not kidding. I'm not speaking figuratively. We found a nice family that lived in Hagerman and they needed a cat.) Since then, we've been pet free except for a series of fish I killed with startling regularity in Westland. (I named them all after members of 80s hair bands - Tico Torres, CC DeVille, etc. Maybe that's why they died.)
Well, that's all changed. A lady in our ward is moving to Colorado and needed to find a good home for her mellow, three-year old cat. We figured it already had its shots, its neutering, training in being around a baby, etc. and so why not?
So now we have a large, jet-black, sort of intimidating cat named Charlie stalking around our house, sniffing everything, alternately coming to us for affection and then bolting off in fear. He seems pretty kind and good-natured so that's good. He hasn't started destroying anything yet so, for now, our tender hearts are intact. Wish us luck with the new addition to our little family. Mark, Suzy, Maryn, Avery, Parker, and now Charlie Brown.
5 comments:
Congrats. Cats are crazy little creatures. I will hope for all of you that he doesn't follow Jackie Joe's legacy.
It's good to have a pet wandering around the house. C.S. Lewis wrote, " Why choose to love if loosing hurts so much? The pain now is part of the happiness then."
My favorite line about pets, in particular our last cat, came from Collin when he was about 6. He woke me up one morning asking me why Sadie was asleep out on the curb.
It's never a good thing when a cat is asleep on a curb.
Enjoy!
Just looked at Maryn's picture of Chaz on Suzy's blog and Amy's comment about how she takes after you in her art work. I remembered when Riley needed entertaining one time when we were all together and you drew pictures for her. She told us : "Uncle Mark is better than a coloring book !" Remember that ?
LOL to Shauna's comment...I think I remember Sadie...and Scout...and Abby...and...???
Good luck with the cat, you should ask dad about his new dog
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