Torn between Pets
By Debra Holland Sometimes I feel like I’m a bad pet mom, mostly because I live in two places—my home and my boyfriend’s house. At my home, I have two cats, Nicky and Pippin. At my boyfriend’s house, we have two dogs, Missy and Oreo.
Each set of animals has one who’s particularly attached to me, and I know misses me a lot w
hen I’m not with them. Of my cats, my fat, odd-eyed Pippin, will love anyone who feeds him. But Nicky is a one woman guy, although I think he’s finally warmed up to my roommate, fellow WNP member, Jennifer Smith. 
Nicky was one of an abandoned litter raised by one of my friends at the Orange County Chapter of RWA. She brought the bunch in a cat carrier to our chapter meeting. They were barely a month old. I opened the carrier and passed out kittens to my cooing friends, but kept one for myself, meaning to hold him for a while, then give him back. NOT!!! Nicky slept in my lap the whole meeting, good as gold. From then on, I carried him everywhere with me, even to work. Then he became too big to stay quietly in my lap, and I had to leave him at home. But he’d still remain near me. As he got older, he became neurotic, and so I adopted a second cat to keep him company. That seems to have worked.
At Don’s house, he already had a collie, Missy, who’s the sweetest dog, always willing to lick the face of anyone who’ll give her some attention. She loves me, but Don is her special parent. After we’d been dating a few months, Don decided to get a second dog, and I suggested a Shetland sheepdog. One night I came home and the doors to the family room were closed. Wondering why, I opened them, and a beautiful sheltie sitting near the couch perked up. She took one look at me and raced over, instantly adopting me. My Oreo, although we usually call her Orie.
For months she followed me everywere I went, even crawling under my desk when I wrote or sleeping next to my bed at night. It took Don nine months and liberal bribes of treats before she warmed up to him. Now, of course, she loves him. But I’m her primary love.So, as you can see, at either house, I have happy animals or animals who miss me when I’m not there. So I’m a perpetually guilty pet mom.
Labels: Dr. Debra Holland, torn between pets
posted by Mo H @ 6:36 AM
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