I grew up in a household that at one time had more than 5 dogs in the compund and i loved them all dearly. We’ve had chickens, roosters, fishes, and yes, a rabbit too for my eldest at one time.

We don’t have a dog where we are presently (not advisable), so we’re planning to get ourselves our own labrador when we do settle down someday.

But for now, our youngest is like a pup himself. Slippers, sandals, shoes do go missing. Though he doesn’t chew on it, he tries to wear it and drags it off somewhere we cannot find it. The remote controls now have to go up on the shelf otherwise, it goes missing too. So yeah, you will find me walking around the house barefoot now, shouting for my slippers.

We have two cats (Mia and Dee). We lost Dee’s sister (Storm) last year. She went in to have a lump in her neck checked out, and she didn’t make it past the sedation. That was very upsetting. We adopted Mia as a 10 week old kitten this past summer. She’s very sweet, but Dee wasn’t too happy about her arrival at first. She’s learned to tolerate her.

We had a dog (Max), part chow, for 13 years but lost him due to old age and health issues earlier this year. Still miss him.

Mountain Barbie will always have a special place in your heart, but a new puppy can find a special place there too. There’s no way I could talk you out of the insanity. It’s too much fun and brings so much joy.

We have six nearly-certifiable cats that run amok in our house, who have not allowed the children to forget that they were all here first. The oldest cat is 12, diabetic, rules with an iron paw, will astonishingly put up with a 35-pound three-year-old happily sitting on her, and will tear into bread if we leave it out in the open. Keiki is 11, and is the resident grump. She used to hiss all the time when she was a kitten, because it made such a cool noise. Mika is almost 11, and he’s my nursemaid, and despite being the house lightweight, he’s been known to herd me to bed when he thinks I’m sick. And he finds slightly-open sock drawers an invitation to go sock-fishing, and will occasionally curl up in the bathroom sink. Minou is the precise definition of a scaredy-cat; my father refers to her as The Apparition. She flees under the bed when my husband steps into the bathroom (her hiding spot). Did I mention she’s spent 99% of her life with us? Koa is the embodiment of basement cat; she’s had a bad attitude since the day Pa’ani came home and foiled her plans for world domination…or, at the very least, overthrowing Po. She and Minou are littermates and polar opposites; they’re both almost 9. Then there’s Pa’ani…the Weasel. Too smart for his own good, and yet dumber than a box of rocks at the same time. He’s almost six. He chews on my hair. He snores when he sleeps (although not as loudly as Koa). He exists outside of the feline hierarchy because he just doesn’t care, even when Koa is spitting in his face. He would play with stuffed animals as a kitten when the other cats (disliking his desire to be their new fitness trainer) wouldn’t play with him. Alternately, he’s a lap cat and a menace.

I wouldn’t trade any of ‘em for anything.

Patricia

We have a dog – about 4 or 5 years old now, named Bailey. he’s a Coton de Tulear, which is a breed no one’s ever heard of because there are only like 5 breeders in the US. They’re white furballs with floppy ears and pretty much look like live stuffed animals. They’re really really smart – we trained our to ring a bell when he has to go out in about a day.

They’re usually $2500 but we got our for free when my neighbor’s sister got a litter that was way too big and was in a rush to get rid of them because she had to go take care of her mother or something. I didn’t pay attention to the details – I was too enamored with the puppy at the time.

I’m not gonna lie; Bailey’s pretty much the sh*t. He does do this weird Nazi salute sometimes in his sleep that concerns me, as someone with a Polish background…