I got a text last night from my son and his wife living in Charleston South Carolina. The text included a picture of a puppy unknown to me. It was adorable! A black, floppy eared, cute as a button puppy. The text said only… “look a new puppy”. This statement alone was nothing out of the ordinary on the face of it. However, my son and daughter-in-law are proud owners of four bunny rabbits, a cat, and some fish. When they got married a year ago, they had two rabbits, which quickly became three when my son saw a miniature bunny of some kind or other and had to get it. Then, through the local shelter, he saw a little black kitten, he had to rescue. It was quickly named Floyd. Then, since my daughter-in-law (works at a pet store and loves all animals), can’t stand the thought of an abused, abandoned, or neglected animals, she brought home the fourth bunny when it was abandoned at the store’s door one night. When she was put in charge of the fish section, she decided she needed her own tank to learn as much as she could about fish. This then, precludes my late night text and picture (see above). I have to admit it was a gorgeously large lovable puppy. But another animal in a two bedroom apartment seemed beyond the limit to me. How does a mother share with her kids, the love of animals and yet not preach(what 20 something would listen anyway)or lecture about too many animals, the possibility of neglect, or the cost of caring (food and medical expenses) for all of the animals? Admittedly, they do have kennels for all of the animals, they do play with them all, and they do take good care of them, so far. But… how many pets are too many?
At one point, we also struggled with this same issue. Brad loves to tell the story of when he took his two Newfies to the local pet store to get dog food. The problem he says was not that he took his dogs, but that he took his wife. The store was showing pets from the local pet shelter and one of the pets was a red point cat. The Newfies went right up to the cat and the cat went right up to the dogs, and that was it. As Brad tells it, “my wife said, ‘we’ll be back for the cat’, and I said, ‘we already have two cats at home’, so we went back for the cat”. The truth is that we did go back for the cat (Chez). We had two older cats and two Newfoundland dogs and yet I knew this cat was for us. It was energetic and we needed the distraction of a cat that made us laugh. Chez’s antics have always made us laugh (I can see you giving me the evil eye Brad!)
The point is, I can’t stop adults from choosing lots of pets to love. I can only hope that they realize that all pets are lovable and that all animals are lovable. The challenge, and it is a lifelong challenge for animal lovers, is to realize that there is only a thin line between caring for pets and hoarding pets. If you ask people who hoard animals if they love their pets or if they hate abuse of animals they will say yes. However, keeping track of the necessary care of each animal can get overwhelming and often gets neglected.
Here then is the joke on me… My daughter-in-law brought home the Great Dane/Dobbie mixed dog for an overnight because the pet store she works for was hosting a meet and greet for the local shelter and they asked if anyone wanted to take the animals home for overnight. Of course she said yes and so they were just having it for overnight.
My son, knowing my fears, was leading me on, teasing me as only a kid can do to a mother! We bantered back and forth through texting and I told him to give the cute dog a big slobbery kiss from me, and one for him too. He replied, “Ewww ewww, not the mom kiss!”. I miss my Man-boy! I think we’re safe for now. Holding steady at four bunnies,one cat and some fish.
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