Why Pets are Like Children

Obviously, I don't have kids - unless you count the 5 pets we have. If you are a follower of my blog, you will have already been introduced to our 2 cats (RoxyAnn & Moodles) and our 3 dogs (SydSyd, Jakester and O).

More often than not, Cop'er & I find ourselves as referee, loving parent, disciplinarian and good cop/bad cop (neither comes more naturally than the other for Cop'er, by the way). There's always a fight to break up, teasing to end, loving to administer, baths to give, meals to make, punishment to dole out, messes to clean up, toys to put back, sitters to be lined up. Like I said, pets are like kids.

A few of our "kids" have very distinct personality traits... O likes to sleep in the bed with us at night. He whines at Cop'er's feet until he's carried into the bed to sleep with his Mommy. I can't complain - he's very well behaved when it's sleepy-time. He also like to use the bed for other purposes... burying bones.

Lil Guy as a pup - what a cutie!

Every so often, Cop'er gives the kids a dog bone triat (Alpo, the large variety) to keep 'em busy (aka quiet). Well, O isn't very interested in actually eating the bone. He just carries it around in his mouth, whining to Cop'er for a lift to get in the bed. Once in the bed, he's bound for the blankets. He drops the bone in the midst of the pile and digs, digs, digs until the bone is "buried." There's no telling how many little treasures we might have sleeping with us.

Another very distinct personality is Moodles. He's the baby cat in our family. And by 'baby' I mean the youngest cat, 8 years old. He also sleeps in the bed with us - on the other side of me. He likes to stretch his paws out until he's touching my face. i don't think he knows he still has claws & they kinda hurt sometimes. The little quirk he has is climbing on my nightstand, knocking the lampshade over & over making it tap, tap, tap on the wall beside the bed. Talk about annoying things to hear at 3am!

The kid with the over-the-top trait would have to be RoxyAnn. She's full-fledged animal dominator of the house. She doesn't like the dogs, but puts up with O. She scraps with SydSyd & bops Jakester on the head. She takes nothin' from no one. I think that might even include me & Cop'er! Early in the morning, RIGHT BEFORE we are ready to get up - you know those precious moments of quiet you savor before the day starts - she is on the dresser. You'd think she would just chill, enjoy the quiet herself, but she doesn't. She cleverly paws all the bottles, boxes, trinkets, etc on top of the dresser until they fall over (bang!) or fall to the floor (crash). She does it over & over until I get out of bed, trick her into coming closer to me & throw her out the room. That is not the right way to wake up in the morning - especially on a Monday... or the weekend!

Of course, they all have their good & bad days. Sometimes they are great kids - full of sweetness & love. Sometimes they are the devil's spawn & there is nothing you can do but call it a night. At this point in my life - childless - I still feel like I get a little 'taste' of what it's like. And sometimes, I'm ok with having kids that let me sleep in late on the weekend!