dynamics

My mother is not a dog person. I almost wrote not a pet person, but I have to say that she enjoys her birds (even though they annoy the hell out of everyone else) and her turtle (before my father decided that Bright Eyes needed a new home).

Growing up, we were always allowed to have some sort of pet, but my mother always seemed to be barely tolerating them. My father, on the other hand, always developed some deep relationship with our dogs and birds and, well maybe not, the snakes etc. My dad was the one, however, who always protested that he did not want another pet, especially not another dog. His argument was that they always ended up as his responsibility, and as such, he ought to have the right to veto getting another one. That would make you think that he didn't like having pets... but now, looking back, I think it is just that he didn't like to get attached to them.

Animals love me. I think I get the not being a dog person from my mother. I dislike pets that need to be NEXT to you all the time or that want to jump in your lap or, ick, lick your face. But, animals love me. I can walk into a stranger's house, and if there is a dog or a cat, it will be sidling up next to me trying to get my attention. My sisters are extreme dog lovers. I mean extreme. In a way that makes me cringe... I swear they love their animals more than people. One of my brothers prefers cats to dogs, but basically they are all animal lovers.

I am considered the anti-animal lover... but it's not true. I adored my bird Aloysius ... and we had an understanding. He stayed in his cage unless there was some need for him to be out and about. We didn't need to be constantly together in order to love each other. I thoroughly enjoy my turtle. And we have a real connection despite all the people who don't understand that a turtle can connect with a human ... read: they only get dog/cat to people relationships. Somehow there is some secret line that non-dogs and non-cats cannot cross in those people's worlds... well, they just don't get it, but that's a topic for another post.

In any case, animals love me, always want to talk to me, and well, I would rather that they do it from a distance. I think dogs should live outside where they can be, well, ANIMALS rather than turned into appendages. Those are my personal feelings on the subject, so whatever. And, I always thought that this was a point on which my mother and I could agree. Being that there are so FEW things upon which we agree, I was pleased to imagine that it was so.

Then my younger sister got Lola and left her at the house for my mother and father to take care of like some grandchild. Lola is a rather small dog, so small and un-dog like that you might confuse her for a miniature deer or large rat. She is a miniature pinscher/chihuahua mix. Visualize it. I don't have a photo handy. Lola is needy and whinny and just generally a brat. Oh, and she loves me... she will stand at my feet and cry...hoping that I will give her one ounce of attention despite the fact that I have explained to her MANY times that I don't want her to sit on my foot or my lap or next to me, or anything. Not in a box, not with a fox, not on a train, you get the picture.

Well, my mother LOVES Lola. It's not surprising that my father loves Lola...he's a pushover. But, I NEVER thought I would live to see the day that my mother would LOVE LOVE LOVE a dog. She loves Lola so much (and misses her now that she's moved far away) that she got a dog. Now, granted it has taken two years and someone else to shell out the dollars for the dog, but now she has her own little not-dog dog.

LUCY. I haven't seen her, but I will provide the descriptions I have been given, and you can attempt to visualize. My father states that she is "cute and woolly." My mother says that she doesn't really look like a chihuahua. She has green eyes and red hair, hence the name, though there was apparently controversy in the naming (perhaps better left for another post). When pressed on what does she look like, my mother says, "She's Heinz 57." Huh?! My mother explained: "she's a little of this and a little of that, well a lot of things." As far as she knows, part miniature pinscher and chihuahua (like Lola) but also miniature dachshund and maybe more, who knows. I had no idea what she was talking about with the Heinz 57, though I mentioned it to my friend, Mary, and Mary says, "oh, she's a mutt."

Well, as if the fact that my mother now owns a lap dog wasn't enough to shake what little foundation I thought I had with my parents, my mother also announced that my father was out making a house for the stray cat and the kittens she gave birth to in the backyard. What's even more confusing is that my mother referred to them as "his cats." -- ALL OF THEM?!

Ok, so the guy who never wants to have pets again has decided to adopt five flea riddled cats? Um, what have you done with my father?? He doesn't like pets because he doesn't like to get attached and now he's attached to cats that are strays and just as likely to wander off as they are to stay and get fleas everywhere??

Yeah, I was puzzling about it for awhile and then I decided that my dad needed to keep things balanced. So, if my mother was going to have a lap dog, then he was going to claim the cats. It is the only notion that is keeping me sane at the moment. Not sure if it's true, though.

Oh... and boy is Lola going to be angry when she comes to visit and is forced to meet and interact with Lucy. Roll the cameras for that one!