Pet-thetic...

My friend, Deanna, over at Creekside Cottage has posed another question that has me laughing at my pathetic answer.
I'm not proud of it.
 It's a subject I've never admitted on here, so now is as good a time as any...

After posting multiple pictures of her family's animals and described the wonderful way they care for them, she posed a question to her readers that went just like this:

"Do you have animals?  What challenges do you have with them in the wintertime?"

If you've spent any amount of time in my household then you're already snickering about my answer.

We stink at keeping and nurturing animals!  We've had a myriad of pets through the years, but they never last very long around here. They either die, get hit by cars, float to the top of their bowl, or get all arrogant and think they own the place {in which case, one or two pets MIGHT have been taken to the pet resort down the street called The Humane League} 

 I have always had grandiose ideas about a Norman Rockwell pet experience for my kids... 

A romanticized dream of a Lab curling up at the bottom of their beds at night

 and strolling in the park on a Fall day.  

But that is a FAR cry from reality. 

I have no idea how many handfuls of fish, gerbils, hamsters, birds, cats and dogs have made their way through our house.  It is with great intention that they are adopted and brought home.  But, it seems once they've made themselves comfortable here things begin to decline.  Either a guppy swallows too much air, a gerbil escapes and burns up in the radiator, a cat scratches the couch one too many times, a dog squats and pees on the floor right in front of me, or an over-sexed parakeet falls over and dies.  

For one reason or another at this moment our list of pets consists of one lone female parakeet. 

Period. 

{Unless, of course, you're counting the racoon that still lives on the roof, 

or the family of stray cats that comes and goes}

I guess you could say I'm in love with the IDEA of a pet...

 I'm just not so good at the work it takes to maintain a good pet home.

So, Deanna...while I wish I could say I have the patience and love for all four-legged and feathered friends like you do, sadly, I do not.  I have never even thought about how I would keep water troughs from freezing over...you are a SAINT and every animal's dream mom.

And I feel I should take the opportunity now to apologize to the Humane League for leaving the howling beagle in their holding room that night long, long ago.