Can You Live a Life Without Pets?
The day begins much like any other and it takes a few minutes to realize something is wrong. It started with the sleepy morning stretch; you stretched out long and wiggled your toes knowing any moment would bring a furry pounce. Wiggle once then again as a puzzled look crosses your face, the toes should be chew toys right about now but no, they were still and mockingly free of any warm furry attachments.
You gingerly sit up and leave the bed half expecting a sneak calf attack from beneath the dust ruffle, kind of a kitty good morning. Alas the dust ruffle hangs eerily still. You proceed to the bathroom hoping the familiar sound of running water will bring another equally familiar patter of four feet up the stairs; you listen intently for the tick, tick of toe nails on hardwood. However, once again nothing but quiet.
Sighing, you finish your shower and head downstairs to wander aimlessly while the coffee brews in the kitchen. The house feels empty and you wonder to yourself “what was I thinking?”
Tossing the abandoned rubber ball from the hallway up in the air, your mind wanders to large velvet brown eyes promising a life of kept secrets and furry shoulders to cry on, and on to green eyes and twitching long tails rolling and frolicking with the bedroom curtains.
Your memories make you smile and even chuckle a bit, especially the first kitten bath that left your precious looking more like a drowned rat than the regal species she truly was. Oh, what memories you have! True, there were a few benefits to this new pet free home; no “presents” from rover at the bottom of the stairs and no shredded curtains in the foyer. But it seemed a hollow victory over destruction.
Why were you doing this anyway? For Bob your allergic boyfriend? He will just have to take some Allegra because this simply won’t do, it must be undone! You hurriedly reach for the keys, heart pounding and hands slightly trembling, got to hurry! Impatiently you strum the steering wheel as every light in town turns red just as you approach.
Finally you see it, the little consignment pet shop on the corner, the little lady who runs it is just now turning the sign to open and unlocking the front door. You nearly give yourself whiplash when you pull up in front of the store. Lightly panting, you rush the door like a starving man for a cracker. Frantically you search the cages, your eyes demanding to find your bundles of joy. In horror, you realize that not one pair of eyes meets yours with any recognition, blues, greens and browns swirl through your mind like a hurricane.
In your desperation, you do not realize that the owner is trying to tell you something. Finally, she calmly takes your hand and leads you to the back room where baths and shots are given and there, shining in the middle of the bathing table like a topper to a trophy, sits your sweet precious pup, all proud and wriggly as if to say “look at me aren’t you proud?” At the same moment, you hear a protesting meow from the cage to your left. Precious is informing you in no uncertain terms how she still feels about the whole bathing idea. The grey haired owner smiles gently and simply says “I knew you would be back” as she helps you gather your furry bundles of joy and return them to their rightful place – your home.
Thankfully, your friends bear no ill feelings and instantly forgive you your moment of insanity in thinking you could ever live without them.
