How I Learned To Tolerate Animals

If you had known me prior to meeting Pat, you would have known I didn’t have any special affection for animals of any sort. Oh, sure one was part of the family when I was growing up. The only characteristic I really remember about her was that all my mother had to do to get her to cower was bite her hand. Mom was Irish, but she was heavily influenced by dad’s family, which was very Italian. Hence, my mother would get her wish by biting her hand.

I had met Pat in an online chat room before the internet was the internet. She was planning on leaving her house in Florida to move up to NY. I told her if she needed a place to crash, she could always call me. As much as I didn’t really expect it (in fact, the offer was made in the same spirit as so many such internet offers are made; I was just trying to sound heroic), when Pat showed up at my workplace on 61^st St, after I composed myself into at least trying to look pleased (which I am sure I did no such thing) I was true to my word and brought her home. Well, since I had taken the train and subway in from Elizabeth, where I lived at the time, I let Pat drive us to the apartment in which we would live for the next several months. Pat, and her afghan hound, Crystal.

Crystal and I had an understanding. I didn’t mess with her and she mostly ignored me. Ignoring people is as easy for an afghan as it is for most cats. They’re beautiful animals, and they will constantly let you know that. And they tolerate no angry words directed at them or those whom they love. And Crystal loved Pat.

I found out how much she loved Pat when I hollered at Pat about something or other (no I don’t remember. I have short-term memory loss about such things). Before I knew it I was changing my pillowcase because Crystal squatted on my pillow and let go. Needless to say I never yelled in front of her again.

As time went on, and Pat and I grew closer, the old girl and I developed a relationship, albeit strained at times. I had yet to fully appreciate dogs, but I did begin to understand Crystal.

We were eventually forced to give Crystal to a friend. Shortly thereafter we walked into a pet store and met the first of several guinea pigs we would call ours. The most memorable of these was Mikie. Mike was in the bottom aquarium of a 2-level stand. When I passed the stand I couldn’t help but notice Mikie was standing on his hind legs as if to beg me to take him home, which is, of course, exactly what I did. He wasn’t our first guinea pig, but he had the most charming personality.

We had about seven or eight guinea pigs when we moved from NJ to TX. We had a van-line move the bigger stuff, but we were able to stuff a ton of things into the Chevy, including the cages replete with guinea pigs and one rabbit, named Midnight. And sneaking all the cages into a motel room on the way to TX was no small feat. But they enjoyed the ambiance, and the room service, as provided for by Pat and me, was beyond reproach.

There is so much more to tell you about how I eventually learned to not only love animals, but how they became an integral part of my life. Until next time, dear reader, enjoy yourself and your family, regardless of the number of legs they may have.

This entry was posted on 24. December 2009 at 05:11 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.