How to: Enjoy an indoor rabbit…
Hahaha. No. He stinks, will live up to 9 years, digs up the carpet in the corners and kicks out rabbit poo all over the floor from his cage.
Red uses his ninja training to kick poo out all over the floor when night falls. Rabbits, like most rodents, are nocturnal.
Unfortunately, (for me anyway) it gets way too hot to cage a rabbit outdoors down here. (There are ways to do it, but it would take a lot of work.) He is a long term rodent investment!
How to: Own an Australian Shepherd and triumph over the hair…
Oh my God, no. My dog blows his coat every spring.
This is my dog and his undercoat. There’s at least another dog his size worth of hair after this brushing. It’s not over at once, either. He will continue to shed heavily for weeks and then go back to medium shedding (like most dogs do in the spring) for the remainder of the year. His shedding is insane and never ending!!!!
Huge chunks of rabbit fine undercoat dropping off onto the carpet. Daily vacuuming cannot compete with these random blobs of dog hair. My dog is the ultimate champ in all shedding events! In case you wondered: Australian Shepherds are an American based breed. I have no idea why he isn’t called an American shepherd. Probably just didn’t sound as cool!
How to: Keep a cat out of your pots, flower beds and vegetable garden…
Urg. My attempts have included laying chicken wire across the beds, plastic forks: tine side up, plastic netting and high fences: he still manages to get into and poop on everything. Cat poop is like the nuclear waste of animal dung. Toxic, nasty, yuck that will last long after anything natural should! That stuff is deadly to my plants and it does not compost (even though he chooses to bury it.)
My animals each have their issues. So do my human friends. But they all have reasons to ignore the drawbacks:
In defense of the rabbit:
Our rabbit “Red” is a snuggle bunny. He was a gift to my kids for surviving a tough move, away from family, down to Texas. My then 5 year old thought naming a black and white rabbit “Red” was hilarious. I agree! I don’t have any babies in the house anymore. My boys are getting bigger. I still get kid snuggles, but our bunny is about the same size my boys were when they were born.
Red getting some snuggles from my husband!
Our rabbit makes a great stand in for a mommy and a daddy who are nostalgic about the days when we had infants at home!
In defense of the dog:
My dog is incredibly smart. Like: “Are you sure you aren’t just a really hairy five year old kid?” smart. I got him on the first anniversary of 9-11. He has a patriotic registered name but we call him “Christmas”. I think I chose that nickname because Christmas is a holiday full of love, forgiveness and promise. Just what I needed on an anniversary of a horrible, emptyhearted tragedy that was created by a few bent souls.
He is great with my kids. He has endless love and forgiveness. He is great entertainment with his goofy quirks (He does flips, can out fetch anyone’s desire to continue to throw a ball for him and he actually kicks balls with his front feet. Dog soccer is awesome!) Plus, he was my family before I met my husband. I love my dog completely!
In defense of the cat:
My cat is an antique. I rescued him as a kitten. He was up a tree at my mom’s. She was out of town at the time but offered this advice when I called her asking if I should rescue the kitten: “Leave him alone. He’ll come down. You never see cat bones up in a tree.” After three days I got out the ladder and brought him down. That’s when I noticed he had a puncture wound on his stomach (most likely from a coyote trying to eat him. That would make me stay up in a tree indefinitely, too!)
He was scared, dehydrated and feral but he recognized I was trying to help him and he’s been a great buddy ever since. If I’d left him, I think he might have become the first set of cat bones in a tree!
His name is “Newman”. He was named after the Seinfeld character when that show was popular. He’s that old! 20+ years and counting. The dogs and other cats we had at the time are long gone, but Newman keeps plugging along! He was a barn cat that defied the odds. He is super friendly and one of those rare “great cats”. I’ve only owned a couple of those in my life.
Every relationship has troubles, even ones that are forged between species. But most long term love affairs happen because they have earned the right to happen. They are made through mutual respect, love and interdependence.
I love the relationships I have with my animals. They have helped me understand that my human connections are just as rewarding (and as challenging) because “perfect” doesn’t really exist. It’s not supposed to. Love is complex but it’s definitely worth the hassles and learning experiences that imperfections bring! Learning to love means dropping expectations and opening up to a direction you don’t control. Forgiveness is a habit. Respect is not optional. Control is not compatible. (And I take that stance: in defense of me.)
Here’s to enjoying the imperfections and gifts that love and life bring our way!
In an update, this article was written about seven years ago. Both my dog and my cat passed away from old age. They were very loved and I still miss them. Our rabbit Red is no longer practicing his ninja skills and kicking poo out everywhere. He passed away at 10 years old this year. As loved as he was, we have decided that we are not going to get any more animals from the rodent family.
We now have a whippet (no hair issues!) who is currently 7 years old and a new kitty (she’s indoor only, who would have thought I’d go there?) who is coming up on three. She’s a rescue cat with a mustache marking on her face and she’s the sweetest thing ever. She has a bad eye and we knew when we saw her that others would pass her by because she was not perfect. She was just too friendly to leave at petsmart and hope that someone else saved her. We went for dog food and came home with a cat! So far: her cloudy eye has almost completely cleared up, she’s stayed super friendly and cuddly and she pretty much runs the house.
Our whippet is also a great fit for our family. He lays around sleeping most of the time but then goes outside and runs laps in the backyard like his relative: the greyhound. He has a dog’s personality and a cat’s activity level. Whippets are an interesting breed. They aren’t all that common these days and they are couch potatoes most of the time. But when he takes off: He’s truly the fastest animal I’ve ever seen! They are supposed to be faster, in a sprint, than a greyhound and I believe it.
For some reason all of our animals are black and white. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but they are a perfect fit as far as their personalities.
We’re all still quirky and silly and our family is once again complete. We miss our old pets, cherish our current ones and enjoy the love that comes from owning animals.
Crazy Green Thumbs 