We don’t actually live on a farm, far from it. We live in the suburbs. A smallish little town where the streets roll up at nine o’clockand It’s so quiet that the deputies all meet at the Coffee Bean to do paperwork and hang out doing their specific things they do. It’s that quiet.
We have a dog named Sheba, that will someday be a service dog to Bradley. Problem is that being in a small town, I’m having a hard time getting her the Canine Good Dog training she needs to take the next step in her training. Every time I set her up the class gets canceled to the point it’s not been offered the last two seasons. Going to have to move out of our area into somewhere else to try again or something. She’s a work in progress, so it’s good.
We have a seven year old cat that is a cranky female who doesn’t care for anything furry, just the two legged people. She reminded me off a Japanese cat I saw in Japan with her black and grey fur, so we named her Yuna. Yuna is the queen bee in our house and she rules with an iron fist, well hiss for sure. When she was little she used to dump her water bowl everyday. Now we have a larger square bowl she can’t dump, though she does try. She likes to pull at it with her paw, making the water slosh about. She gets to drink first before anyone else and she does it as slow as possible. Dainty, even queen like. Yuna likes to sit and use her paw to lift the water from the bowl to her mouth, over and over again. She sleeps where ever it suits her, but her preferred place to sleep is on top of the dog’s kennel. I like to think it’s convenient, but I’m pretty sure she does it to harass the dog as much as possible. Considering the dog is never in there unless she chooses to be, hers is an empty sort of harassment.
Toby One Kenobi joined our family after we left San Diego. Sydney used to volunteer in the Kindergarten classroom, and the teacher offered her one of the room rabbits because she had a special bond with the critter. Since we were moving into an apartment, we had to decline. I did consider it though, Eric was the voice of reason. I was the parent that felt so bad about the moving again, the leaving of friends and family in San Diego, that I promised that if we ever got our own house she’d get a rabbit. That had to do. Instead we got this orange tabby cat that is a complete nut. He and Sydney have a close bond, maybe because he loves her blanket as much as she does. Don’t worry, I’m not sharing state secrets here...Sydney and her blanket will go to college together someday, she might make a coat out of it when she’s older, either way... she and her cat love that blanket. Although the potential is that he loves the blanket more than she does, but she keeps it for her comfort, but more, the comfort Toby gives her as they snuggle under it. Toby will meow at you if you look at him. If you respond to his meow, he will meow again, and you will have a conversation with a cat. If that’s not enough, Toby and I play hide and seek. We play until he catches me, then he gets treats, the
only cat in our house that likes treats. In the last few weeks, Toby has also started drinking his water from his paw as well. The cats are crazy!
Then we added rabbits. Miniature Newfoundland rabbits (I think) Sydney got a black one she called Hobbit, then Holly and who I call Holly Hobbit because I couldn’t keep up with the name change. Feeling that maybe Madison needed a little buddy of her very own since Toby seems to have chosen to be Team Sydney, we let her get a little white one that she named Rosie. All was well until the fires of December last year. During the fires, more predators were pushed to our area. In an unfortunate accident whereby one of the sides of the portable cage was left open, Rosie the rabbit hopped out and was GONE! No fur, no “Oh Crap! Predator!” pellets left behind, no sign of her ever again. Madison was devastated, I was devastated. She wasn’t my rabbit, but she was under my care as the mom of the house. Ugh! So Eric and I are talking, and I say how I had felt she needed something just for her even though she never really said she wanted a rabbit, but she sure loved Rosie. He goes, we should have just got her a kitten, they’re easier. I’m like, you said no more cats! So Eric goes to talk to her and she’s fully on board with a kitty. So much so, she’s checking the shelter. She finds one she likes and I’m like - uh, what, wait.... huh? So Eric and I go to the Shelter, while I’m checking on the one she saw on the Internet, he’s scouting the talent. When I find him, he goes, “I like that one.” Another orange tabby? What? Eric just laughs and shows how the little guy keeps reaching for him and won’t stop purring. We leave the decision to Madison and three days before Christmas that six month old orange tabby enters our family. He still won’t stop purring. He meows at everyone like he’s talking to us and if you look at him when he does, he starts purring. You can hear him coming down the hallway as the purrs get louder and louder. He’s a cuddler, and he adores Madison...mission accomplished. His name is Louis. His Indian Guide name is “Lizard Killer.” Bringing in four within four days...one was very much alive when I happened to be on the receiving end, thank you very much! Toby kills crickets, and when we first moved in and had rats in the English Spruce trees, Sheba took out two of those. Word got out, the population moved out of those trees and we never had that problem again. Good dog! Now those rat condos are gone completely, so it’s even better.
A regular suburban farm. Promises made and kept, love given and received daily, responsibility being slowly entrenched in these kids trying to care for these animals, and a daily reminder of how crazy we parents are to have one dog, three cats, and a rabbit in our family. But at the end of the day it’s worth it. The lessons of loving animals are important; sometimes incredibly painful, but all of them are imperative to learning to live this life in the best way possible.
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