Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Pet Slave


I was never a pet person, but when my wife and her children moved in with me they brought their dog; an old cocker mix.

My wife also just finished reading the James Harriot collection, and she was looking for creatures to save. I recall we were driving to Manzanita one evening and she said, “Turn around, there’s an injured kitten on the road.” I turned the car around to discover that it was actually a crow that had been struck down and its wing was moved by the wind every time a car drove by it.

The next day we were driving down our country road and out in the middle of no where a kitten darted across the road in front of us. When we returned that evening, that same kitten darted across the road in the same spot. The following day my wife went for a walk down to the spot and rescued the kitten.

People mistake the country as a good place to dump unwanted animals. Please people, be responsible, don’t dump your animals on us.

Anyway we now had a cat and a dog. I didn’t want to be a pet slave, one who constantly lets pets in and out, so I got a pet door that fitted into the sliding door we used to have. It worked out well. So much so that when I replaced the slider with a real door, I designed a pet door in the wall of the new addition. The cat and dog could come and go as they pleased.

One day I started noticing that the water bowl for the pets was getting really dirty. I’d freshen it every day, but every morning it was dirty. Then one evening the pets were with me while I was reading in the living room and I heard the pet door swing a couple times, so I snuck up to the laundry room and turned on the light and I saw three raccoon asses all going out the pet door at once. That was the end of that good idea. I again joined the ranks of the pet slave. The pet door has been closed ever since.

9 Comments:

Blogger Me. Here. Right now. said...

That is funny! Last place I lived before my little refuge here, I had three raccoons hanging out on top of the house every night--they'd used the large tree to gain access. They never tried the dog door, and had it even occurred to me they might, I'd be freakin' out. The dog door was left behind after the "burglar" used it to gain entry to that house.

6:14 AM  
Blogger richpix said...

What you need, Guy, is a power pet door Your pet wears an ultrasonic collar which activates the door but won't open for the masked bandits.

1:01 PM  
Blogger Undercover Mother said...

Pony Dog doesn't bark gratuitously. So, when I heard her barking at around 2 a.m., I opened up the front door, and not two feet from me were two big, fat raccoons, taking the cat food I had forgotten to bring in.

6:43 PM  
Blogger Undercover Mother said...

Pony Dog doesn't bark gratuitously. So, when I heard her barking at around 2 a.m., I opened up the front door, and not two feet from me were two big, fat raccoons, taking the cat food I had forgotten to bring in.

6:43 PM  
Blogger Mike S said...

Nice story. We've had a bobcat move into our area and the racoons seem to have moved on:)

8:38 PM  
Blogger Elleda Wilson said...

We have a family of raccoons that live in my back 40 who come to the front porch and chow down on the outside cats' food every night. At least when they're fed, they seem to stay out of mischief better.

8:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If they do not wash their hands after deficating and before eating they do not belong in a civilized persons house.
Bottom line: people belong in the house; animals do not.

9:19 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

These three live in a cedar tree out in front of my house. There has been a family of raccoons living there as long as I've been here, and they really haven't been a problem. I have tried to trap them in a have a heart trap so I could relocate them, but they are too smart for that.

Rich, what I really need is no pets.

Gearhead, since raccoons do wash their hands before and after everything they do I'll send them your way if I ever catch them. Actually they don't have salivary glands so they need to wash things before they eat.

6:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have a pet door down in the basement; a large one to accomodate the 100 lb. puppy. One Sunday morning I woke up and the neighbor's dog was in our kitchen having breakfast. The bad part is that the neighbor is my husband's ex-wife. We love the dog but don't care much for her. We know that the ex-wife monitors everything this dog eats so the dog doesn't get fat...I fried up some bacon and gave the dog several slices. The ex-wife still wonders why this dog likes to hang out over here.

I guess we have been lucky not to have raccoons yet...except in our barn where they have significantly reduced the chicken and duck population.

Love,
Anon

7:56 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home