Other People's Pets - JoJo

Hear about that big blizzard back east? I sure would rather have been petting cats at the shelter than driving in it – but these are the trade offs we make for family time. Winter travel (and just plain winter where it’s freezing and snowy) is really not so fun. I missed my boy terribly. But did get the chance to keep company with a great diversity of other people’s pets.

There was Izzy, the teensy elderly Persian, who mostly sleeps, and pokes out her tiny pink tongue when she’s happy. She tolerates Suki, a lovely Siamese, who enjoys being carried draped over her human mom’s shoulder. Both these girls required a bit of wooing before I was allowed to stroke them.

On the other side of the personality scale is Igor, a black and white bruiser with a busy schedule of patrolling his whole neighborhood even in sub-freezing weather. Inside he’s a baby doll, who likes to eat his food out of the sink, a habit from when he was tiny and the two resident dogs would nudge him out of the way.

I helped walk the dogs, carefully bagging the poo (here the cold came in handy). The smaller one is getting deaf, so she barks quite shrilly – sometimes at other dogs, sometimes just at random. Quiet, she’s a sweetie. This household also has a pair of rescued tortie girls – one plump and the other elderly, and both of them shy but needy, just starting to feel comfortable moving around the house.

We met five rabbits at a pair of households. My favorite, Bunbun, was a soft, white, red-eyed energetic little thing who would nuzzle your hand if you put it anywhere near him. That family also has three shy cats, and a senior citizen black lab. Once super feisty, now he just likes to sit next to people and gradually lean his full weight upon them.

Oh, and they had some sort of fancy fish in an aquarium. We duly went to admire them: Uncle Mike and Uncle Steve. Uncle Mike was swimming happily, but Uncle Steve – well, he was floating at the top. Discussion ensured as to how to break this news to the 10 year old who had named them.

All in all, these beloved pets (and their eclectic personalities; except maybe for Uncle Steve) made being away from home easier. One night we had dinner out with a couple who were described to us as very successful. You’d love their house, it’s amazing, I was told. But the man was allergic to cats, the woman afraid of dogs. I wouldn’t love that house, I thought. Give me a place with animals.

(just checked the SFSPCA website... lots of cats got adopted in December, yay! but sweet tabby JoJo is still there, in need of a quiet place to call home)