Kids vs. Pets

People say that having pets is like having kids if not easier. I used to think that having pets is alot easier than having kids because you can leave your pets alone when you’re not home. Jasmine, our dog, roam free during the day, and for the cats, we have a cat door for them to go in and out during the day. There’s a downside to this. Couple of weeks ago, Jasmine felt like she needed to explore the trash can. We came home at 7pm, the trash can was tipped over and the trash was all over the kitchen floor. We now have a small trash can in the cabinet under the sink. That fixed the problem, or so I thought. Last Tuesday, we came home and found that Jasmine had ate a whole bag of cat food we keep in the kitchen cabinet. I now have to find a doggy daycare for her since it seems to me that she’s bored out of her mind during the day. Did I say ‘doggy daycare’? Yes, when we lived in KS, Jas used to go to daycare where she could run around and played with other dogs during the day. We would drop her off at 8am and picked her up around 5pm. She also got nap time from 11am-1pm when she was at the daycare.

What about the cats? Cats are easy to take care of. Yes, they are easy to take care of, but keep reading. This morning, Jasmine kept sticking her nose under the loveseat. I thought that she just wanted the cats’ toys underneath the couch. (Simon plays with his mouse toys and shoves them under the couch all the time. I always find at least one toy under the couch every week when I clean the house. I remember that when we moved out of our house in KS, we found 2 straws and 3 mouse toys underneath the washing machine and the dryer. ) So, Becker lifted the couch up for Jas to get the toy, but…it wasn’t a toy. It was a dead mouse!! Geesh!! And it was big! It was about 4 inches in length from the nose, not counting the tail! And yes, I ran and stood on the dining chair until Becker took the dead mouse outside. Besides the dead mouse we found today. The cats used to bring in snakes, shrews, and smaller mice (much much smaller) before. You’d think that I get used to this by now. Well, this was my little excitement this morning. I wonder if people who have kids ever found dead creatures in their house…