Woman's Best Friend

I am so grateful for many things in my life.  One of the things I am grateful for, are my pets.  Especially my dogs. Hercules, the Boxer, and Jake, the Mini Schnauzer.

The cat, Jim, is an ok dude.  He's playful and friendly, but he can be needy and underfoot quite a bit.

  Not to mention he has a bathroom fetish, especially toilet paper.  I'm sure you can see where this is going...  He prefers it to be off the roll, and takes it upon himself to relieve the confined toilet paper of it's roll prison.  We have sort of a love/hate thing going on.

Jim and Hercules have a love/hate thing going on as well.  Hercules would love for Jim to hold still long enough for him to smell and possibly lick him.  Jim hates that shit and wants nothing to do with Hercules.  

My dogs are my favorite 'children' - besides my actual human child, of course.  Although technically, my Mini Schnauzer has seniority over Zach.  Jake is 12 years old, on his way to 13 this October while Zach just turned 11 this past April.  The worst part about owning and loving pets, is that all too soon they are senior citizens and cross that Rainbow Bridge.  

I consider them both to be 'my' dogs, but technically Hercules belongs to my son.  When his dad and I bought this dog, it was intended from the start to be my son's dog.  

Zach and Hercules - September 2009

Therefore, when we divorced in 2012, it was decided between the two of us that Hercules would reside wherever our son resides.  Since we have joint custody, the dog lives with Zach and his dad one week, then Zach and myself the next, so on, so forth, rinse and repeat.

This small detail seemed to make the transition between having one home to two much easier for Zach.  That one constant thing, his dog, gave him comfort and stability through getting used to "Mommy's House" and "Daddy's House".  I will ever be grateful that we made that decision for Zach.

I'm a firm believer that pets can be good for people.  They play, entertain, comfort and provide just enough antagonism to prove that they're not REALLY Angels sent from Above.  Their companionship has gotten me through some pretty low times.

Me and the "Old Man"

Knowing how amazing and caring domesticated animals can be, it floors me that some people can be so callous and cruel as to betray the trust that they put into humans and hurt, starve, or otherwise neglect their animals.  I just don't understand it.  

~The RoadQueen