Dog People...but not forever.

We are Dog People. "We" meaning my family, that is. We have always had dogs, one after the other, with a year off in between the death of one and the bringing of a puppy into the fold. Now I have two dogs, animals that treat Flipper as the annoyance that she often is. But they love love love her, and she loves them; indeed, one of them sleeps beside her night after night. But lately Flipper has begun to switch to the other side, the dark side, if you will. SHE LIKES CATS!! She even wants one!!! Now, she is ready to say "farewell" to our elderly dog, since she knows that no new animal will come into our house until Seamus or Sophie heads up to that great big fire hydrant in the sky.

"Seamus is old, isn't he? Maybe he'll die soon." These are how our conversations go these days. It is funny and a little dismaying at the same time. I do not like cats. I am allergic to some, but not to others. An orange cat named PitterPat (for it's little feet) trotted off with my 7 year old heart one afternoon, and declined to return, and I have never had a soft spot for them since.

But when we went to Florida, we stayed in an old 1950's bungalow-style motel, and that motel had a huge, ancient, partially toothless orange cat named Billy on the premises. Billy figured out in about 3 seconds flat that we were nice, or, in cat-thought, suckers. So in and out he came, lapping milk that Flipper provided for him, sleeping on the futon until 2 a.m. when he would yowl to be released. I blame him fully for this new desire of Flipper's. And if we could have him, I would go for it. How long can an old, toothless cat live, anyway? But he is not here. He is in Florida, many miles away. We recently watched a PBS show about the connections people have to cats and dogs, and the sad reality that cats in shelters are much, much more likely to die there, unloved and unclaimed. It is, apparently, much easier for dogs to head off to their "forever home." And this, even more than Flipper's death wish for Seamus, may sway me one day. Emphasis on the word "may." And until then, our two-dog, five fish, one-kid family will have to suffice.

Love at first meow.