At Home in the Ark...

One of the things that seems to amaze folks when they visit our house is not so much the number of animals that reside in our household (3 dogs,4 cats and a bird) but how well they get along with each other. My husband says our “family” is not only gender-confused, but species-confused, as well. It’s not unusual for our little dog Millie to snuggle up with one of the cats.

The bird, Zeke, constantly chatters (with a loud, sing-song Southern accent very close to my own...LOL! ) inquiring of the where-abouts of his buddy, our Sheltie, Robbie.

In fact, if you hear barking at my house, it could be coming as easily from the bird as it is from the dogs! Then, there is Dobbie (our special needs kitty, aka “Rainkitty”) who lacks most cats’ special prowess of climbing and jumping. This morning, I pulled out all the drawers of my tall chest of drawers,, in a stair-stepped ladder fashion, so he could experience climbing to the top just like the other cats. He looked so proud- just like a "real cat"! LOL!

In addition to being our a “home“, our house sometimes feels like a  zoo! It's enough to drive you to drink... and often we DO!

Sometimes, it's simply EXHAUSTING!!!!

It reminds me of  Noah’s Ark!  Truth or myth, it is amazing to think how many animals could  survive together living hoof-to-hoof amongst their enemies. When I listen to the news on television, it seems Republicans and Democrats have less in common than a snake and a bunny rabbit!

I am not sure what God and/or Noah’s secret was, but in our house, it seems to boil down to this...

Our Ark definitely has a pecking order, and right after us humans comes our senior dog Shredder. Shredder is an Aussie-Schnauzer Mix and despite being a male, he’s a natural-born mother. Better than some human mothers I know, Shredder is constantly on patrol throughout the house ascertaining the where-about of his flock. Periodically, he will come into the room, look around and make a mental note of where all the animals and humans are residing, then move on to continue his whole house inspection. While we do not have any sheep (yet) Shredder has been known to herd kittens with his nose on slick wood floors and to break up any quarrels with an angry growl and a swat, before they ever really get started. (That said, Shredder’s ability to soothe the savage beast mostly works with other animals and lesser-so with us humans!)

For the most part, the animals in my household simultaneously respect each other and give each other‘s ”space”. They understand and tolerate each others quirks and idiosyncrasies… that said, everyone knows to wear shoes when you are making the bed because Dobbie will attack your toes. I have learned that I cannot put on sweats and tennis shoes without all three dogs breaking into a chorus of hysteria in anticipation of their daily walk. Millie likes to tunnel and if she gets the chance to get in bed with you will head under cover rooting, rubbing and snorting til finally curling into a tiny ball at your feet. Our Himalayan Nala gets high on catnip and goes around for hours with her big blue eyes glazed over and her tongue sticking out.

Here in my household, everybody, including the animals are “weird” . “Weird” is just our ”normal”… It’s what we expect.

Unlike the humans in my household, the animals on my ark do not seem to get to entrenched into routine. They encourage new relationships by welcoming new arrivals into the flock like humans might celebrate the birth of a new baby. Take a look at Shredder’s face upon the new arrival of his little sister, Millie a few years ago. Could he have smiled ANY broader???

I think the key to the animals harmony is that they don’t really know they are different from one another. Oh, they KNOW they are outwardly different- some have sharp claws, some have long fur, some can climb and others stay on the ground. They are all naturally curious about each other, giving a good butt sniff every now and then… but when they look at each other, I don’t think that a dog or a cat or a bird or a human looks much different from one another. Like the best kind of family, they know there are differences, but within the safety of the walls of the Ark, they seem to know we are really all the same.