The Joys of Adopting Older Pets

Good morning! I'm Bob and Winston's mom and I just wanted to stop in to post a serious essay on the joys of adopting older pets. Serious. I'm wearing my serious face as I type this. Believe me, it is a really serious face.

First, I like to take pictures of the adventures of the boys. Bob doesn't like to have his picture taken so he usually stops doing the cute humorous things once I take out my camera. Then he glares at me and says, "OK, enuff wiht teh pikchurs." This attitude he has learned from his Poppa. Seriously. Winston doesn't care as long as he has food and gets an hour's worth of chin rubs each day. That is all he wants. Ever. Except maybe a squirrel which he cannot catch because his previous family had him declawed.

He was able to bring me a lovely black and white moth from the back yard and a palmetto bug which had crawled under the patio door after a rain. No. I take that back. he doesn't share his palmetto bugs. Instead he used to play with them in the hall until the legs fell off. That's when I would find a legless and often headless bug in the hallway and Winston would give me a look that says: "Oh. Furgot about that. Since he ain't movin' no more, you kin hav him." I have since installed a weather strip under that door to save the limbs and lives of hapless palmetto bugs. Yeah, that's the ticket--I'm saving palmetto bug lives.

The  adventures of Mr. Bob Buttons and Winston Henry---the ones I can and cannot photograph---are such fun. Hopefully some of their antics will encourage Bob's readers to adopt an older pet from a shelter so that they, too can have fond older pet adventures. I have to share today's with you.

Actually, Mr. Bob Buttons has been very busy hanging with his Poppa and watching the Burn Notice marathon. Meanwhile, Win has had to go to the vet today to have his teeth cleaned. This involved
him being squeezed into the soft pet carrier (while I thought I could hear Bob chuckling) and having to stay there all day until the anthes--anesth--- until the "knock out" meds wore off. There is a residual effect for the rest of the evening--meaning, Winston is still a bit loopy from his procedure.

After I dropped Win at the vet, Poppa told me that he and Bob had such fun. First there was the morning nap. Then, Poppa said Bob suggested they go to Burger King at about 11:30. He said Bob thought it would be a good joke if he drove through the drive through. "Immajum teh look on teh cashiers' face!" Poppa told Bob that that was not a good idea because Bob is not on our insurance as an approved driver. Perhaps this summer after he's had a driver's ed class and earned a  permit.

We live not far from the zoo so they went there after their after lunch nap. Bob wanted  a snow cone at the zoo but Poppa knows he never finishes them. So he got a bag of popcorn instead--which Bob shared with the elephants and the lions. Sometimes we can hear the lions' roars from our front yard. Bob was so glad to meet them in person. He introduced himself and told them he was a big fan of their broadcasts. Poppa said when he turned away for a bit, he could have sworn that he saw the lion and Bob exchange raised paw salutes and he thought he heard Bob say, "Solidarity! Free Timba!"

On the way home, Poppa needed a few things from the grocery. Bob stayed in the car. When Poppa came out of the store he heard all kinds of racket. Bob was making faces at two weimaraner  dogs in the neighboring parked car and the dogs were going nuts! Bob was laughing his head off at them and they were barking their heads off with dogfanities.

"Come on, Bob. Let me get you home!" Poppa said. Then they both ate something fried because I wasn't home to stop them and they took an afternoon nap. About that time I came home with drugged out Winston in the pet carrier. I poured Win out of the carrier and he slid under the kitchen table. I was sure Bob was snickering behind his paw.

I asked Poppa not to forget to feed them while I ran to a meeting and that they should watch Win who was still woozy from the sedation at the vet's.  During a commercial break, Poppa went out to smoke and Bob followed as usual. They left the patio door slightly open behind them.  A few seconds later, an orange streak ran out  between them and across the yard squealing, "Squiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrreeeeeelllll!"It was Win. He tripped over a branch and rolled over on his back and just lay there under the oak tree. "Ooooooo. Ah see skwurls up der!"

Bob looked at Win, then up at Poppa. "Wat a ijjit!"

When I got home from my meeting, Poppa and Bob were finishing up the Burn Notice marathon and preparing for dinner. Winston was on the patio staring at a potted plant.

There are many adventures to be had from adopting an older pet. There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.