Day 28: Animals

Animals give unconditional love, mostly.  Except my Boris.  He is a large gray and white Siberian whose love is conditional on food.  The other animals do, in fact, provide unconditional love.  Odie, the black Chiweenie, is four, and lives to please LOML and me.  He cowers and is saddened when he thinks he has upset us.  He does this thing where, if LOML and I get into a lively discussion, he will come in between us, and put his cheek on one of our mouths to stop the discussion.  He thinks that we are angry, and does not like it.  He is such a sweet little boy.  His favorite thing to do is pretend he has to go outside to go to the bathroom.  Once out, he runs down the stairs and lies down in the grass with a huge smile on his face.  I think he is part cat based on his love for sunning.  He also with occasionally sit in the cat stand that we have (ours is a different color but similar design: PetSmart Cat Perch).  When he is relaxed, he gets squinty-eyed and sticks his tongue out.  He gets grumpy when he is tired.  At breakfast and dinner when the animals are fed, he stands on the arm of the sofa in the living room where he can look into the kitchen from a safe distance.  Boris gets very hangry and will start swatting at anything that moves until his food is put in front of him.  The youngest animal is sweet Julia who is a 2-year gray and white domestic medium hair with asthma.  You heard right, asthma.  As in, every so often we have to give her an inhaler use the AeroKat which is a fancy spacer.  She is such a sweet and quirky little girl, and definitely puts Boris in his place.  He was used to Chewy, my first cat who was a Maine Coon, who was declawed and thus could not properly defend himself.  Julia is clawed, like Boris, and will stand up to him.  They will also get in contests where they try to lick each other until one or the other has enough and starts biting (playfully).  At any rate, they are a wild bunch of animals who are truly glad to have LOML and me.  All are adopted.  All make long, emotionally difficult days of work easier when I get to come home and have three excited babies and one happy man waiting for me.  Odie and Boris will both try to get into my lap at once, and Julia keeps head-butting my leg and reaching her head up for kisses.  I'm always glad to get home to everyone.