The Palos Zoo

I did not intend to run an animal farm in my house but low and behold that is exactly what happened. The thing is, it took course slowly and now there is nothing I can do other then becoming a member of the Petco Pals program for frequent customers.

When we first bought our house it came with the saltwater fish tank. I was against this but, my wife God love her assured me she would take care of the tank and the fish. And at first she did. She still does the maintenance on the tank and there is a lot of maintenance. However, feeding them nightly has fallen directly into my job description. Not that I am complaining but, every night it seems right before I am about to fall asleep I suddenly remember that I haven’t feed the fish and run downstairs in a half naked, half awake daze to feed them. (There is an image.)

We started out with five fish and we are down to three. The first fish died right after we moved in. The other departed fish looked kind of like Dora from Finding Nemo. It was swimming along and then one day about a year ago, I looked in the tank and didn’t see it swimming around. Joyce and I looked all over and finally we saw its dead carcass sitting at the bottom of the tank behind a rock. It was my job to scoop it out and give it a proper burial at sea.

We lived in our house with just our fish for two solid years. That was soon to change. I had a cat when I lived in my apartment in Chicago Ridge, named Lucky. Lucky was a great cat. He was about as low maintenance of a pet as you can have. Sadly he died in 2002. We live in the woods so to speak. Living in our area has many advantages but one small disadvantage is the always looming threat of mice infestation.

I hate mice. They stink up your house, eat shit and make noise. I just hate them. So, getting a cat seemed like a good preventive measure to assure us against a mouse invasion. My Aunt’s friend Mary has a kennel of kittens. She has been acting as a facilitator in finding kittens homes forever. My cousin mentioned that she was getting two kittens and knew we were looking for one as well. She asked if that while she was at Mary’s if she wanted to grab a kitten for us as well.

Joyce and I debated it and agreed. That is how one got our first cat, Maddie. Maddie was just a kitten when we first got her. She is also the only pet of ours that we named ourselves. This was in 2006. Everyone knows that I am a big Cubs fan. At the time Greg Maddox was still a Cub. I am a huge fanboy of Greg’s so, I started calling her Maddox. My wife shortened that to Maddie, and it stuck.

Our next cat was all my wife’s idea. She wanted to get another cat so that Maddie would have someone to play with. I was against the idea but, what could I do. Joyce started looking at shelters and found one out past Aurora. So, the day after the Superbowl in 2007 Joyce and I took a trip to this lady’s farm that she ran her shelter out of. We went there to look at one cat but would up taking our second cat Io home instead.

Io is named after Jupiter’s moon. We did not name him such. But, I must admit his eyes are the color of the moon in question. Here is a picture of said moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg

We went to the shelter/farm to look at a cat Joyce saw online. We brought our cat carrier with us in case we decided to go home with a feline. We got there and Io just walked right into the cat carrier. He is a black cat, and even with all the negative superstitions that a black cat carries Io is the friendliest cat you have ever seen. So, we took him home and after a couple of weeks of getting to know each other Maddie and Io became fast friends.

Two cats and some fish, that seemed like that was a full enough house pet wise. My job requires me to travel from time to time. My wife does not like being alone in our house when I am on the road. So, the idea of getting a dog had been discussed from time to time. My Dad’s cousin Alex’s wife Carol works for a Pit Bull rescue shelter. Carol is always sending out emails to see if anyone is interested in adopting a dog.

This lead to Joyce and Carol having an email exchange about adopting our dog Dazey. Joyce talked me into it by explaining that Carol was going to bring the dog over just to see of we liked each other. So, one Saturday morning last February Carol came over with Dazey and well Dazey has been in our care ever since.

If you would have asked me before that day if I would ever adopt a pit bull I would told you that there would be no way in hell. But, I must say that Dazey has been a very good dog. After owning a pit bull for awhile now, I now know that pitties get a bad rap. Every time you read something about a pit bull in the paper it is about how one attacked a baby or some old person. Pit Bulls can be very mean dogs, if they are bred that way. They have an extremely high tolerance for pain. (It is something you need to see to believe.) They also have extremely powerful jaws. So, if you adopt a pit bull you need to be vigilant in your ownership.

If you train a pit bull the right way there is no better dog. I am convinced of it. Yes, Dazey barks and sure she had a couple of accidents when we first got her but, overall she has been a great pet. She gets along with our cats and has so since the first day we got her. She is an extremely affectionate dog as well. We had to learn that she does not like being chained up (that causes almost any dog to turn aggressive) and some other lessons along the way but both Joyce and I are more then happy with her.

That is how my house became the Palos Zoo. It is a pain when we go on vacation but, all the pets we have are pretty cool. I never thought I would live in a house with so many animals. However, now that we have them all in their own way they all add something to our house.