Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mouse, please!

I was this close to getting one of these today:


I'd love to have a fancy mouse or rat. Call me crazy, but I've heard they're great pets. They're smart, clean, affectionate, and only live about two or three years, which is about all the time I want to commit to cage cleaning at this point in my life. Of course, I really, really want a dog. A Border Terrier or a Boston, I think... but not yet. Way too much responsibility.

When I was a kid, my family's house was a veritable menagerie of guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, cats, dogs, fish, canaries and other assorted wildlife we managed to catch and keep for a while. These days, my folks have but one cat and one dog. But the dog is half cat and the cat is half retarded, so to me, they're nice, but not sufficient for my personal pet preferences. I want a little furry creature that's just mine, that I can maybe teach some tricks, and that will go for car rides with me on weekends. Rats love car rides, right?

Anyway, waking up this morning, I suddenly had an epiphany: I could get a pet if I wanted to. After thinking about it carefully (for about 30 seconds) decided that yes, I do want to. So I went to the animal shelter, all ready to cross off bucket list item #15, but found there were only a couple of pit bulls, a few skittish rabbits and about 37 million cats looking for their "forever homes." Yes, I would love to see all of these animals get picked up by some loving folks who will pet them tenderly and feed them scraps from the table... but I was hoping for a mouse.

Then again, maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and realize it's not mice, but medical school, or hot air balloon rides my heart is truly after. My mother always says to "sleep on it" when making any decisions (even rodent adoption), so I'll do that. But if I wake up wanting a mouse I'm gonna go get one right after breakfast.


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