do you have any pets
yeah i have five cats two dogs a snake and a bunny
holy Nellie
that's enough to keep anybody busy with pets how about you
i oh i guess we have one miniature Dachshund
um i think i'm envious
oh i don't think i could cope with that many how do how do you uh avoid having your house smell
well my cats are indoor outdoor cats and
i don't know i hadn't really thought about it one thing is to keep everything clean i mean you have to keep cages like for the rabbit you have to keep it cleaned and you have to keep litter boxes scooped
um-hum
but most of my cats go outside so there's not that much there i only have one who stays inside
um do you let your rabbit run around loose
oh no it's in a cage lot of people do but i've never been able to quite handle that with a rabbit
okay i i knew somebody who said they were easy to uh litter box train but she had trouble with it chewing on wood
no i've never i've never even tried it to be honest with you
it's really my daughter's rabbit
oh how what kind of a dog do you have
um i have i have one that's kind of a Golden Retriever mutt
that means a mix and then my daughter just got an American Eskimo
um-hum
uh do they get along
and oh yeah oh yeah all my cats and my dogs and even the rabbit and the dogs and the cats everybody in my house gets along except the snake he kind of keeps to himself
see we our dog hates every other animal and our we have a couple children that are are grown and on their own and every once in a while they will come home for a visit with an animal
right
and our our dog just about has a stroke
well he's probably older and he's used to being the only dog and it's hard for him just like people it's hard for them to give up their
well
their place as the only one and kind of share the attention but almost all of my animals are used to not being the only one in the house and so they're kind of used to being part of a group
um-hum
well we we kind of joke that that our our dog's about eight years old and but one son was between jobs for a couple of weeks and was here with a Golden Retriever
uh-huh
and uh when he left you know we swear the our dog's muzzle turned white
and then uh our our other son
is in the Navy and was being relocated to go to school down at College Station so he was here for a couple days in between waiting for his household goods and stuff and with a beagle puppy
and we swear after she left the dog got gray on the front two feet you know
maybe he's just getting old
i don't know but it seems a a a visit from uh one of his cousins uh tends to uh really really affect how he is
turns him gray one of the things they mentioned was why do you think people have pets
well i think they're i think they're good company i have been trying for years to convince my mother who lives alone
that she would like a a dog she loves it when she comes here and our dog sits on her lap you know and she'll just sit there and pet him and pet him and i'll say you need an animal he would
i think so too i really think that they are wonderful therapy they're they're just companionship i'm
and
yes um-hum
obviously i'm a i'm a real believer in them
well and i i think they're good for kids in that they can teach the kids responsibility
you know if if you if you have a a kid who wants an animal badly enough and agrees to take care of it i mean it's a responsibility cleaning up after it and
yes i think so too
um you feeding it making sure it has water and uh you know just just all that kind of stuff that's that's good also uh
feeding it
that's right
but we just have a we we in the past we've had Great Danes
ooh that's a big dog
which were probably the best pets we've ever had
really
yeah oh they were well the first one we had was wonderful she just finally died of old age but she was just so the the greatest house pet and uh we were asked when she was probably about ten years old when our our youngest one was born
and she would totally ignore this baby i mean the dog could be laying there sleeping and somebody could carry this child into the room and the dog would just kind of
sniff and walk walk out of the room and would have absolutely nothing to do with the baby until uh she got old enough to sit in the high chair and throw food over
oh yeah
yet and then all of a sudden the dog decided she was okay but yeah but then my husband decided it would might be nice to have a lap dog for a change
um here's a source
yeah
now he just really likes having a dog that curls up in his lap when he watches TV and sits in his recliner and falls asleep
sure
that's neat that's neat
uh what what
