How Some People Live
This weekend WXYZ channel 7, aired a show called “Pet Pads”. It explored several houses and the accommodations made for the pets each homeowner had living with them. One lady had 17 pigs living in her home. I have a hard enough time keeping things clean with 4 dogs, but 17 pigs? Normally, pigs make great pets and I am all for keeping your pot bellied pig in the house. In fact, they can be much cleaner than dogs. But when it comes to the 600 pound, farm variety type of pig, I draw the line. Can you imagine that on your lap? Anyway, the lady kept saying her house was not a pig pen, but from what I could see it was a mess. And what did you expect from a house with 17 pigs in it?
Another couple did not live with their pet buffalo, but let it in the house to wander around and watch TV. For those of you who do not have any buffalo experience, they are astounding creatures. They weigh nearly a ton, but can nimbly jump over a pick up truck like it was a small bale of hay. They are vindicitive and have a very good memory as I learned one day while drawing blood from a herd of them in Kansas. Cattle will run away from you after you collect their blood and release them, but a buffalo will remember who you are, and when released will come back to kill you! But I digress. This couple let a full grown, male buffalo into their house to keep them company in the evenings. I can’t wait to read the newspaper article one day about how someting pissed off Mr. Buffalo and how he destroyed an entire home. Wonder what their insurance agent would say?
The last lady worth mentioning was the one who lived with her monkey and some marmosets. Okay, I admit that the marmosets were cute. But primates are some of the most dangerous pets to own, and in my opinion, they should only be kept in zoos. Because humans are in the primate family we catch nearly all the diseases that they carry. And because many of the diseases are monkey diseases, some of them have only mild symptoms in the monkey but are deadly in humans. Primates (us too), have bacteria in our mouths that are so virulent that the primate bite is the most harmful bite of all the animal kingdom infection wise. Add to that the fact that they play with their feces and masturbate constantly when the males reach sexual adulthood. Why would you want that in your house?
On the more sane side, there was an older gentleman living with a miniature horse, another couple with some parrotts (which are messy but fun pets), and a man with some real cool fish tanks. These are the people I can relate to. Everything but the horse is pretty common, and who hasn’t brought the horse into the house when mom’s gone shopping–at least once? Note to moms everywhere: they fit through the patio doors quite nicely.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
You’re not still bringing your horse into the house when Mom’s away shopping are you?
January 18th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Nah, now that I have to clean up all the time, it would be way too much work.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:08 am
You needed the Harlequin Great Dane I used to work cattle with. He was very good about keeping Mama cows off of us while we doctored calves. We had one creamello paint gelding we raised we could sic on the cows if we were on foot working, too.
We’ve taken short cuts through the house with horses, mules, calves, and packs of dogs. At one point we had eight Amazons (one of them a Tres Maria), a Congo grey, and a B&G Macaw living in the living room. Various other birds were around the house along with over three hundred gallons of aquariums. The backyard was busy, too.