I'm not really an animal person. I think it's because I am allergic to pretty much everything. I hate it...but that's just the way it is. I've lived with it my whole life.
And not just slightly allergic. I've had to go to the ER on more than one occasion.
We tried to have a dog one time...back when I was a little girl. My parents got us a little doxie for Christmas...thinking the short-hair wouldn't bother my allergies.
WRONG.
I tried to hide it for a long time, because my family loved that dog...but, it just got too bad. It was a sad day when we had to get rid of him. I still remember my siblings' faces looking at me...wishing I could go, instead of the dog. :(
So having animals in my family...not gonna happen. But then I grew up, and I got married. And then I had a girl...and 3 boys. Those boys brought home every critter known to man.
One day, my husband brought home an old Basset Hound. Somebody from his work was moving away, and they couldn't take her...so Jim said we would take her. We kept her for several years, until she met an untimely death at the hands of my mother-in-law.
Long story.
But my in-laws were keeping our old Basset Hound, and one of her puppies, for us while we were on vacation...and somehow my mother-in-law managed to kill both of them while we were gone.
NOT.EVEN.KIDDING.
Two dogs...one week...both dead.
ANYWAY, a few months after we had Clark, Jim pulled up in the driveway after work and honked the horn. I went out to greet him, and in his lap was the sweetest little Lab you have ever seen. But I wanted to cry. We had just had a 12 1/2 week premature baby...he had spent 7 1/2 weeks in the NICU and we had not had him home very long. He was on 4 different kinds of medicine that was given 4 different times during the day...and what does Jim do? He brings home a puppy.
But that started our love-affair with Labs. We've had 3 total in our marriage. They have to stay outside. We've also had some cats...some we just found...some that just found US. They have to stay outside as well. We've also had hamsters and guinea pigs and fish. And the boys would bring home snakes, worms, moles, bunnies...and one time Jim brought home a TARANTULA that he picked up on the side of the road, and put it in one of my Tupperware dishes.
So, my husband has mentioned, on more than one occasion, that he wants a goat. A. GOAT.
We live in the smack-dab middle of town.
He has always said that, if we ever had a place with a pond, he'd like a white duck to sit out on the pond. But he has never mentioned the goat-thing.
Then last month, after visiting his uncle down in Loooooooozana, he came home saying he wanted a chicken, so we could have fresh eggs.
WHAT IN THE WORLD?
WE LIVE IN A NEIGHBORHOOD.
But what happened the other day took the cake. He was on the phone with his Dad. Jim's dad has been trapping (and killing) raccoons on their property. And Jim said, to his Dad, with his mouth...and I heard it with my very own 2 ears..."Well, if you find a baby raccoon, maybe don't kill it. Maybe just put it in a cage. I'VE ALWAYS WANTED A PET RACCOON."
And that's how Jim saw the bend...and then rounded it.
"Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy..." Psalm 126:2
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