NO PETS ALLOWED

My parents never allowed us to have pets in the house. 

Never.

Never.

NEVER!!!

I once had a beautiful calico kitty that I got from my Aunt Christina named Callie.  It seemed as if she was in going to live in the house forEVER...It seems very unlikely that she was in the house for any lengthy period of time at all, but I do know it was definitely long enough for me to fall madly in love with her and be ready for her to stay inside forever and ever and EV-UH!!!

One day my dad was home sick.  Now remember, Dad is a farmer/rancher.  If he was home sick, he was SICK sick, not just "I feel a little crummy, so I think I'll stay in and rest" sick. 

So Dad was home sick.  And lying in bed.  Surely he was knocking on death's door for these two events to occur.

I came home from school and Callie was outside.  I went in the house with all of my righteous indignation as only a middle school girl can have.  Believe me, I'm becoming VERY familiar with the righteous indignation of middle school girls...

"DAAaaadddd, why is Callie outside?  She is an INSIDE cat."

Dad looked at me in all of his fatherly fatherliness and he said quite sternly with no voice raised (he seldom raised his voice, if anything when he was REALLY angry he would talk very quiet and I'd cry), "That damn cat will never be in this house again."

Shock!  Horror!!!  He swore!  And in reference to my precious beautiful sweet little kitty!

"But DAAAaaaddd, I want her to be an inside cat."

"That damn cat climbed on my chest and pooped on me while I was asleep!  She will NOT come back in."

And that was that.  Thankfully, I had enough sense to keep my mouth shut on any further thoughts regarding the unfairness of an outdoor cat.

But just in case any of you happened to wonder about the relevance of the above photos of FOUR dogs...

These are all my parents granddogs that come INSIDE the house every time their children descend on them.

I have strictly forbidden any reptiles in our house...Especially pet snakes.

I'm a little nervous about what sort of grandpets my children will come toting home in about twenty years or so...