THE OTHER CONNECTION

I am often thinking about the connections we, animal lovers, have which eludes some other people.
My mom for example did not like pets. She was allowed one in her apartment but she never thought about it, once in awhile she'd say "maybe I should have a bird". She never got one. When I was little and my father was still home we always had dogs and outdoor cats. After the war mother refused to have any more animals and father was gone so I was alone in my begging. I did get a turtle "Nico" a little thing that I brought to the office, taped a cord on his back and let him wander in the little grass plot, at 5 PM he went into my bag and home again.
When he died I threw him in the canal with many tears running down my face. I saw my mother's relief. Then I wanted fish, her response was that we did not have money for such frivolities. A friend gave me 4 little river fish which I put in a galvanized tub outside the house. Winter came and the tub top froze and I figured I had frozen fish in there. Wrong! Spring came, the water melted and 4 fish were frolicking about.
I managed to get married to early (19) and first thing I wanted was a dog.
Joe and I saved and went to a petshop and purchased a wire haired terrier.
They are very agile, nerveus dogs. Very loyal. We HAD to tell my mother as we were living with her, we had not asked permission.
She was at her usual vaudeville matine on saturday and we waltzed in with Spooky in our arms. She was not pleased.
Spooky became my child, I could not wait to get home and hug him, he was the best dog. He was so loved. BUT we were toying with papers to get to the USA.
Our sponsor was still in Karlsruhe in Germany with the army, his wife was there too.
They had a "Spooky" before we did, I had just been a copy cat.
So when time came to have to go to Canada first our sponsor came to get Spooky and promised to take good care of him till we were in the USA.
Paperwork played a number on us again, we were 2 years in Montreal waiting for the permanent visa. The sponsors were in NJ with Spooky.
We managed to get a few days visitors visa and drove to NJ in a beat up car (Studebaker) it used more oil than gasoline.
We were in heaven when we set foot on NJ soil at Camp Kilmer , Spooky came out but did not know us until I called him and he heard my voice. He came running like a wild stallion. For 3 days he never left my side, followed me in the bathroom and sat next to the shower till I came out.
We could not have a dog in our Montreal apartment and there was an issue of
quarantine for dogs so we had to once again leave my beloved Spooky.
We had hopes to be back for keeps very soon....once back in our routine of work in Canada we received a letter from NJ with sad news.
Spooky had just stopped eating after we left and lay down and died.
He was about 3 years old by then, it was not old age, it was too much for him to separate from me again. I cried forever or so it seemed.Much later in the USA....
We had a male Lassie later and a mixed sweetheart Julie who moved with us to Spain and back to the USA, she was from a shelter. We figured we spent more on air fare for her then on anything else. She became an old lady.
Then came Toto on election day when Kerry was running...Bob decided we would call him Kerry , then we changed it to Toto and Bob called him cat the next day...
Toto's end was too dramatic and it is still a video playing in my head since I
saw the fight between him and a large dog. Devastated I was and soon came Toto who
is NEVER ever more then 1 foot away from me. He cries when I go shopping and jumps 2 feet in the air when I come to the door. He sleeps so close to me that often I can feel his little heart beat. I feel sorry that my Mom never saw such a love.
Was it that she wanted the house immaculate? That she did not want anything to bother the perfection she wanted in life?
My cousin had a Newfoundlander (sp?) he drooled, he was a huge teddy bear, kind loving, my cousin's best friend. My mother hated to visit there because he had
a couch privilege. She would tell me that my cousin would give him a steak before she would eat meat, she loved him, she made sacrifices for him. Mother could not get it.
I was more of a cat person for a long time but then we had this Himalayan who was too lazy to clean his derriere, a mouse ran in front of him and he did not budge. He was gorgeous and just sat, friendship was not in his repertoire, he should have been a show cat , just pampered. He was also not a clean cat, that I have problems with, I kept him for several years and then daughter Sabrina took care of him for some more years, walking behind him and cleaning up after him. It took a lot of patience from us but we hung on to him in turns till he went to kittyland in the sky and I hope he is clean there.
Our kitty now was affectionate until Toto came in the house, madam is still not happy with the dogs now that wehave 3. She does go to sleep in Bob's room but during the day we see little of her.
What makes us different, the nuts who go gaga over pets and the ones who do not care at all for the animal kingdom.?????