• Pets

    This is Sonic

    by This is Sonic. You might have noticed that he’s a snake. He was the second reptile to come live with us, but he has not been the last. More on all those another time. Sonic came to live with us just after my oldest daughter’s ninth birthday – somehow, the ninth birthday has become when you get your first non-fish personal pet in our family. A teeny tiny noodle at the time, eight or nine months old, he was only managing a very small prey. He’s a little longer these days, but still not terribly big around. He’s a Sunglow (or Sunkissed) corn snake, a colour morph, and he’s…

  • Pets

    Farewell, Peach

    by Moments before I had to leave for work this morning, my wife discovered that our menagerie had lost one of its members overnight. Peach, the last and oldest of our Ps in a pod, passed sometime during the night, sleeping in her hide. This is an old picture, but a favourite. Peach is the one hiding I the back. (We both lost Peanut, left, and Pepper, right, last year, months apart.) Based on age estimates when we brought Peach and her sister Pepper home, she was somewhere between five and six years old, which, by everything I’ve read, is at the higher end of average for the little fur…

  • Life,  Parenting,  Pets

    You Are Not a Pet Parent. Really.

    by So I’m not sure why the phrase “pet parent” irritates me so much, far more than pet owner. Actually, that’s not true. I am sure, but that surety actually had a couple of people willing to argue about it with me yesterday, even after I offered a better word. What’s the word? Guardian. You’re not a parent, you’re a guardian. Someone is shouting semantics at their computer screen right now, but it’s not. The difference between parent and guardian is not like the difference between big and large, far and distant, or brother/sister and sibling. Parent and guardian are not synonyms, they define two different relationships. As a parent,…

  • Life,  Pets

    A Year of Cat

    by Cyrus came to live with us a year ago today. A year ago today, at the local shelter, he stepped into a little plastic carrier, endured the short ride to our home, and started following us around. Almost exactly a year before that, Leo left us. 17 years old, plus a little, we’d had Leo since just before our first anniversary, since long before we had the kids. And he outlived his sister Xena by less than three months. We brought them home as a pair, inheriting them from a co-worker of my wife’s, when they were just a year old. So they were about the same age as…

  • Life,  Pets

    And Now, Your Moment of Cat

    by Is it normal for a grown man to write about his cat? More importantly, do I care? As far as I’m concerned, we all define our own normal. Therefore, it’s normal for this grown man to write about his cat. I’m a cat person. This doesn’t mean I don’t like dogs (I love dogs, though I am slightly allergic), but cats have much to recommend them as pets. Even when they’re lactose intolerant, like mine. They’re affectionate, independent, entertaining, far more adaptable to you working odd shifts than many other pets, and if you leave extra food out to cover them for an extra day due to a crazy…