This is Pepe’ and Tiny. They love each other and are great friends. Tiny found me on the homestead when I was visiting a neighbor and imprinted on me like there was no tomorrow. We rescued Pepe’ from the pound after our longtime friend/dog Mickey died. My wife was a wreck. So along comes Pepe’.
My wife wanted to call Pepe’ Potiphar (that didn’t happen), I wanted to call him Guinness because he is black and white and has a HUGE head (that didn’t happen). The pound called him Pepito and no matter what we tried to name him, he only responded to Pepe’… he’s getting used to Dummy and DumbDumb now though.
Point being… animals are now and always have been a big part of our life/family/existence. Yes – they are problematic at times but so are spouses, children, roofs and cars. I wouldn’t want to live without any of those things either.
We have a neighbor in our “city” home that is deathly afraid of dogs. She had her first baby not long ago and she has conditioned her infant/child to be deathly afraid of dogs as well. It’s sad that her child will never experience the joy of “man’s best friend”.
I’ve been bitten a handful of times beginning at the age of 8 years old, the last being when Pepe’ bit me when I was chastising him/training him about who was boss. Pepe’ attacked my wife when we first got him, as she tried to take away his rawhide and she was scared for a while. We all trust each other now months later.
The pound told us that Pepe’ would NEVER be able to live in a house with a cat… clearly another case of the “experts” being wrong. Pepe’ and Tiny love each other and it brings so much joy to us to see how they interact and play and “trust” each other.
They are both so good with our baby grandson. So naturally gentle and sweet – knowing that this is a fragile child.
I kept Tiny for one reason – mice, mole, chipmunk eradication, and she’s a master at it. She’s also quite the loving and playful cat when she’s not on the hunt.
These are my thoughts on that at the moment and this is my first Substack post – getting to know how things work. Let me know what your thoughts are on the importance of animals playing a role within a family.