The Ins & Outs Of Pet Ownership

You know by now that we babysit with a little three year old, Ella. She loves the neighborhood cat, Hector. Sometimes she wants to be Hector. She likes to follow him, and this picture shows her copying him. When her daddy brought her over today, he informed us that she had opened the front door this morning, and “invited” Hector inside. The cat gladly accepted. I thought this was amusing and hilarious. Her parents probably did not. They both have full time jobs and their mornings are extremely busy, trying to get ready for work, get Ella ready for the sitter, and have breakfast. No time to chase down unwelcome feline guests. Daddy finally caught the cat and ejected it. I certainly wish I had been a fly on the wall during all of that. I did something similar when I was a child. I was an only child and had no pets. But we did have a wooded area out back with plenty of chipmunks and squirrels. We had tamed the squirrels by sitting on the back porch and getting them to eat peanuts out of our hands. So they hung out by the back door a lot. One morning I decided that if no one would buy me a pet, I would get one myself. So I opened the door and let a squirrel in the house. Well, you never heard such commotion in your whole life. And here is what is burned into my memory. My mother, her housecoat flying behind her, running up and down the steps with a large broom, trying to sweep the squirrel out the door. She screamed as she ran, and here are some of the words I heard as she dashed past me: rabies, spanking when I catch you, don’t have any sense in your head, painful shots, dirty vermin. Gosh, can’t a girl have any fun? So I sympathize with little Ella. Hey, dad, it could have been a squirrel. And they are much harder to catch.
Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother…that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”