People and their pets

A scene from the animated version of 101 Dalmations which makes me laugh without fail is the one at the beginning where people are likened to their pet dogs. A fussy lady with pretentious hair struts by with an equally ludicrous poodle and an afgan hound strides past with a glamourous looking lady with long shaggy hair.

On a recent visit to see Anita's new horse Rudi, I couldn't help but be reminded of this scene and chuckle inwardly. Rudi is a rather lovely 12 year old horse, and to me he seemed slightly aloof, a little bit stand off-ish and to be honest, a little bit difficult. Anita told us he could be stubborn, didn't always behave in the way she wanted him to and at times could be a pain. At one point he dropped a half consumed pear he was quite clearly enjoying and it rolled under his next door neighbour Barney's nose who scoffed the lot, delighted with this stroke of luck. Rudi scuffed his front hoof like a raging bull looking at me indignantly trying to place blame. Less than a day later I changed some plans for dinner and Anita did the human version of hoof scuffing with me.

At one point on Sunday when she was moisturing his hoofs and lovingly rubbing suncream into his nose claiming it was prone to burning, I thought, this is one seriously high maintenance horse, and then closely afterwards.....how apt that it belongs to my friend Anita. To give Rudi his dues, he let me ride him, a total novice, and he was very calm and well behaved. Truth be told he was more interested in the picnic Dan was eating close by.

Anita isn't the only recent example of pet-a-like. Jonathan, who has been cat sitting his parents cat has been posting about how damned elusive the cat is. Funnily enough, I couldn't get hold of him for love nor money over the weekend, but maybe that's because he's busy being relationshippy. That's pretty tenuous to be fair.

So then, if my plan goes smoothly, Steve and I will, within a couple of years, have a gorgeous golden retriever puppy. Presumably this means I'll become a little bit dappier, have a tendancy to wet myself when I get excited, become a little bit more loyal and sleep and eat a whole lot more.....roll on pet time!

ps- Anita- if you read this, it takes one to know one (someone extremly high maintenance that is!)