I may need a little help from a force mightier than mine this week. I may even need to wear this shirt in order to show Hobbs (black cat) who the real boss is. As of today I am looking at a score of Me=0; Hobbs=1. You see, I am animal/house sitting this week and I am afraid I have lost my magic touch with the four-legged kind. We'll be fine... no worries, but I don't think it REALLY sank in that I was going to be spending a week in a house with three animals... living, breathing creatures (four, if you count the fish). I checked in to duty last night only to find that the animals are very used to having people around all the time. I think they were a bit mad that I wasn't their dearly beloved family coming home. Malcolm (black lab) ran upstairs, Oliver (grey cat) was hiding, but Hobbs (black cat) stared me down like the intruder I was. He found my personal items and plopped himself on top of them. I thought, "oh good, we're already friends" while bending down to pet him. Unfortunately his response was one of claws and teeth. So... I spent the rest of the night STARING back at the cat who made a point to camp out in front of me staring with this "one false move and I soak your stuff" look. I don't even think he blinked once until I went to bed and locked him out of my room.
On another interesting note, the dog SMILES after he likes you, which I am used to that being a sign of aggression, so that was something else to get used to. He hid all night last night and came out this morning and decided to be my friend... with a smile on his face. For now I am thinking the fish is my favorite pet-friend. He holds no loyalties.
The house, on the other hand, is QUITE amazing. I am so excited to hit the pool tonight. The fam is coming over for FHE/BBQ and I think we'll have a great time. The home owners are so wonderfully generous and they have made me feel like serious royalty... buying my favorite foods, heating the pool for me, giving me party money, and setting up a room just for me. The trade-off is totally worth it and I am hoping to become good friends with Malcolm (black lab) before the week is out. This has been a good reminder to me of how important it is to always be generous and thoughtful towards others. It makes such a difference!
