28 July 2009

My brother works for the Dept. of State Foreign Service. During his travels around the world he scooped up a little, Bangladeshi, wild street pup - Zoli! He's had him for seven years and the two have traveled the globe, living in Dhaka, Bangladesh - Johanesburg, South Africa - St. Petersburg, Russia and Washington DC. For the next FULL year my brother will be in Egypt... and, alas, he can't bring Zoli with him. So, being the EXTREMELY nice sister that I am, I offered to take the pooch.



Now, mind you, I have never had a pet. (That's not really true - I did have pet rabbits when I was growing up. That came to a screeching halt when I forgot to feed my last rabbie and it died - it's one of the stories my family is NOT allowed to talk about!) I never even had plants! I decided that this summer, leading up to Zoli's arrival, I would try some plants on my balcony. With the help of Bob (wonderful gardner!) I planted tomatoes, peppers, basil and some misc. plants. They flurished... until they all died! Needless to say, family and friends were a bit concerned about my offer to take an actual living creature into my home.


My sister always says, "Barbara hates animals!" So not true! I love animals, I just never wanted to take care of them, or be responsible for them, or clean up after then, or feed them, etc. Growing up was like living in a zoo. We had a dog (Katrina Abigal), cats (Josephine & Lilly Lagoon), numerous birds (Bismark I, II, III, IV and V along with Louie, Freidrick and others whose names escape me), guinipigs, hampsters, mice, fish, turtles - even my brother's pet milipeede (Henrietta... yes, I said Henrietta!). Then I moved on to a roommate with a cat and finally a husband with a cat (who hated me... the cat, not the husband, although he is an ex...so, maybe he hates me now, who knows?!)


Finally... after divorcing and no more roommates... I was pet free and plant free. Nothing to take care of, nothing to take up my time...Freedom!! Sure, there was the occasional spider in the corner, or maybe some flying thing that I had to deal with (don't get me started on my bat stories), but overall, a "living creature" free existance. Until now!


Zoli arrived Tuesday, July 28th... and my life is definitely changing!!