the truth about cats and dogs

Here's an update of the crazy, somewhat miniature zoo that I call home. Everyone is doing well. One of the lovebirds died though, we now have 8 left. I always thought that odd numbers weren't good cause that means that someone is always left out or the third wheel/ fifth wheel. Odd numbers are lonely numbers.

People here have been so nice. Thanks for the suggestions and Julian, thanks for the website, but my mom got so overwhelmed by the abundance of suggestions she got so confused that to settle the issue, we finally decided to call our little shih-tzu, Amber. [ despite the lack of the color] Its a nice name and it fits perfectly into the requisites of my animal names [read homemade zoo entry]. My cat, Aubrey didn't really give Amber a hard time fitting in, though he didn't seem to be excited about it either. It was quite amusing when Amber, being the silly creature she is, would playfully bark at Aubrey to annoy him or something and Aubrey would look at me as if telepathically asking, "what do you suggest I do with this idiot?" Its really how it looks like and its quite funny actually. Aubrey's really being mature about it and not scratching Amber's eyes out. Actually, he never did which was quite amazing cause if you think about it, cats and dogs intial instinct is to fight each other but they haven't... yet. There are times when Amber would have this identity crisis and eats Aubrey's food and in turn Aubrey would retaliate by eating Amber's puppy chow. Its really hilarious. In a way, they are like people. Obviously, you can see the difference between them, Aubrey is more poised, refined, clean and sweet in her own not so showy way while Amber is more of the hyper-active, silly, crazy, cuddly rag doll paired with big black eyes. They are both so cute and adorable that I really can't decide if I'm more of a dog person or a cat person. Dogs, as they say in Meet the Parents are emotionally shallow animals while cats make you work for their affection. I don't know, I'm kinda on the fence on this one. Sometimes I like to earn affection, it makes you see how much you really want it and once you got it, you really cherish it though sometimes after a rough day, you would just like to have some lovin' given to you freely, without questions, without hesitations, all out. You can have the assurance that you have some trust and loyalty even if you screw up along the way.

Thankfully, this is not those black or white issues where you have to have only one side and stick to it. I can happily sit on the fence and enjoy the best of both worlds.