It's another...

...Sunday evening post-weekend in the Shire post. And it's pet related. Again. Sorry.

I have been going home at weekends a lot recently, I know. But it's nearby and my homing instrinct kicks in from time to time. I'll post about that another time. Anyway this weekend I wanted to see the cats. They are very comforting and Dave does show signs of missing me, so I feel I should put the effort in with him. He is my offspring (in people-pet terms, of course) and I have to leave him with his foster parents (Mum and Dad) whilst I am living in Leeds. It is a sad state for us all. Anyway, when Dave lived with me in Durham not only would he walk me to my local for my cider each night, wait, and walk me home, he would also catch me a mouse or shrew as a gift if I had been away for a night or two. (He was always left in capable hands, by the way - I'm not the kind of parent to go away for weekends and leave him alone. Anything could happen!) The "gifts" were often still alive, which I thought was nice of Dave - the gesture was clear and no lives were lost. Clever boy.

This weekend, Dave waited for me to go to bed. He usually stays outside at night, unless I am home, and then he guards my room. I am so proud! As I was staying up late on msn (what a Saturday night! I shall not even mention how it followed X factor and other such telly delights...) Dave gave up on waiting for me and went outside. Fine. So I wake up in the middle of the night to a rustling on my pillow. I presume it is Cromwell the cat seeking me out. It would likely not be Dave - he is too cool and aloof. But the rustling is light. I panic and think it might be a spider (slight neurosis left over from spider-heavy flat days). I switch on the lamp. Ah, not to worry, it's just Dave. The little love has come to sleep on my bed after all. How sweet! Then he dives off the bed... And (after slight delay whilst I find some specs) I see what Dave sees. He has brought me a mouse. He left it, alive, on my pillow. I can't really be arsed with this in the middle of the night. And nor can Dave, now. He has brought me a gift and got a bit of attention for it, so he promptly goes to sleep in the middle of my bed (leaving me little room, incidentally. And when Cromwell came through to investigate all this activity, he decided to stay, too, so there was hardly any room for me to sleep). I am unable to locate the mouse, so I go back to bed, feeling slightly repulsed at having had a mouse on my bed.

Firstly, for those pet lovers out there, I'm sure you will appreciate these situations. For those of you who have not been blessed with pets, you might be thinking "move the cats if you want a good nights' sleep". Well, you can't. You have a duty as a parent. And it's not an easy one. This is in fact the point of this post (sorry for taking a while to get to it...): being a pet-parent gives rise to a number of dilemmas. The current one being: do I put a trap down for this mouse? Can I really kill it? The poor thing has surely suffered enough trauma. Once before Dave brought me a mouse and did a very similar thing, although without depositing it on my pillow. The mouse ended up living in my house for ages. Until I left, actually. "Humane" traps didn't seem to work. What do I do? Tom, you have much experience of these issues, I know.

Another dilemma concerns my wish for a dog. I really want a big dog, as they are the best. But how can one animal eating 17 tins of other unidentifiable meat a day be justified? It is hard to reconcile. Especially for a vegetarian. And this is before I even consider the morals of keeping an animal essentially locked up in a house. What to do?!

I think that pet keeping is quite a selfish act. Animal lovers want to enjoy their pets. And they are great to have around. But being a parent is not an easy thing. And morally I am still trying to work through these issues. However as an animal lover you end up wanting to fight battles on behalf of your offspring. I fear for my poor real offspring, when they enter the world. You do what you've got to do for your offpsring. So perhaps I'll leave the mouse. Dave might want to befriend the mouse again in the near future.

Moon. xxx