The Animal Kingdom

It all started with a hamster named Brody (after Adam, I believe). The summer roommates wanted a pet, and a mini hamspter fit the bill. Low maintenence, pettable and dirt cheap. The pet was cheaper than his food supply. He was an insane little nocternal beast, running on his hamspter weel all night, and never stopping to let his poor owners rest in a creakless sleep. Kathy and I decided that hampsters were not for us, and as soon as the summer roommates and their beastly hamspter prepared to move to Santa Barbara, we purchased two delightful parakeets named Sherlock and Elwood. Sherlock and Elwood were lovely pale blue and made lovely chirping noises, and went to sleep at night like good pets. Unfortunately, they died of various diseases afflicting the bird world these days.

Claire was generation two of the Pet Project. She is a beautiful periwinkle colored bird, small for her breed, and enjoys people, unlike any of the other pets thus far. She hangs out on people's shoulders, runs around the house, and knows how to fly back to her cage whenever she has grown tired of us. As pleasant as she is however, she did not satiate our desire for pets (especially as she decided more and more to enjoy the solitude of her cage rather than our company). Armed with Kathy's intense allegeric reactions to cats and a desire for a furry friend, we started going to dog stores and petting puppies. We were quite good at convincing the sales people that we were serious dog buyers, and though we got to pet lots of puppies, their $2000 price tag drove us away. We thought about the pound, but it seems that LA occupants only give away Pit Bulls.

That is when we saw the ad. A little pug cutie-pie free to a good home. By golly, we were going to be an awesome home. He was perfect. Six years old, house trained, and small enough that the landlord would be happy. Generation three of the Pet Project is known as Patrick, Patrick Puggly, Fatty Patty, or Smooshkin-Face, depending on who you ask. And we love him very much.`