BryM's rant about Miss Bigglesworth spewing up cat hairballs on the carpet instead of the tile brought to mind a few irritating aspects about my own furry "children".

Sam:

As many of you know, Sam is my german shepherd. He's going on three years old now and still seems to retain the puppy ability of occasionally confusing me and driving me irrationally insane.

He has recently decided that when I take him out for his interval walks to use the bathroom, that he will not under any circumstance do what he is outside to do. After three flights of stairs to get downstairs, he mills around on his leash and feigns interest in anything from a blade of grass to the stars overhead. As a result every night I now have to trudge back up three flights of stairs only to be interrupted during dinner by him doing a frenetic potty dance fifteen minutes later.



Patchouli:

Patchouli is the most recent pet addition to my household. He's shy of a year old and is probably the most stubborn feline I have ever been owned by.

This past month he has decided that the entire household needs to know when he uses his litterbox. As it is housed in the bathroom that connects to my bedroom, I'm aware of this action of his at all hours of the night.

He will meander casually down the hallway while meowing softly. As he nears the bathroom his yowls increase in pitch and volume until, finally ensconced in the litter box, he emits such earpiercing squeals while retaining the most confounded look of concentration that I have ever seen cross the contenance of a house cat.

BryM, if our pets ever met it would be the doom of our combined households.