My Crowded Life

My Crowded Life

About Me

First, let me introduce myself.  My name is Buster and I am a short haired Chihuahua who lives in a two story house in Kent.  I am four years old and share my life with John and Belinda, three cats, a tortoise, and a rabbit.

John and Belinda are my owners and they are wonderful.  I rely on them for food, shelter and love and they rely on me for protection from strangers, other dogs and the mailman.  Even though I’m not a long haired Chihuahua Belinda brushes me every week to keep my short coat healthy and shiny.  She brushes my teeth with toothpaste that tastes like chicken, checks my toenails and gives me a bath every couple of weeks.  They both buy me handsome Chihuahua clothes to help keep me warm on cold days.

John is in charge of exercise.  He takes me for a walk every morning before he goes to work and then plays catch in the backyard every evening.  Sometimes when it’s cold or rainy outside we play catch inside the house so that I don’t get cold.  My owners are always watching out for me.

My life would be perfect except for the fact that John and Belinda apparently have a lot of love to give.  I keep trying to tell them that I can take all the love they have, but they haven’t got the message yet.  Instead they have gotten three cats, a tortoise and a rabbit in the past three years.  I am not impressed with these extras.  I should be enough for my owners but they insist on keeping these lesser creatures in the house.

The Cats

The cats are the bane of my existence.  I loathe them and the feeling appears to be mutual.  Most of the time the cats just lay around being lazy but every once in a while they chase me or try to scratch me.  Usually they do these things when John and Belinda aren’t watching. 

Cats aren’t as dumb as you might think.  After being told off once or twice by my owners, the cats learned not to try to hurt me when John and Belinda are around.  I can’t even understand why they don’t like me.  Almost every day I warn them that the mailman is coming.  Most of the time they are sleeping and so you think they would appreciate the warning.

I also finish their leftover food so that John and Belinda don’t know that they didn’t eat all their dinner.  I let them sleep on the bed during the day but I do kick them off at night because this is my time with my owners.  I hardly ever bark directly at them unless they happen to run past me quickly.

I think if they race past me then they probably want to play so I chase them and can’t help barking with excitement.  Every one of the cats seems to hate this.  They hiss and try to swat me with their claws.  I don’t understand.  If they didn’t want to play then why were they running?

After several years of this behaviour I’ve learned not to trust these cats at all.  I could tell you all sorts of stories about these cats and I probably will on another day.  Just believe me when I say that cats are not nice creatures, even though my owners seem to like them.

The Tortoise and the Rabbit

I know that it’s a funny thing to have a tortoise and a rabbit in the same house.  It’s kind of like the old story about the tortoise and the hare.  In my opinion neither one of these animals would win the race.  The rabbit is too silly and is always chasing me around and flipping his back legs in the air.

The tortoise is supposed to be friendly and wise but when I try to talk to him he doesn’t seem to understand anything.  I don’t think he’s that smart.  He tries to chase me too but he’s too slow for me.  I can outrun him without a problem but he keeps trying.  Like I said, he’s not too smart.

As you can see my life is very crowded.  Sometimes I wish all these other animals would disappear but that might make my owners sad.  For now, I’ll just have to put up with all these lesser creatures.