A few days ago my wife came to a rather interesting revelation about our household and family. The pets outnumber the people by a ratio of almost 3-to-1. Here's how it breaks down:
4 People
3 Goldfish
1 Betta fish
1 Bearded Dragon
1 Rat (new addition, more on this soon)
3 Cats
2 Dogs
That makes 11 pets total if you count the fish individually. A lot of pets for two kids and two adults! Yet that's par for the course for a veterinarian. We work with pets who are often orphaned, abandoned, or sick, and most of us like a wide range of pet species. Most vets have hard-luck cases that they've taken into their own homes. One of my own cats was found in a dumpster behind a pet store. Vets also can care for difficult medical situations or simply afford more pets than your average owner. So with all of these factors, it's not surprising that most vets have multiple-pet households.
For most of my career I've been able to avoid most of the pity adoptions we are presented with. I've never taken home a parvo case like many of my colleagues that I know. I've been willing and able to pass on most abandoned dogs and cats I've seen. But somehow of the last few years we've slowly accumulated more pets than I realized, and now have 11. And my kids want more! They keep trying to talk us into another dog, with the logic that we have three cats, so we need three dogs to make it even. So far my wife and I have adamantly resisted.
If you don't see any blog posts for a few weeks and I haven't announced a vacation, it means that the pets got together and staged a coup!
