Companion animals: Can you have too many?

I haven't been posting to this blog nearly enough. The truth is that ever since I moved to our house, life has been very busy. Uncomfortably busy. I live farther from work now, which entails getting up earlier and getting home later. It's not really so bad, but until you get done with all of the things you need to do, there's not nearly enough time to do the things you want to do and get enough sleep to be anything more than a zombie the next day. And on top of everything else, my little cat Frank is getting over the sniffles again from the stress of the moving. He's such a tender little guy. He was prescribed antibiotics for the next two weeks, and the vet (my college roommate!) sent us home with a nifty pilling device that has simplified things. I have to give Scott a big hand here for helping me with the arduous task each morning. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.

The second picture is of me and Ernesto a.k.a Tiny Man. They're both great cats. But I wonder if I have too many pets sometimes--five house rabbits (one of them very elderly, one of them blind), four cats counting Scott's and mine together, a (formerly) homeless hamster who crossed my path soon after Janey-Jane left me (it was meant to be--how could I say no?--and he's just so darn cute). Then there's Schuyler, the parakeet, and my little finch Reggie, who's still waiting for me to pick him up a buddy. I do quite a bit of worrying about them all...And worrying about me.

Me and hundreds of thousands of other people on earth have the same affliction when it comes to having an open-door policy for homeless and needy animals of all kinds. Is compassion a state of mind, a disease state, or a choice? :-) I don't think you can have too many companion animals unless you're not caring for them properly. So adopt away!

Fillmore Glen, Moravia, New York, 5/13/06

Scott's mom was in from the city this week, so we explored some of the local scenery. This time, we went to Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia. For some reason, the main path by all of the waterfalls was closed off, so although we got to see the main falls, the others were basically invisible from the rim trails we were restricted to. I was really disappointed at not being able to see the falls, but it was beautiful anyway.

I've never been in the parks in the springtime much, so I saw some of the woodland blooms for possibly the first time ever. At the bottom of the gorge, these flowers were blooming by the hundreds. It was really something, and my poor digital photography skills simply cannot do it justice.

So we wandered up and down--some of it quite steep. It was a great day for it. The sun slanted through the trees, and the rain held off until just after we finished viewing good old Millard Fillmore's replica cabin. Hey, I like the full experience, even if it's cheesy.