Family? Well sort of... mostly random rambling
What does family mean to you? Does it mean the people that are directly related to you? Your friends? Pets?
I was raised as an only child of a single parent, we're pretty detached from our family. My dad ran off before I was born and I've never met him or any of his side of the family, on my mom's side the family's always been small, my grandma died when I was seven, and with my mother's death in April I just have my aunt left as a direct blood relative, but I've always been the type to consider my pets as family, so it's not like I'm alone.
My mom was a cat collector, we've never had less then 3 cats, which is the amount I have now (after mom died I just kept the animals we had, I've been conditioned all my life to never pound a pet, so here I am, 18 and stuck with 5 animals) At one point we had 13 cats (6 were in a litter of kittens though, but our adult cat count was still 7).
I had a babysitter until I was 6 and started kindergarden, then I went to daycare for two years, but by the time I was 8 I was a latchkey kid. When I got home from school the only ones around to talk to were my cats, of course I had friends that lived on the block, but they weren't always around, and in the mornings I was alone for almost an hour until the school bus came. So I've really never lived without cats all around me.
Last night for instance I made a bed on the couch (my room was too hot) and by the time I turned the tv off I had my schnauzer Mimi lying by my knees, my cat Alleygato lying a little above her and my other cat Bootsie perched on the back of the couch with her tail and back leg hanging down onto me (she's a big cat, her back legs are really long)
Since my mom died I've been living in the apartment we'd shared for about 3 years, but recently I'm a bit more worried that my manager's going to evict me. He doesn't like my beagle Shiloh (I don't think he's ever liked me either), but his daughter has been telling me that he's thinking of telling me to get rid of my beagle, a dog I've had for 5 years, even though it'll suck, if he tells me to get rid of Shiloh I'll just have to move out, because I can't sacrifice a member of my family for myself, animals have always been more important to me then animals, people betray you all the time, but animals are constant in their loyalty, I think they deserve the same from us.
What sucks is if he tells me to get rid of Shiloh, that means that I have to get moved out of here quickly before he evicts me for keeping him. I'm sure I could easily rent an apartment in the complex I lived in before we moved here, but it's a serious ghetto, complete with trailer trash (there's an empty parking lot people park trailers in right next door), drugs, and pit bulls. And if I get into that kind of place then I'm probably not going to be able to get out until 5 years at the earliest, because I'm starting my senior year in high school soon and with college after that it'd be hard to move (although possible, but where am I going to get that kind of money?)
I was raised as an only child of a single parent, we're pretty detached from our family. My dad ran off before I was born and I've never met him or any of his side of the family, on my mom's side the family's always been small, my grandma died when I was seven, and with my mother's death in April I just have my aunt left as a direct blood relative, but I've always been the type to consider my pets as family, so it's not like I'm alone.
My mom was a cat collector, we've never had less then 3 cats, which is the amount I have now (after mom died I just kept the animals we had, I've been conditioned all my life to never pound a pet, so here I am, 18 and stuck with 5 animals) At one point we had 13 cats (6 were in a litter of kittens though, but our adult cat count was still 7).
I had a babysitter until I was 6 and started kindergarden, then I went to daycare for two years, but by the time I was 8 I was a latchkey kid. When I got home from school the only ones around to talk to were my cats, of course I had friends that lived on the block, but they weren't always around, and in the mornings I was alone for almost an hour until the school bus came. So I've really never lived without cats all around me.
Last night for instance I made a bed on the couch (my room was too hot) and by the time I turned the tv off I had my schnauzer Mimi lying by my knees, my cat Alleygato lying a little above her and my other cat Bootsie perched on the back of the couch with her tail and back leg hanging down onto me (she's a big cat, her back legs are really long)
Since my mom died I've been living in the apartment we'd shared for about 3 years, but recently I'm a bit more worried that my manager's going to evict me. He doesn't like my beagle Shiloh (I don't think he's ever liked me either), but his daughter has been telling me that he's thinking of telling me to get rid of my beagle, a dog I've had for 5 years, even though it'll suck, if he tells me to get rid of Shiloh I'll just have to move out, because I can't sacrifice a member of my family for myself, animals have always been more important to me then animals, people betray you all the time, but animals are constant in their loyalty, I think they deserve the same from us.
What sucks is if he tells me to get rid of Shiloh, that means that I have to get moved out of here quickly before he evicts me for keeping him. I'm sure I could easily rent an apartment in the complex I lived in before we moved here, but it's a serious ghetto, complete with trailer trash (there's an empty parking lot people park trailers in right next door), drugs, and pit bulls. And if I get into that kind of place then I'm probably not going to be able to get out until 5 years at the earliest, because I'm starting my senior year in high school soon and with college after that it'd be hard to move (although possible, but where am I going to get that kind of money?)