When we were kids, both my wife and I had pets. Growing up in England, she had a dog named Sally, a West Highland terrier who was a devoted member of the family. She still has lots of Sally stories, like the time the police came to the door to ask about a report that the family had a vicious dog. Sally ran to the door, nuzzled the constable, and licked his hand, whereupon he almost fell over laughing.

My pets were a dog and cat, Snippy and Puss'n respectively. They were great friends, co-consiprators, and devoted family members as well. Snippy regularly saw off neighborhood dogs when they were threatening Puss'n. Puss'n would get up on the kitchen counter, throw food down to Snippy, and then share it with him. They slept together much of the time.

When we moved into our first apartment, there wasn't room for a dog, and having one would have broken our lease. On a visit to a local farm, we acquired the barn kitten, whom we named Arlo. Arlo was a handsome, affectionate and very clever tuxedo cat. He also loved other cats, so when our second cat, Lisa, needed a home (she and her old kitty housemate really didn't get along), he was delighted. By that time we were hooked on pets generally and cats in particular.

Unfortunately, Arlo died early, but the vet offered us their office cat, who became Tigger. After that, cats who needed homes just seemed to find their way to us (generally through neighbors), and over the years we have usually had three cats. We're down to two at the moment, but will probably get a third in the not too distant future.

That's the story of us and pets. We like dogs, but cats were easier to manage when we were starting out, and bringing a dog into a cat-owned house isn't the easiest thing to do. So we've had cats, and a great series of characters they have been.