Discovering hidden pets in houses

Many folks don’t know that just like humans, houses love pets. They are usually unknown to the homeowners, but on occasion the occupants might discover their houses’ pets.

For instance, one house we lived in when I was a child had a very favorite pet. It was a bird, a very large bird, an owl. That owl was beautiful and had evidently lived with that house for quite a time. The owl actually lived in the attic, and we had no idea we shared our house with a wild owl. The owl’s access to the attic was a loose window. The owl could push it open, then push it closed.

Once we had settled into our house, we began to beg our parents for a dog. Soon, a puppy joined our household. With our pup’s arrival, the training began — not the dog training, the kid training. We had to learn how to care for our new pet.

First of all, we had to train the new puppy to take his potty needs outside. He also had to be taught not to chew on baseboards and door edges. Plus, we had to faithfully feed him every morning and every evening. As for owl training, none was needed. He fed himself by hunting and finding prey he liked and staying in the attic when he wanted to, and during the day, he kept busy courting a pretty female owl to no avail.

Then one night when we kids were sneaking around the kitchen looking for some treats, we discovered more house pets: two little mice living close to the dog food bag. A tiny hole in the end cupboard was their front door. Those little creatures only came out at night, and when they did, the house saw them, of course, and since they were cute, the house considered them pets.

We kids never said anything to our parents about the mice house pets. The whole neighborhood knew about the owl pet, and only the house knew about her mice pets.

Over the years we lived in that house, we kids became very fond of the owl and the mice, but when we moved, we could not take the owl or the mice with us. Those pets belong to the house, and she was very fond of them and they of her. Even our dog wanted to stay with the house, but the dog was our pet, and the house was almost glad to see him go.

Our next house was a whole new house pet adventure. One of these days, I’ll tell you all about it.

Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.