[speaker001:] okay well you
[speaker002:] so do you have any pets
[speaker001:] um we got two cats
[speaker002:] two cats
[speaker001:] yeah and uh um yeah we had cat you know my family had cats when we were growing up the whole time until my mom developed an allergies so I mean I'm used I'm used to having cats around I like them
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah I like having cat cats around or pets around in general I I favor dogs over cats actually but
[speaker001:] oh see I'm not uh I'm not a dog person at all
[speaker002:] oh I'm I'm a dog person I had I guess it depends on what you had when he were a kid right
[speaker001:] yeah probably I was allergic to dogs when I was a kid in fact I may still be um we
[speaker002:] uh-huh but not cats
[speaker001:] not um I wonder sometimes um but we um we house sat for a um my um my wife's boss a couple weeks ago and um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh he has a dog and everything we were you know we were sitting the dog and everything and uh I felt like just miserable all weekend and it really didn't dawn on me until Sunday it was like hey maybe you're still allergic to the dog it was like oh that could be it
[speaker002:] well the thing I don't like about dogs sometimes is that the house will just reek
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] of the dogs and constantly
[speaker001:] well dogs are real high maintenances you got to take them for walks and you've got to pay a lot you know you need to pay attention to cats and everything but it's not quite the same thing um and um
[speaker002:] yeah that's true
[speaker001:] um you know it's it's just nice that cats you know cats yeah you don't have to let them outside you know our cats are indoor cats so you know they're not you worry you're not worried about them running all around the neighborhood and you know they you know they they make their mess in the cat pan which is
[speaker002:] uh-huh limited
[speaker001:] yeah it's you know it's a pain to clean but you know we used to I mean they got great stuff out now for cleaning cats' pans they didn't
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] well when I was you know when I was growing up I had a clean the cat pan all the time and I hated it because I had to carry everything upstairs and you know and use this thing to you know scoop the take the stuff out and put it in the toilet and everything it was really terrible but now they have like this you get these liners
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that is garbage bags you know and you and you you know the
[speaker002:] oh that sounds so easy what I did
[speaker001:] yeah the cats do it in there you pull it and take it out and throw it away and that's it
[speaker002:] yeah I house sat some cats for a friend of mine which she was finishing up her thesis and what we used to do was just put um newspaper on the bottom and then put cat litter and then I would just take the whole thing to the garbage can and dump the whole thing
[speaker001:] uh-huh same idea
[speaker002:] then I would do it you know everyday or two days so I would clean that pan very very rarely and so it wasn't so bad well she had two cats and just as easy it just never started smelling I would put just a little bit of cat litter there
[speaker001:] everyday oh okay I see uh-huh
[speaker002:] because if I put a lot one of the cats would had been all of her animals that she ever had were adopted is that true yeah she's even got she's got one dog now and the two cats and her
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] dog there is is basically a reject somebody had bought him and wanted him it was her ex boyfriend and you know just was not mature enough to keep the dog didn't realize how much work it was and now she's stuck with it and she's just so kindhearted that she just takes all the animals
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] but I think that for me well my husband just has completely nixed the idea of having a dog or a cat because that's all there is to it so you know
[speaker001:] so you don't have anything right now
[speaker002:] no we don't have anything right now
[speaker001:] oh except the kid huh that's
[speaker002:] oh right now we have a kid but he was no completely against having a dog or cat he said they're much they're as much work as a kid and they're harder to get rid of for the weekend and
[speaker001:] uh I don't I don't know because the cats pretty much um yeah you know we can leave them for a weekend as long as we put plenty of food out
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and um uh it's not a big deal really I mean they're they're happier when we're around but you know they they're pretty much okay by themselves um and I don't you know we couldn't do that with a dog
[speaker002:] that's uh yeah really true but like the friends other friends of mine have cats they have four of them and if they go away they have they hire a pet sitter to come in twice a day and pet them and things like that and their cats you know their so use to the attention that if they don't get it they get really upset and you know they sort of cause trouble around the house and things like that
[speaker001:] well that's that's um pampering the the pet a little
[speaker002:] yeah I I tried to have um figured having pets so I tried to have a goldfish
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um I killed that one within a very short amount of time
[speaker001:] but they're not that much fun you know you can't take them for a walk you can't you know they they don't they can't fetch you know they can't they can't do anything so I've never
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] I think we had fish when I was a kid but I don't
[speaker002:] my brother had fish when I was a kid I remember that and one of his fish jumped out of the um gosh what do you call it fish tank and fried itself on the radiator behind the dresser I'll never forget that because I remember my brother he came home and he counted the fish and one of the fish was missing and they couldn't find it anyplace they couldn't figure out what had happened and then they found it fried on the radiator behind
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] well it was not that gross I didn't see it but um he got them trying to remember we had a dog for a while
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] and I don't know if we got rid of the dog because my brother was allergic to it my brother had asthma and some allergies which I think he's outgrown now but because of that we didn't have very many pets afterwards and then he had fish
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and you they're like you say they're not the most exciting pet to have
[speaker001:] no it's like I just I don't know I I just never understood why what the attraction I mean they're you know they're pretty and everything but I've just never seen the attraction of having fish it's not as much fun
[speaker002:] well a friend of mine had um an eel and then he had a um I forget what type of fish it was it was one of these fish that I it would eat it ate a big other fish and things like that there would be sort of moby fish in a tank
[speaker001:] oh now we really get sick
[speaker002:] yeah and it I I couldn't see having fish like that I could see sort of having maybe some of the tropical fish that are really really pretty but
[speaker001:] yeah like I remember a friend of mine at work telling me that at his frat in college that they had a tank of piranha
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh you know used to drop mice in it's like this is not these aren't pets you know this is gross
[speaker002:] yeah no that would be what did they do everyone come around and watch them I mean I guess that's fine if you have a mouse problem at your frat house and you just destroyed the mice
[speaker001:] yep yeah well
[speaker002:] but
[speaker001:] yeah well a cat will do the same trick
[speaker002:] let's see I had a pet rat for a while and it was a live rat and um this woman just offered it to me while I was in in graduate school and she was actually a very fun pet
[speaker001:] I had a friend in college I had a friend in college who had a um had a pet rat for a while um
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I forget how she got it but it was um it was the same kind of a deal I think she got it I think she was a psych major and she got it from the psych department
[speaker002:] yeah mine had been a a a how did this work a male rat had been bought and the people in the lab one day called in my friend and said you know this rat is acting really strange I think he's sick and she said I don't think he's sick I think she's pregnant and they had misclassified the sex of the the uh rat there and so um she asked me if I want to one of those babies and I took the baby and I got her when she was you know just this tiniest little thing like half the size of a mouse
[speaker001:] oops uh-huh
[speaker002:] and then she grew to be you know I had pictures of her when she would sit on my hand and then she grew to be pretty big you know like a pound or something I don't know how much and I had her for over two years and she was very affectionate she would you know
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] crawl on me and she would sit like on my neck or my shoulder while I was working and things like that yeah much more than you would think
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh yeah I mean you know if you get them young and everything before they go kind of nuts so yeah rats are not my favorite animals in the world but I could see getting one from birth and everything
[speaker002:] yeah and yeah I sort of weird for me to have had one too but there it was a convenient little pet to have because it stayed in it's cage and you know it was easy easy to take care of and but
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I I I have friends with hamsters and gerbils and they they tell me the same thing I just again it gets into these aren't much fun you know what I guess they can be I
[speaker002:] uh-huh actually it was more fun than you would think yeah starting from the beginning but um yeah we live also live in the city now actually in Manhattan and so it's
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] almost impossible it's not fair to a pet to have a pet here or certainly certainly not a dog I mean people do
[speaker001:] right oh people
[speaker002:] but it just not
[speaker001:] I don't oh plus I mean their's a pooper scooper on New York so yeah
[speaker002:] oh yeah you see all these people yeah these stately people and well dressed people out walking their dogs with their plastic bag or their piece of paper for them it's really kind of funny
[speaker001:] I was living in northern Jersey when that law came through remember hearing all about it we were wondering if they uh they had any special law for the horses in Central Park of course not
[speaker002:] uh-huh right no they don't actually they do they have um the bags behind them but I think they're actually supposed to they keep them yeah keep them clean but oh gosh I can't even walk by Central Park
[speaker001:] hit the bags
[speaker002:] yeah when summertime just the smell is so bad
[speaker001:] oh God I can't
[speaker002:] of the horses
[speaker001:] haven't been up there last time I was there was fall so probably wasn't that bad
[speaker002:] oh well it's not that long ago it was pretty recent
[speaker001:] not this past fall but I mean fall a few years I mean it was it was in the
[speaker002:] oh twelve times of the year
[speaker001:] yeah it was almost like October of eighty five I think was the last time I was up up there and at Center Park um I had a friend who went to Colombia and I used to go up and visit her
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] um so
[speaker002:] yeah that's not too far from were we live do you have you said you had two cats are they um just what you call it are they breed cats or anything or are they just
[speaker001:] no they're just mutts yeah my wife got them from uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] um friend of hers at work and everything you know you know as kittens and it was before I mean this was before we even met um she's had them for a couple years and um you know they're really cute they're they're sisters one of them is a lot bigger than the other one
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and she pushes the other one away from the food apparently I don't know all the details but they were born around Christmas because one of them is named Tinsel and the other one is named Holly you know
[speaker002:] uh-huh they're both females
[speaker001:] both yeah both females they're both spayed or whatever it is neutered
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know um and they're they're both declawed at least on the the front claws
[speaker002:] uh-huh