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Why do I have pets?

You will find no photos here; most of you will be happy about that, I think.

My cat, my beautiful, sweet, loving kitty... Kills other animals. I try to be a good parent and let her do what she needs to do for her own growth, so I turn my head the other way when I see her dining on some lifeless creature. The rules are, as long as she leaves no evidence of what she has done, we get along well. I do intervene if I see her stalking another animal. I usually try to shew the otherwise unaware creature away before it meets is demise. That's as involved as I generally get.

Recently, while out in the yard, here she comes, proud as can be, bringing me a common grackle. That's a fairly sizeable catch for my smallish cat. I stopped in my tracks, trying to decide what to do. I quickly realized the bird was still alive... This upsets me considerably! I then am in a quandary... Do I try to save the bird, is it to late? Will I only prolong its suffering? Much to my relief, Smudge the creature killing cat, paused to look at me just long enough that the bird wriggled free and flew away... Hopefully far, far away!

I have found baby opossums lying around in the yard, not merely "playing" 'possum. I have assumed that she was the culprit, although there has never been any evidence to suggest that... So, I don't blame her outright, I simply remove the carcass from the yard and try to push it from my memory as quickly as possible.

A few months ago, while company was heading out the door, we nearly tripped over a baby opossum that was seemingly strategically placed inside the house in the doorway. Not only was I devastated, I was also embarrassed that my company had to see the remnants!

It gets worse, folks.

Today... Horror of horrors! I am taking a peaceful nap. The dogs are resting, the cat is out doing her cat things, and I am unaware, life is good.
Taci (oldest dog) heads outside and starts barking, Joey (youngest dog) runs to check it out, and begins barking as well ... Nothing out of the ordinary, so I attempt to doze back off to sleep. Taci remains outside barking. Joey, barks frantically for a moment, I am beginning to wonder if I have company, he then quickly becomes quiet and runs into the house and under the bed. As he likes it under there, I am not yet alarmed. I try to relax again, and realize Taci is still barking, yet Joey seems un-interested in the ruckus. That's when I get a little concerned. I hear back-ground noise of dog-licking... One of those things you get use to when you have dogs. Taci is the one who has compulsive licking habits, yet he is still outside barking.
I peer over the foot of the bed to see Joey's butt sticking out from under the bed. He indeed is licking something. I try to look under the bed, it's dark under there and Joey is blocking any available light from entering. I can't see, so I try to push Joey out of the way a bit... He growls at me. Never has he growled at me... I realize he thinks I am trying to steal his prey. OH MY GOD, he has PREY under MY BED! I see legs and a patch of gray fur. I am now FREAKED out. I don't want to deal with this... What am I going to do? I have a dead (hopefully) creature under my bed that my dog is having for dinner!! I head to the door, grab my keys and call Joey (in dog language, that means "Wanna go for a ride").
He finally heads to the door, I am sure I am yelling, although I can't hear myself, Joey's cowering stance is indicative of such. He's confused. Somehow, I manage to get myself together enough to speak to him in excited, non-threatening tones and somehow actually, effectively communicate to him to go get "it"... "Come on, go get it... Joey go get it and bring it outside... Good boy... That's it! Get it... Bring it here.. Come on, Joey! GOOD BOY!" He ACTUALLY got it out from underneath the bed and took it outside. He then begins to EAT this poor innocent baby rabbit . I start gagging and yelling at the same time(quite a feat, let me tell you), Joey is WAY confused now. I somehow got Joey away from the carcass, and was able to pick it up with a plastic bag and pitch it over the fence into the brush pile... Where the opossum graveyard is.
I assume my cat actually was the original perpetrator, and Joey just stole her prize... She was wandering around loudly meowing during all of the excitement. Sheesh! Again, I'll ask... Why do I have pets? Someone please remind me!

Not exactly the kind of company I had hoped for after being awakened from my "most proper of naps".