Happy National Love Your Pet Day!

Today is National Love Your Pet Day. Every day is Love Your Pet Day in my world. 

Zelda Belda is our alarm clock most days. She stands at the bottom of the stairway and meows under the door. She's the tiniest person in our house, but definitely is the loudest and hungriest. She is my soulmate. She is cuddly, fuzzy, and loves nothing more than to stick her entire face in my mouth. She is a constant source of amusement when she jumps and lands like a brick so that we can tell Zelda has jumped from entirely different floors of the house. She loves to play for about thirty seconds and then begin grooming, as if she is embarrassed that you caught her chasing a ball. She's twelve now, but you wouldn't know it. She still runs around with the zoomies, stands up to Hannah (thwack thwack thwack on Hannah's muzzle makes Hannah come to us for comfort), and has enough sass to carry the whole household.

She's also beautiful. Look at those crazy whiskers - they're all different colors and go in all different directions. Her eyes have the most perfect makeup and the green is the deepest you can possibly find in nature. She doesn't like being brushed, but tolerates me swiping at her with a Furminator once a day for twenty seconds. She's unbelievably soft and loves chin and tailbone scritches. She's the most flexible creature in the house and loves to show how long her spine is, bragging to the rest of us. She is my bestest kitty friend in the world.

Hannah Banana is, temperamentally, the exact opposite of the cat. She is frightened of so many things and would never dare to bop a creature four times her size on the nose. She loves to chew sticks, sniff all the sniffs, and chase the cat. She hates baths, men, and other dogs in her yard. She loves to do training and while she's not going to win any trophies for her dancing, she winds between my legs and when she comes to a stop between my legs and looks up at me with those eyes, I nearly die. Her trust was hard-earned and I will never take it for granted.

Her health is so much better these days. Now that she is not in pain regularly, we are seeing bits of her personality we never saw before. She gets the zoomies on walks and there's nothing I can do except hold the leash and let her run around in circles while laughing manically at her. She regularly puppy bows to Zelda the Cat, a move that initiates play in dog circles, but is meaningless in cat circles, and gets confused when Zelda ignores her. But she can puppy bow! We are so far removed from the days when she could barely get out of bed without being in pain. 

She still won't jump into the back of the car, but I think it's because she likes the fuss we give her. 

What do you love most about your pet(s)?