Today is just one of those days… I figured I would share something personal, since I normally don’t…

This is the front of my house. Yes, I live in a shitty row home, for now…

I realize my arborvitae is severely overgrown… It was when I first bought this house, but it’s since gone insane to the point that, if I prune it, it’ll be just branches for quite a while.

When it wasn’t quite so… fluffy… I planted a tea rose bush that I bought at a bargain outlet. I didn’t expect it to grow at all, considering where I bought it. But, over the years, it went crazy! Oddly enough, I never did anything for it. I never gave it fertilizer, sprayed it to keep away bugs… nothing. Now, as you can see, the whole front of my house is covered in a pink spray, it’s grown up through my arborvitae and is a few inches short of reaching the roof. Crazy, I know. But it looks pretty…

There is one advantage to having a crazy ass rose bush…

The neighborhood I live in isn’t exactly a nice one. I can’t tell you how many times the kids living here have hit my house with some sort of ball and would then proceed to tramp through my flower bed to retrieve them. But now, with how thick the branches are and how large the thorns are, the kids were having to come and ask for me to retrieve their balls. I was not kind; I was very stern. Now they avoid my house at all cost, which is nice. I’m a bit like Maleficent when she made those huge thorn bushes grow in front of the castle to keep out Prince Philip, hahaha!

Actually, I’m pretty sure the kids here are convinced I am Maleficent in disguise…

My house is quite the zoo…

This is my dog, Nobu (I was lucky to catch this awesome derp face). He’s a Shiba Inu who is now 12 years old and has dementia. I also have a red one named Miko who is 3 years his junior and is shaped like a furry barrel. She really needs to go on a diet…

I also share my home with 2 cats. This beautiful bit of marshmallow fluff is Sebastian. He recently celebrated his 8th birthday. He’s lucky he did… He had recurring urinary blockages I’d been getting treated. One day it had gotten so bad, if I hadn’t taken him in for surgery, he would have died that day. He’s the sweetest cat… I couldn’t let that happen… I also have a female black and grey tabby named Haiku who is only 3.

Aside from the cats and dogs (as well as 2 beta fish), I also share my home with my latest addition… my rabbit, Oreo.

Isn’t she cute…? She was an Easter present and I was instantly in love! She was so tiny, soft and adorable! This picture was taken soon after I got her. She’s grown some, but she’s still not as large as I’ve seen some pet rabbits grow.

Oreo has been a huge help to me. I suffer from a lot of anxiety as well as a massive fear of germs, depression, OCD… You name it and I pretty much suffer from it. But my little cotton-tailed friend, here, has helped me to overcome some of my issues, to a degree. Baby steps, right…?

The odd thing about where I live is that the front of my house looks like I live in a hood, but the backyard is another story… There are lots of trees, a creek and a lot of wildlife.

Sometimes I get a visitor…

This insane bird showed up one day and began attacking the windows in my back door… I had no idea what his problem was and was unable to get a good look at him for days. I finally saw him and identified him as a catbird. They’re very territorial around the areas they nest in, which explains the window pecking, I suppose…

Needless to say, he gives the cats something to do. They watch him intently when he visits. So does my female dog, Miko. I, on the other hand, started feeling a little like Tippi Hedren in that weird old movie, The Birds… That’s why I named my feathered “friend” Alfred, after Alfred Hitchcock. I thought it was rather amusing. Sadly, not many people get the joke as to why I named him Alfred. I didn’t think it was that difficult to grasp, but oh well…

It’s no wonder I’m not very productive most of the time…

It takes a lot to keep this zoo running smoothly. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love my furry (and aquatic) family.

Although there are some days that I wish I could walk through my house and do normal chores without them under my feet and up my ass…