Animal House

It's amazing how quickly life can change and even more amazing how quickly people can adapt and fall into routines. Just a few weeks ago the heat and the noise of Wailuku were our major gripes (and early morning wake-up calls). Now, a whole host of hungry and curious animals demand our attention from dawn to dusk. A little over two weeks since we arrived in Haiku with our new life and new responsibilities, we are hesitant to say it but, we now act like full-fledged pet owners: our conversations revolve around the daily pranks and pitfalls of our seven animals. And now, we'll share a sample of these conversations with you all.

As any pet owner can tell you, each animal has individual quirks that allow it "to carve out a niche in your heart" (Jacobson, A., 2009):

Peter, Jingles, and Honey-Bunny (aka 'the rabbits'): It's hard to pin down specific personality traits of each rabbit, since our interactions are limited to the weekly "poop purge" (Berg, H., 2009) of their cages which are typically carried out by Andrew, because he's the only one quick enough to catch the bunnies.












George the Cat: The dark, dashing, and mysterious cat who really only shows up (sometimes) in time for dinner and bedtime. It's always a reverse game of cat and mouse with this one (us being the unappealing mouse) trying to lure him into the garage at night. This will sometimes take 20 minutes or more of hiding clandestinely waiting for George to enter the garage and then "bang" the mouse shuts the door for the night.

(Because he's so flighty, the paparazzi hasn't been able to capture his photo yet)

Lani the Kitty: The more attention demanding cat who loves being in the middle of the action (like sitting in the middle of the ping pong table while we're playing!), but gets picked on relentlessly by all the other animals. She is also the primary one in bringing out Andrew's interest in cats.









Bubbles the Westie dog: "The best thing about Maui" (Jacobson, A., 2009). Bubbles looks like he might be straight in from the alley, but his arthritic self and floppy ears have enough spunk and character to make anyone smile. He is also the easiest pet to take care of (seriously, he may be easier than the rabbits) since he sleeps around 20 hours a day.

Ginger the chocholate lab puppy: Like any puppy who has not been well-trained, she easily demands the most attention and causes the most aggravation. She's completely unaware of personal space and thinks play-time is all-the-time. She jumps, she chews (though thankfully only on her toys), she picks fights, and she begs for food, but hey, she's a puppy and will learn how to be more civilized.













Its been fun to see what will get us angry and amused at the different antics of the animals. Hannah is learning how to wag her finger and be stern (Andrew laughs everytime she pulls this out) and Andrew has become more of a pet-lover. Just a few weeks ago we certainly wouldn't have anticipated our lives taking this turn. But, in the 'Aloha' spirit, we count ourselves very lucky and say the more the merrier.