Pied Piper

For what it's worth, I'm not a monster. It's not that I don't like animals; it's that I don't feel the need to have them living in my house. They're work, y'know? I'm not real big on rearranging life so I can get home to let a dog out, for example.

Basically, I like animals just fine. I like them even more when I don't have to deal with them.

AND THEN THERE ARE MY CHILDREN.

Alexis has been home for about 24 hours and has spent 20 of those hours under a cat or three. She would have spent more time asserting her cat lady-ness, but I drug her to a Shawn Mendes concert. The kid happily arranges her life around cats and it's ... something. I don't know what it is. I just know Kiara is really very happy to have her kid back.

As for Mila, HOOBOY. I thought Alexis was an animal person, but then along came Mila to put her big sister to shame. Mila loves ALL of the animals. She is constantly being stalked by at least a dog and a cat, but usually she has a whole parade of animals following her around like some sort of Pied Piper. It's nuts how much she loves animals and they love her right back.

Which is why I have to take her to petting zoos once in a while.

My first favorite thing about Mila at a petting zoo is that she laughs when other kids would be crying. We went to one over the weekend and Mila, of course, was wearing ALL of the accessories. She had a hat and necklaces and bracelets and goats super like all the same things Mila likes. There were about four goats who were simultaneously making a snack out of her accessories. Literally. I was prying necklaces out of one goat's mouth while Mila was stealing her hat back and I was pushing another bracelet-stealing goat away while glaring at the fourth and scolding it. Mila's stuff was in various goat mouths and she was laughing HYSTERICALLY.

I would have been crying. So would most kids. Mila loved it, though.

And then there's my second favorite thing - the animals really do love Mila. They congregate around her, to the point that she just stands in one place and everyone shows up to be her friend. There's no need to walk around or try to charm any creatures, they just automatically want to be Mila's bestie. I almost feel bad for the other kids because they can't get the animals' attention, but then Mila is so happy that there's no way I can feel anything other than amused.

Mila is definitely at her happiest when she's destroying things or hanging out with animals. Definitely.