All A-Critter - A style board, and a cry for help

Photos by me from Instagram

We had a lot of pets in my house growing up. Just about anything you can think of, we had…except cats. We never had a cat. There was one kitten that I found the year of the floods but my mom washed him in the sink, got the fleas off of him and took him to a shelter. That was the last of the cats.

We had usual pets; dogs (Scout,Tag,Brody), hamsters (Muffin, Oatmeal, Peanut..see a theme?), birds…and we had unusual pets like a tarantula and a hedge hog (Harriet). We also had a box turtle or twelve.

It was like the Swiss Family Robinson. Minus the cool tree house.

As an adult I have had no real urge to have multiple aquariums full of various reptiles. I have decided against dependants that require me to keep mealworms in my refrigerator or a box full of live crickets. We just have a dog. She’s pretty low-key.

But recently as Coach and I settle in to our new-ish home together and start to decorate together, I have noticed something. As we find things in our travels that speak to us, and as we add tiny layers to our living space to give it character or make us feel at home there, I am starting to feel….well, watched. We have inadvertently developed a collection of sorts. Nothing obvious at first glance. Nothing that we display proudly or call attention to. But as you wander around our home you will slowly discover that we have…critters.

I was worried at first that this was an ‘age’ thing…like having a collection of Hummels or porcelain cats and slowly but surely I would start to spend my days talking to my critters as I dusted them off. But as I have been finding them in my house and taking snapshots of them for Instagram (Curlygirl510) I realized that these quirky touches remind me of home. They add life and a little whimsy to our rooms and make the sometimes serious, unserious. Plus, I like them. They make me happy and remind me to smile (especially Walter, our bathroom walrus), and that, after all is worth remembering to do.

The world is full of clever critters for your home if you are feeling the need for an extra pair of tiny eyes to watch over you. I have collected a few here for you! Enjoy!