PETA Pets

My friend has a beautiful two story, huge summer home off the lake. He purchased the land in the 50s & spent his weekends hauling rock which he planned to use to build the house. Once the home was built he spent his weekends scavenging through second hand shops & junk stores looking for the perfect items to decorate with.

During the 60s, when it was popular to kill animals just for the fun of it & for bragging rights he went on escorted hunts. He went to Africa & slaughtered elephants to use their legs for bar stools. He went to Alaska & killed Bullwinkle the moose so he could hang the head over the fireplace. He went to Uruguay to kill a 60 foot python for the skin. He slaughtered a spotted cougar, a black panther, a lynx, a fox, raccoons, more snakes & then started on the birds. He killed a hawk, a dove, falcons, pheasants, & on & on. The summer place, or The Castle, as it is known has around a hundred birds, snakes, lizards & exotic wildlife on display. All slaughtered before PETA became popular. Not that it mattered, to him PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals. We call his "trophies" The Castle PETA Pets.

The Castle is a beautiful place. It sits on a cliff overlooking the lake. Each bedroom has floor to ceiling windows & a veranda. The landscaping is intentionally rough looking with cactus, some hundreds of years old & huge boulders scattered about. The whole place is absolutely amazing. The sunsetting & rising over the lake is a site to behold.

The PETA Pets are way over the top for me, but I love spending time out there. Usually Burrito Beans goes everywhere with me, but not there, I leave him with my neighbor, because my friend doesn't like animals in his house, not unless they have been slaughtered & hanging over the fireplace.

This time Beans came with me. Beans who is usually a scaredy cat, was in scent heaven. He went from one skin to the next smelling each from head to toe. My friend was in pure panic watching Beans go from animal to animal, he'd make remarks like, "I really don't like dogs in the house", "I hope he doesn't break anything," & "dogs belong outside, dam dirty animals." "He's three pounds & pink, what do you think he's going to do?" "He's scared of everything, do you actually think he's going to attack & tear up one of The PETA Pets?" "Calm down, he's just checking things out, he's not going to hurt anything," I said. Wrong!

The fireplace has a ledge about two feet from the floor. A skunk, a deer skin, a raccoon are draped haphazardly over the ledge. We're watching tv, Beans is sleeping on his puppy sofa. My phone rings, I have a dog barking ring tone. This startles Beans, he jumps on the fireplace ledge & attacks the coon, grabs it by it's ear & shakes it vigoursly back & forth, over & over again. I grabbed the camera & my friend grabs his heart. "Oh my god, he's killing my coon"!

Burrito Beans is no longer welcome at my friends house, he is antisocial, he just hasn't learned how to properly play with PETA Pets.