Sue and I have always been Pet People. We have had a wide range of pets, most who shared both our outdoor and indoor lives. First there was Tiffy, a small Cocker Spaniel, followed by Hobbs, Sue’s one-person-only, little, white poodle cross, who hated me by the way. In retaliation, I brought home Tina, a purebred Border Collie. She would be part of our lives the next 15 years, sleeping by our bedside at nights, working cattle during the day. Unfortunately, one-by-one they eventually passed away. Our grief reflected how it feels to lose a long-time friend. After Tina was gone, we decided no more dogs.

A year or so later, Patch snuck into our lives. Patch was a cat Sue brought home to catch mice she just knew were lurking out our backdoor waiting to sneak in.

Within days, however, our “always going to stay outside catching mice” pet had an unfortunate encounter with my pickup. Following a several hundred-dollar trip to the vet’s office, Patch became an indoor cat, specializing in sneaking outside once in a while to catch a mouse, then try to bring it in the house for us to see. Guess she got a little confused over her original job description. When our tears dried up over Patch’s death years later, we renewed our promise, no more pets. It hurts too much to lose them.

That promise lasted almost three years until we did it again. Sue brought home a new pet. This one is wonderfully different. We haven’t named it yet, not even real sure if it is a boy or a girl. We don’t care because it is a blast to watch. When Sue turns it lose in the house, it runs in circles, that is, until it runs into something. When that happens, it backs up runs in one or two light circles then takes off down the hall until it encounters a closed door, which it of course, seems compelled to run into before reversing directions and running off somewhere else.

We hardly watch TV anymore, so entertaining is our new pet. We sit and watch its antics for hours, laughing at its unbounded enthusiasm. Like our other pets, it will knock a lamp over, then chew on the cord without any side effects such as electrocution. Best of all we never have to brush it, it feeds itself and Sue just has to empty it every few days. “Empty it," you say? What kind of animal needs emptied every few days? “Must have a big bladder," you are probably thinking right now.

Truth is, it doesn’t even have a bladder, just a tray you pull out and dump the contents into the trash.

Our new pet, you see, is one of those little, round turn it lose vacuum cleaners. It’s the perfect pet. No hair to sweep up. In fact, it does that itself.

Guess we better come up with a name for it. This one will be with us a long time.