My Pets

Updated May 7, 2024

Nena

Nena

After years as cat owners, but still secretly dog lovers, the stars finally aligned properly for Melissa and me to adopt a dog when Melissa became a full-time freelance designer who could set her own hours.

Nena is a chihuahua/terrier mix who was born in Puerto Rico and brought in by an adoption group in northern Virginia. She was about seven months old when we adopted her, and she quickly learned her basic commands and took to house training with only a couple of accidents right at the beginning.

She has crazy-long legs, chihuahua-style bug-eyes, and a great personality. After a day or two she made herself right at home, and she gets along great with our neighbors, both human and canine.

Her birthday is December 4, 2012.

Vincent

Vincent

In 2008, Melissa had the bright idea of stopping by PetSmart after we returned a tuxedo rental . . . and we came home with a new adoptee to keep Mei Mei company. He’s another orange tabby, although he has a lot more white than Mei Mei and we’re pretty sure he has something else mixed in. Vincent is distinctive because of his swirly pattern and his polydactylism (extra toes). The swirly pattern, reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting, is why we named him Vincent. His extra toes—one on each foot—is why the pet adoption group had named him Mittens originally.

Vincent, quite to our surprise, established himself as the dominant cat over diva Mei Mei. It’s probably because he has no fear. While Mei Mei is quite timid and cautious, Vincent will just plow right ahead without a thought. He gets himself into a lot of trouble this way. He has a patented quizzical tilty-head look. He’s very lovable, but not very bright.

When we adopted him in September 2008, they put his age at about four months, so we’ve approximated his birthday to May 31, 2008. The two cats get along pretty well. They pretend to hate each other but, if we get home early and take them by surprise, it’s not uncommon to find them curled up together on the couch.

Former Pets

Cats
- Mei Mei (2006-2021)

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.

Quotes

Literalism is simply not an effective way to extract meaning from the Bible.

Mass formation blinds both intelligent and less intelligent people to the same extent. People really don’t have to be part of a conspiracy to systematically make the most foolish mistakes.

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in changes that humble you be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

The proud man can learn humility, but he will be proud of it.

Science doesn’t purvey absolute truth. Science is a mechanism. . . . It’s a system for testing your thoughts against the universe and seeing whether they match.

The health and order of society depend on the rearing of healthy, happy, and well-integrated children. That is why law, though it may take no notice of ordinary friendships, should recognize and support marriages.

The basic requirement for the understanding of the politics of change is to recognize the world as it is. We must work with it on its terms if we are to change it to the kind of world we would like it to be.

[Without a free press] the nation ceases to be mindful of itself . . . and . . . compatriots suddenly cease to understand one another.

A generation ago [the Democratic Party] stood for progressive change. Now they defend every federal program as if each were sacred. They have become the most conservative force in American politics.

In most projects, the first system built is barely usable. It may be too slow, too big, awkward to use, or all three. There is no alternative but to start again, smarting but smarter, and build a redesigned version in which these problems are solved.

I despise the public. That’s my only vindication.

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.

The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.

Situation seems to be the mold in which men’s characters are formed.

Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right.

If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.

Belief in immortality dies easily in those who live in such a way that they cannot face the prospect of a judgment.