Tails From Tao

In the den of a four-bedroom ranch house, I was born on April 20, 2001 in Trinity, Florida. I had three brothers and two sisters. From what I recall, I had a normal birth with lots of immediate love from my Mommy, Tuda. She was very nurturing to all of us from the beginning and quite protective of our every move. I remember some of my siblings would get a little upset when they weren’t permitted to explore our little house since Mommy would never let us stray too far away from her. Being the third boy and number four in the litter, I was very dependent upon Mommy for just about everything. My Daddy, Willie, would come by and check on us every now and then but he wasn’t real involved initially. It seemed like he paid more attention to my Mommy than the rest of us. Overall, we got along fine except for my little brother. He was the youngest of the family and an absolute terror. When it was time to eat, he wanted to sleep; when it was time to sleep, he wanted to play; when it was time to play, he wanted to eat…you get the picture. He drove us crazy because we were a team and it made us all look bad. I guess there’s one of those in every family. My Mommy’s owners were Katie and Joe. They definitely had their hands full but they were very attentive and made sure we always had the necessary essentials of food, water, comfy blankets, and a place to “leave our business”. Katie was with us most of the time and the first person I saw when I opened my eyes. Every time she came into the den, she would lean over with this really big smile and fluff the blankets so we always looked forward to her visits. Katie would talk to Mommy in adult language like they knew each other for a long time. Little by little, I started catching on to some of the words but, for the most part, I didn’t understand any of it. Joe was gone a lot of the time and it seemed like he only came home when it was dark outside. He would walk into the den carrying a square bag but as soon as he got close to us he would put it on top of this big box in the corner of the room. Joe didn’t say very much but he would always pick us up individually and rub our bellies. We all agreed that it felt great and patiently waited each day until it turned dark. My brothers and I were always cool. We slept close and snuggled all the time but my older sister was another story. She only wanted Mommy’s attention and would do anything possible to get Katie or Joe to touch her. The days and the nights were quite frustrating for all of us since we were consumed with her continual whining and whimpering. I don’t think she had any desire to understand that I was a growing boy and needed my proper rest. When I’d go to bed at night, I would pray for her to go to sleep just so the rest of us could get a little shut eye but that never happened. It drove all of us absolutely crazy. I tried explaining to her on a few different occasions that she needed to be sensitive to others but she paid no mind to me at all. My younger sister was really sweet and a completely different story. She was tiny and tended to stay very close to Mommy but she did her best in trying to keep up with the rest of us. There was something about her from the first day that I absolutely adored. After a short time, my older sister left us and I’m still not sure where she went. I just remember that Katie and Joe seemed very sad that day.