Ah, Joy...

So four, maybe five weeks ago, I bought a little spastastically wonderful male Beta and named him Lumiere. But today I bought two more pets: Tabitha and Faye. They are two female fancy mice, and they are also high-energy pets. I love them all to death, but it makes me wonder... at what point does it stop being healthy to own pets?

My roommate tells me it's my way of showing affection to living things, as it is the ongoing joke that I am incapable of showing affection to guys (it's possibly true, but who knows because I tend not to really date...). I also think it could be a way to work one's way up to being able to care for a human child for those of us who are obsessive-compulsive neat freaks; think of it this way: you have to clean tanks and cages every once and a while, keep them fed and happy and healthy. This usually implies you have to get your hands dirty to care for your pets, and adjust to having to yield pristine cleanliness for your pets.

So if you have any stories or additions to this topic, by all means share them. I am an animal lover (in case you couldn't tell) and would be interested in hearing another's opinion on how many pets would be considered too many.