In the Adams and Bruce household, Louie and Sadie, a pair of cockapoo dogs, serve as the welcoming committee, whose crusade is to convince anyone who will listen that they aren't getting their full share of attention.
Cats stroll the periphery, all feline aloofness.
In the sun room Adams and Bruce each pluck a big tawny ferret from the ferret cage. And in the kitchen, underneath the birdcage, sleeps Pedro, half Vietnamese pot-bellied pig and half white boar. Adams bends to scratch the pig's back, and Pedro awakes from his slumbers with a snort to careen around the kitchen with a pillow balanced on his head. Within two weeks from the time Adams was named Colby's next president, the Mayflower Hill rumor-mill managed to exaggerate the family's pet count to include more than 100 birds. I think it's 27 total, counting the newt.