Fri
17
Aug '07
OK — I’ll admit it. I wasn’t raised around pets.
From an outsiders view I see the upside as unconditional love. I see the downside as vet bills, food bills, dealing with their feces (when I barely want to deal with my own), and accessories (chains, collars, toys).
Then we get into the realm that I really don’t understand. People who own pets (or do they own you?) that are allergic to them. Case in point. Dan and Lisa (my bosses). Two cats, two dogs. Both are allergic to the point of taking shots and pills to deal with it. Case in point, deux. My brother Jon and his wife Norma. Two cats. Jon allergic and just sniffles all day (and I assume night). Why? Unconditional love? Is it that important? Am I just a loveless old man?
Are they worth it? Depends on a lot of things. Would I take drugs and shots to have one? maybe, if I already had the animal when I discovered the allergy — but maybe not, if I could find a loving home for the animal, and it was making me miserable and broke.
It’s more, for some people, than ‘unconditional love’ (you say that like it’s a commodity). My dog has been my defacto FAMILY for the last 12 years, during YEARS when nobody would have known for at least a week if I had DIED in my house. She affirmed my existance; she was the eyes looking back at me with an answer to the question of whether I was a waste of molecules that day. But not everybody who has pets is in my position. If they don’t turn your crank, that’s fine, you’re not a monster or a loveless old man. At the same time, having a pet is ONE thing that can reveal a willingness to GIVE, to consider the welfare of another being as important and of value. It’s a way of GIVING love, not just receiving it. But by no means the only way.