Having animals for pets help us stay healthy and happy. Or so we say.
My family household adopted four (4) birds, ten (10) cats, and four (4) dogs. We clean the bird cages and feed the pets every early morning and late afternoon, with periods of snacks in-between.
Our big dog, Lucas, always vies for attention. He also is the pickiest when it comes to food; he won’t eat if he doesn’t like what we serve him. But he pokes us when he does get hungry but won’t touch his food unless there’s a person there to keep him company. He likes to play at unpredictable times, like anytime in the afternoons to the middle of the night. He is, thus, a daily disruption to whatever we may be doing.
The birds, two (2) lovebirds & two (2) parakeets, meanwhile, have their mood swings. And they are often in a bad mood, especially in the morning when they impatiently wait for us to feed them. When they are really mad, they lunge to bite our fingers whenever they have the chance, or they’d tip their dishes over to spill whatever contents on the floor. Of all the pets, they contribute most of the mess we clean up daily.
The cats don’t stay indoors so they require the least attention. But they entail the highest cost in terms of food and veterinary care. It’s not only because there are ten of them but also because we neutered them all; if we didn’t, we’d have a hundred (100) cats, and not ten (10).
It’s, therefore, sometimes hard to fathom how pets help us become healthier and happier with all the stress and cash-outflow we incur to take care of them. Pets are noisy, cantankerous, and downright crazy (I classify our birds as sociopaths).
There are those who don’t recommend we get pets. Aside from all the time and money we need to take care of them, we lose freedom to do other things. Lucas jumped on me several times while I wrote this essay, for example, disturbing my train of thought as he nagged me to watch him eat his breakfast.
Taking care of pets has motivated me to stay home more rather than go out with friends. I don’t know if that’s a good thing but I notice I had been spending more time outdoors playing with the dogs & cats, which seems to be a plus to my physical health.
Other than that, there’s no point in having pets. Except for those occasional periods where the dogs would lick me happily, the cats would rub me lovingly, and the birds would sing after a satisfyingly good meal.
It’s only because of these exceptions we keep pets. And that’s what makes it all worth it at the end of the day, even if our dog doesn’t know when that is.
Ellery's Essays 