When I was born, my mother gave the dog away.
It was a Scottie but I know nothing more about this dog. I was very young at the time. I have wondered, once I was old enough to understand, how my older brother and sister might have reacted to trading in a pet for a little sister. I never asked.
After that, our family had few pets and none with fur. My sister had a turtle named Tillie Mae Turtle and a parakeet named Budgie. Neither were very cuddly and both died young.
It wasn’t until both my brother and sister had headed off to college that I got a cat. It seems there existed a correlation between number of people in the house and having a pet. With that cat, Hercules, I realized an important concept: kids need pets.
In spite of fond memories to the contrary, childhood isn’t all running in the sunshine and going on family picnics. There are some rough moments, some difficult adjustments which a child can’t or doesn’t want to share with parents or siblings or even friends. But a pet, you can tell everything to a pet. When a classmate says something hateful, a kid can cry into the fur. 
When a kid is constantly chosen last for every team, a dog will lick the tears away. When a child is sad, a pet listens and loves.
Oh, I know a pet means more work for parents, but I believe strongly that cat I got in middle school helped me get through high school. I still remember his lying on my chest and purring when I needed a friend. And I know allergies and living situations may make that impossible, but, if at all possible, I believe children need pets to love and to love them.
What do you think?
I agree! But not just children, everybody needs the unconditional love from a furry friend. I don’t know what I’d do without my crazy cats to keep me company and make me laugh. They add so much quality to my life.
Janie…I never knew that about your family of pets!!!! Well, I grew up as you know in Holyrood, Kansas which COULD BE Butternut Creek!!! We had a wonderful mute dog named Mugsie…who had to go to the farm when the town put in a pet ordinance. I missed Mugsie. HOWEVER, never again in my life did a dog appear.
NOW…cats. A cat struck my face giving me a heck of a scratch that mom feared would be a scar…alas not! Somehow I couldn’t get enough of cats. SO..cats have been with me for all my life, with my daughter Abby’s young years. OOPS…just remembered we did try a wee poodle for her – Cuddles – OH NO. That wasn’t a good thang.
Tabbatha was our luv of a cat and a family heirloom. Oh the saddness when she went missing on the Vineyard late one summer. He didn’t turn up until mid-Fall very ill. We lost him. Time healed and then 2 kitties came a sis and bro. We called them Misty and Fog. Foggie was the male wonderer. Mist was a butterball. Fog escaped a cat sitter and was never found again on the Vineyard. Misty, however, travelled with us on my boat for a number of years. Eventually lost her to a dreadful health issue.
At that point we decided those kitties will all be waiting for a reunion one day. We loved them dearly. I can certainly see how pets become people. Maybe people become pets if that logic carries on….
Well…enough my dear! Love you to pieces! Di
Di! Thanks for stopping in. Your stories of the deaths and losses of your pets reminds me of those really bad times when I had to take a pet in to be “put down.” If we hand’t loved them so much, it would hurt so much. Love you, too, my beautiful friend.
Ellen, I agree completely. They make me smile. George even knows my “cat laugh”–not because I sound like a cat but how I sound when I’m laughing at a cat. Thanks for stopping by!