This blog is for the pet lovers of the world. Pets today are no longer the chain them up in the backyard or kick them out at night thing. Most everyone I know with pets treat them like they are a part of the family and they should. I myself know that my pets are just like anyone else’s kids. I even call them my kids and I take care of them as I would a child. My “kids” bring me joy, laughter and most importantly, unconditional love. Yes unconditional love, a pet does not discriminate except when mistreated.
My sister Mary owns a Brussels Griffon named Chica. For those who have never seen a Brussels, they are in the toy dog category, they have the most human looking eyes. Brussels are alert, curious and loyal. They do not shed and most people are not allergic to this breed. They are so damn cute.
Chica knows me well. When my sister got hers 11 years ago, she was flown in from a breeder in the mid-west. There were five of us picking the puppy up. We always have a running joke of how many blondes does it take o pick up a Brussels Griffon. Needless to say we were all blondes. When we got to the airpor we were directed to pickup area were we found Chica. She was the size of an adult hand in this humongous crate. She must have been petrified of the flight as she had wet herself. We took her into the bathroom and washed her in the sink and dried her with the hand dryer. When we got to the car we all took turns holding this tiny ball of joy. I remember her just licking away at my ear. It was love at first sight.
When I come to New Jersey to visit family every year, Chica always gets so excited to see me. She knows me and the love I get from her is fantastic. While I am here, she sleeps with me every night. I have knee problems so getting up and down stairs is a huge deal for me. Chica always runs up a few steps and waits for me then goes up a few more and again waits for me till we finally get to the top. She does the same thing as we go down the stairs. Chica is my constant shadow while I am at my sisters. You see unconditional love.
My neighbor in California has a Golden Labrador named Ziva. This is another very loving dog. She comes over and the first thing she does is give you kisses. Ziva loves to go swimming in our pool and even our cats do not have a problem with the dog. We even have a toy box for Ziva at our house. Again unconditional love.
I have two cats, Socks and Misty. Socks is 17 years old and Misty is 15. We had Socks from the time she was a little kitten. Misty came to us when she was about 6 months old, we had to guestimate her age. She was found by my sisters friend and was going to go to a shelter if no one took her, needless to say I was not going to have that. Our cats have been a major source of amusement for us, and in fact I am writing a children’s ook about them when I am finished my novel. Yet again unconditional love.
My birds, Simba, an African Grey, and Spirit, a Cockatiel are our other kids. Simba is a huge talker with such a high vocabulary list that I have lost count on how many words she can say. When I am home we chat with each ther all day. Simba is also extremely smart. She can say full sentences and knows exactly what she is saying. She especially loves sports, if we are watching football she will watch and say defense, touch down and whoop and holler just like any human would do. She even knows the Eagle’s fight song (can you guess her favorite team?). Simba calls me mommy and Denise mommy DeeDee. She is the one who made these names for us. Simba also loves to laugh, sometime’s you can be out of the room and hear her tell herself something and start laughing. You would be amazedat just how smart this bird is. Simba gives us unconditional love.
Spirit came to me. I mean literally came to me. It was about one year after my Cockatiel Squeekers passed away. I was over my neighbor’s house enjoying some cocktails when we seen a bird flying overhead. The bird was making noises that no ordinary outdoor bird makes. After a while we decided to go to my house and let my neighbors dogs run in my backyard. When we got there the bird flew into my palm tree. As I walked to the tree, I called out, “come here pretty bird” and on my arm flew this ockatiel. I had just sold my cage that I had my other bird in, so I had to put this little bird in the cat carrier. I checked the ads in the paper for a week to see if anyone reported a missing bird. With no one claiming her and the fact that it was almost a year to the day that my other Cockatiel passed away, I ended up naming her Spirit. This bird loves me and when she is out of her cage she climbs all over me and believe it or not she loves playing on my iPad. I have a piano app on it and she will walk up and down it to make music. My birds are just so entertaining and once again they give us unconditional love.
Why are our pets able to give us so much and ask so little in return? All our pets really want besides fod, is to be loved. How can anyone mistreat something that is so willing to give them unconditional love? I read to many horror stories about people doing cruel things to their pets and it makes me want to just cry. Why have a pet if you are not going to spend the time loving it? Take a look at how much these beautiful creatures are willing to give you. Don’t buy a pet just because you think its cute, to many of these end up in shelters. Make sure you have the time and money to take care of a pet the way it should be taken care of. Do some research before you ever purchase any kind of pet, make sure you fully understand what is involved in keeping this pet happy and healthy. Nothing would bring me greater joy then to see animal shelters empty.
I hope if nothing else that I opened up a few people’s eyes and hearts on what a joy a pet is but, I also hope I brought out the responsibility involved because all pets deserve unconditional love.
