How to Love a Pet
- Oct 10, 2015
- 4 min read
By Ralitsa Vatova
I have this amazing dog I have the privilege to spend my time with. Every person that has had a dog at any point in their life will admit that dogs are better than people. You will never catch a dog playing a dirty trick to harm you. Au contraire, dogs can’t even imagine hurting their master. They can only love, and all they need in return is love.
Meet Becca, age 8 months through 1 year. She loves the outdoors, and the indoors, as long as she can share the fun with you.
Loving your pet should feel like loving a child. No matter how you end up taking care of an infant, you struggle to get used to the habits and needs of the tiny creature, and you try your best to teach discipline and rules to that new being. Raising an animal is not much different. You spend a good portion of your time to getting used to the tiny animal, learning about it, and teaching it about yourself. The two processes, being so similar, lead to a similar effect – your unconditional love towards the tiny being.
When at some point in my life I felt I need a dog again, I started researching what options I have, and I chose the hardest but most rewarding one – to adopt a pet. When I found out there are so many pets that were abandoned, or tortured, or mistreated that need love, I was convinced I will adopt. When I saw a picture of my dog and read the story of how she was just saved from a kill shelter, and that she was currently in a foster family with 10 other dogs, I was convinced I needed to apply for her right away.
Becca was then Paige. She was 12 weeks old. She had a skin, ear, and eye infection. She was underfed.
I located Becca at www.petfinder.com, which is the largest database of shelters and foster homes for animals. Usually puppy mills ( read more about the problem at: http://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty/puppy-mills or at: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/puppy_mills/) dump mixed breed puppies, or get rid of dogs that can no longer produce highly profitable litters, by sending them to kill shelters. It is interesting to know that kill shelters also post animals on www.petfinder.com, but not all of the posts actually get published because of their bad reputation, which by irony leads to even more pets being killed.
Shelters also host pets whose owners can no longer take care of them. These pets have a better chance of not getting killed, since even the most irresponsible pet owner will have the conscience to pick a shelter that will not kill the animal if no new owner is found soon enough.
The application process proved to be exhausting. First I had to fill out an application with all the horrifying questions people never even ask themselves, such as what will happen with the dog if I am no longer there. Then I had to wait for a written approval from my landlord to be allowed to have the dog. Then for the longest two weeks I had to ensure there was someone in my home at all times, as there would be a surprise check of the environment where the dog would grow up, and finally they brought a different dog to my home to see if that dog would like me. Then one day as I was supposed to have my dog brought to me for the first time just so I could meet her, and see if I would even like her. The foster family brought her and told me she was mine from that point on. My partner and I felt a bit ambushed, but we decided to give it a shot after all that effort.
It took us few long months to finally housetrain her, teach her not to bite us, and basically to behave. To have her listen to our commands took even a longer period of time. Some year and a half later, I can firmly say I love my dog, and I can’t live without her. She is more energetic than any other dog, she is playful, but she is also loving. She adores cuddling, and she can’t sleep on her own when there are people in the house. She even cheated my roommate into letting her sleep in his bed next to him when I am not home. She is one of the few dogs that want to be friends with every other living creature – from children and grownups, dogs, cats, squirrels, birds, to even rats (which I am horrified of, by the way).
If you are in bed, Becca will not go away. She may not let you sleep, as she loves playing and interacting, but when you fall asleep she will hug you in her own way.
The only problem the poor thing has is the combination of her hyper energy and her friendliness don’t always make others around her feel comfortable, and children are sometimes scared of her, as she approaches everyone as if they were her best friends, and starts sniffing and kissing, even though she is meeting them for the first time.
Becca stretching and trying to make people rub her belly, or at least throw some toys around.
The only thing I can ever wish for, as far as pets are concerned, is for people to understand that animals have the same basic needs as humans do. One thing they do not have in mind is how to do evil. They do not attack for fun. If they do attack, it is only to protect themselves. Pets are like babies, they can’t think badly. Would you be scared of a baby? I guess only if you never interacted with one. So, do not have double standards about animals, just love them.
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