[Author’s note: This is part of a series of writing challenges first proposed to me by Leslie Farnsworth. Leslie has organized and expanded the challenge to include a larger group of excellent blog writers. Once per month one member of the group will propose a topic and we will all give our own unique take on the subject. You may want to look at some of the other bloggers listed below to see what they came up with:
- Leslie Farnsworth: http://www.lesliefarnsworth.com/
- Joan Johnson: http://onefishtaco.blogspot.com/
- Rebecca Harvey: http://bayoucitypostcards.blogspot.com/
- James McPherson: http://jalmcpherson.com/
- Jenna Sauber: http://jennasauber.com/
- Jon Lundell: http://therealmil.blogspot.com/
First, full disclosure. My last pet died about 17 years ago. Since that time I haven’t even entertained the thought of getting another pet. I am primarily going to discuss the relationship between humans and cats and dogs as those are the two best known pets species in the world.
So where did pets come from and why do we still have them? Obviously they started as work animals. Additional hands for hunting, vermin eradicators, guard animals, and occasionally food sources. Practicality was at the core of the decision to keep them but along the way something rare happened. Mutual affection. Something rare amongst humans let alone between different species.
We became attached to these helpmates that we had created for ourselves and they in turn became attached to us.
So now thousands of years since adopting them for practical purposes and a century or so since they have for the most part dropped their original role we keep them for no other reason than their company. The average person living in an apartment or condominium has no practical use for a pet. We no longer hunt for food, herding is done mainly on horseback, and the responsibility for eradicating vermin has for the most part been outsourced to other humans. So on that basis is it worth it to the average urbanite to keep an animal solely for affectionate purposes?
Humans are unique in the animal world. We not only suffer physical maladies but we also suffer quite acutely from mental maladies. Other animals can of course suffer psychologically but not to the level of humans. Loneliness is a huge problem for humans and can lead to plethora of mental conditions. We can become inert and even die from a mental disorder. One of the best remedial treatments for this is companionship. Animals can fulfill this role quite well. In fact after thousands of years with humans they have in a figurative sense become bred for the purpose of being companions to humans.
Lap dogs, which once fulfilled roles as vermin hunters, now nestle comfortably indoors for the most part. Cats, given half a chance, will revert to their hunting past but for the most part are satisfied to explore a home from every angle. The odd thing is that lapdogs neatly fit the size of a human infant and the exigent meows of a cat are similar in tone and urgency of that of an infant child.
They fulfill the role of surrogate family member for many lonely people and even for people with children. I have often heard the expression “fur babies” used by humans with regards to their pets.
But does that all make it worth having them in our lives? Any thoughtful and logical person knows the plain facts. The average pet will only last around a decade. Perhaps they may stretch out as much as two decades but the point is that they will die sooner rather than later. The deep emotional attachment will inevitably lead to sadness and perhaps more when the pet dies. So knowing that, is it worth investing time, resources, and love for a creature knowing what you know will happen one day?
One might honestly ask the same question about any emotional bond or relationship in life. In some ways we are short-lived creatures. On average we spend the first two decades of life preparing for it and the last decade or so preparing to exit life. In between we have half a century or so to experience what we experience for good or bad. Naturally the average person wants those experiences to be good but I think that once we reach some point in our lives we understand that some unhappiness is inevitable.
I suppose one could go through life without any emotional attachments to another person or animal and have a perfectly good life. But to me at least it seems that it would be a somewhat dull and lackluster existence without any of the brilliance and beauty that interacting with others brings to it.
Is there going to be pain? Of course there is. Pain is a part of life. Accepting that there may be pain and proceeding anyways is a mark of someone who embraces life. Letting pain or the fear of pain dominate you is a sign of retreating from life.
Pets can be the first friends that we make as children, they can be the only one that understands when life isn’t going well, they can be the last link to the outside world when we slip down the long dark tunnel of dementia in our later years.
Pets are wonderful.
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