The Importance of Pets

Most people who know me will tell you that I love all animals and of course that means I’ve got many pets there’s actually more pets in the house then there is people. My dad and I live with two dogs, two guinea pigs and nine fish, to most people that seems rather insane but for us it’s a very good set up.

Many people believe pets are simply a luxury something to have around for the hell of it, but for others having pets in the house is like having another member of the family around. I suffer from various mental illnesses and I have attempted to take my own life so almost as a default  my pets are far more to me then a luxury or even companionship they are the rock that holds me down, they give me a reason to live to get up every morning. Pets are not just for people with mental illnesses, pets also give you undieing loyalty and love when dad opens the door in the morning when he gets home from work the first thing that he sees is the dogs heads waiting for him.

It’s also been shown that having pets around young children can help to prevent allergies, it’s also been shown that they help to increase life expectancy as well as general health however if you’re not an animal person these are not good enough reasons to get a pet. What strikes me as the most remarkable power that pets have is the ability to calm and soothe any mood, if I’m upset cuddling a dog is a sure way to make me feel better and last night when I couldn’t sleep grabbing a guinea pig to cuddle soothed me enough to get at least some sort of sleep. All my pets have helped to open me to a whole world of emotions that I’d never experienced and I gained a new area of empathy as well as responsibility. Pets are everything to me, they’re part of my family and they’ve never hurt me in the way that other people have.

However the best thing that I’ve ever experienced wasn’t a pet rescuing me but adopting my guinea pigs and giving them a second chance. I’ve had one girl Nellie living with me for almost two years now(she’s roughly three) and when I first adopted her she was very shy and pretty nuts with a very submissive personality, but she bonded not only with me but with her friend Aphrodite(who died in early December). Over the first year I watched Nellie grow into a much stronger and bolder little piggie she’s still pretty crazy but her personality has really blossomed and watching that take place make’s the whole world look better. My heart breaking loss of Aphrodite was made all that much harder by the fact that Nellie really felt the loss as well, Nellie became really suspicious of me and she got quite depressed then started to fight with every piggie we tried to introduce her to. This experence opened me up to understanding how my dad feels whenever I’m suffering, because it was hard to watch Aphrodite suffer though lymphoma and so I’m now able to understand how my dad feels when I’m suffering with my illnesses. Through understanding animals behaviours and emotions you can learn to understand other peoples heaviours and emotions, our pets live with us and in the end they become like us to an extent(I know my pets are as nuts as I am).