I have a cause after going to the National Geographic’s Free Pet Shop event today.
To bring about more awareness for people to be more understanding to dogs animals, on a whole.
Humans are selfish to always forget that animals too, have personalities, feelings, thoughts and they have good and bad mood swings too.
It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to treat them as humans – that’s just rubbish. There’s a reason why they don’t speak human languages, and why we don’t exactly understand their cries of emotions.
The point is, as with all relationship bonding, you seriously need to work on the systematic approach of communicating with the animals. Like what Cesar Milan always advices – Exercise, discipline, then affection.
Nothing works better than that. Such a simple rule, but yet some people just try to cut corners on it.
Anyway, the dogs at the free pet shop event were such a joy to interact with.
Per and I went to the ASD tentage, and we found the sweetest, mildest, most elegant of dogs. Her name is Brenda and by gosh, if I weren’t living in a hdb flat, I’d totally get Brenda out of the shelter and into my home. She’s such a calm joy to be with.
Maybe when I do end up getting married, I’ll insist on living on private property and have a nice calm dog just like brenda to keep me company and we can look after each other when the husband is out of the house. :-)
People should never bring an animal home just because they think it’s cute and it looks pretty.
They have to genuinely want to have the animal as a companion, they have to want to bring better days, see greater moments with their animal.
I remembered when I first met Terra, she was a rescue case. Her mother had abandoned her for nearly 6 hours, I’d been out on a random jog around a girl friend’s neighbourhood when she pointed it out. A neighbour came out begging us to take it away to the shelter nearby or just away, it was annoying with her crying for her mother, and the dogs were going crazy every few minutes wanting to go help the kitten but unable to while behind the fence, so they were barking for the last 5 hours.
I said we’ll think about it, and come back en route home. If the kitten was still there, I’d take her home with me.
Guess which kitty was still mewing her little exhausted lungs out? awwww. yah i know. :-) Terra was.
Let me tell you, she was in a bad state. The vet said she was too young to be taken away from her mother (she was half the size of my palm, just 4 days old) but since she was abandoned, nothing we can do about that but save her.
Terra had a skin bacterial infection and an extremely bad case of stomach problems. For a month and a half, her fur dropped off, skin peeled off, she was trembling due to the lack of insulation. I remembered having to scramble for ideas to keep her warm through the days and nights – it was monsoon season, and it rained all the time. Soon, we had a tiny box filled with warm dry towels and rags, wrapped over hot glass bottles which she ended always sleeping on top of in the cutest kitten fashion – glomping it and drooling all over it. She was that cute.
Oh but, because of her stomach problems, for a month we had to feed her kitten form, then squeeze her abdomen just so she could shit easier. It was like squeezing a full tube of tooth paste. It’s like she had a tonne of shit, by the way. But, from food rejection, she took to formula pretty well, and from runny poo, it had the consistency of, well, tooth paste. It got rather bad at one stage, her sphinster muscles got too lax one time, her rectum dropped out. >_< Lucky I didn't handle that, my older brother did. He said he merely pushed it back in and gently massaged her so she could relax more. Poor kitty. :-(
Yes, it sounds really bad, but I'm happy to tell you she's the cutest cat alive today. She's drainage-hole trained *proud* and she loves paper balls more than fancy chew toys.
See? She’s the healthiest munchkin. I love her to bits!!! I know she’s extremely cat unfriendly, not sure if she’s dog unfriendly too.
But I’ve decided that until she dies, I’m not getting another pet. :-) She’s entirely domesticated, doesn’t like leaving my home, and the furthest she’ll venture would be next door to my aunt’s home.
I used to worry that she’d be too bored at home, but because we’re constantly moving furniture about every few months, it seems to provide her new experiences to discover about.
me with terra
So, be good to your animals, they’ll see nothing but you, they’ll come to you every night when you get home (terra takes a whiff and glance at me to see that I’m in one piece and goes off to continue with her thing), each has their own way of giving you affection. They know you better than everyone else after a while, and like us, sometimes they’re unsure how to react to us, but give their love a chance, and you’ll see their personalities shine through.
Get an animal only if you’re ready to deal with their poo and bad moods, but the good side is that they’ll be there for you for their whole lives. :-)
Oh, and get an animal that best suits your temperament too!! you’ll both be happier that way.
