There comes a time when a person must admit that they have a problem. Some people have this problem with things like alcohol or drugs, some people have this problem with actions like shopping or stealing. I have this problem with having pets.
I have always loved animals, ever since I was a child. When I was very young, I thought this would lead me someday to be a veterinarian, but as I grew up I realized that seeing animals suffer is something I will never be able to deal with. I moved on from that phase and spent some time volunteering in animal shelters. This exacerbated the problem, because at the end of the day, I'd always want to bring all of the little homeless animals home to live with me.
I think my attitude towards animals stems a little bit from growing up on a small farm where my father raised sheep and my brother raised chickens. My grandfather also kept ring-necked pheasants for awhile. I just love having animals around and helping them to live happy lives.
When I first moved to Charleston, I adopted 3 rabbits. One, we had to send to a breeder because he was too angsty. He was looking for a nice female bunny to court. But the other two lived with my boyfriend and I, and my yorkie, until the relationship ended and I had to go. One bunny (Julian - a gray dwarf rabbit) stayed with me, and the other (Rory - a gigantic 15 pound rabbit we got when she was a pregnant, mistreated young thing) stayed with the ex. I don't know what the ex did with Rory, and I miss her dearly, but I'd hope she's in a good home. Julian stayed with me until my studies lead me to New York City, at which time he found a new home in Pennsylvania with my mother. I hope one day to have him living with me again, but traveling is very stressful on rabbits and I don't want to move him here only to move him again when I graduate college.
So currently I live here with my dog and my cat. We have a fairly balanced household, and a fairly noisy one. Recently I've been really thinking about animals a lot. I feel like I need to have another critter in my house. It's a weird thing. I don't see myself ever being one of those crazy people who lives with 47 cats in complete squalor. Let's face it, I'm far too much of a neat freak for that. But also, I refuse to have animals in my life if they won't be well taken care of or if I can't guarantee that they will be healthy.
That being said, I have no space to adopt a huge dog or even another cat. But I've been thinking about an anole. They live indigenously here in South Carolina, so I know it wouldn't be a harsh environment for him. Also, they don't like to be held much, which works out for me because lizards are something I'm still working on being okay with as far as touching goes. So I've been contemplating inviting a little green anole into my house and it may be a change I make in the next few months.
The point was though, that every so often I do wish I could live in a bigger home so that I would have the opportunity to foster some animals looking for new homes, or to do some wildlife rehabilitation work. But unfortunately, apartment life is where I'm at right now.
I wanted to share something that I saw via Apartment Therapy today. It was this fun little (well, not really little) aviary that a woman built from a wardrobe. I think it's absolutely gorgeous and would make a wonderful home for a few little birds. But, I'm definitely not ready for birds in my life yet! Maybe someday...
Here's the picture from AT:
No comments:
Post a Comment