Or maybe I shouldn’t get a Pet

Last night I thought of getting a new pet. Why not? I prefer animals for companion over people! Animals either like you (and most of the time they do) or hate you; they are never in between. People are a lot more “complex”, noisier, dramatic? And when you got a brain that never shuts up and makes an empty parking lot seem like a club in its peak hour, the last thing you’d want is somebody to add to the “noise” with all their whining and occasional unwelcome stupidity. Or maybe my mom’s right. I’m kind of misanthropic.

I grew up with a dog. A common one. Brown. Short hair. Not even cute if you’d ask people. There was nothing biologically special with her aside maybe from her capability of bearing a lot of puppies. She was brave but gentle and friendly. She died of an infection. Her snout swelled and she stopped eating. I was eight. She lived longer than most of her children which were given away to friends and neighbors.

I have had rather bad experiences with animals since I was a boy. No they did not attack me. They just died. Just like that white cat I wanted to have as a pet that followed me around our compound. It got hit by a bus. It didn’t get squished but probably broke bones. I was around seven or eight. And those two puppies that almost got drowned because of me and became sick. And that little quail chick I called Slim when I was 12. And that tiny bird that got eaten by the dog. And that kitten that met the same fate. And countless bugs that just died in their boxes.

You would say that things like these happen to everybody. Childhood heartbreaks, some would even put it. But no matter how lightly they dismiss it, we know that things that happen to anybody as a child have a great effect on that person they would eventually grow up to be. And if you’re kind of “unwell” like me who finds himself on the verge of crying over an abused microwave oven on a beautiful day, it could get blown out of proportion.

I’m the type who gives food to animals waiting under the table. The one who calls every cat in the neighborhood while walking home. The one who would ask a pig dealer to give water and shade to the pigs at the back of his truck. The one who carries kittens to safety when he could. The one who worries over the blind hen standing in the middle of the road. The one who gets uncomfortable and sorry for the dragonflies he mistreated when he was still a boy. The one who gets sad when the stray cat turns away when he closes the door knowing he was not able to give it enough food. The one who weeps miserably inside when watching or reading those tearjerker animal posts over the web. The one who presses yes on the ATM whenever it asks for donations for animal protection. Yes, I maybe that odd one who cares more for animals who arguably maybe incapable of being grateful than the people surrounding him.

I’m no saint. I can get really sarcastic and mean. It’s just that we planned and built our cities and neighborhoods with animals out of the picture which made them practically helpless.

It could get really lonely when you  stay away from people. Maybe I could use a pet. Or with all these attachment issues and not being “well” maybe I should not. It’s hard. -aB

Featured Image by: ~Polarpoisson