I will truly never be able to get over this. An animal deserves to be loved and cared for. So, why was it when I was younger I couldn’t see that as clearly as I do today? Having a pet is a huge privilege that many of us take for granted on a daily basis. A lot of us have pets that we love a lot and we have to treat them fairly so that they don’t feel abused or abandoned.
Now, in my case we had a beautiful cat named Emmett. We had him for a little over two years until he ran away. We weren’t quite sure what made him run away, but we thought it could’ve been a stray who has been living on our property for around 12 years. Luckily, Emmett made his way back to us after two years of being away. This was such an amazing moment for us because we didn’t think we would ever get to see him again, but when he showed up at our door that night we were all overjoyed. Yet, we made the decision to get another pet, a dog. We were all excited to get this dog because we were all told that “He loves other pets!” or “He gets along so                                                                                             well with other cats!” Well, that wasn’t the case. This particular dog did not like other pets and as a result, when he first saw Emmett he tried his best to go over and bite him. So, just about two years after Emmett came back, we lost him again because he ran away after the dog attacked him. After this event, I was most furious with myself. “Was there anything that I could’ve done better as a pet owner?” I began to go on a roller coaster ride of blames that I built myself.
After this moment, we were all heartbroken so we decided to return the dog to the shelter and get a new cat. The new cat was named Alex. I was so convinced that we wouldn’t make the mistake of losing our new cat because we rushed to get a dog, but after two and a half years, we adopted a puppy from a friend of mine. What we didn’t know was how well the puppy would fair with other animals. Just as I had feared, he didn’t do well around Alex and I began to worry that we had taken Alex’s trust for granted and that we would lose him the same way that we had lost Emmett. Thankfully, we made the decision to  return the puppy after a couple weeks and Alex still trusted us. I was so glad that we didn’t have to go through the same situation with Alex. As much as trying to have another pet backfired, we have been thinking about getting another cat, but I know that we all have been much more wary because I know none of us would want to lose Alex.
Nowadays, I feel my family has learned in the same way I have. Alex is one of the most spoiled pets that I know. He gets all of the treats in the world, he even gets let in through my bedroom window when it is very cold out and he doesn’t want to go through the snow! He also gets all the love and care on a daily basis even though he acts annoyed at us a lot of the time. I know that I’d rather have a cat annoyed that we are always adoring him instead of having a cat that ran away from us because we didn’t treat him the right way.
I am so glad now that we have thought more about the way that Alex feels instead of taking him and his trust for granted just because we want something else. I now feel like I know how to treat animals and humans with respect and not taking their love for granted. I feel like more of us as an entire society need to be more aware about this and we all need to learn to be loving and caring for the animal we have been blessed with instead of just treating them as an object.