Say Hi To Chester

Some Pet Fun Facts

1. Over 60% of American households have a pet of some kind.
2. There are 70-80 million dogs & 74-96 million cats in America’s homes.
3. Pet food just for dogs and cats reaches $21 billion annually.
4. Pet services for grooming/boarding will hit 5.2 billion.  
5. Americans will spend 15 billion on vet care for pets this year.

Clearly we love pets, not everyone, but lots of us do. I’m quite fond of the furry little critters. Bless their hearts. We had pets when I was growing up; and we had pets while raising our own kids. (the kids grew up and left, and left the pets) 

Here are some of the animals that have lived in our home:

1. Dogs
2. Cats
3. Birds
4. Hamsters
5. Fish

Cats and dogs offer different things to pet owners: 

Dogs:

1. are typically more friendly and affectionate
2. offer the potential of being protectors
3. can be trained and taught many behaviors

Cats 

1. are independent and more self reliant
2. don’t each as much 
3. are excellent mousers

They all shed, more or less. I learned the hard and expensive way, that you need to vacuum underneath the refrigerator to remove the build up of dog/cat hair that blocks the airflow. 

The little darlings possess a number of adoring qualities. Until fully trained, they treat your house like it’s a giant litter box, or as if it were the great outdoors. They can provide your home with the most offensive odors, can chew and scratch your furniture to shreds, and can ruin your best shoes in any number of ways. But I love the little darlings.

They have to be fed, watered, medicated, and taken care of. You have to clean up after them. Pet ownership can be expensive, difficult, smelly, dirty, frustrating, and often inconvenient, and did I mention expensive? But they are worth every penny. Bless their hairy little hearts. Sometimes, the pets can be the cause of marital disharmony. Hard to believe I know. How could those sweet little faces ever be the cause of conflict?  

I love pets, especially cats; and I’m happy to share my living space with them. The idea of animals roaming through my house doing whatever they want, whenever they want to do it, gives me a warm glow and shiver down my spine.

In Closing

I think I’m going to get a pet squirrel and name him Chester. He’ll live in the trees. 

Have a nice day.