Of Pets And Pragmatism
As usual in an all-ladies group conversation in office, half of the time is non-work related. One was sharing about the loss of her pet hamster and the other became an eager beaver and enquired anything that could be asked. That’s when the antagonist walked in and made a self seemingly confident remark, added with a smirk on his face. “Like I said, let’s be pragmatic. Why take care of something (a pet) that doesn’t give anything back to you?” The sound of confidence shattered the discussion and lead to a heavy smile on my face. So often have I come across people who take no interest in keeping pets, but this is the first time I bumped into someone whom so strongly and thinks much ill towards pets.
I would like to quote a Shakespearean insult: Shallowest thick skin of that barren sort.
Let me share with you a story, my story. A few years ago my family welcomed a new member. No I did not get married and had a child, neither did my brother. My parents, already in their 60s definitely did not bear me a younger sibling. It was a black dog, to be exact, a mongrel. No one knows exactly what breed he is. The best bet was a Labrador and an Irish Setter cross-breed.
During the first few months, my parents were complaining non-stop about the amount of fur that has clad the floor. To be frank, my parent did most of the housework so I had the least to complain. It seems keeping a dog especially ours, who has pretty long fur, is quite a heavy upkeep. To make matter worst, medical bills aren’t cheap at all! Quite a reasonable amount of money is spent on him, coupled with the time and effort required to bathe, walk and groom him. Looking at these, an absolute pragmatic person would surely keep away from having a pet in his home.
It was only another few months later, when the ice between the dog and us had been fully broken, and then do we start to enjoy the fruits of our early labor. Our dinner table now reserves a special bowl (and a small area as well) especially for him. He started joining us for lunches and dinners. Our normally quiet dinning table became livelier with him around. There were active conversations and laughter to accompany our fiesta. At times he would commit something silly and makes us all laugh. At times he would throw a little tantrum when he finds nothing in his bowl. At times he would rush towards the dinner table at the customary timing and accidentally banged into nearby furniture. So many at times and the list could go on and on.
What I am trying to spell out here is, keeping a pet definitely needs hard work, hard cash and is time consuming. So why keep them in spite of these? I can assure you the reason my family keeps our pet is because of the little joys and laughter he brings us. Be it sleeping next to you when you are watching your television shows, be it welcoming you when you reached home after a tired day of work, be it…
If we were to look at the quantitative list of costs, it is indeed heavy. However sometimes we need to take a little step back and look at it from a holistic manner. There are many qualitative gains a family or someone can experience with a pet. I believe it is really up to us to place them on the measuring beam and check the balance, but with an open mind. A little bit of awareness, a little bit of being less calculative, quality of life can be improved.
So Mr Antagonist, while we must all agree to disagree, you hold your strong stand on taking only a pragmatic view on keeping pets, I hold mine as well.
I would like to quote a Shakespearean insult: Shallowest thick skin of that barren sort.
Let me share with you a story, my story. A few years ago my family welcomed a new member. No I did not get married and had a child, neither did my brother. My parents, already in their 60s definitely did not bear me a younger sibling. It was a black dog, to be exact, a mongrel. No one knows exactly what breed he is. The best bet was a Labrador and an Irish Setter cross-breed.
During the first few months, my parents were complaining non-stop about the amount of fur that has clad the floor. To be frank, my parent did most of the housework so I had the least to complain. It seems keeping a dog especially ours, who has pretty long fur, is quite a heavy upkeep. To make matter worst, medical bills aren’t cheap at all! Quite a reasonable amount of money is spent on him, coupled with the time and effort required to bathe, walk and groom him. Looking at these, an absolute pragmatic person would surely keep away from having a pet in his home.
It was only another few months later, when the ice between the dog and us had been fully broken, and then do we start to enjoy the fruits of our early labor. Our dinner table now reserves a special bowl (and a small area as well) especially for him. He started joining us for lunches and dinners. Our normally quiet dinning table became livelier with him around. There were active conversations and laughter to accompany our fiesta. At times he would commit something silly and makes us all laugh. At times he would throw a little tantrum when he finds nothing in his bowl. At times he would rush towards the dinner table at the customary timing and accidentally banged into nearby furniture. So many at times and the list could go on and on.
What I am trying to spell out here is, keeping a pet definitely needs hard work, hard cash and is time consuming. So why keep them in spite of these? I can assure you the reason my family keeps our pet is because of the little joys and laughter he brings us. Be it sleeping next to you when you are watching your television shows, be it welcoming you when you reached home after a tired day of work, be it…
If we were to look at the quantitative list of costs, it is indeed heavy. However sometimes we need to take a little step back and look at it from a holistic manner. There are many qualitative gains a family or someone can experience with a pet. I believe it is really up to us to place them on the measuring beam and check the balance, but with an open mind. A little bit of awareness, a little bit of being less calculative, quality of life can be improved.
So Mr Antagonist, while we must all agree to disagree, you hold your strong stand on taking only a pragmatic view on keeping pets, I hold mine as well.
posted by Valiant | 9:57 PM
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