Pets

Tomorrow my brother, my boyfriend and I are going to Vienna. We are going to spend three fabulous days there - as always when I go to Vienna - stay at out favorite hotel (okay, my favorite, but I haven't heard anyone complain about it), and go visit our favorite places, and have a great time. This time around, however, there's a new factor: Cinder.

Cinder is our new cat, or more specifically, OUR first cat. She's new, lovely, adorable, eats a lot and loves attention. She's an in-home cat who sometimes gets to go outside acompanies by... well, by me, because my boyfriend feels quite stupid walking a cat on a leash. I also feel weird and don't know what to do - I have never walked a cat in my life, for all our cats have always lived outside - but the idea is that eventually she gets to spend a part of the day outside chasing birds and climbing trees. It's hard to have a cat in an appartment, so up to this point, if someone ever had an in-home cat, I'd love some advise.

Now, we are preparing to go to Vienna for a few days, and aside from buying the train tickets, reserving the hotel room, preparing the program, and setting the clock to wake up in time to catch a good train, we also have to make sure Cinder gets taken care for while we are not here. The other day my boyfriend and I went to buy some groceries, and it made me smile to see how our basket included cans of cat food and other cat related items. It suddenly made me think about how some people feel like a family when they start buying baby food or things that children need, but also how some - like us - get that family feeling from our rascal cat. We laugh when she comes up with some new idea, and can stare at her playing with her teddy bear or her little toy mice, and also berate her and try to reason with her. She's part of our holidays even when she can't come with us. She's an important part of our daily lives now, and just as Cinder is part of our family, so are pets for many people.

Pets are important in people's life. Some neglect them and abuse them, just like some people neglect and abuse their children, and it's wrong in both cases. I just wonder why is it that many people believe that caring and feeling love for your pets is less important than feeling love and caring for your children?

I believe that it's no a matter of whether you have children or not, pets or not what matter. Having children doesn't make you better, taking responsability, taking care is what makes you better. Or are we worse for taking care of a cat, than parents who spend all day in front of the computer and neglecting their kids, just because they have children and are more "mature" and we are not?

Pets can make us as happy as children make others happy, and you know what? Taking care of our elders too, with the added benefit that our elders always have amazing stories to tell us. ^_^