Pets

Pets ©

By

Michael Casey

Pets come in all shapes and sizes, small and fluffy or big and rough. There are all kinds of everything, as Dana used to sing, but she was not talking about pets. Girls like cats because they are soft and fluffy and can be stroked.

On the school run me and my small daughter see a few cats so we stop to admire them and make a noise to see if we can get them to miaow back. Coming home from school we have more time to talk to the cats, and sometimes they talk back to us.

Our neighbours have a cat or two so it’s always a mad dash to the garden so my girls cat talk to the cats. Max is a black and white cat from two gardens away, he stops to talk and allows himself to be stroked. This makes my girls’ day.

Children like gerbils, they like watching them run round and around in their little wheel. My girls have begged for a gerbil, but gerbils only last 2 years and you live with their smell. They also get lost under the floorboards, and when they do die you have to bury them in the garden in an old shoebox.

Dogs are great, boys love dogs the best. You can play ball with a dog, the dog will fetch a ball for you. You can go walking in the woods with a dog, dogs can splash and paddle.

I remember when we got Coffee, Coffee was a puppy, the runt of the litter, my brother brought him back from University, 1970 maybe. Coffee was called Coffee because of his colour. He could run and jump and catch a ball. He loved golf balls too.

Coffee was a Christian, we took him on holiday with us, he went to Mass. We met a blind boy on the beach, Coffee said hello by licking his face, it made the  blind boy’s day.

Animals bring out all our tactile feelings, stroking a dog or a cat for that matter, makes us feel happy. Bringing an animal to an old people’s home really does cheer up the residents. There will be a cat and a dog living in the old people’s home featured in Tears for a Butcher, once I get around to finishing it.

Just as a hug does console somebody so time with an animal is comforting, is life enhancing. The old English reserve does disappear when an animal appears, it would be better though if we hugged each other without sight of animals. I should add though I’m not English.   

Pets make us children again, we’ll talk to strangers while out walking the dog, barriers are broken and words are spoken. Pets are like hairy chocolate, they relax and please us just as chocolate does.

Japanese people have electronic pets that have to be fed and watered, they have a life inside the cage of the game. It is some innate thing that makes us love animals, our pets, even if we don’t love each other. So my final thought is, why can’t we love each other as much as we love our pets.

Give Pets and Peace a chance.