Pets Are Forever

My Sophie Germain

Choosing to adopt a pet is a decision that will affect you throughout the animal's life (and probably your own). Once you've adopted a pet, their life is in your hands. That means you will take care of your pet, ensure it has a place to live, that it has food and water, that it goes to vet appointments, that it is neutered or spade, and that it has your attention and care.  You are their life companions.

In the last two weeks, I had several people on Facebook who were looking to rehome their pets before August 1 because they were moving and there was no availability in any of the no-kill shelters. They said that if they didn't find anyplace by the first of the month, their pet would be taken to a standard shelter, and since the standard shelters were full, their pet would be put down.

Let me make this clear:  throwing away a living creature is not an option. The only way it is acceptable to move into a no pets allowed location after you have adopted a pet is if you will literally be homeless if you don't do so. 

I do understand that circumstances might change. I adopted a dog while living with three cats, and after three months the cats were still so scared they would climb into the cupboards and piss in them because they were too afraid to go find their litter box. We didn't just dump Eddie at a shelter, we spent a few months finding a new home for him. 

So what happens when you got a new job and move to an expensive city where you can't find a decent apartment that allows pets? You move into a rat hole. 

My last place had a hole in the wall to the outdoors. They wouldn't fix the upstairs neighbor's toilet, so toilet water leaked on my head or back when I used my own toilet. I went several days a month without hot water. Drunks peed on my front door. My neighbors smoked so much I couldn't breath properly (at a recent doctor's appointment, she noted that it was the first time she'd ever seen me where I wasn't coughing up a storm from my situational asthma). I bitched about it non-stop. 

However, it was a price I could afford that allowed pets. If you need to move to a crappy apartment because you can't afford something nice that accepts pets, I would be happy to listen to your rants until you can afford to move on.

If you do decide to renege on your lifetime obligation, you make sure your pet has a place to go before you arrange to move into a place that won't accept pets. If that isn't possible, you stay at a hotel with your pet until the arrangements are made for your pet's new home. Throwing away animals is despicable. The folks that caused this rant are some of the same folks who were screaming about a dentist killing a lion; yet there they were ready to kill their cats and dogs.  I assume you would do this because you decided to date somebody who was allergic to your cat.  I'll be honest - my cat and I are a package deal because when I left the shelter with her, I promised her I would take care of her. In fact, I signed documentation at animal control stating I would do so.

I sometimes get annoyed because having cats and trying to get a decent apartment around here is almost impossible, but my cat is my responsibility. She is only 10 years old. I will be making all home decisions with her in mind for another decade. She gets hair on my clothes, has a new habit of scratching my furniture, and for no reason I can discover now only craps outside her litter box. However, I made a choice to adopt her in 2005, and she is mine for life. I'm lucky. My sister's cat has been peeing all over her house for years smile emoticon

If you can't financially handle a pet and pet food and licensing fees and vet trips and everything else, you don't get a pet. If finances become bad, stop buying new clothes and live on rice. I'm not kidding. You made a choice to be responsible for your pet, so you do whatever it takes to make sure that pet is cared for.

Oh. And the same applies to humans. You decide to get one of those and the same rules apply.

Jan 2028 Update: Talk about being a privileged idiot when I wrote this.  Damn. 

Besides, you need know when you'll need a backgammon partner.