On Thankfulness and Pets

While I hope my pets are thankful for their lives with my husband and me, I suspect that as long as they cannot open the refrigerator or the container of dehydrated salmon on their own they will always consider their circumstances a bit less than idyllic.

So, on their behalf, I am thankful they have a warm, safe, loving environment in which to call “home”. Their lives are free of the trials and tribulations that pets still awaiting their forever homes are going through at this very moment.

I am thankful I was working the day Weebs needed a nursemaid and the day Muse got dumped. Had I been off, we may have missed having them in our lives. I’m happy we did all the work we did before we got Bo Kitty, who has never known a day of anything less than a loving household. And I’m grateful that the woman who nearly ran over Darby when he was a lost puppy wandering the streets stopped her car and took him to the SPCA. Without her, Darby and I may never have met.

I’m grateful that our quadrupeds live in a house without chains, shock collars or outside-at-all-times edicts. Where the cats will never have to worry about anything more harmful being done to their claws than the occasional trimming, and where none of our four-footed friends is contributing to our pet overpopulation problem, having been altered before they had a chance to reproduce. I’m thankful that we believe in clickers, positive motivation and downright bribery for special occasions, and for knowing that dehydrated salmon will get you further than a rolled-up newspaper.

I’m even grateful that we have increased yoga-master skills, the result of years of trying to fit three cats and a dog in a queen-sized bed with us on cold winter nights. Yeah, we know they are only using us for our body heat, but it’s wonderful to have so many snuggly pieces of goodness to share it with.

Finally, I remain ever grateful that our cats and our dog mean the world to us, and that we would never, ever consider a life, or a life-change, without them. And I’m grateful for all of the pets who came before. Their presence in our lives deepened our understanding, broadened our perspective and helped build the foundation for the lives our current pets live.

May you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving.