a place of joy, peace, and happiness

Thursday, May 20, 2010

All Creatures.............

I love animals. I love their hair, their smell, and their teeth marks on my shoes. I also enjoy what they teach my child. Like which cleaning products work best on pet stains, and what happens when a dog eats a box of crayons. But pets teach life lessons, too.
Pets teach responsibility. They teach the PARENTS how to be RESPONSIBLE in training their child to care for the animal. Kids will not naturally feed, water, or clean up after the little critter. Make a chart of what needs to be done daily. Do the chores with them until they have mastered them. Then they can do the chores alone and just check items off the list. It is not the animals fault if your child neglects it, it is YOUR fault for not training your child to obey and finish a job.
Pets teach unconditional love. Animals naturally love their owners. Pets want to be with, sleep with, and slobber on your children~their special eating partners. Dogs go into super-hyper-frenzy when you pay them the least bit of attention. A piece of fat back tossed on the floor turns into a sultans feast! In turn, kids learn to love beasts that stink, make messes, cost money, and ruin their new Nikes. Children learn patience when pups yelp all night and need to go to the fire hydrant every 8.2 seconds. Real character is displayed when there are “O No’s”, on the rug, “What’s?” in the closet, and “Yuck’s” on the front porch. Yelling does not solve these problems. Taking the time to work through them does. What better way to prepare for marriage? In sickness and health, poverty and wealth, the kitties, doggies, horsies, and fishies need to be fed, sheltered, cared for and loved.
I went a bit overboard with goats, turkeys, chickens, pigs, cows, horses, dogs, cats, fish, iguanas, salamanders, frogs, turtles, snakes, hamsters, ducks, rabbits, and birds. But 4 of my children are happily married so maybe it was a good plan. Get your kid a pet!