Having a pet
Deciding to have pet is a massive decision that needs to be thought about over a period of time and not made as a spear of the moment. Choosing to have a pet means giving up a large amount of your time as you have a responsibility to both care for them and to ensure that they are happy in their surroundings and getting what they need, not only does this take up a large amount of time but it can also amount to a large amount of money.
This is seen every year as thousands of pets, particularly dogs because people don’t think about the responsibility of taking on an animal and how much they can change the way they have to spend their time. Many people are surprised at how much they have to change their lifestyle in order to care for an animal, particularly when it comes to owning a dog. Therefore when making your decision about taking on a pet you really need to think about whether you are 1.Going to be able to make the sufficient changes to your lifestyle and 2. If you want to make them! Below is just a few of the things that you will need to think about before you take the step of welcoming a pet into your life and home;
Pets can cause havoc in your house;
Pets don’t think about what they are chewing or where they do their business, so subsequently you may find they leave you the odd ‘treat’ of your new carpet or they may thought that your new pair of shoes was in fact a new chew toy for them!
Of course when buying a new puppy most people will be aware that they will need training, but not a lot of people realise the long process training can be and so you need to realise that during the this time you are going to have to expect to have a few chewed up shoes, it would probably be a good idea as to whether or not to buy any new furniture before the dog fully trained.
Cats on the other hand won’t use you new shoes as a chew toy but they do still have habits that will take some training to get them out of, and some that you will just have to get used to, for example training them to use the litter tray can be a long process which will mean you will most probably have to endure having wet patches on your carpet (new or old). Other habits cats tend to enjoy having is bring home presents for you to enjoy – these can be mouse or birds they have caught whilst out playing.
Both animals can suffer from fleas and so you will need to make sure that you have them regular checks to make sure they don’t catch them and if they do it’s easily solved. both animals also tend to moult which can prove to be annoying when you find yourself covered head to toe in fur after sitting on your sofa, there are a number of ways of dealing with this ranging from putting covers on your sofa of giving your pet a specific part of the furniture – though this will obviously need training for them to stay on this part!
Is your lifestyle pet friendly?
When you are thinking about having a pet you need to consider how you live and whether a pet could fit into this, for example if you work long days at the office meaning you are out for a large amount of the day you need to think about how this would affect your pet. Dogs for example are particularly social animals and so they don’t like spending large amounts of time on their own – they become very close to their family and like to be around them. Therefore you would need to think about whether you can really commit to having a pet as needy as a dog, cats aren’t quite as needy as dogs but still leaving them on their own for large amounts of time isn’t ideal.
This therefore means you may have to consider the type of pet you choose, maybe a cat of a fish would be a more realistic choice over a dog.
Another things that you need to take into consideration before you have a pet is whether anyone in your family has an allergies, often having pets around can make allergies worse, this isn’t just due to their fur but also to proteins from both their urine and saliva can cause people to have a reaction. Being in contact with an animal such as a cat or dog can also lead to asthma, hay fever and eczema due to their fur.
Pets cost a lot of money during their life time, on food, toys, leads etc not to mention visits to the vets and that’s not just regular check-ups, pets can become suddenly ill and you may find that you’re left to foot a very expensive bill. Its recently been estimated that the cost of owning a dog in its lifetime can an amount to as much as £10,000, so you will need to allow some more money in your monthly outcomes to pay for your pet.
Of course everyone goes on holiday at least once a year so you need to consider who will look after your pet whilst you are away.
You may think this isn’t a problem if you holiday in the UK but you will need to check that you are allowed to take animals with you don’t always assume that you will be allowed to or that they will have the requirements your pet will need.
If you are going abroad then you will need to consider what to do with your animal whilst you are away, whether you get a family member to look after them or whether you put them in kennels for a week, you will have to think which choice is best for your animal – to start with is there anyone to willing to look after them, many animals find staying in a kennel unsettling so it’s best to try and keep them out of them if you can.
Animals aren’t able to look after themselves and sadly some people think they can and so have left them for weeks on their own, this has resulted in neighbours calling the RSPCA who have had to come in and take the animal into a better home.
Before you commit to an animal think it through and if you think that right now isn’t the time to take on a pet you can also give money to a local animal charity and care for animals that way! However if you think you can care for a pet you then need to make the decision as to what pet you can care for best – cat, dog, fish?