I grew up in a household where, at any given time, there were a handful of cats and possibly a dog, and some fish, and maybe a few hand-raised rodents. Households had critters, that’s just how it was. As an adult, and a writer, it always seemed essential to me to have a cat (or two), for office companionship. But I haven’t had a dog, one that was mine, since college. My life – travel and housing – really didn’t support it.
Until, a few years ago, it did.
It’s not as though I didn’t have opportunities since then to adopt. For the past several years, I’ve been volunteering at my local animal shelter, and my friends started taking bets on when I would end up bringing a dog home with me. But other than the occasional week-long fostering, I resisted – mainly because I had two cats at home already, one of whom was older and in ill health.
We lost that elder cat a few months ago, and I thought that – between Covid-19 and moving from a rental to my own place, maybe I should just wait before thinking about getting a new animal. Maybe my remaining cat would like being an Only for a while, after all.
Well, no. He really doesn’t, if the way he keeps going to the door and demanding to be let out so he can look for his missing buddy is any indication. And when I took in a foster pup for a week…the door-demanding stopped. Only to return again once the foster pup was adopted.
Okay then. I mean, the cat’s insisting, right?