Man’s Best Friends ​ ​ ​By: Irelan Bailey

Animals are everywhere, they are

all around us. No matter where you stand,
you could find an animal in that area.
What’s more fascinating is when, we
humans, create precious bonds or
friendships with them. These animals that
we have special friendships and
companionships with
are known as pets. Of
course, we know that pets can be trained and can perform
really cool tricks that leave us in awe no matter what they
do. Pets and animals have made us laugh, cry, and feel
special connections whether we own them or watch them
on the internet. However, pets can do more than that.
They can be your friends and keep you company. Or on
more serious conditions, they can
be there to save your life. I find that
owning a pet or pets is important in
an individual’s life. There are
wonderful benefits and lessons that
come along with owning a pet. Owning a pet can and will contribute to your
life journey.
Throughout my life, I’ve never gone a
year without having a pet in my house or
owning one. Animals have always been
around me and have played important roles
in my life. If someone ever asks me how
many pets I’ve had in my life, I wouldn’t be
able to give an accurate answer since there
were numerous. I’ve had dogs, cats, fish,
rabbits, guinea pigs, a pig, ducks, chickens,
frogs, snails, and turtles. I’m proud to say that every single one of them was
or are my best friends. Each pet has helped me
form my personality, learn important lessons,
and live happily.
As a kid, I didn’t care about anything or
have an attachment to anything in my life. My
parents were always at work when I was a kid
and they aren’t the type to show their
emotions or feelings for people. My family
has that sort of personality where we don’t
show our feelings of love for others. We keep
everything to ourselves. So when I was
younger, I didn’t really care for the pets that
wandered in the house and I struggled to
have sympathy or express my true feelings
to people throughout my life. It is still a
struggle for me to understand how others
feel or have sympathy. It frustrates me so
much. However, I’ve improved drastically
on connecting and loving people in my
life. It all started because of my small
Chihuahua/Shih Tzu that I got when I was 6
years old, her name is Aspen. She has followed
me everywhere in my house for the past 13
years. She is always stuck to me like glue, or
how my older brother says it, “like my
shadow”. I’ve had my ups and downs with her,
but in the end, she is my best friend. I’ve
grown to love her and care for her so much.
I’ve worried for her when she
would get sick, or when she
nearly died from an infection. I
found myself somewhat changing
in my emotions for others
because of Aspen. She still is
having problems because of old age and she worries me whenever she is in
pain or sick. Having her by my side has trained me to make sure others are ok
or feeling well.
There have been traumatic times in
my life that I do not really like looking back
on. Through those times, my mind has been
somewhat mentally scarred from events in
my life. However, it’s not that bad now that
I look back on those moments because I had
an outlet to keep my mind off of certain situations when they happen. Taking
care of my many pets kept my brain occupied from getting my mind twisted
up into knots. The pets that I had to
care for the most were my chickens,
ducks, pig, and rabbits that were all in
my backyard. The times that I wanted
to escape life always lead me back to
taking care of them. I find that my pets have done more than keep me
company, you could even say that they’ve saved my life.
Taking care of so many pets
while growing up not only helped me
through dark times, but they’ve also
taught me how important
responsibility is. My mom liked to
give my brothers and I pets
throughout our childhood. Usually, we were assigned to which pet we had to
take care of and we learned the basics of taking care of them. Once we were
comfortable with the tasks that we were given, our mom would completely
rest all the responsibilities on us
without her supervision. No
matter what happened to our pets
that we were in charge of, all of
the responsibility was on us. One
summer when I was about eight
years old, I was able to have five chickens of my own since I was jealous of
one of my older brothers having his
own flock of chickens. Back then, I
was the type to be laid back and quite
lazy; the one that would be known to
take shortcuts whenever possible. I
actually did a good job of making sure
my chickens were fed, watered, and
living comfortably. Doing the same
thing for a couple of years does get
quite boring and I began to slowly
neglect their needs because I wanted
my brother to start taking care of
them. However, as I began to turn a
blind eye towards their needs, one of them died from being attacked by a cat,
three of them died from disease and seeing their health decline right in an
instant snapped me back to reality. The pain of losing my four chickens,
Rose, Lily, Daisy, and Tulip, taught me the importance of responsibility. I
had one chicken left and her name was Petunia. From that point on, I began
to treasure her and make sure she lived the rest of her life happily. Petunia
was able to live out her entire life in peace.
Taking care of pets bring along responsibility,
love, bonds, and emotional or physical support.
Gaining all of these traits throughout my life has
prepared me for my life now, and I believe that it’ll
prepare me for my future. This will include helping
me with friends,
family, marriage,
having kids, and
working in a career in the future. Owning a
pet has contributed to who I am today and
my personality. I know that owning a pet
changes your life and contributes to the happiness in your life. I know that
everyone should have the wonderful opportunity to own a pet sometime in
their lifetime.