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I used to have 5 Pets in a Studio Apartment

and I blame Facebook for it

By Martyna DearingPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
4
artist: @courtney_paige_boyd

We all make crazy purchases because of the targeted ads on our social media feeds. New dress, unnecessary home décor or even plane tickets to an exotic country just because we miss the beach. Been there, done that!

However, God forbid the secret agent, who's responsible for all those ads in your phone (we all agree it's a thing, right?!), finds out that you are interested in adopting a pet. Suddenly your feed is flooded with cute doggos and pretty tiny kittens. They all are picture purrfect and they all just need your love! If you're anything like me... after seeing that you might end up with 5 pets. If UNLIKE me you have a home bigger than 600 square feet then having 5 pets might not be an issue. Meanwhile, all those overly cute rescues that I've saved ended up in my studio apartment that as you might have already figured out, doesn't even have a bedroom door!

It started innocently. My husband and I had to cancel our wedding due to COVID and I decided that since I did not get to wear my white dress and have a perfect overpriced wedding, I deserved to get a dog. We had a two bedroom two bathroom apartment at that time, both had plenty of time on our hands since well, COVID and all that. It seemed like a great idea and to be honest it was. After searching through petfinder.com for a few days we found Mila. She was a pit mix and stole my heart with her beautiful golden eyes. Before we knew it, we drove for 3 hours to Harrisonburg, VA and adopted a 7-month-old pit. That was in March.

Mila was with a foster at that time and it sounded familiar but I had no idea what exactly that meant if it came to pets. So it began...

Because of my endless love for her I couldn't leave her alone at home without feeling guilty. That's how I started forming an idea in my head that we need another dog to make her less lonely. I started looking into fostering and of course, Facebook targeted ads were always there for me, giving me more resources on adopting more pets. Finally, in September I convinced my husband to become fosters. It didn't matter that we just switched apartments and started living in a more restrictive area and our new home was half the size of the previous one. I rationalized it by saying that it's just temporary, we can always back out and after a couple weeks a pet would get adopted anyway.

Joining that foster group was probably the biggest mistake I could do. Don't get me wrong, fostering saves lives, I love helping animals and all that but I also have the emotional intelligence of a 5-year-old. I see an animal and I just want to save it without processing any other fact like home space or financial needs that a pet could have. The group constantly posting new photos of more and more animals needing our help was making me super emotional and within a week of joining we decided to foster a Coonhound, Morty. Once I picked him up I already knew I probably would give him away. I'm serious, one look and I was sold (like I probably would be with any other dog...). Long story short, after many fights with my husband, I convinced him to have a second medium sized dog in our 650 square feet apartment.

It would be fine if that ended there but of course it didn't. Every time I opened my Facebook I'd be seeing all those animals waiting for their forever families or needing fosters who could let them get out of those terrible kill shelters. My heart was aching.

Next up was Cleo, an 8 week old kitten with FeLV, a rare disease that prevented her from being with other cats. Cleo was my 'Christmas gift'. Since I was off for two weeks my husband told me it was okay to foster her for the time being. Unfortunately, Cleo was incredibly cute and not only I fell in love with her but also others did too. Soon she had a person ready to adopt her and I cried for a full 24 hours period after giving her away. For a moment I swore I'd never foster again because it was too tough but Cleo had left a whole in my heart. She made me fall in love with cats and I was just waiting for an opportunity to adopt one.

It was about a week or two since Cleo was gone when Morty ran away into the woods chasing a deer and it took us hours to catch him. Meanwhile, I joined a Facebook group in order to post about our lost dog. Once we found Morty I didn't leave the group just in case if our wild Coonhound with love for the adventures (it wasn't his first time) ran away again. What I didn't expect was to find in this group were posts about a kill shelter and more animals needing MY help.

From all the shelters in the world for some reason the 'Lost Dog Northern Virginia' group was posting about a shelter in North Carolina. Don't ask me how but by the end of the week I was driving to Rowan County Animal Shelter and I was saving 3 (yes, you read that right 3!!!) cats.

When I saw the ad first it was about one kitten but then I found out that kitten had a brother. I thought 'I can't separate them' so I convinced my husband to take both of them in. Once I made a call to the shelter though, I was informed that there's also their mum waiting for a savior. Well, I couldn't leave their mum behind! They were only 8 week old kittens, just like Cleo. How could I leave only one of them in that scary shelter? With two carriers (that I had to purchase beforehand) I drove to North Carolina, slept in the Airbnb and picked them up the next day. Then we drove back to Virginia.

Once we got home we officially had 5 pets in one apartment. It was absolutely insane! The Kittens were living in our bathroom, their mum hated our dogs and was very overprotective towards her babies. The litter box had to be constantly changed and my husband was going crazy with his allergies.

It took us about a month to get the kittens spayed and adopted. We ended up keeping the mum. Again, I had to convince my husband to do so (can you see a pattern?).

Once the kittens were adopted I also cried but not as much as with Cleo. I also realized I had to unfollow some Facebook groups. I had to be honest with myself: I am not capable of thinking straight if it comes to pets. If you don't believe me, you should check my Chewy order history. Our current 3 pets are spoiled brats. Mila sleeps with us, right on the pillow between my husband and I. We try to push her down to our legs but she keeps on coming back. Morty won't let me take short cuts during his walks. He's very determined for his walks to be as long as possible and has his favorite routes he insists on taking (while you might think I'm exaggerating, he really knows how to show me his disapproval of taking short cuts by backing up, twisting his neck and pulling me towards the direction he wants to go to). If it comes to Luna, the mum of the kittens, she acts like she's a princess. From what we know she spent her life on the streets but somehow she's as demanding as our dogs! She wakes me up every morning with incredibly loud meowing and nibbling on my body in order to get food.

At this moment I'm taking a break from fostering. It appears 5 pets at the same time was my limit and while I wish we could adopt another dog (I still follow the adoption page of our foster agency...) that might end up with divorce papers. Pets are amazing but they are expensive. I'm not talking about getting them, I'm talking about a lifelong commitment and also my constant need to spoil them.

Of course, Facebook knows I love my pets and won't let me get away without at least a couple purchases a week. Currently we spend about $500-800 per month for them, including food, doggy day care, vet bills, toys and other things. Before that we spent thousands of dollars for the adoptions fees, apartment pet fees, etc. At least I'm aware of the act we can't keep on fostering and adopting more animals, so I guess that's some kind of progress! Well, until we get a house with a backyard and I join all those fostering groups again... *

*my husband is aware of that and still willing to proceed with our relationship!

Mila likes sitting on her brother. We’re working on it.

dog
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About the Creator

Martyna Dearing

Martyna Dearing joined vocal right after COVID started in April 2020. Since then she got a few Top Stories, republished her book "Green Card Marriage", and is about to release another one titled "Loved, Death, and In Between".

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