Purchasing a Pet

No. Of course, you do not.

You could very easily spend your life without an adorable little face to greet you every day but then for me at least, that would be a waste.

Animals are the best of us. Sweet and innocent with a look that can melt even the sternest of hearts. They are love and for me and my wife, we cannot wait to own our first pet, but then again, do we need to buy a pet?

Adoption

We could very easily spend thousands of pounds purchasing a designer pet...you know the one that has been purposely bred with his or her brothers and sisters to look a certain way.

The stereotypical Beagle look that can only be maintained from a limited bloodline, those types of pets we could purchase, or we could look to give something back and adopt.

Before I move on, I would like to state for the record that I understand why many do not wish to adopt a pet.

• Having a family. Young children and pet adoption with an unknown past is a risk and therefore I understand why you would not walk down this road
• Other pets in the house. Sometimes animals, much like humans do not play well with others and so this is why you may not wish to risk it with an unknown past
• Undesirable breeds. This may be a little stereotypical but if a shelter only has one breed left and that is not appealing to you then you do not want to feel forced to take an animal home.

We are considering adoption because we do not have children, or own other pets (fish do not count). If there are breeds of cats or dogs that populate the adoption centre then we will go to another centre or come back another day. We have time and are therefore in a good position to give back and that is why we are looking to go down this route.

As an added bonus the animal will be microchipped and most likely have all of its jabs. It will also be a little older and therefore be less likely to be flying around the place when I am working from home/looking to eat the fish. It is as exciting as it is nerve-racking, as I am sure that it will not be as easy as I imagine at this point in time.

Cold Hard Cash

Our decision to look into adoption is not to say that down the road or even instead of adoption, we would not look to buy an animal of our choice. We could go down the shelter route and actually discover that we aren't able to find an animal that we love and need to look at purchasing instead.

It is an unlikely possibility at this stage of our lives but in ten years' time when we have a family of our own, who knows? Time is a great changer and this shift may be monumental enough to move our thought process.

The world offers us many options and saying that we would only ever adopt is limiting. Life teaches us that whatever can happen will happen and we need to be open to these possibilities as to do otherwise is to leave our lives as limited experiences that offer very little depth to them.

A Final Thought

I am as excited as I am nervous about getting a pet. We may fall in love with a pet from one of the shelters that we later have to give up owing to behavioural problems or one of us losing a job (hopefully not). Regardless of what will happen, anything could happen and this is the reality of our existence.

Getting a pet is something that I feel we should all have the chance to do in our lives. Circumstances do often prevent this such as household income, allergies in the house or not being able to find something that is suitable for everyone but it is a right of passage for me. If I die before having a pet then I will be upset as I grew up with many pets.

Whether through purchase or adoption the thought of having a pet is something that brings a smile to my face. We have a neighbourhood cat that comes in to see us but it is not enough, I would like to have an animal that we call a pet in our lives before we become too old and ideally, before we start a family.