Today’s topic for Fandango’s Dog Days of August (#FDDA) is “pet”. One of the suggested topics is to talk about which animal you’d have if you could have any pet. I am going to use this topic as a starter for today’s blog entry.
As regular readers of my blog might know, my husband and I have a cat. We first got a cat, Harry, when we were first planning on living together in 2013. We’ve had Harry since kittenhood. However, he was pretty hyperactive, so we got Barry, thinking the two might make great playmates. Well, they didn’t, so we ultimately rehomed Harry. Now we still have Barry.
I always grew up with cats. The thing with them though is, they invariably seem to sense my inadequacy. Whether this is due to my blindness, I don’t know.
Regardless, cats aren’t quite as confortable with me as I’d like them to be. I still hope I will someday have a cat that will have a true liking for me, but that’s not in cats’ nature, I’m afraid. They’re more introverted than some other animals. Or maybe that’s just been the cats I’ve had so far.
All that to say that, if I could have any pet I wanted, I would like a dog. However, I’d for sure like it to be a psychiatric service dog as well as a trained guide dog. That seems a bit much, maybe, but I know some blind people whose guide dogs also help them with their mental health issues.
I may also want to have a pet rabbit or guinea pig. Rabbits generally need a lot of space, though my sister-in-law keeps three (if I’m correct) in her house. She does have a garden, so I hope they’re able to roam about there at times too.
In general though, I don’t think I’m that much of a pet person. I fed Barry dutifully when I still lived with my husband, and though I did take delight in it, I wouldn’t say he’s like my child or something. I’d love to develop more of a connection to Barry and to whichever future pets I might have. I do care deeply about them, but I just don’t feel the natural attunement to my pets that others do. I can’t say it’s an autistic thing, as a common autism stereotype (thanks, Temple Grandin) is that we have a strong connection to animals. I guess I for one don’t.
A Multitude of Musings 
give me animals over people any day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I do get that. I’m just not good with either I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We used to have two big dogs here and the kitties slept in their fluffy tails.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh wow, that’s so very cute!
LikeLike
We once had a pet rabbit. We had rabbit pellets (i.e., poop) all over the house.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yeah, that sounds so annoying. Thanks for warning me in case I ever decide to get a pet rabbit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have my little Mishball as you know, and I also do some horse riding, but, other than that, I don’t consider myself a typical pet person really either, so I sort of get where you’re coming from. I just don’t really feel very much to other pets unless it’s Misha with whom we happen to be just grotesquely similar to each other and have lived over 4 years together now, or the horses I’ve ridden for some significant amount of time since when you’re actively horse riding you have no other way than to get close with a horse and this way some sort of a bond forms between you and a horse and it’s such a cool thing. With other, more random pets, I just don’t feel it, which doesn’t mean I don’t like pets or anything, I just find it similarly awkward as socialising with people, especially like with kids, maybe only less stressful.
Funnily enough, other people’s pets tend to love me for some mysterious reason. Our dog Jocky (who is cool and certainly likeable but I don’t really feel any sort of real attachment to him, hence I don’t consider him mine, also because he’s mostly Sofi’s) is always all over me when he sees me, my grandma’s cat “faints” at my feet when I visit her, lots of dogs come close to me when I’m just going somewhere or very shy cats who apparently don’t really like to interact rub up against me crazily and start to purr. It’s so weird. 😀 I don’t mind it but I don’t love it either for the afore mentioned reason. 😀
It’s certainly true that cats are more introverted than other animals, but from my experience not all introverted cats must necessarily be very reserved, so perhaps your Barry is both. My Misha is so introverted and shy that if he was a human, he’d have no life unless he’d quickly become an anchorite or something, but when he likes someone, he is capable of showing it in very gentle, yet very emphatic and unequivocal ways, at least for people who know him and don’t expect some totally servile loyalty and can pick up on subtle cues, which don’t necessarily require sight to be picked up on. But blindness can make communication with such very introverted cats difficult anyway, with Misha everything is strongly based on eye contact and I find it frustrating at times when I don’t understand what he wants, for example.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so very much for your relatable comment. I was fearing my lack of connection to even Barry makes me some kind of uncaring, emotionless person. Your comment made me feel better. Also, my husband says I helped make Barry more social, as he was definitely reclusive when we first got him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad I could make you feel better. 🙂 I feel like I’m really uncaring due to things like this sometimes too, haha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh you’re definitely not uncaring at all, though like I said I get why you’d feel that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have two dogs and a cat, and I’m glad they can deal with my depression and anxiety. But maybe not every pet is
LikeLiked by 1 person
able to do so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agree. Barry was often very distressed when I was in a mental health crisis. Thanks so much for commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person