My pets make me smile

Vodka, my Bichon Frise, is one of the greatest joys of my life. She always has a ready smile for me when I get home, and she loves to cuddle, just because.  Anyone who knows me knows that my doggy companions don’t know they are not human.

My pet companions aside from Vodka are Tasha, Nik, Yuri, and Gorby. I have five rescued cats, too, — Pepsi, Spotty, Bunny, Garfiled and Snowy.

I have read often enough that pet companions make the life of humans better.   

Why do humans with pets like me do the strangest things for our pet companions? Let me share with you a few reasons:

1. Pets reduce stress and depression. When you reach middle age and menopause starts to set in, there is nothing like owning a dog or dogs that are devoted to you. My dogs always make me laugh because they do the funniest things and that keeps the stress and depression at bay.

2. I have read that pets are good for the elderly. No, I am not yet among the elderly, but in my mid life I truly welcome the undivided love and attention my doggies give me once I get home.

3. Pets give us bigger hearts. Pets open our hearts to offering kindness to all we meet — after all, my pets are always kind to me. And I believe that if we are given kindness, we need to give kindness back. 

4. Pets are the best company. If you are single, like I am, chances are you spend lots of time alone. Owning a pet keeps loneliness at bay.

5. I have met so many people because of my pets. Whenever I take Vodka with me, I am sure to meet a few new people because they want to meet Vodka. In the neighborhood where I live, I get to meet lots of people, too, more so if they are walking their dogs in the morning. I stop for people with dogs.

There are lots of people that I have met in my life that I may not have liked, but I have never met a dog that I did not like. I guess that’s because dogs put on no masks, no pretensions. They never try to impress me — they always just are and that make them all the more lovable.

If only people. . .