
"We are best protected when we are loved without qualification or expectation. For thousands of years, ever since mankind started to domesticate some animals on the planet and breed them to specification, owner and pet has grown more alike in looks and ways.
One of the best ways of teaching our young how to cope with responsibility is to enable them to grow from being an infant and through their childhood into young adulthood alongside a pet of their own. Developing a close relationship with a pet will enable the child to better develop relationships with others during their years of socialisation besides ensuring that they always know unqualified love in both human and creature whenever they meet it. They will also be guaranteed (especially if they have no brother or sister to mix with), never to be alone, however lonely they may feel. They can even talk to their pet during troubled times, tell them their problems and know that they will be listened to attentively and have their mood understood and respected. Such companionship is an asset worthy of its weight in gold to a worried soul.
The greatest lesson which the young person will learn through such a loving relationship with their pet is the sad truth that both man and beast is born to someday die and when one's time arrives for a creature to leave this earthly life, it brings with it a grievious depth of pain for the human survivor. However sad such an experience proves to be for the young person, through such sadness the person will grow stronger and be more prepared to cope with the human loss of a parent or loved one whenever such bereavement occurs in later life.
However, during the infancy of themself and pet, the loving child will do anything for their furry companion. Consider for one moment what they would do upon finding both pet and dad having fallen into the quicksand and they could only throw the safety rope to one of them as both struggled to keep their heads up high before going under shouting out, 'Help!'
Ah..... when all the water has drained from the cooking pot, what's left is always less than what you started with and that all life is about from cradle to grave; choices, choices, choices! What to save and what to let go?" William Forde: May 24th, 2014