KEYS TO GETTING YOUR ACT TOGETHER II

OWN A PET OR PLANT

The article suggests to take your dog on a long walk, but I think it goes beyond that. We once had several cats growing up, but pussu, pussycat, busu and kitty-kitty were not quite pets. To us they were as good as animals of burden whose reasons for existing in our house was to kill all the rats that ate through sacks of rice, beans and stockfish. They were cute when they were kittens but when they grew older, they were just too bold for their own good and would jump from the floor to the dining table to steal my one piece of meat in my bowl of soup and scratch me at the same time. Whenever this happens, you can forget any hopes of getting another piece of meat. This is why I cannot stand cats. I have also had run-ins with a pet monkey, parrots, and pigeons and not to mention snakes and dogs. All of which have long stories to accompany them. I usually don’t do pets, but one of old roommates broke me in with her menopausal beagle that was controllable. My new roommate has a Great Dane and I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I’ll eventually own some toy-dogs and may be bunny rabbits because they are so cute and cuddly, but how do I expect to be responsible for them if I am not responsible for other things. My former roommate, Singto owned a rat-like animal called a gerbil named Ayo. Last Hurricane season, she left it in my care because the power was out, and I decided to spend the night at home since I had been at work most of the night. The windows were rattling, the wind was whistling, poor Ayo was scratching at his cage and dumb little me thought he was frightened by the hurricane. Overcome with compassion and concern, I let the creature out of the cage and into this ‘roller-ball-thingy’ that he runs around the house in. Why did I wake up the next morning to find the roller ball lid on the floor and the roller-ball empty with Ayo, gone! I was sad and searched the whole house and lay food around to bait it. I know my roommate was upset, but it was a ‘rat’ so she could not dignifingly express her anger publicly over it. Till today, we don’t know what happened to the hamster and have not seen any remains; funny enough everyone thinks I killed it and even used it for ritual (lol). Des on the other hand owned plants and every now and then I took the responsibility of watering them. I nearly killed them by putting too much water or not watering them at all for a while. I changed the water in one Chinese bamboo-like plant that produces it’s own fungi food that stinks up the water. Once again, trying to be a good plant keeper, I changed the water and the plant nearly starved to death. My point is that resposibilty develops from taking ownership to something, and owning a living being can teach you a lot about life and organization. It is like having children, or pretending to do so. People who have kids may not be as organized, but when it comes to anything relating to their children, you see a different side of them. You don't have to go out and adopt a child or pet, own something that you can take care of and be responsible for. A living thing is of value to you, will give you a routine and allow you appreciate life and nature. It can also lead you towards finding spirituality when you think of it as part of our divine duty to have dominion over the creatures of this earth. As human beings, we are the ordained care-takers of our environment and it is a huge responsibility. Perhaps, the most important one yet, and if we continue to over look it, the more chaos we may continue to have. Now that does not mean that you should go to Africa and bring back a lion or Gorilla from your Safari trip to Kenya and say you are trying to save them from extinction. No! you aint no Crocodile Hunter. That's just plain suicide for you and Christmas meat for them. May be this will put it in perspective; imagine if God was careless with us and was not responsible enough to keep ours hearts pumping and our physical state in order, do you think you will be reading this. Am I making sense?