Happy Critters

I was spending an afternoon at the home of my friend, who has the cat and the dog.  This time, my friend was sleeping after lunch, and I was going through FaceBook, when the cat got up on the arm of my chair, and started to purr!

She purred and purred and purred, and I stroked her while she was purring.  After a while, she took off, and checked out her food situation, and then came and sat on the rug. 

The dog was fast asleep.  If he's hungry, he comes up to my friend and wags his tail.  Sometimes, after a meal, he sits down and wags his tail, for no obvious reason. 

Both the purring and the tail- wagging are telling us that they're happy!  They're happy at us.  This is one reason, I'm sure, that people have cats and dogs: they're happy, and they make houses into more cheerful places.  Of course, having a dog or cat uses up some money; they have to have food (though some experts insist that home-cooked food is best for them, like boiled chicken and rice ... I don't really know (did I hear yams?  I can't remember; I guess I could Google it).  You really can't be depressed if you have a dog around. 

Most cats don't really try to cheer you up, but they certainly are company.  You can talk at them, but they don't understand a thing you say.  A really smart cat might pick up a word or two; like I know my friend's cat knows 'outside' (she's an indoor/ outdoor cat).  If you ask her "Outside?" she immediately runs to the door. 

Don't just run out and get a pet just from my recommendation; don't forget that I don't have a pet either!  And don't buy a fancy pet from the pet store; there are hundreds of pets waiting to be adopted at the humane society.  If you do get a pet, please have them fixed.  (Some people who get female cats, leave them intact.   Then a boy cat comes along and gets her pregnant, and once the kittens arrive, no one can bring themselves to kill them, they look so cute!!  So fixing the pets as soon as they're ready for it is the kindest thing to do.  Then, (unless you're a maniacal anti-vaxxer) you must give them their shots, to prevent them getting distemper, and rabies, and so on.  (Shots are expensive.)

Wow.  I hadn't expected to make an appeal to get a pet when I started this post!  If you do get one, and it's a female, you could call it after one of my heroes!

Kay