You are all set to finally have a pet. You’ve made all the necessary arrangements. And of course, you are utterly excited. But sometimes, something or the other always gets in the way. It could be financial constraints or spatial or time issues. And more often than not, the other members of your family do not love pets enough to have them in the house, as a part of their daily life. You try so hard to get them on your side, to get them to see, why you absolutely must have one, but to no avail. The reasons range from it being considered a bad investment, to genuine allergic reactions. In such cases, one must look at other alternatives to satisfy one’s craving of a pet.
When financial constraints, especially the initial investment is a matter of concern, such as in case of dogs, the easiest alternative is to adopt. You can adopt a lonely pup off the streets, and make sure it is well-immunized before getting too close to it, or you can also visit the local dog pound. In fact every few months, most cities host adoption camps for dogs and cats, where for a minimal price you can take home any pet of your choice; as long as you can assure the responsible authorities that you will treat them well.
This is an incredible way of contributing to a social cause that also happens to be close to your heart. You are saving a poor adorable soul from a life of misery or even imminent death and at the same time, you get to call someone your very own, and reap the benefits of a pet. At the same time, as is evident from the lack of services that cater to all the disowned animals on the street, you are doing your city a service by reducing the load on its resources, which are required for proper treatment of these animals.
Another way you can have the sense of being a pet owner, is when you have the option of choosing any animal as a pet of your own, with no legal responsibilities, per se. This is possible, when you start of regular feeding a stray animal in your locality or on your regular travel routes. You could choose a specific dog or a cat or even a cow, depending on which animal you see most often. You can choose one or more animals. The more you choose, the multiple are your rewards.
There is practically nothing else that you need to except provide them with a safe, edible meal regularly, but you can also choose to aid them in their physical well being with the help of a vet. This simple act of kindness will not go unacknowledged in the eyes of the animal or your peers. This will earn you goodwill amongst all, and the love and loyalty that it comes with from these beloved animals is incomparable. If you ever feel lonely, you can turn to them for comfort and security. They might even protect you from other more daunting peer.
Most zoos nowadays give its patrons the option of adopting one of its animals. It goes without saying that this does not involve you taking the said animal home, but just making sure it is well taken care of by providing the necessary stipulated funds. This makes sure that the animals gets its fair share of resources regularly and is in good health. You can adopt animals like lions and tigers to snakes, birds, turtles and deer, based on the availability of the animal in the zoo. You also have the option of choosing the time period during which you wish to assist the zoo financially. It could be monthly or annual.
Volunteering is another great way you can avail the benefits of living with pets. The volunteering can be practiced at zoos, during awareness drives, your neighbors’ or even at some veterinarian’s clinic. The work involved could be menial to daunting but you get to be around animals the whole time. At the zoo, the animals in question are different and depending on the zoos capability, the tasks you manage may or may not involve direct contact. Volunteering at a clinic, while you may not do any actual medical procedure, you learn a lot, meet tons of like minded people, comfort pets in distress and of course enjoy the joy radiating from healed pets. The easiest of the lot, is walking your neighbor’s dog. They might be busy and have insufficient time to spend with them; you can chime in and bask in the pet’s love with no strings attached. One might even be able to treat this as a viable source of income, if you do it well.
The benefits of being around pets for the young to the old have been described and documented many times. And when you can experience the same without much of a commitment, you will understand if you can really take care of them. This saves a lot of efforts, on your part as well as that of the pet. Also, as you learn, you never know, as a young student, you might just consider to make it your profession.