I love alliteration, and one of the editorial writers in the World Herald had the heading of The Pope, Pets, and Parenthood. This pope is like those old ads for E. F. Hutton; when he speaks, we listen!!
There were any number of replies, pro and con, of course. But I thought I might add my two cent's worth here. I think His Holiness made an important point. People are choosing not to have children, for one reason or another, and instead, are pouring all that love on cats and dogs. In San Francisco, there are more dogs than kids!
You know me, I'm not a cat lover; I still believe that dogs have owners, cats have staff. And though I would never endorse any form of animal cruelty, I also think there are times when pain free euthanasia is preferable to spending thousands of dollars on things like amputations, wheeled contraptions, and radiation on animals.
A recent episode of All Creatures Great and Small made an excellent point. Jenny, the young sister of Helen, love interest of James, has a lively dog who likes to chase the neighbor's sheep. He doesn't harm them, just scares them! Jenny's father says he will have to be put down and James cannot bear to see a healthy animal put to sleep when he could be trained. And he does just that. Trains him.
In case you can't tell, I love following this series, and could hardly wait for this season to begin. Also, in this first of the new season, James is offered a job in Glasgow in an up to date clinic with the “new” x-ray machine. The owner there says, “Pets is where it's at, James.” As a lot of you probably know, it's getting harder and harder to find vets who will do large animal practice.
Also, of course, I could not imagine a marriage without children. But I can certainly agree that you are spared a lot of expense, headache, and loss of sleep if you don't!! When a newly wed informs her old neighbor she is “in the family way”, he replies,
“Good, now you will find out what love is.”
What I'm saying, honestly, it's your choice not to have children, and even to love a pet instead, but spending huge amounts of money on a pet when children are starving every day seems cruel to me. I've had pets, and the love of a dog is something everyone should experience, but dogs have fairly short life spans, and we owe them a peaceful trip over the Rainbow Bridge, without spending piles of money to do that.
And, if you want to know how the vets in rural Nebraska do their thing, all you have to do is check on that husband and wife pair in Hartington. They also have kids!!
