Living With A Pet

For instance, when I was rooming with a former friend in college, her mother bought her a puppy. At that point, we already had a pet cat that we had found wandering around the dorms and had kept, so now we had two animals to deal with.

Because the cat was an indoor/outdoor cat, she was mostly kept outside. However, when she did come inside, she actually got along fine with the puppy. Because the dog we had was young, we were able to train it alongside of the cat to make sure that the two got along and also to make sure that the furniture wouldn't get ripped to shreds. However, not all pets are angels. Especially if you already have one pet in your home, introducing another pet into your household can be a bit tricky. If you have the option, see if you can do a trial run with your adoptive pet to see if things will work out. Most pet adoption agencies nowadays do this anyway.

One of the other things that you have to consider when you are thinking of getting a pet is the type of furniture that you are going to keep in your home. For instance, a leather couch may be easy to clean cat or dog hair off of, but can you really trust your pet alone with the couch when you are not there? There is the possibility with dogs to train them not to destroy furniture, but with cats, you may have to consider removing their claws, which is already a controversial issue. Other ideas to preserve your furniture involve sequestering the pet to one area of your home so that they do not have access to certain items. However, depending on the size of the space that you are going to leave them in as well as the duration that they would potentially have to stay there while you are at work, this may also cause a problem.

If you have children or even if you are a social being who often has friends and family over, you have to be considerate of this fact. Recognizing that not all people like animals is something that you need to come to terms with and plan accordingly if you are ever going to entertain guests in your home. For example, you may think that it is alright for your dog or cat to sit on the couch with you. However, other guests may not feel comfortable sitting on a couch where a dog has just been reclining. If your pets are �lap pets� or if they like to hover near people, you may have to put them in a separate room away from your guests so that your guests don't feel uncomfortable.

In the end, you have to make the decision as to whether or not your home and your lifestyle AND your personality are ready to adopt a pet. There are some people who find out that while they love the idea of having a pet cat or dog (or other animal), when they actually get the animal in their home, they find that it causes them more stress and anxiety than they had ever anticipated.