This was a question that my wife and I have been pondering over the past week or so. Mainly because one of our youngest cats Ebony has gone missing. She is not quite a year old and is the most gentle and loving cat we have ever had. She never ventured outside the garden, yet one night she went out and never returned.
My daughter was, as you can imagine, enormously upset. She went around our village with her friends trying to find her and we also put up posters on every tree in the area. Unfortunately, there was still no sign and things seem final.
Every time we have lost a pet, through old age or illness, or loss, we have always asked the question, ‘why do we do it?’ Maybe it’s because that apart from our dog, all of our animals have been rescued. Even our disabled rabbit was saved from an animal auction when my wife couldn’t bear the thought of it going somewhere bad. We can’t let an animal that is going to suffer, stay where it is, we have to give it a good home.
However, we still go through all of the upset and pain of losing them, yet we go through it all again the next time. We open up our hearts to those that depend on us for food and shelter, knowing that they will almost certainly die before us and leave us heartbroken. Maybe it’s because we as humans are sociable animals at heart, we hate the thought of being on our own. If we were pets in a shop window, there would be a sign next to us saying ‘Must be kept in groups.’
Whatever the reason, Ebony will not be the last to join our family, and she won’t be the last that we lose. However, for us, the companionship and love that they give us outweighs the sadness to come. After all, if we stopped doing something because we knew it would eventually end, we wouldn’t do anything at all.
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