Pets

I don't like keeping pets very much. Maybe I was bitten by someone's lion dog when I was a child. I always worry too much about them that they are pooping around the house, getting dirty, and making trouble. When I see some lovely pets, I like to watch them. I won't hug them because I'm scared. I don't know how to get close to them and I am afraid of their bodies like someone afraid the caterpillars.

I have realized how much people here love pets since I came Canada. Most Canadian families have one pet or more. They treat pets as their family. They even call them boys and girls - not animals. My children wanted a pet so very much that they always asked me to get a pet. When my little daughter was born in 2016, my friend was giving the birth kittens away for free because there were too many pets in the family. I saw the cute pictures that my friend posted in social media. I heard that the cat is easy to take care of, so I asked my sons whether they would be happy if we could have one kitten. They were excited and my oldest son made a promise to take care of it. Later, we went to the pet store to prepare what the kitten needs. After the kittens were weaned for one month, we had our first pet, a girl kitten who we named Popo in our family.

We have had no experience, so we started to learn how to feed a kitten and clean up the litter. At the beginning, my oldest son who was 10 years old at the time, he was able to take care of Popo for a while. Gradually, he became lazy and less active. Every time I needed to ask him to work, then he would clean up and put food and water out. Popo was growing up from being shy to running around, scratching at the couch and doing a little bit of damage. My little daughter was only a few months old and sometimes she hung out with Popo, so I was a little worried that Popo might scratch her. My husband went back to China to work during this period. I felt it was a bit hard to look after three children and a kitten all by myself. I let my son to take care of Popo, and he just played. He told me that he didn't like cats any more. He wanted a dog. Oh, my God, it made me so angry. After a month, I talked with my friend about my situation. She also felt that I was not suitable to keep a cat, so she took Popo back. She tells me the stories of Popo sometimes. I can see the pictures of Popo doing well in her family in social media, but I still feel guilty about it because I didn't take the responsibility to take good care of Popo. I feel very sorry for my friend and Popo.

Now my children are always asking me to have a dog. I don't even listen to them anymore. I tell them to wait until you are old enough to get one and take good of it.