Learning From Our Mistakes as Pet Owners

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

26 Aug 2008 08:58 AM

Accidents don't make you a bad pet owner... as long as you learn from them.

I was catching up on posts in one of my favorite pet communities and saw a scary story. A young child knocked a lamp off a bedside table, which scared the family dog into making a run for it. When the dog jumped from bed to floor, she landed on the shards of the lamp and ended up severing nerves and tendons in one of her back legs. After emergency surgery, it looks like the dog will be okay. Thank goodness!

Do I think this family was being irresponsible? No way. Accidents happen... that's why they're called "accidents" and not "on-purpose-dents".

Do I think they're going to learn from this? It sounds like they will. Maybe they'll move the breakables to higher/safer locations and put the sturdier stuff in the clumsy-zone. I think for a while, everybody in the family is going to be extra-careful moving around the house.

Over at the cats-only boarding facility, my coworkers and I have been speculating about the future of Thimble, the cat who was on the wrong end of a raccoon fight. We fear that his owners are just going to keep letting him roam outside -- that they aren't going to learn from this experience.

I'd love to be proven wrong! I'd love for Thimble's family to supervise his outdoor adventures... or just keep him indoors all the time. Either one would help prevent a repeat (a very expensive repeat) of his misadventure with the raccoon.

I've tried very hard to learn from my mistakes as a pet owner. The way I see it, I'm responsible for the welfare of Moose and Lally. I have to make decisions and choices that benefit them -- whether that's a harness for walking Moose so he doesn't slip out of his collar or avoiding the attack Dachshunds of the world.

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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