Daily writing prompt

What is good about having a pet?

The way I would have worded it is what is bad about having a pet? That is easy to answer. There is the expense, the cleaning up. There is all the training, especially dogs. There is the problem of getting someone to watch after them if you have to leave them for a while. And the worse part, of course, saying good bey when it gets time for them to go. I am 73 and I have seen many pets, both dogs and cats, get sick, old or killed. I really don’t like that part.

As for all the rest, that parts good, very good. Now you see, isn’t that easier than having to list all the good stuff, like the companionship, the humor. Then of course, it is nice to have a dog curl up next to you while you watching a sad movie or something. It’s really nice to take them for walks and to play fetch with them.

When we had a border collie. he entertained the neighbors too. More than once, we went in to a restaurant and someone working there said they recognized us. We were the one with a dog that chased bubbles or RC cars. We also had a dog that loved to swim. She really liked water. We scolded my older son many times for turning on the water in the back yard. Then, one day, my wife caught her red pawed. She was turning on the facet between her paws. I guess she got a drink, played in it a while then, of course, on one had told her to turn it off. My guess is she saw one of us doing it.

We had a calico cat that kept stealing the bread and hiding it. The next door neighbors cat was visiting us one morning and stole the last slice of ham my son was going to put on his sandwich. Wouldn’t have been so bad, but my wife had to scramble to find enough change so he could buy lunch.

I really wish we could get another border collie but that would be irresponsible. We would not be able to take proper care of it. They really need a lot of attention and, at our age, he might outlive us, leaving him stranded.

I have a photo which I posted before, but that was a long time ago. In this case it is our first border collie chasing an RC car. He always had to have a stick in his mouth, though I have no idea why. We could tell when he was tired because he’d keep tipping the car over. Then he looked over at me as if proudly saying, “Did you see what I did?”

Then, it seemed overnight, age got to him. He couldn’t hear, see or even smell. Also he had a heart problem. I really think he was the toughest one to lose.