We do not allow pets in our condominium. I know of a cat in one apartment and we often heard a parrot barking like a dog in another.  The parrot had to go because it made too much noise. Not allowing pets is a prudent rule.  While some people like pets and want to own them, others do not like them and are either allergic to, afraid of or are offended by the way they rub up against, smell you or leave their droppings that owners sometimes miss.

I would dearly love a dog in my home if it were one of the cute and super-intelligent kinds we sometimes see on television or the movies.  If my home was big enough and there was enough property around it, the dog could run, root, sniff and dig if it had a mind to.  Carol would rather not. She is particularly careful to avoid cats for their dander.  Some people are dog or cat people.  Cats, with all kinds of ceramic replicas as well as free roaming cats that were allowed to get up on the counter as food was being prepared, obsessed one friend.

Others like birds.  Our daughter, Nancy, had cockatiels. They are fascinating to watch and some sing and talk like canaries and parrots. They also, are not unlike humans, and are dirty and carry diseases.  They need a lot of care needing to be supplied with seeds, crackers and water and changing the newspaper under them in their cages.

Ferrets are interesting and amusing little weasel-like animals.  They are popular in snake country for they are fearless and enemies of snakes. Dogs and cats can be paper trained or house trained but I am not sure about ferrets.

The bigger the animal, the larger the space to keep them is required.  There are limits to the size of animals and the home or property where they are kept. One man I know has four half-wolf/half-dogs in his fenced property.  I do not think he walks them and they stay put where they fight and howl.  A tiger in a small urban apartment is not an anomaly; it goes against reason.  First, it is not a pet.  Second, like those accustomed to human keepers who use the animals to entertain, it must be noted, a tiger jumping through hoops of fire is still a tiger. It keeps its will and power to eat his human keeper and “trainer”.

I like pets.  I have had tail-less hamsters (who will bite and draw blood) and gerbils with long tails that are more alert than hamsters and will amuse us with their antics.  Both, when escapees from their cages will make nests out of your rugs or carpets by pulling out fibers and camp out in corners and behind furniture.  I have kept them and raised them. I have used them in my teaching about psychology, socializing and survival.  How they survived against much larger animals in burrows that mimic our lives, teaches us how we live in our caves in huge apartment buildings in an impacted megalopolis. I have raised tropical fish but never ventured into salt-water tropicals because of the cost.

The one thing that strikes me as very clear is the need to expend a great deal of time to care for animals or fish you keep as pets.  We have wrenched them from independent lives in terrains we choose to modify for our own needs.  Their habitats are now within our confines and we must feed, water and clean up after them.  I would prefer that any pet of mine would take care of me. – More on this at a later date.