No More Pets for Me

For as long as I can remember, I have had pets in my life.  As a kid, my family had loving and wonderful Retrievers and Labs as pets and o how I adored them.  When I left home I decided to have birds as pets and I never had a day go by without enjoying their wondrous singing and their voices as pure as angels in Heaven.

 

Each of my birds had a unique personality; and each touched my heart in their very own special way.  I shall always remember each for what they brought to my life.  Scottie was probably my favorite because I was able to see what he looked like; bright orange with a crown on his head.  A canary with a very unique personality.  Chip, and Robbie, who was named for my late brother Robert, were both wonderful in their very own way but unfortunately for me, I was unable to see what they looked like and I had to use visualization.  Nevertheless they meant the world to me and there were several others like Cory, Jamie, Alexei, Micha, Alexis, and Gretzky.

           

So, why am I saying that "no more pets for me?"  Well, here goes.  When I was able to see, it was easier to look after the little songsters and it was so much more enjoyable for me to see them fly around.  Now however, despite my still enjoying their selfless company, I don't seem to have the confidence anymore.  I am constantly afraid of them escaping if I hold the door to the cage open for too long.  True it is that for sighted persons it's probably the same; but when you're almost sightless it's even scarier if they escape and you don't know it let alone where they have wandered to.

 

This happened twice with Robbie and it really scared me but thank God that mom was there to help get him back into his cage.  What made me make up my mind that I would not want anymore birds as pets was an incident with Robbie.  One morning when we awoke, I went to feed him and after having put his apple into his container and changed his water, mom noticed that he was lying at the bottom of his cage.  He was dying.

 

Now, if mom had not spotted him, I probably would not have known that he was dying until sometime later when I would have noticed that he was not singing and by that time he would probably have been dead.  This scared and made me extremely sad and brought much pain to me.  So, no more pets for me.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share my thoughts.  Visit www.cnib.ca or www.rnib.org to learn more about the world of blindness.