I have had dogs and cats in our life since I was born.
After thinking about it recently, I realized I haven’t gone one year of my life without having pets.
I lived at home until I graduated school, and as soon as I got our own place I went out and got a puppy. In retrospect, this was a foolish and irresponsible decision on my part, but I’m fortunate that it worked out in the end. You have to spend a lot of time taking care of a pet, especially with the walks outside, the trips to the vet, and the hygiene care they need on a rolling basis. Now that I live in a large home on a big piece of property, I have a massive part fenced out back that the dogs can run around in throughout the day hours. Since we live in a rural suburb, I have to be mindful of the wildlife around here. When our youngest dog was still a puppy, I constantly watched him while outside because of the alligators that live in the freshwater lakes and streams in this neighborhood. But alligators are not the only threat outside that our pets face. I also have to get annual wasp and bee extermination to keep the hives at a minimum. The wasps, bees and yellow jackets get into our yard absolutely because we live next to stateland that has no developments or housing on it of any kind. Once you leave a few hives alone, the wasps and bees multiply plus create current hives. That’s why I consistently get outdoor bee and wasp extermination at least once a year.
Yellow jacket rescue