I have had dogs and cats in my 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 university, and as soon as I got my own place I went out and got a puppy. In retrospect, this was a foolish and irresponsible decision on my part, but I’m lucky 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 big house on a large piece of property, I have an important section 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 city. But alligators are not the only threat outside that my 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 actually 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 and create new hives. That’s why I constantly get outdoor bee and wasp extermination at least once a year.