Tuesday's Top Ten PLUS Ten: Joys...& "Joys" of Owning a Pet

This Tuesday the topic is pets. My house has many animals: dogs, cats, horses, chickens, turkeys, a pig, and usually some sort of reptile (little brothers and their lizards...), and have had several others in the past, but I don't have experience with all of them, so I will mention the ones I know well. Of course anybody who has ever owned one, knows there are literal "joys" and sarcastic "joys" to having them...so I will write 5 things that are truly enjoyable about owning pets, and 5 things that are..well not so enjoyable about owning pets :) Be sure to read BecKyle's list too!

First I will go with my sarcastic (if you will) 5.

1. Hair. Everywhere.
I have yet to posses a pet that does not shed all over the place. Yes of course they exist because God created things differently...but hair all over the place is definitely a "joy". Speaking of having animal hair all over, reminds me of horses. If you ride, than you know that after a day full of work with horses, when you get into the shower you smell like a wet horse. I remember taking extra long showers because I couldn't seem to stop smelling like that, and actually get clean.

2. Scents are contagious.
After doing activities with your pet, you have a 99% chance of smelling like them. Which probably attests to #1.

My baby horse "Denim" was sniffing me,
because I smelled like her

3. Tails are of the devil
Just to clarify, I do not actually have the impression that my pets tail is demon possessed...it can just seem that way sometimes. Our labs have tails with a mind of their own. We joke about our black lab named Moses, calling him the "black tornado", because when he comes in the house from the pen, it's just a black blur...and you'd bet you're going to be caught with the tail. This also happens when you're just innocently sitting in the saddle on a horse, and all of a sudden you get whipped with that darned tail. Ouch. Like I said before, tails are of the devil.

4. Bathing
I really hate bathing animals. I don't have a very broad range of experience in this area, but any animal I have ever bathed was basically like torture. What a "joy".

5. Stop licking me. No, really.
I don't get why some animals feel the need to lick constantly. I mean if your dog runs up to me, jumps up on my legs and licks me..I'm not going to care, no harm done. But when a dog constantly slathers me in saliva..that's when it gets yucky. (Yes, dogs of the Widener household, I'm talking about you)

BUUUUUT as in most situations (my favorite being the Gospel ) the bad does not outweigh the good. I'm not a huge animal person, but I do enjoy owning pets and will probably have pets my entire life (Lord willing). Here's the positive 5.

1. Cuddle Buddy!
Laying across a bareback horse, or snuggling a dog on the couch, you can't deny that pets can be awesome cuddle buddies..and who doesn't want one of those?

Our dog "Dally"..in her more innocent days

2. Stress Release
Have you ever gotten on a horse and just ran? Of course if that's something you're comfortable with, there's not much else on your mind. Now granted, if you aren't comfortable with riding on the back of a running horse, there's several other things going through your mind, and usually frantically (believe me, I know). But my point is, animals can be huge stress relievers.

A younger version of myself, on my favorite horse "Zoom"

3. Responsibility
I know firsthand how much pets can help someone learn responsibility. When you have to learning what it means to take care of something that is living, a pet is a great way to start.

My guinea pig "Nibbler" was probably the first to
teach me responsiblity

4. Love
A good pet (and most of them) will seriously love you, no matter what you do. I mean if you left a human in a kennel all day while you were gone, made them control their bladder and even wait for food until you got back...they'd be out for blood. But pets (and the best example for this one is dogs) are just the opposite.

My sister Grace and I on "Reno", both the horse and the
sister taught me much about love

5. Fun!
I am a fairly competitive person, and I know I am not the only one. But whether it be competing and performing with your animal, or simply taking a walk and running around outside...they're just plain fun. And you can't argue with that.

If you look closely at how Mr. Zoom was standing, you'll see that
 he posed for the camera...like the champ that he was.