exnihilo, Margaret and everyone else on this thread who clearly is not an “animal person”, I am going to say this as charitably as I can.
I have loved many pets, including cats, a rabbit, guinea pigs, and several others. The only reason I have not had a dog since young childhood is because my lifestyle and the needs of the other animals would make it unfair to bring a dog into our crowded home right now. If I live long enough, I will likely have a dog in my elder age when I no longer have to work and travel around all the time.
I have also been involved in animal rescue. I currently have a number of cats living with me who I adopted, mostly from kill shelters and other bad situations. These animals were in danger of death if not adopted by someone. A couple of them were “difficult cases” that had issues making them hard for the average person looking for a nice family cat to adopt (biting problems, litterbox issues, dispositions, etc.). They needed to live with an experienced cat person who can handle their idiosyncrasies. Another one of the cats was my deceased mother’s cat, who Mom dearly loved. Mom also rescued a lot of cats after she got interested in them because I was interested in them. I also have a number of friends who are involved in rescuing all sorts of animals from pit bulls to bears and/or have taken in strays.
I appreciate that not everyone is going to be that interested in an animal or “into” animals or want to have a pet. Some people have family responsibilities, allergies, limited budgets, or just would rather use their energies and spare time elsewhere. But these animals come into the world, in the case of pets partly through the irresponsibility of people who don’t spay/neuter, and they have needs. They do show affection, and any “animal person” will simply laugh at people who claim they don’t. We hear that all the time. We are made fun of and criticized all the time for caring about animals. We are told that only humans are worth caring about. Never mind that I and most of the people I know also contribute to human charities, and/or in other ways. For example, some of my rescue friends also have taken in foster children, or visit nursing homes with therapy animals.
We see working with these animals as important. The animals do not have a voice, or have legal protections that humans do, and some people see them as disposable. People abandon their pets when they move and the poor animal, who has been a pet its whole life, is not able to hunt for food and is easy prey for the first predator that comes along. One of my cats was abandoned in that way and there are many more in my hometown as there are many renters.
You get out of animals what you put into them. I have thanked God for my animals many times. They are a blessing in ways I can’t begin to describe. If you don’t feel affection for an animal, the animal senses it. They aren’t stupid. And you are doing the right thing by finding that animal another home, or taking it to a no-kill shelter (please not a kill shelter), where it will hopefully end up with someone who will value it. And please neuter and spay. That’s all.
