PEARL 30

Pet Care

Our pets are there when we need them, providing companionship and

love. And they’re consistent — they seem to always be up (except for
cats — who can figure them out?).
Pets provide our kids with a wonderful opportunity to learn
responsibility. Most of us agree to take pets into our homes with the
proviso that they are our kids’ responsibility. Our kids must feed them,
clean their messes, and tend to their houses, cages, or tanks. But all too
often, we end up trudging along behind Fifi with the pooper-scooper or
transferring Goldie and Hawn into a mixing bowl so we can scrub the
rocks in their fish tank.
It doesn’t have to be like that. We can keep the responsibility of pet
care on our children’s shoulders, but it takes real parental chutzpah.
One mother of two girls lived by the mealtime motto “I feed only four
mouths.” If her daughters hadn’t fed the family’s cat and dog by 5:00
p.m., then the four mouths were Mom, Dad, cat, and dog. “You’re not
eating dinner tonight,” Mom would explain to her daughters, “because I
used my energy feeding Fred and Charlemagne instead.” Then she would
give her daughters a kiss on the cheek, smile, and say, “We’re sure going
to miss you at the dinner table.”
If that technique doesn’t get results, then wise parents will attempt to
find the pet a different owner. Explain kindly and without criticism to the
children, “Buster really needs somebody who will feed him on a regular
schedule,” or, “Budgee needs someone who will always clean the cage
because he really must have his cage cleaned.” Then give the animal