Babs

All the talk of having pets being morally wrong made me think. All of the pets my family has had during my lifetime have all, in a sense, been rescued. None of them came from shelters, yet none of them came from breeders either. For this post, I would like to talk about our one remaining pet, Babs, because it is the story I can tell the best.

We took Babs in as a kitten. She appeared in our neighborhood out of nowhere when I was five years old. The first time I saw her, my parents and I had just left the house to go somewhere. A little black kitten darted from the yard under one of the cars parked in our driveway. After a few moments of coaxing, she came out. My mom opened her car door to see if the kitten wanted to come with us, but she just sniffed the outside and did not get in. My next memory of seeing her was at my next-door neighbor's house. She tried to come into the house when the door was open to let me in, but my neighbor shooed her out, saying something about how she was a pest. I felt sorry for the little kitten.

Finally, there was a night when my parents took her into our house. I can't remember why, but I do know they were going to let her back outside the next day. When they did, it was pouring hard outside, and the kitten just sat on our front porch at our door, meowing and meowing to be let back in. My parents finally decided to bring her back into the house. My guess is that, since we already had two cats and a dog, they weren't thinking about having another cat and that is why they tried to put her back outside. This idea is also fueled by the fact that after they brought her back inside, for the next few days, my parents brought her around the neighborhood, asking if she belonged to anyone. They also put an ad in our town's newspaper. No one came forward and claimed the kitten. When no one else stepped forward, my parents made the final decision to make her a part of our family. We took her to the vet, got her checked out, named her Babs after the vet told us she was a girl, and she has been ours ever since.

Babs has led a happy life since we took her in. She loves attention and will seek it out when she wants it. She knows when she's supposed to be fed and will remind us of it until she gets her food. She knows who to go to so she can sit in a lap and be petted, and she knows who to go to when she wants to play. Or if she's lying down and one of us starts to play with her, she'll join in if she feels like it. When she's not playing or wanting attention, she can be found in numerous spots around the house where she likes to go and lie down and be comfortable.

With all that said and the arguments against keeping pets, is it wrong to take in a stray animal and give it a happy life that it would not have were it left alone?