Pets, Loving and Troublesome

Many families have pets that are treated as an important member of the family.  At the same time there are a fair number of families that have pets just as pets.  Some families have pets instead of children.

I grew up in a family where cats have been a major member of the family.  We had a few cats that showed up and admittedly I treated them terribly, and then we had cats that lived a good long life and we had tearful goodbyes.  We had cats who had their lives taken much too early, and then also got to listen to immature dog lovers who bragged about their killing of cats.  Since I grew up a paper carrier I did not have the best relationships with dogs.  Over time we had a tortoise, some chickens, and we had a rat for a while.  All of which were pleasant pets.

After leaving home I was listening to one of the radio shows and the host said some very thoughtful words.  These words still stick to me several years later.  The words he said were "Pets are here to remind of us about our mortality."  Adding to that I would also say that they remind us to live in the now with them because they may be gone before you know it.

My wife grew up with a dog in her life.  She also had rabbits and chickens as well.  The later ones she was more involved with raising.  After we got married I convinced her that cat's were more independent and we adopted two cats as indoor cats since we live close to the edge of town where coyotes wander.  She very quickly felt that I deceived her with how much they bugged her for attention and food.  A lot different from the cats i grew up with.  While I chose to adopt the black domestic short hair female, Princess, in the end she chose my wife, while the bright and always seeming to be cheerful boy, Jichan, that she chose eventually chose to be with me all the time.

Princess

Jichan

Six and a half years later the shy quiet Princess passed from cancer.  It was tearful, and my wife took it hard.  A month later, my first dog, Musashi, came into my life.  He is very playful and always cheerful, now.  When we got him, he was quite, and calm, and what we didn't know, he had pneumonia.  Several vet visits, and many antibiotics later he became what his breed is supposed to be like.  Eventually the only problem that came up was that the boys were boys and liked hanging out.  My wife missed her cat and her character.  This led to our most recent addition Vivi.  A beautiful grey domestic short hair that exhibits many of the similar characteristics of princess.  We'll see because every animal is it's own character, and that is part of the reason we love them.

Vivi

Musashi

When Opportunity Comes a Knocking

In the time that My Wife and I have been married, we have seen a variety of divorces.  One of the most interesting was a wife that claimed her husband had been keeping her from advancing herself.  After going their separate ways, she finished a degree that and put a proud post up about completing something her ex would not let her do.

While I admit to not knowing all the details, to me the post is part of the problem.  I know here in America more than any other place that opportunities are actually closed to people if they make too much.  Financial aid is no longer available and instead everything comes out of your own pocket.  This does not say that this is what happened.  Additionally, the post raises the question in my mind about how often did they talk about it.  Additionally just making a public post like that is spiteful.  Why not just highlight the good of look what I did.

When I was growing up my mom was a housewife until my brother and I started high school.  The two of us being the youngest got a fair amount of fending for ourselves because of being the youngest.  This big change was because my mom decided to get a part time job that later became a full time job and make some money on the side.  This was a decision that my dad and her talked about and so we were considered old enough and away she went.

My wife has been a corporate woman almost all her life after college.  After we had been married for 10 years she decided that she was tired of the extra traveling to and from work, the all too often that she had to work extra hours, and the many times trying to accomplish the last minute impossible task.  Taking all this into account she decided it was time for a career change and a change in lifestyle.  She stopped working and now is at home most all the time.  Along with that she still has a strong desire to work, but more on her own pace and schedule.  Because of that we have been pursuing other opportunities.  Some of which is blogging, and affiliate marketing.  Also been working on other opportunities.  I have been working with her because I respect her and love her, and I want to see here succeed.  I feel this is a strong part of our marriage.  Going back to one of the things that I firmly believe, which is that I think to many people forget that marriage is more like a team effort, and it takes both sides to succeed and last. 

PS The other articles written in Japanese are the opinions and thoughts of my wife.  Please feel free to read and check them out.