As a child I was afraid of dogs and as an adult I have spent several years taking steps towards a life that allowed me to have one. Until last summer I finally felt that I met the necessary requirements to give a decent life to a pet. In other words, he was aware of the responsibility that it entails but, at the same time, he was not really aware of the extent to which it was. Because That’s how six months began cleaning diarrhea and making holes in my workday to take the vet to a dog that kept losing weight alarmingly.
The street is full of adorable dogs with whom we come across just a few seconds of walking, as well as the social networks of clips in which they steal our hearts with their graces and the protectors go to machete to strike a sensitive chord when they describe them and They tell their story in their pages. But, what happens during the rest of the time? What is not seen on Instagram?
The benefits of adopting a dog
In one of the most complicated moments of adjusting to living with my newly adopted dog in a shared apartment and caring for him in a chronic illness yet to be diagnosed (and which was consuming my savings at breakneck speed), a friend asked me: “Is there something that you like?”. I stopped to think and it didn’t take me long to answer: “give him hugs and kisses”.
Currently, there are more households with pets than inhabited by children under 15 years of age. Loneliness, precariousness and instability, both emotionally and at work, are some of the factors that could explain this phenomenon in a country with a stagnant birth rate and single-person households on the rise. In fact, in recent years, the term “perrijo” has become fashionable, which may exemplify how lately we have gone from an outdated conception of the dog as a guardian of the house to, perhaps, committing the sin of excessively humanizing them.
Neurologists pointed out during confinement that the deprivation of the sense of touch affects our emotional state since, tTouching and being touched regulates our hormonal balance. This is because it increases oxytocin (related to happiness) and lowers cortisol (stress). Although, according to the experts, we should not turn our pets into an emotional substitute, our socioeconomic context and consequent living conditions are what they are.
Thus, a recent study by the University of Michigan indicates that living with a pet for at least five years May slow cognitive decline in older people. Previous studies have already suggested that the human-animal bond may have health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and stress, which can negatively affect cognitive function. However, although more research is needed to confirm the results, I can provide another personal information.
“The bond between human and animal can lower blood pressure and stress”
Like it or not, take care of my Bite it forces me to take my eyes off the screen and leave the house at least three times a day, which for someone with a sedentary lifestyle (like me, who has been telecommuting since before the pandemic) is more than necessary. Finally (and the “last” I have to say is literal, if I want to be honest), adopting a dog also has for me (as it does for many other owners) a point of social contribution.
problem adoptions
However, adopting is not always easy. For health reasons, I was forced to bring home a hypoallergenic pet, but in the shelters purebred dogs are in great demand. So, when I found out that a family was going to abandon a water dog, I jumped in the pool and brought it with me directly from their house without imagining what would come right after: the consequences of an undiagnosed (or purposefully concealed) exocrine pancreatic insufficiency that took a dog that should have weighed 18 kilos to only 10.
It was an unconscious decision motivated by ignorance and now I know that adopting without a protector is like getting on a trapeze without a net. These organizations and their foster homes act as intermediaries who, in addition to finding a suitable family for the pets, also treat the health and character problems with which they arrive, until they are ready to start life in another home.
In the same way, after the adoption they do not disregard and follow up in which, if the relationship does not work out, it is possible to discuss options with them. So, although now I can’t imagine my life without him, when I started my story with Mordisco, I often felt alone and groping in the dark in a job I had no prior notion about.
Precisely, the support of a protector was what saved Irene S. and her old dog from both living unhappy. Although she was aware that adopting a greyhound, with the fears with which they arrive, was not going to be an easy job, “what I found exceeded all expectations”, that 30-year-old journalist tells trends . The association he attended gave him the dog that they considered more in tune with his previous experience and lifestyle, but they were wrong and he found himself at home with an animal that could not be left alone:
“Suddenly my life became totally subject to the dog. I did and repeated all the expert guidelines for treating separation anxiety for months and to no avail. In order to be able to go out for dinner one night, I had to give him a two-hour walk beforehand and record audio with my voice to put it on a loop so that he would think I was at home.
“My life became totally dependent on the dog”
Although she was willing to keep trying until she found a solution, It was the protector who, seeing that the situation had not improved after nine months, suggested that Irene try it with another greyhound.. This time, the pieces of the puzzle did fit. Both for her and for Diego, who over time also found a more suitable house to overcome her fears. Something that assures us that she ended up doing and that, to this day, she is “absolutely happy” on a farm where she lives with two cats, a turtle and another dog.
“I see him in the photos now and he doesn’t have that terrified look on his face that he had when he was with me. In the end, as much as we loved each other, I was a person who worked all day at home and that exacerbates separation anxiety. Also, they benefit from the presence of another dog to learn from. For all these reasons, this experience made him realize that, in reality, “It is not us but they who decide who their owners are”.
feelings of regret
During the first days of having Mordisco I heard people around me who had a dog give me advice about something that I had never heard them verbalize before: “When you feel like you don’t want to have it anymore, don’t feel guilty”. So I thought it was impossible for something like this to happen to me because I was informed and sure of my decision. Of course, I couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, what I now think is strange is that regret never crosses your mind.
Patricia D. explains it to us like this: “there are days when it becomes difficult for you and days when you say ‘it’s great that I have a puppy that greets me when I get home'”. She decided to buy a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy shortly after losing her previous dog to cancer. “When she first got sick I selfishly regretted it because I didn’t see myself prepared to suffer another dog’s illness.”
Although, also when he does the math and realizes how expensive everything related to pets is and how much it impoverishes you or when he breaks something, like the computer. “You regret it for a few minutes but then he comes with his little faces and I forget”confess.
For her, who became the mother of her second dog in the midst of a pandemic, it was important to decide on the character that her new pet was going to have, since she had just lived with a very complicated adult beagle. Because of this, she felt the need to play it safe with a calmer race. She also thought that this time it would be easier as she already knew all that it entailed but she soon realized that “As with children, what you learned with one does not work for you with another”.
“What you learn with one is not useful for another”
Something that has positively surprised him is how quickly the puppies learn. However, she claims to have spent four months and 600 euros on training to treat her hyper-attachment. “Now I see that it is basic to take a dog to an educator to work with him because sometimes we are not able to educate them”.
If the pocket allows it, consulting an ethologist is something that Irene also recommends if problems with our dog overwhelm us. But above all, she recommends prevention “thinking very, very well before adopting if you can have a dog. You have to do it always putting yourself in the worst and thinking that race fits with your lifestyle because no matter how much you want a mastiff, for example, it may weigh more than you and you won’t be able to walk it without losing your shoulder blades”.
A good idea, if you have never had a dog and want to try, may be to adopt an older dog. “It will last you 3 or 4 years and, in addition to seeing if you like that life, you are giving a good end to the oldest dog in a shelter.” And it is that, in line with what they tell parents at information meetings about adopting a child, she is also of the opinion that “It is not us who have the right to a dog, but they have the right to have a house and not live outdoors”.
Photos | @miayuste