Wolran Kim
Mar 01, 2010
My Unconditional Best Friend, Toby
Name: Toby. Age at present: Thirteen months old. Weight: 3.7 lb. Breed: Maltese dog.
In May of last year, when I went to pick up this puppy the size of a fist, I felt like I was flying across the sky. That's why I got a speeding ticket. My new baby came home and got a new name, Toby. It gave me a mysterious feeling, almost the same as when I had my first baby. I have written sixty poems about Toby thus far. I brought him home simply because of my midlife crisis and, also, as an expedience of being hurt. But now, there is no telling if I may be laid up with illness if I don't see him anymore. Are pets just toys for evil humans? Why am I struggling because of a little animal? I need to clarify the relationship between Toby and me, animal and human, and how we composed a more mature connection. Moreover, to prove this relationship is not only for amusement, I want to prove to myself that this is not vain love after I weigh the advantages and disadvantages of pets to humans.
Let's consider the advantages of pets to human in three points, though reasons are innumerable in my experience. First, it is a durable substitution effect. Toby acts as a substitute for a best friend one hundred percent. Lyle Vogel, a professor from University of Minnesota, investigated the reasons for raising pets and he got various multiple responses as follows: a life companion (71%), an object of love and tenderness (53%), a dilettante life (39%), defense and protection (36%), etc. Also he calculated that a pet dog most satisfies these various requests. The scholars estimated that dogs have cast their fortune with humans as friends for 12,000 years. How satisfactorily a dog's constant mentality is compared to human's caprice. This substitute for humans is enough to give us pure mental assistance. The loyalty and love toward their masters is even sacred. Aren't they better than ten lovers, who you have to worry about changing their minds? Aren't they better than a husband or child, who shows nervousness because they are too busy when I'm bored?
Second, pets are treatment for various kinds of mental disease. Anxiety is a factor from the inside compared to stress, which is a factor from the outside world. In this way, anxiety and stress are normal conditions to people living in modern times, but it is a hard fact that those are chief causes of cardiac disorders, physical defects, circulatory illnesses, and even cancers. Pets don't solve causes of these sicknesses, but they give you moderate exercise from walking them and offer a relief to part of the tension. With these physical effects also comes mental stability. It has something in common with a hometown: Visiting people feeling at ease and, in so many cases, research shows successful results. Also, they noticed pet treatments of mental depression led to lessoned fatigue, insomnia, and even suicide. A psychologist, James Linch, said the suicide proportion of people living alone is 2~10 times higher, and this begins with isolation from society or a lack of love. Of course, pets can't be substitute humans but pets offer a tonic for healthy life. They give love and devotion to each and every person who is lacking in social relationships and has restricted human relationships. There can't be any provision or criticism in love of animals set to a different standard than with humans. They give power to emotionally disturbed children, act as an alternative to family love, and also open their closed door minds. Pets can be a bridge between society and people to those who are hurting from the lack of a community. Look at an innocent dog's eyes; all of the anxieties from the world disappear.
Lastly, there is confirmation of existence from the life of a very small creature. Where is the person who takes care of only me, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year? We separate at some point in time and drift farther and farther away in every relationship. The significance of myself gets deeper involuntarily while taking care of and getting along with pets. Look at the dog who jumps up with crazy kisses and gasps when you come back home. I am the most important person in the world to that dog without even knowing it. My attachment and responsibility of daily life gets deeper and stronger, while it is also an escape from a troubled mind about the uncertain future because the existence of this dog is like my shadow. When I stay with Toby, my dog, who does cute things all day in front of my eyes, my satisfaction with the present is increased. Nowadays, people express their individuality by their cars or clothes, and now pets can also be precious accessories (sorry Toby). Expenses will be increased because of ownership of pets, but there is that special feeling of love which obviously couldn't be calculated by money.
However, there can be some harmfulness of pets to humans. First, there is a lot of laborious work when taking care of a pet. They are troublemakers. Every thing must pass through my hands to prevent or resolve those troubles. Humans made it so that pets cannot live alone any more, intentional or not. They are not in the wild. I have to clean whatever is the same height as Toby. He bites my new shoes, chews my pencils and toilet paper, eats my plants and flowers, scratches the corners of tables with his teeth; he is finally happy after he feels, touches, tears, breaks, and tastes whatever he can reach. Dear me! If I forget for one second, due to a busy life, this wicked guy runs into trouble. And of course he interrupts my housework because he is bored to death.
Second, Toby has an unsanitary and unhealthy life. I almost threw up a few times for a while after I got Toby. He never washed after he went to the bathroom, and he still makes mistakes on the carpet. He often steps in his own pee when he jumps over his bathroom pad, and he always licks his dirty paws because he never learned how to take a shower. He puts dust on his face from the floor, and he makes no distinction between dirty and clean things. He has thrown up several times after swallowing something, never knowing or caring whether it was good or bad. He becomes the most wretched of beggars if I don't wash him often. People say Malteses never cause allergies, but my husband takes allergy medicine everyday because of Toby.
Third, there is limited communication with dogs. I don't care about him sleeping all day on his face because I didn't bring him for labor. Sometimes I worry about him because he never talks and rarely listens. No communication with a life partner! He never asks and does whatever he wants. He is a radical egotist. I was frustrated when he laid flat on his stomach all day after he threw up and I couldn't even ask him if he had a bellyache. I am making myself miserable gratuitously, aren't I? I put him in the washroom when I spilled food one time; he was shouting out like crazy. No talking between us.
Do I really undergo all sorts of hardships because of Toby? Am I stupid? Why do I spend money for his grooming more often than my own hair cut? He is worth that much and more. The American economic magazine, 'Fortune', said that 95% of the 500 selected enterprisers experienced raising cats or dogs, and 75% of them still have pets. This number is higher than the average number of households in possession of pets, 53% in 1983. This numerical value shows us that pets contribute to developing special qualities for success in life: passion, sentiment, discipline, and responsibility. Look people! Are you lonely? Are you angry? Are you sad? Are you depressed? If so, buy a dog.
Mar 01, 2010
My Unconditional Best Friend, Toby
Name: Toby. Age at present: Thirteen months old. Weight: 3.7 lb. Breed: Maltese dog.
In May of last year, when I went to pick up this puppy the size of a fist, I felt like I was flying across the sky. That's why I got a speeding ticket. My new baby came home and got a new name, Toby. It gave me a mysterious feeling, almost the same as when I had my first baby. I have written sixty poems about Toby thus far. I brought him home simply because of my midlife crisis and, also, as an expedience of being hurt. But now, there is no telling if I may be laid up with illness if I don't see him anymore. Are pets just toys for evil humans? Why am I struggling because of a little animal? I need to clarify the relationship between Toby and me, animal and human, and how we composed a more mature connection. Moreover, to prove this relationship is not only for amusement, I want to prove to myself that this is not vain love after I weigh the advantages and disadvantages of pets to humans.
Let's consider the advantages of pets to human in three points, though reasons are innumerable in my experience. First, it is a durable substitution effect. Toby acts as a substitute for a best friend one hundred percent. Lyle Vogel, a professor from University of Minnesota, investigated the reasons for raising pets and he got various multiple responses as follows: a life companion (71%), an object of love and tenderness (53%), a dilettante life (39%), defense and protection (36%), etc. Also he calculated that a pet dog most satisfies these various requests. The scholars estimated that dogs have cast their fortune with humans as friends for 12,000 years. How satisfactorily a dog's constant mentality is compared to human's caprice. This substitute for humans is enough to give us pure mental assistance. The loyalty and love toward their masters is even sacred. Aren't they better than ten lovers, who you have to worry about changing their minds? Aren't they better than a husband or child, who shows nervousness because they are too busy when I'm bored?
Second, pets are treatment for various kinds of mental disease. Anxiety is a factor from the inside compared to stress, which is a factor from the outside world. In this way, anxiety and stress are normal conditions to people living in modern times, but it is a hard fact that those are chief causes of cardiac disorders, physical defects, circulatory illnesses, and even cancers. Pets don't solve causes of these sicknesses, but they give you moderate exercise from walking them and offer a relief to part of the tension. With these physical effects also comes mental stability. It has something in common with a hometown: Visiting people feeling at ease and, in so many cases, research shows successful results. Also, they noticed pet treatments of mental depression led to lessoned fatigue, insomnia, and even suicide. A psychologist, James Linch, said the suicide proportion of people living alone is 2~10 times higher, and this begins with isolation from society or a lack of love. Of course, pets can't be substitute humans but pets offer a tonic for healthy life. They give love and devotion to each and every person who is lacking in social relationships and has restricted human relationships. There can't be any provision or criticism in love of animals set to a different standard than with humans. They give power to emotionally disturbed children, act as an alternative to family love, and also open their closed door minds. Pets can be a bridge between society and people to those who are hurting from the lack of a community. Look at an innocent dog's eyes; all of the anxieties from the world disappear.
Lastly, there is confirmation of existence from the life of a very small creature. Where is the person who takes care of only me, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year? We separate at some point in time and drift farther and farther away in every relationship. The significance of myself gets deeper involuntarily while taking care of and getting along with pets. Look at the dog who jumps up with crazy kisses and gasps when you come back home. I am the most important person in the world to that dog without even knowing it. My attachment and responsibility of daily life gets deeper and stronger, while it is also an escape from a troubled mind about the uncertain future because the existence of this dog is like my shadow. When I stay with Toby, my dog, who does cute things all day in front of my eyes, my satisfaction with the present is increased. Nowadays, people express their individuality by their cars or clothes, and now pets can also be precious accessories (sorry Toby). Expenses will be increased because of ownership of pets, but there is that special feeling of love which obviously couldn't be calculated by money.
However, there can be some harmfulness of pets to humans. First, there is a lot of laborious work when taking care of a pet. They are troublemakers. Every thing must pass through my hands to prevent or resolve those troubles. Humans made it so that pets cannot live alone any more, intentional or not. They are not in the wild. I have to clean whatever is the same height as Toby. He bites my new shoes, chews my pencils and toilet paper, eats my plants and flowers, scratches the corners of tables with his teeth; he is finally happy after he feels, touches, tears, breaks, and tastes whatever he can reach. Dear me! If I forget for one second, due to a busy life, this wicked guy runs into trouble. And of course he interrupts my housework because he is bored to death.
Second, Toby has an unsanitary and unhealthy life. I almost threw up a few times for a while after I got Toby. He never washed after he went to the bathroom, and he still makes mistakes on the carpet. He often steps in his own pee when he jumps over his bathroom pad, and he always licks his dirty paws because he never learned how to take a shower. He puts dust on his face from the floor, and he makes no distinction between dirty and clean things. He has thrown up several times after swallowing something, never knowing or caring whether it was good or bad. He becomes the most wretched of beggars if I don't wash him often. People say Malteses never cause allergies, but my husband takes allergy medicine everyday because of Toby.
Third, there is limited communication with dogs. I don't care about him sleeping all day on his face because I didn't bring him for labor. Sometimes I worry about him because he never talks and rarely listens. No communication with a life partner! He never asks and does whatever he wants. He is a radical egotist. I was frustrated when he laid flat on his stomach all day after he threw up and I couldn't even ask him if he had a bellyache. I am making myself miserable gratuitously, aren't I? I put him in the washroom when I spilled food one time; he was shouting out like crazy. No talking between us.
Do I really undergo all sorts of hardships because of Toby? Am I stupid? Why do I spend money for his grooming more often than my own hair cut? He is worth that much and more. The American economic magazine, 'Fortune', said that 95% of the 500 selected enterprisers experienced raising cats or dogs, and 75% of them still have pets. This number is higher than the average number of households in possession of pets, 53% in 1983. This numerical value shows us that pets contribute to developing special qualities for success in life: passion, sentiment, discipline, and responsibility. Look people! Are you lonely? Are you angry? Are you sad? Are you depressed? If so, buy a dog.