NaBloPoMo II: Don’t Buy a Pet for Christmas

I’ve decided to join NaBloPoMo this year. This means I am committed to writing a blog a day for the whole of November. It’s instead of NaNoWriMo (which as most will know is about committing to writing 50,000 words of a novel in November). Well, you can do both of course. I’m editing my first novel so I’m not interested in NaNoWriMo, but I think committing to writing a blog every day for a month is a good idea on various levels. First, it’s good discipline; it adds a framework to your day. Second, third, fourth, … there are lots of reasons why this is a good idea.

If you’re wondering about the picture of the cat, well, they say you shouldn’t work with children and animals, but I’ve found that a cute picture of a cat always attracts attention!

This is our cat, a couple of months after we adopted her from the French SPA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). She’d been found starving a couple of months after Christmas, in a car park, and handed over to the SPA. She weighed just 2lbs when found and was close to death.

Had she become an unwanted Christmas present?

Don’t buy a kitten or puppy or guppie or schmuppy for Christmas. A pet is a serious commitment, that ought to be for the lifetime of the pet. This can be 20 years and more. That’s a long time. A huge commitment. A huge financial commitment. Don’t commit to buying a pet for Christmas, unless you can commit also to the long term.

Committing to a pet is a more serious commitment than committing to write a blog every day for a month.