{"id":9429,"date":"2013-04-26T05:40:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T09:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=9429"},"modified":"2013-04-26T06:36:28","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T10:36:28","slug":"national-kids-pet-day-celebrating-the-bond-and-relationship-that-animals-bring-to-our-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/national-kids-pet-day-celebrating-the-bond-and-relationship-that-animals-bring-to-our-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"National Kids & Pet Day – Celebrating the Bond and Relationship That Animals Bring to our Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"romania\"<\/a>While I clearly love cats and they have always been a part of my life, when I was growing up I also was surrounded by an assortment of dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and more. These were not just animals to me, but beloved family members that were an important part of my heart and soul. Not only did they teach me to be a more responsible person, but they also brought out my tender, caring, and nurturing side and as the years have gone by and I am long grown up, I remain a devoted animal lover who could never imagine a day without them in my life. So when I found out today was National Kids and Pet Day, it really spoke to me as someone who deeply understands how important and treasured the relationship between a child and a pet can be.<\/p>\n

I could not possibly list all the reasons why I feel children should grow up with pets, or at the very least, be around them as much as possible, other than I know having a pet can teach lessons on responsibility and care that will be instilled into the moral fabric of the child as they grow into adulthood. Having a pet also promotes feelings of compassion towards living creatures and it can give a child a sense of belonging and importance in a world that can often be stressful and confusing. Let\u2019s face it, much as being a kid is great and we pine as adults for those days gone by, it\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0always easy being young and having a pet to confide in, or hug, or take care of without them judging you is a pretty cool deal if you ask me. Pets don\u2019t make fun of you, they don\u2019t ground you, they don\u2019t care if you do your homework, they don\u2019t deal in popularity cliques and they always understand you.<\/p>\n

\"charlie-couch\"<\/a>

The above image is of sweet twins, Scarlett and Sienna, sharing a spot of tea with their dog, Charlie. To me, this could not be more representative of the special bond between a child and their pet. My thanks to Madalina of Bright Pink Studio for sharing this priceless picture – not only is she the brilliant designer who brought my blog and website concept to life, but she is Mom to these darling girls! The other image is Charlie after the tea party ended and he was completely exhausted! It should also be of note that Charlie is an extra special dog – he only has 3 legs, but to those of us that know and love him, he is as perfect as can be!<\/p><\/div>All that being said, it\u2019s not as simple as getting a child a pet and thinking all will be well with the world. The concept that a pet is a \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d kind of thing can be dangerous and the bottom line is that we want the relationship between the pet and the child to be enjoyable, enriching, and fulfilling and a child’s personality, environment, and mental and physical capacity all have to be taken into account. A pet is a lifelong commitment and not just something that should be given to a child on a whim or as a gift that\u00a0isn’t\u00a0completely thought out or as some sort of fad. The last thing we want is more animals in shelters because someone did not think the pet\/child relationship through. Such as when little Johnny who lives in a city apartment begged for a cute golden retriever puppy, who is now a horse sized dog that needs lots of exercise and room to play in, and Johnny\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0like all that dog walking and responsibility. Perhaps in this case, an indoor cat would have been a better idea.<\/p>\n

And it should be of note as well that a pet does not have to be a traditional pet like a cat or dog. Some children might gravitate towards perhaps a lizard, or fish, or hamsters, or bunnies. As long as that pet is adopted with the intention of a responsible lifelong commitment, then that\u2019s fine. Learning about how to care for these animals, going to adoption organizations, teaching responsibility about giving an animal a safe and loving home are all invaluable life lessons regardless of the species.<\/p>\n

And while I find it hard to imagine, not all children like animals or may be scared of them and that has to be respected. In that case, I would still recommend they be exposed to them, but maybe by visiting a friend or relative that might have pets and have them interact in limited increments until they become more comfortable that the animal is not going to hurt them. Or \u00a0have them watch television shows or movies that are positive and uplifting about pets so that they at least see that animals have feelings and should be treated with respect. I know that when I had an opportunity last year to visit the classroom of 3rd graders my step daughter was teaching to talk about what it was like to write The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey<\/a>, that they were completely enraptured with the whole process and subject matter. The kids who had pets were so excited to share their stories and those that\u00a0didn’t\u00a0really enjoyed learning about all of my cats and the funny predicaments they got themselves into!<\/p>\n

\"kids-and-book\"<\/a>

Me enjoying some book reading time with the students who clearly loved learning about my family of cats!<\/p><\/div>I love that the students enjoyed the book and it reminds me of one of the greatest book reviews I ever got from someone \u2013 in essence, she said that she really enjoyed my story because she would read bits and pieces of it to her children at bedtime and they loved looking at the pictures together and talking about them and learning about my cats! That definitely made my day and on behalf of pets and kids everywhere, Happy National Kids and Pets Day- may you all feel the love, joy, and companionship that the relationship can provide you!<\/p>\n

Editors Note:<\/strong> Normally I only do one post a day, but in case you missed it, today is also National Hairball Awareness Day and I have done another fun post in\u00a0conjunction\u00a0with the folks at FURminator that you won’t want to miss! Click here for details.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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While I clearly love cats and they have always been a part of my life, when I was growing up I also was surrounded by an assortment of dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and more. These were not just animals to me, but beloved family members that were an important part of my heart and soul. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[473,594,595],"class_list":["post-9429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-healing","tag-animals","tag-national-kids-and-pet-day","tag-pet-bond"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/romania.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9429"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9452,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429\/revisions\/9452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}