True Value of Adopting!

Love and be loved

Let me introduce to you my beloved Minku. I am sure you will hear about her from me again and again. My colleagues in South Australia knew that somehow I would mention Minku in pretty much every of my presentations – usually to illustrate a point. No wonder – I have learned so many great points from Minku!

I tend to say “Minku came to live with me in July 2003”. That’s because it was not like I went to the shelter and picked her. I did go to the shelter in Hahndorf and was asking about a possibility to adopt a dog. They wouldn’t show me any. They said they didn’t have dogs. Maybe they only had farm dogs and thought me too much of a sisi for a farm dog… Who knows! So I felt compelled to ask them whether I could see some cats. They said ok. As I walked in, my eyes felled immediately on Minku and I felled compelled (again) to walk up to her. She was sitting on a little side table. I extended my hand to pat her and she raised her back to meet my hand – you know what it is like. My heart melted instantaneously. Mind you there were many years later that Minku bothered to raise her back so far to meet my hand again J.

So now you have a better idea what I mean when I say ‘Minku came to live with me’ because it was like we both wanted to live together and it only took a split moment for both of us to know that.

Not every adoption will be that spontaneous, and it is good to know what we want and what we can expect from the other party. I had a vague idea what I wanted from a cat. When I saw Minku I though she was a more mature cat, 2 or 3 years old..That’s what she looked like in the shelter. (Later I found out that the shelter estimated that she was only about 7 months old). As soon as I brought her home and let her out in the garden Minku metamorphosed into witty, spritely, self-assured young lady. She looked around as if saying – “Not too shabby I can like living here”. But I was taken aback by this magnificent being, suddenly brimming with energy. “Oh my God!” – I exclaimed – “What have I done! She will kill all the birds in the garden!”. But every day I learned about Minku and the way she was. I learned about the ways in which she was what I wanted in a cat…. and about the ways she insisted in being true to herself even if it was not what I considered ideal… and in the ways she was so perfect that I never imagined a cat could ever be like that.

I remember how I shocked a friend by saying: “It’s marriage”. What I meant was “This is till death do us part”… Hmm…. Now-a-days marriages don’t last that long… and no, I wasn’t extending the case for marriage equality.

So…. Knowing how much I love (and am in love with) Minku you probably think I would never buy an animal from a shop or from a breeder, that I would always adopt…

Adopting is such an important thing to do. And recently I led a discussion about it in our Meet-up group ‘Animals and Us: Intellectual and Metaphysical Explorations’.

And yet, whenever I pass by this particular pet shop in my shopping centre, I am aware that I am looking forward to seeing these beautiful cuties. And I understand how enticing it is to want to take one home. Me, I would take all of them.

And I know too well that many of those animals are a product of a cruel industry. Moreover, buying them means not only supporting this cruel industry but also condemning other animals to half-life (if they lucky to be in non-kill shelters) or to death.

Yes, death. As simple as that. In Australia alone, the estimated 130,000 dogs and 60,000 cats are killed every year in shelters because there are simply not enough homes for them all. It’s hard to find reliable world-wide estimates but in USA, nationwide, approximately 2.7 million animals are euthanized each year (1.2 million dogs and 1.4 million cats).

Staggering.

Minku is 17 now and even more beautiful and wise than ever. Moreover, I have learned so much about myself and the world because of her.

I am very grateful to have her in my life and grateful that she has been with me for so long. You see, pedigreed cats tend to live about 10 years. The crossbreeds have genetic robustness that allows them to live longer… and dare I say, make them truly unique and even more fascinating.

So, if someone says that they just have to have this breed of a cat or a dog because of the specific temperament traits – take it with a grain of salt. (Note: if you have allergies do be very careful but you might be able to adopt a specific breed from a shelter).

I have become a fan of Cezar Milan since I saw his programs on youtube about a month ago. He clearly demonstrates that it is up to the human what kind of dog their dog becomes. Yes, some dogs were bread for chasing and some for sniffing, and yes, we need to understand the innate preferences of each dog breed but we also need to pay attention to the specific preferences of each individual. And at the end of the day it does matter how we, humans, co-develop our animals’ innate strengths.

In one of his programs Cezar Milan gave examples how pit bulls could be ‘nanny dogs’ and they could be fighting dogs, and demonstrated how it was necessary to involve a human to make a pit bull into a killer.

So why I am writing all that today?

I wonder how many of you have adopted pets and I wonder how did you go about building a relationship between you and your pet. Were there any difficult patches and how did you overcome those? How much of an adventure was it to understand your animal’s personality and preferences? How much delight did it bring you when you discovered that your animal understands you more that you thought possible?

Share your story with us. And know that many animal lovers will read your story with delight and many more will get a glimpse of how to prepare for adopting an animal.

If I were to say what helps, I would say: 

Grażyna Witkowska - Kinesiology and Hypnosis

+61 415 29 83 83

[email protected]

 
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