Did you know that today is National Pet Day?\u00a0 A day to celebrate our furry friends.\u00a0 And other types too.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe your pet has gills.\u00a0 Feathers? Scales?\u00a0 Eeek.\u00a0 (smile)\u00a0 I would love to say I love snakes and reptiles, but I’ll let those animals be loved at someone else’s home.\u00a0 (smile).<\/p>\n
The day originated by Colleen Paige, a renowned animal welfare advocate and lifestyle expert back in 2006.\u00a0It is based on spreading public awareness about animals at homes and shelter homes.
\nAnd even though it might be celebrated in other countries, the day first started in the U.S.\u00a0The significance of this day revolves around the improvement of psychological health as pets keep the environment charged and happy. They calm the surroundings by reducing stress. Is that AFTER the puppy stage?\u00a0 #notaskingforafriend -(smile)<\/p>\n
Officials say most households in the United States have at least one pet. Not just cats and dogs.\u00a0 People have a lot of love for all kinds of animals.\u00a0 Guinea pigs, chinchillas, bearded dragons, sugar gliders and hamsters.\u00a0 Fish, turtles, birds. Did I leave any out?\u00a0 Having pets around has been shown to lower blood pressure, cut stress and boost your happiness.\u00a0 Those feel good hormones get released just being close to our pets.<\/p>\n
Yes, we love our pets.<\/p>\n
I have always had an animal in my house.\u00a0 Since I was born we have always had a dog.\u00a0 \u00a0As a teenager, we lived in the country and had many, many cats.\u00a0 \u00a0The first “pet” I ever had of my own was a goldfish that I kept in my bedroom. Not for long, if I remember right.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n
My kids have had fish, and hamsters, and now we have a cat (Sheldon) and a puppy (Maggie May) to complete our little family.\u00a0\u00a0I was never a cat person until I met my husband.\u00a0 He had a beautiful cat who I swear absolutely hated me.\u00a0 (smile).\u00a0 \u00a0 But I learned to love that cat, she tolerated my presence (smile)and after she died, it broke our hearts.<\/p>\n
It took some time to bring a new kitty to love into our home. Our pets have this way of staying in our hearts.<\/p>\n
Cue Sheldon.\u00a0 A beautiful, spunky, shy little barn cat who came into our lives one Thanksgiving weekend.\u00a0 \u00a0Now he silently rules the roost so to speak.\u00a0 Just like the character he’s named after, he does indeed have his own “spot” in the house which he is allowed to change his mind on at any given time, because, well, he’s a cat.\u00a0 He does what he wants, when he wants.<\/p>\n
Maggie, our Husky\/Lab mix,\u00a0 came along just after Christmas.\u00a0 Five months old now.\u00a0 38 pounds.\u00a0 \u00a0She has brought so much joy to our lives it’s hard to imagine a day without her.\u00a0 Even with her mischievous ways, chewing and biting, and basically being a “puppy”, she makes us smile every single day.\u00a0\u00a0We still have a little hamster that runs around, and makes all kinds of noises, and bites me whenever I try to place nice.\u00a0 Somehow I have taken over care of the rodent, and I say I don’t like her, but she knows different. (smile)<\/p>\n
I sometimes wonder what they think of us.\u00a0 The things they must say to each other when we aren’t around.\u00a0 “Do you hear the way they talk to us? Those baby voices are ridiculous.\u00a0 Did you see her face when I took her shoe? I can’t wait to see what happens when finds the laces missing. Did you see how I scratched her chair?”<\/p>\n
I can only imagine what they think of us.\u00a0 The conversations they must have when we aren’t around.<\/p>\n
All I know is life is so much better with our furry friends in it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know that today is National Pet Day?\u00a0 A day to celebrate our furry friends.\u00a0 And other types too.\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe your pet has gills.\u00a0 Feathers? Scales?\u00a0 Eeek.\u00a0 (smile)\u00a0 I would love to say I love snakes and reptiles, but I’ll let those animals be loved at someone else’s home.\u00a0 (smile). The day originated by","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":18159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_img_display":"Yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2710,1285,5300,4669,5301,1116,5299,3680],"class_list":["post-18144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afternoons","tag-animals","tag-cats","tag-dogs","tag-feel-good","tag-furry-friends","tag-mental-health","tag-national-pet-day","tag-pets"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 08:13:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"react_link":"https:\/\/foxfm.com\/blogs\/afternoons\/2022\/04\/the-view-from-here-national-pet-day\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18157,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18144\/revisions\/18157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}