People often ask, “Are you a cat person or a dog person?”
But I’ve never been able to choose, because for me, animals aren’t just pets. They’re home.
Every pawprint, every whisker, every feather or fin each one has left a lasting mark on my life. My heart has made room for hamsters, mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and even fish. Some were with me for only a short time. Others grew old by my side. But all of them mattered.
Some were tiny companions whose lives passed in a blink, yet in that brief time they taught me what loyalty looks like in stillness. What comfort sounds like in silence. What it feels like to be unconditionally accepted.
Others became my shadows through life’s messier moments – anxiety, heartbreak, loss. They were there when I couldn’t face the world. They sat with me in the quiet, somehow knowing when I needed company without words.
They weren’t just animals.
They were my stability when everything else felt uncertain.
My mirrors when I couldn’t express what I was feeling.
My reminders to eat, sleep, rest, laugh — to live.
This isn’t just one story.
It’s a thread that runs through every chapter of my life.
A quiet knowing that animals have always been more than part of my life, they are part of me.
I still remember naming my very first hamster.
The softness of my cat’s fur when I cried into it as a teenager.
Writing letters to the ones I’d lost because the grief was too big for words.
Each one gave me something I didn’t even know I needed.
And together, they’ve woven a life full of paws a life that’s never been lonely, even in the silence.