I'm...quite a pessimistic guy, aren't i? We currently have a dog in our house, a nearly all-white jack russel called Winter. He stayed in my old condominium for a few months when i was in JC1, and is actually my cousin's dog. I knew him when he was just a puppy.
Now, he's staying over at our house for the next two months or so. He's moved houses quite a bit, staying with my cousin, then her in-laws when she moved overseas, then with us in the condominium, then back to the in-laws and now back with us.
You could say that this house is the most spacious that he's ever lived in. My dad's also pretty free these days, so he often takes Winter for walks around the neighbourhood.
Yet, i can't help but feel sad for Winter. Back when he stayed with us in the condominium, he was about 4 years old and in the prime of his life. Now, he's approaching 9, and is an old dog - something like 60+ in human years, supposedly. I think it sucks to have to watch anybody and anything you care for grow old, and you tend to notice it more when you haven't seen the person - or the pet - for a very long time (we don't visit my cousin's in-laws much...in fact i don't think i've ever gone to their house; i only hear about Winter from the stories my mother tells me).
And when i think back on the life that Winter has lived, it just seems to me that he hasn't lived a full life. I don't think he's ever "done it" before, and he clearly has never had offspring and will never have them (because he had his testicles removed for medical reasons). He has never truly eaten "good food", and he has never had the chance to run around in the grass (because the adults are afraid he'll get mites). And apart from his early years with Ginger (this other dog that my cousin had but was gifted to a dog-lover friend when she went overseas to live), Winter has never had consistent contact with other dogs for roughly the past 6 years. He lives a sheltered life but has no companionship. In my cousin's in law's place, he doesn't have space to roam around and just sits in one corner lazing around, doing nothing, waiting to die while his days just pass by without incident.
And now, when i look at him, healthy as he might be, i can't help thinking that he only has about 5 years to live at the most. That his days are numbered. That when he goes (touch wood), he'll never have experienced all those things and he'll never have the same amount of attention that was showered on him during the first two years of his life. And, for the most part, we can't do anything about most of it. It's a depressing thought. And it seems that i'm full of such depressing thoughts. Maybe that's why keeping pets ultimately aren't for me.
