National Pet Day!

[Celyn]

Today is National Pet Day!

Owning a pet can bring many challenges, but also many joyful times as well. Pets can be there to soothe us when we feel anxious, cuddle with us when we feel lonely or upset and make us laugh when they do funny things. Pets can be cute, inspiring, be our best buddies and hold a strong place in our hearts. Just by owning a pet, we can become more empathetic to our animal companions.

Any pet related stories you have to share with us to help celebrate National Pet Day?

If you have a pet, tell us a bit about them. If you don't have a pet, what pet would you want and why?

[Rivière]

My immediate family have only ever owned dogs. Though my mum's cousin owned a bunch of fish. I remember going to her house a few times and it was really nice when they had the lights off in the house. The lighting from the fish tanks were really beautiful. Every time the fish swam past the lights it made them look like they had some glistening aura around them.

I wrote about my favorite cat in a private off-site blog entry last September.

He was named after a cartoon character (which is pretty obvious if you saw his picture) and he was a little devil.

But he was also my baby, giving me comfort on darkest days.

[Everglow.]

I don't currently have a pet but I have owned a few animals over the years. I had a cat for 18 years. She was a black British short hair who generally didn't like many people, but she was my baby and I'd had her since I was 2 years old. She used to have zoomie sessions in the middle of the night and we'd hear her skidding up and down the hallway and running into walls.

I've also had hamsters, but I never had a whole lot of luck with them. But my two favourites were hamsters I adopted and they were already about 1 year old. One was a sandy coloured hamster and he had no teeth at the bottom of his mouth when I adopted him, so I had to get his top teeth trimmed every couple of months at the vet. He was the friendliest little creature ever.

My most recent pets were three rats and they were the naughiest animals ever. One of them escaped and hid behind a book case for an hour when my flat mate opened his cage once, and he was a biter so we had to basically risk our lives to get him back. The three of them used to play fight all night, gnaw on the bars and annoy me, but they used to run straight over to see me when I came home and they always LOVED shredded carrot fed to them by hand.

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

I have two guinea pigs, Pancake and French Toast!
Pancake is pretty chill. If you give her a blanket she'll just cuddle up and stay there. She's not very vocal for the most part but seems to be happy,
French Toast is a lot more vocal and always makes happy sounds when you hold her. She tends to zoom around more.

[Dawn.]

I have had a range of different pets since I was younger including rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, cats and dogs. Each of them had their own personalities.

[Hiding in the Dark]

I currently have 6 rats (4 girls and 2 boys) and 5 mice (all girls). Regardless of people's distaste for rats, I've found them to be the best pet for me. They are cuddly, smart, and so sweet. I love coming home to see their sweet faces.