Many families have pets, and sometimes the first trigger for getting a pet is that your children are begging you for one. Take time to consider all the angles before jumping into pet ownership as there is a lot to deal with.Pets become a natural part of your family. Not as critical as the life of your children, but still very important. Treat them humanely. That means making sure they get enough to eat, have a good place to sleep, get enough exercise and are not beaten severely. Pets need to be trained and need to learn how to behave around people and other animals. You will likely need to spend a lot of time training them not to destroy property, how to know the difference between strangers and people in your circle of life, and learn the general rules of your house (like not peeing on the floor). Training is time consuming and expensive if you have it done by an outside agency.
Don't forget about the high cost of foot. Pet food is very costly and even though there are occasional coupons and sales, you'll be spending hundreds of dollars a year on feeding your pet. Then there's the medical bills. Pets get sick and injured just like people do. Most people don't have pet insurance so you'll want to budget for Vet bills as well.
What about when you're on vacation? Someone must look after your animals. You can ask a friend or family member to look in on your pets regularly, or you can pay for a boarding service. Either way having a pet adds another layer of inconvenience to your vacation planning, and sometimes a layer of expense.
Don't get the impression that I don't want you to have pets. I think they're wonderful and had several dogs as a child. But they were a lot of responsibility and unfortunately many people discover too late how expensive and laborious pet ownership can be. As a result many animals are neglected and abused, something I don't want to see happen.
Before you venture into pet ownership please consider if your family is ready to handle all that comes with it. The love will be tremendous and so will the work. - Adapted from http://EzineArticles.com
