For those of us older people who love animals, who seem to love them more than life itself (see, admit it, it means a lot) to find a way to make the final chapter desirable. could mean getting a dog, a cat, or even a gerbil. Or a horse barn. It's amazing.
And the statistics back it up. Among those aged 50 to 80, 55 percent own a pet, and half of them own more than one pet. Let's compare this to the general population. In the general population, 66% of households own a pet. We old people aren't far behind.
My own theory is that you need a certain amount of experience to own a pet later in life. You have to have been raised by dogs with soulful eyes or kind dogs to know that animals are easy to live with and won't defecate on your head while you sleep. Otherwise, the idea of accepting any kind of creature as a roommate at this late age, when even learning a new card game is beyond our repertoire, is downright discouraging.
Think about it this way. If you look into a pet owner's life history, you'll likely find that the owner and the original pet go back a long way. When I think of my son Charlie, who was born here on the island in 1984, when he was in day care in Los Angeles, he and I and his father adopted a beautiful black cat named Hershey from a friend's litter. I got it and then kept giving it to him. Four babies were born in Charlie's bed, which they named Calf Chop, Pork Chop, Lamb Chop, and Chop Chop. When they reached an age suitable for adoption, little Charlie requested to adopt them all. We told him to choose his one. And that was Chop Chop, which we later named Gizmo. Hershey and Gizmo now live with us in the vineyard all year round.
So Charlie has always known cats firsthand and now lives in the Berkshires with his lovely wife Cary, they also have cats. Among them is a neighborhood stray cat named Matza who plopped down a cat about a year ago. Four kittens are sitting on chairs in the living room. They kept one and named it Tank. Charlie wants to get back to these cuties and he can't leave the house for more than 5 minutes.
Look around at our pet-loving friends and you'll see their undying devotion to fur, feathers, and scales. They'll say things like, “I couldn't imagine life without FooFoo!” Looking back on my own history, I have spent the past five years or so without a permanent address, and therefore no ability to rescue a new dog, following in the footsteps of my late Boston terrier Huxley. When I finally arrived at my Woodside senior housing apartment, the first cry that tugged at my heartstrings was that I wanted a new dog. Luckily, a dear friend of mine introduced me to a conservation organization in the Cape. There was an 8-year-old female Boston terrier who had been confined in a crate for years and was giving birth to puppies. Currently, under my devoted care, she is learning to be a dog. We've had so many lessons in using Mother Nature as our bathroom, starting with a Plancy Dance hike in the hills.
On the plus side, previously tired of nursing puppies, she loves spending time with humans, especially me, her human. — and that lovey-dovey aspect of owning a pet has come back to me as a huge boon — almost a life-saving boon.
When I look around, I see that all my animal-loving friends are very happy with their pets. And most of us are sessioning late into the night, thinking about our lost loved ones, and wondering if we'll ever see them again on that legendary ship on the other side? And the words from the intuitive mystical types are, “Yes, they will be there, grinning and waving at us, alongside all of our loved ones.”
One of my dearest friends and neighbors, who grew up on a farm in western Massachusetts, tells me that she hopes that 30 of her favorite millet buds will gather together properly to greet her. She said, “Not just dogs and cats, but horses, cows, and goats!” (It's a good thing she didn't join the circus, otherwise she would have had to add elephants, giraffes, and chimpanzees. )
One final footnote: 78 percent of pet owners surveyed by Forbes Advisor purchased a pet during the pandemic. So this could be an upward trend in the demographics, especially among us older people who are looking for the ultimate in cuddling up with their fur while they settle into their armchairs and watch the new edition of Thursday Murder Club. I feel bliss.
And one last fun fact: If your grandchild expresses an interest in pursuing some lucrative career, steer him away from banking and toward becoming a veterinarian. In 2022, Americans spent his $138.8 billion on pets.
To date, it will probably amount to up to $138.8 trillion. You know how that works. A trillion here, he's a trillion there.It becomes real money immediately
