Tag Archive

Disposable Pets

AKIE BERMISS: I’m a first-time pet-owner. I’ve had my two cats for just about 4 years now and I can not conceive of a situation in which I would give them up — for anything. I mean it would have to be a very grave situation one where either I can’t take care of them any longer or they need to go somewhere else for health or quality-of-life issues. I didn’t ever have pets growing up. I think my sister had a pet for a while, but otherwise there were no animals in the house. I had three siblings so we didn’t really need more bodies running around the house. In adulthood, though, I decided it was a good idea to have a pet (or two) and to make a life with them. And that’s what it is: a (pet’s) lifetime of commitment.

MOLLY SCHOEMANN: While I have loved dogs since I could focus my eyes, I grew up in an apartment, so I had goldfish. It was not until several years ago when I began dating a dog owner that I became regularly exposed to an actual dog. I realize now that I was not technically a real ‘dog person’ before that point, because while I loved dogs, I had little idea of what having a dog actually entailed.

ZOË RICE For thirteen years now, I have been a fiercely devoted pet owner. I love my current one, Dash, with absolute devotion. He knows it; I make sure of that. But life is not a set of absolutes. Contexts change, situations change, and whom one spends one’s life with changes. And in rare cases, I can imagine how even a beloved pet might have to find a new home.

Domesticity and Growing Old

AKIE BERMISS: I’m no old school domestic, that’s for sure. I spend more time in my car than I do in my apartment (and if that’s an exaggeration, its a tiny one). When I am home I prefer to relax and read or watch movies, not to tidy up and organize. That said, however, I do have a few strange habits that have developed over the half-decade since I graduated from college life.

MATTHEW DAVID BROZIK: I’ve wanted a place to call my own for as long as I can remember. I made my childhood bedroom very much my own, and I was fortunate to have parents who let me (and my brothers) do more or less whatever we wanted with our rooms.

MOLLY SCHOEMANN: I’ve been thinking a lot about the increasingly domestic life I seem to have fallen into during the last few years. What really got me to pondering was the fact that my fiancé and I went to Target a few days ago to buy a steam-cleaning vacuum. You would have thought we’d won the lottery, we were so excited about it.

Drinking with Co-Workers OR Self-Employed Drinking

Many people will try to dissuade you from drinking with colleagues, but they probably just can’t hold their liquor.

JILLIAN LOVEJOY LOWERY:ca

Fact 1: I prefer my cats to most people.

Fact 2: I prefer drinking…