Writer Feature: Why I Support Animal Adoption

Editor’s Note: Please welcome our newest intern, Sydney Chromack! Sydney lives in Imperial, Pennsylvania and attends Robert Morris University where she studies English. She loves spending time with her family and three cats; Hank, Pixie, and WeWe.

Oh, the joys of a four-legged friend! The excitement of finding your fur-baby is always an adventure. Love at first sight has never been truer than the moment when you find “the one.” But where do you go to find “the one?” That question has many answers. You could go to a pet store, but sometimes what you see is not what you get. That puppy behind the window may cost a little more than what the price tag says.

Buying a pet is not just purchasing someone to walk with, snuggle with, or come home to when you are having a bad day. Buying a pet usually means buying something much more sinister. It is a common known fact that many puppies and other pets are products of mills. These are bad places where our good boys (and girls) are treated with little to no respect or dignity. Abuse runs rampant and sadly for many of the animals, there is no relief from the everyday torment. And even their offspring, who are sold to pet stores to be placed in forever homes, may not be all that healthy or better off than their parents.

Adoption, however, is a more ethical option. Yes, some of these little guys may have not had the best start to life, but they have the potential to live happy, long lives with their adoptive family without being discriminated against for their age, breed, or past.
I have had many happy adoption stories in my life and so have my close friends and family. My sister adopted three kitties within the last two years. I had the privilege of sharing my life with one, Peeps.

Peeps had a rough beginning like most shelter animals. He and his litter mates were found in a Tupperware container on the side of the road. Only Peeps survived this horrible act of animal cruelty and was taken to a nearby shelter. My sister was living with me at the time, and had her love at first sight moment with this little orange kitten. She brought him home from the shelter and I fell in love too.

Peeps had health problems and the shelter we had adopted him from told us that we would most likely not have that much time with the little guy. He had some muscular-skeletal issues. Not being perfect, he would have surely been euthanized if he were the product of a mill. But my sister and I took the chance and he changed our lives forever.

He climbed and swung from our curtains. He demanded our attention. He cuddled with either of us at night. When one of us didn’t feel well, it was like Peeps knew. Peeps was just the right medicine for any heartache or sickness I ever had. Peeps was rambunctious and loved to people watch. Once he got so excited watching me clean the refrigerator that he jumped in and knocked a container full of left-over chili all over himself.

He had become a mini-celebrity in our home town. Everyone at work and school would ask how Peeps was and if I had any more stories to tell from the weekend before. He was a ball of furry sunshine with jelly-bean toes and a knack for getting into trouble. But even though Peeps made messes and snagged all our curtains, he had also snagged our hearts.

Peeps passed away from medical complications a day short of his first birthday. But I find comfort knowing that he had the best life any cat could have had even if it was too short. He changed my life. And the good Samaritan that took him to the shelter on the worst day of his life changed his for the better.

Adoption gives animals who may not have had the best start in life an equal chance to find love. They need not be perfect or purebred. They don’t have to be a designer kitty or puppy. Heck, they don’t even have to be a kitty or puppy, but a mature single looking for a forever home! Adoption is the only option to stop the perpetual abuse and exploitation of animals who just want a home of their own.