Predicting the future

Jennifer Vanderau
Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter

(11/2018) When we were growing up, my siblings and parents and I would often spend a meal time going through a tiny little book called The Book of Questions.

It’s a fascinating little book, originally published in the mid-1980s and it offers open-ended questions about ethics, morality and choosing one event or outcome over the other. I think it was at least partially responsible for me and my siblings’ lifelong analytical nature.

Some of the questions are truly fascinating.

If you get a chance, look into it. You can have some really amazing conversations from just a few of the questions in the book.

I think I remember because of The Book of Questions talking about whether or not we would want to be able to see into the future. Think about it. Would you want to know where you’re going to end up? Is it something we can even know or does the knowing affect the outcome?

I told you it was interesting!

There’s a line from Back to the Future: "No man should know too much about his own destiny." The theory is that if you know, it can have somewhat dangerous effects on even the global future. For the most part, it’s better not to know.

I believe though, there is a difference between knowing what’s going to happen in the future and having a plan for something you’d like to take on.

As an out-of-left-field for-instance, let’s take pet ownership. (I know you were wondering how I was going to get this back around to our furry friends).

No one can predict what will happen when we bring animals into our home. A lot of factors go into it – our personality, the animal’s personality, other animals in the house and sometimes even the physical layout of the house.

Nothing’s written in stone.

However, there are aspects of pet ownership that are (or at least should be) a given.

First, it will take time for an animal to acclimate to your house – your schedule, your environment, the visitors you might have in a day. You should expect accidents in the house and know there will be some bumps along the way.

If you want a perfect pet, go to a store and get a stuffed one – that’s the only way to guarantee you won’t have any messes and the "animal" will do what you want.

If you are bringing a certain breed of dog into your home, you should know there are traits of personality and energy level that come with some dog breeds. Border collies tend to be really smart and have a lot of energy (they’re bred to herd animals, after all). Shepherds, Dobermans and Rottweilers can be protective of their people and property – it’s in their genes.

Age of the animal is a factor as well. An older dog will be much different from a puppy. Puppies are adorable and wiggly and have that characteristic puppy breath and are not at all trained and can make rather incredible messes. Older dogs typically have an idea of what’s expected of them and are usually a bit more laid back than puppies.

When you accept the responsibility of a pet, your routine will change. You will need to add in to your day feeding and possibly walking and sometimes vet visits and financial costs for food and supplies.

As I’m sure you can imagine, there’s a reason I’m writing this. We had someone return a kitten to the shelter just a few weeks ago because the kitten was "too hyper."

I’m taking a deep breath at the moment, attempting to keep my head from exploding.

Kittens – especially tiny, maybe four-month-old kittens – are going to be a handful. They are not always going to want to just hang out in a lap looking adorable. Certainly there will be moments when they do, but there will also be moments where they are running and ripping around the house and getting into things that you would never predict they’d be able to do.

Cats, in particular, can be wily little dickens. I talked with an adopter just a few days ago and she told me her male cat had somehow managed to crawl into the piping in the house and she couldn’t believe he’d decided to explore that!

You absolutely cannot predict it.

I have a young kitten – maybe a year old – at my house who still, to this day, will bring me a toy at four in the morning so we can play fetch. No matter what kind of reason or logic I tried to use, he continues to think it’s a perfectly acceptable time to have fun.

No one can really see the future or know 100 percent what’s going to happen, down to the letter, but when it comes to bringing a four-legged soul into your home, please, please take the time to do a little research and really think about what you’re taking on.

Our goal at CVAS is to adopt our babies to a forever home. We don’t want to see them passed around from place to place. It’s upsetting to them and it’s upsetting to us. Cats, especially, can get incredibly stressed out being moved around.

When we adopt, we hope that the people signing the paperwork have taken the time to know what they’re getting into and really thought it through. It’s almost as important as making the decision to adopt in the first place.

We don’t want our adoptions to be done on a whim. Because nine times out of ten, when they are, we have people bringing kittens back to us because they are too hyper.

The future isn’t known, but with a little preparation and research, we can make the present a little better for our four-legged friends by being certain they go to a home where they will remain and be loved for their entire lives.

That’s an answer I think even the Book of Questions would agree should be carved in stone.

*****

Jennifer Vanderau is the Director of Communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter in Chambersburg, Pa., and can be reached at cvasoc@innernet.net. The shelter accepts both monetary and pet supply donations. For more information, call the shelter at (717) 263-5791 or visit the website www.cvas-pets.org.