I have been wanting to keep a dog for a while now. However, I live in a rental apartment where pets are not allowed. Still, I have reviewed my lease agreement many times to see if I could somehow keep a dog, but it clearly states that pets are not allowed (dogs, cats, etc.), so I have indeed given up on the dog.
However, I still wanted to keep some kind of animal, so I started thinking about what kind of animal I could keep. I wondered if frogs were included in this “etc.” category, or if paper birds and reptiles were included, or if even killifish in small glass jars were not allowed, or if frogs would be OK.
So, before contacting the management company of the condominium, I looked up the word “pet” in the dictionary. It said, “Generally, an animal kept for the purpose of petting.
I thought that by this definition, perhaps goldfish would be OK, since they are fish. Generally speaking, there are a surprisingly large number of houses that keep goldfish in small aquariums or beetles, even in apartments where pets are not allowed.
Perhaps common sense would dictate that goldfish and beetles are acceptable, but not hamsters.
By the way, if you look up “animal” in the dictionary, you will find that it means “a group of animals other than plants and humans, especially mammals. In particular, a mammal. In particular, a mammal.
From this, it seems that goldfish and insects are still okay (or maybe not if you ask officially). However, as a result, I gave up on keeping things like animals. I am sure that hamsters and ferrets are included when it comes to pets and the like.
This is way off topic, but the reason why I want to have a dog so badly is because I had a Shiba Inu when I was little.
My father used to love dogs (he was a hunter), and until just before I was born, we had two hunting pointers at home as guard dogs (not that we were rich). Then my father quit hunting and gave the pointers to his hunting buddies, and instead bought me a Shiba Inu as a birthday present. I was responsible for walking the dog daily and taking care of him.
However, while my father had strictly disciplined his rough-tempered hunting dog, this newly arrived Shiba Inu was left completely alone. Thanks to this, he grew up to be a selfish dog who did not listen to anything the family said. When it came time to go for a walk, he pulled on the leash incessantly. He always picks fights with dogs that come and go. If he was not satisfied, he would whine that he did not want to go home. If left unattended, they will risk their lives to escape. They chewed up the garden trees and did whatever they wanted.
My sister was so afraid of the rampaging Shiba Inu that she hardly even approached him anymore. Even then, her father, who was the most important person in the family, only took her to a nearby mountain on weekends and let her play off-leash, but never tried to train her.
I was not very compatible with school at that time, and I was home after school most of the time, so I spent a lot of time alone in the house with this dog (my parents both worked, and my sister was very busy with club activities).
When I came home from school, this rambunctious Shiba Inu would sleepily come out from inside the shed and approach me, tail wagging. Then he would stick out his tongue and try to lick me all over my face.
I talked to the dog as if talking to myself about what happened at school and how hard it was for me. After he finished listening to me, I would pet the dog’s body. There were times when tears spontaneously welled up in my eyes as I stroked the dog.
The dog was a rambunctious dog to my family, but to me, he was my only friend.
Then one day, perhaps influenced by TV, I decided to try teaching this dog to do a handstand or a refill, just like other dogs. When I showed it to my father, he was not only pleased but also totally unresponsive.
He simply said, “A dog is not a plaything,” and left. At the time, I had no idea what he meant.
Several years later, after the Shiba Inu’s short life was over due to filaria, I asked my father, “Why did you have to train and train your dog properly?
Why didn’t you train him properly?
His answer was, “I have been a hunter for a long time. He answered, “I had been hunting as a hobby for a long time, but I quit because I began to think it was cruel to kill. The pointer I had was also a rough breed by nature and could hurt people, so I trained him very strictly. As a result, he became an obedient dog who would listen to his master’s advice, but he had a cramped and boring personality that was always looking at his master’s face.
So, as with your education, I dared not do anything with the newly arrived Shiba Inu, unless, of course, he was afraid of harming others. As for me, I just wanted you to stay in the house. And I didn’t want you to have to clean up the shedding of feces, or to watch out for mosquitoes and other pests, because I didn’t want you to have to do it like other household chores. I had hoped that if you were cute, you would naturally learn to clean up after yourself. However, you may have thought you were taking good care of the dog, but you didn’t do anything until the dog died. That means you were not a good dog owner. Therefore, you are not qualified to own a dog. I wanted you to learn from nature before the dog died.
Hearing this, I was shocked, not with remorse, but with trauma. I knew that it was all my fault for letting him die so quickly. I had only thought of the dog as my friend, and it was only after I was told that I had not been a good owner that I became aware of this.
However, time has passed since then, and the reason why I want to keep a dog now is, of course, because it is cute, but also because I feel that by keeping a dog again, I can make amends a little for that rambunctious Shiba Inu that I let die after such a short life.
At the same time, it is my way of repaying my debt to the Shiba Inu who was my only friend during that difficult time.
Of course, I don’t think that the dog I am going to get is a reincarnation of the dog I once had, but if the dog I am going to get again will be healthy and happy for the rest of its life, I feel that my regret for that Shiba Inu will diminish a little.
Oh, I still want to have a dog. A cute Shiba Inu…
See you soon!