It is easy to take the significant role a pet can play in a child’s life for granted. Growing up with pets teaches children many lessons about life, and often, just being in their pet’s presence helps them calm down. Animals provide unconditional love and offer companionship in a different way than human relationships do.
My very first dog gravitated towards my mother, who fed and trained him. He became her loyal companion, which hurt my feelings as a seven-year-old because I wanted him to be my buddy. Then, a rescue dog came into our lives and became mine. I trained her and slept with her, and she became my best friend for the next thirteen years! She was a stable and dependable force in my life and helped me navigate my sometimes painful childhood and teenage experiences. We had a special bond that I will never forget!
Today, my nephew, Andrew, joins me to share his experiences of growing up with pets. He discusses what he learned, and talks about the special friendship he shared with his first dog, Pamet. Be sure to stay tuned today to hear Andrew’s heart-warming story!
Show highlights:
Andrew talks about his life currently.
Andrew discusses the influence that his first pet had on his life.
Andrew shares his earliest memories of his first dog.
How Andrew came to name his puppy Pamet.
Andrew remembers learning about responsibility as a four-year-old pooper-scooper.
Why being seen as a litter-mate by your puppy is not a good idea.
The support and companionship that Andrew received from the animals in his life.
How living with animals differs from relationships with humans.
After having had one dog and five cats, Andrew is still a dog person.
Andrew talks about his life with two kittens.
The difference between having a relationship with a dog and a cat.
How pets help to keep us happy and in the present moment.
Andrew talks about the hardest part of having pets.
Andrew shares the biggest lesson that his pets have taught him.
Andrew Peacock’s Bio
Andrew Peacock and Allison White go way back — not only to Andrew’s birth since they’re aunt and nephew but to the very beginning of a young boy’s love for animals. At the ripe age of four, Allison’s beloved dog, Charity, had a litter of puppies, providing Andrew’s family with their very first pup. The dog was named Pamet, after a waterway on Cape Cod, and quickly became Andrew’s best friend. Andrew learned many lessons from Pamet throughout the pup’s decade of life, including how to befriend, teach, and love another being. But perhaps the most valuable lesson that Andrew continues the journey of embodying every day, is how to cherish and love life, just like Pamet did. Since then, Andrew, now 23, has shared in the joys of owning four fish, three cats, and two frogs throughout his life. He is now undergoing the wonderful yet bewildering journey of looking after two beautiful and quite strange black cats named Noodle and Darcy with his partner, Haley, in Ohio. Andrew graduated from The College of Wooster in May of 2020 and has been working as a freelance editor and barista during the pandemic. He currently looks forward to leaping into graduate school at Georgetown University for a Master’s in Communication, Culture, and Technology. He hopes to one day use his words for some kind of financial benefit, but who knows