My parrot suddenly died a week ago. Now I want to get another pet to replace my friend, yet I feel so weak. Losing them feels like losing family, even if it’s a parrot, or a hamster! On the other hand, there’s nothing like coming home and having someone waiting for you, always happy to see you, just to cuddle, sit on your shoulder, or beg for food. Our relationships with animals aren’t the same as with human friends. There’s no financial interest or intellectual aspect to it. Pets love us unconditionally, like children love their parents. We don’t have to pretend around them, we can be ourselves in our purest, most naked form. Vulnerable and sincere. When they leave us, it’s impossible to replace that void with anything; there’s nothing like it. The free and perfect love and joy pets bring us goes straight to the heart. Their only goal is to please us, to comfort in their awkward ways. They want very little and give much more.
I had a golden retriever for 9 years (before I got a parrot). She helped me through a lot of difficult times in my life. We moved from city to city, we went hiking together, she was always with me. I adopted a parrot weeks after her death and felt guilty about it for a long time. I physically needed to have a “replacement” in my home, I didn’t find the courage to adopt another dog. It felt almost like betraying my love for Romy.
And now I’m facing a similar situation. I’m not emotionally ready to have another pet, at the same time I hate waking up in an empty flat. Don’t know what to do. I can’t live without a pet, yet I can’t lose any more of my family members 😭
