Pets and Children

I have been going in and out of the vet's office these couple of days (just in case this raises alarms, everything seems to be okay so far). Aside from worrying about my cat, it has been fascinating to watch other people with their pets.

It seems that keeping pets has become much more popular in Hong Kong in recent years. People are more well off and can afford luxuries, I suppose. And from my understanding, many couples are forgoing having children, but, still needing something to love, are turning to cats and dogs instead. Certainly the amount of money spent on some of these animals (pet MRI, anyone?) exceeds what is spent on some human children!

While some people don't understand this (it's just an animal, after all!), I think that I kind of do understand this mentality. When my kitten was diagnosed with a heart defect, it did not make any sense for me, then a struggling grad student on a meager stipend, to opt for expensive ECGs and ultrasounds to pinpoint the source of the problem, and later, for expensive medications that the cat would be taking for the rest of his life. It doesn't make any sense. But somehow, we are programmed to do such things.

When I was in Gansu, we worked with children who were orphans. Sometimes, it was really true that both their parents had passed away. Other times, however, one parent (or both) had just simply disappeared, leaving their children behind with grandparents or relatives. I recently spoke with a friend who works with asylum seekers; many of them, in their flight to safety, have left behind children whom they have not heard anything about for years.

I do not believe that those parents are any less caring than we are. I cannot imagine the level of hardship that they must have gone through to push them to this point.