What is Good About Having a Pet?

I have always loved nature, and animals. While the primary focus for my business and illustration is currently British birds, I have kept a variety of pets, ponies and poultry in my time. This explains my enjoyment of the Wild Life Drawing sessions, as combining drawing with the chance to hear about interesting animals and their conservation just ticks all my boxes.

I lived in a farm cottage for 15 years when and where I also homeschooled my children, so I had hands to help me see to them all, albeit grudgingly most of the time, unless it involved chicks. I also kept bees for many years, and ran sustainable beekeeping workshops.

I can’t imagine not sharing my life with animals, at the very least a dog and a cat, and guinea pigs, and although I don’t keep chickens at my house now, I maintain a weekly visit to my former hens at their new home with my friend. I had horses when I was younger, and enjoyed a brief revisit to that way of life when I learnt to drive carriage horses with a local business a few years ago.

So, what is good about having a pet? I think it gives a perspective on another way of behaving, communicating, and interacting. It allows us to feel a sense of responsibility and awareness of another’s – often very different – needs, and anything which gets us out of our anthropocentric viewpoint is a plus in my view.

So far, I have had the privilege to be the primary caregiver to:

Horses | Guinea pigs | Chickens | Ducks | Quail | Rabbits | Dogs | Cats | Hedgehog | Bees