Growing up, I loved animals. Whether it was on my grandparents' farm or around the neighborhood that we grew up in, I used to take care and feed them all the time. I spent much of my young years at my grandparents' farm, which had cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. It used to be hard work because I used to have to clean their sheds and feed them, sometimes even on my own. Sometimes, I wonder how it was possible in those days that kids so young were allowed to have so much responsibility, but that was how it was then.
When I was back at home with my parents, I remember that one summer, together with my sisters, we nursed back to health a pigeon that we found with a broken wing. I remember feeding him with a syringe, haha - what days! When he got better and we released him, he used to come back to our window many times. I remember taking care of rabbits, stray cats, and dogs - you name it, we took care of them. I used to suffer with them when I saw them in pain - to this day, I feel the same pain when I see anymals suffering.
The first time we officially got a pet was when someone we knew had to get rid of their cat because she was eating their chicks. So we offered to rescue her, and we loved and took care of her for 14 years. Then my sisters found a stray cat outside and took her in, and she stayed with us. In the beginning, my father was not pleased because the cats used to pee on his plants - he was a big plant collector. But when they learned to go to their sand, he also loved them a lot.
When I used to live in England, we adopted a stray cat, and she stayed with us for a few years. We brought her to the Netherlands when we moved here, but she was poisoned and died. I suffered a lot when she passed. Nowadays, we have a dog we adopted from Romania and brought him all the way here before Joshua was born. He is lovely, but besides that, he barks every time we get guests - whether friends or enemies, he barks. I have a special place in my heart for animals, and for this reason, for many years, I was vegan and vegetarian, until I had to stop because of health reasons.
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