My first apartment meant the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do in the comfort of my own home. I didn’t have to worry about walking across campus in the rain in order to get crummy cafeteria food. Like many others that transition from dorms to apartments, houses, ect., you start to believe that the only thing missing in your cozy, humble abode is a furry friend.
Now, you’ve grown up with pets of your own with probably the help of parents and so you think you got this and accept the challenge.
I didn’t even want a pet until one of my close friends asked me to go to the shelter with her and as a good friend, well I did. Puppies, kitties and fur balls galore I met eyes with whom I thought would be an amazing addition. A tan, chunky, husky/ lab mix that I named, Butter. Butter was all fun in games until I had to keep taking her to the vet every couple of weeks to get her updated on her shots, torn shoes and the last straw was when I came back from a Christmas party and a missing floor. Butter thought it was a great idea to tear off the ENTIRE floor of my apartment and kid you not, I am not exaggerating one bit. I know what you’re thinking, “well you’re just irresponsible and you need to train her.”. Yeah, I did need to teach her but I was also an intern, a full time student and had a life of my own that made me realize I could no longer be responsible for someone else’s life when I can’t even handle my own. Kudos to all the college kids who adopted puppies and are still making it out alive because that was probably one of the hardest tasks I came upon in college. Don’t worry though, this story ends good. Butter now has a loving daddy who has taught her the things I couldn’t and for this I start with, why college students should adopt an older pet:
My boyfriend and I were in Dallas and decided to go to the SPCA and after much thought we adopted a 3 year- old hound mix. We later found out she had been in the Rowlett shelter since December and had moved to SPCA Dallas in February.
I thought it was another bad idea having to train a dog all over again. As soon as we got home we learned that she knew a lot of tricks, and didn’t have any accidents at all. She was the happiest dog I had ever encountered; we were her second chance.
Adopting an older pet means that in most cases they are already fixed, vet visits won’t break your bank from how many you usually have to go to if you had a puppy.
They are usually calmer and easier to train or just already trained.
Older pets are usually overlooked and are not taken home as fast as puppies. You can give them a couple great years of what they have left.
They will love you more, understand you and trust you more because of bad situations you have taken them from. Most importantly, they rescued you instead of you rescuing them. They picked up the pieces you didn’t know you were missing and all those partying days start to diminish because you realize that there is no better way to spend your Friday nights than with your best friend sipping cheap wine and watching reruns of SpongeBob. Pepper now has a new rescue brother named Hercules Master of the Universe. (Not kidding, that was on his birth certificate when I rescued him.)