The perfect pet?

Both my boys and I would want to have a pet at home. B wants a dog or a hamster, G wants a dog or a rabbit. I would accept any of those, since I love animals, and I've had all three of them. But I don't think that's ever going to happen, because of several things.

First of all, a dog. It would be great to have a dog. I think my boys would benefit from having a furry best friend who could watch over them and listen to them whenever they need to. But having a dog in Morocco is not such a good idea. According to Islam, dogs are evil and vicious animals and they scare away the angels. So lots of Muslims won't enter a house where there's a dog. People are really afraid of dogs and throw stones at them. In a way I can understand that because most people only meet the stray dogs in the streets and they are often sick and wild. People here generally don't see dogs as pets, to them it's like meeting a bear in the street or something. Having a dog here means you need to find a good vet because the dogs in the street probably would transmit a lot of diseases. But things are changing here in Morocco. I see a growing number of pet dogs or guard dogs in the streets, with their owners, so in a few years time society will probably change. It's like when I had my dog in Spain 20 years ago. Back then people had dogs as guard dogs only or as shephards in the countryside and having a dog as a pet was not at all common. Nowadays there seem to be more dogs than people in Spain. *lol* I guess the same thing will happen here, at least to some extent.

A hamster would be nice and I guess I could find someone to take care of it while we go away on holiday to Sweden. But what if it escapes from it's cage? My parents once accepted to take care of a hamster while its' family was on holiday but I accidentally left the cage door open and the hamster escaped. My dad had to tear down the cupboards in the kitchen to get that little creature out. He said never again and never bought me a hamster or guinea pig (I wanted to have both). I did get a rabbit eventually but then we found out my brother was allergic so she had to live in a special cage on the balcony. She was cute but in the end I think she turned a bit crazy because all of a sudden she got really violent and scary. One day she "escaped", or that's what my parents told me when I got home from the beach. They had been cleaning the cage and she escaped.... I think they just let the cage door open so they would get rid of her. Poor creature...

I'm still not sure we could have any pets just yet, but at the same time I think the kids could benefit from that. Having a furry little friend is a good thing and it allows kids to learn about caring, giving and loving in a way a doll or a friend can't. But there must always be a parent there to look after the animal, because a 10 years old is still not capable of taking the whole responsibility of a living creature, and even less someone younger than that.

Maybe we'll get a hamster after Christmas. I at least would enjoy to have a little fur ball at home again.*lol*