Emotional Support Pets

I’ve heard stories about people having emotional support pets or dogs that help blind people, but I’ve never had the privilege of witnessing it firsthand. I have always loved animals. Growing up, my dad bought our family 2 pet sheep, lots of chickens, and a whole pack of dogs and cats. While I loved animals, they didn’t always love me. My sheep head bucked me in the stomach and left me crying on the floor. My chickens pecked me when I tried collecting eggs. My dogs bit me when I tried separating them during a fight. Most recently, a stray kitten I was feeding in my yard, chewed my finger when I tried petting it. So why would I even consider getting Mayah a pet of her own? The simple and true answer would be, I was a bad kid and probably tormented the reaction out of those poor animals. Maybe I did try to sit on the sheep and use it as a horse; the chickens were just protecting their babies; I should have been smarter than getting in between 2 snarling dogs; and that kitten was just a wild little thing that did not asked to be pet. Mayah deserved the opportunity to be better than me.

Sweety

Aunty D had a really cute rabbit house with a mommy, a daddy, and tons of baby rabbits. After seeing them hop around her back yard, my husband Dennis desperately wanted to raise rabbits, but after being bitten years ago by a so-called tamed rabbit, I’m terrified of them. “Please, no rabbits,” I begged. We had a test run with a puppy for a few weeks. It was an adorable little fluff ball. The morning we brought the puppy home, Mayah stared at it with her sleepy eyes. I asked her, “Mama, do you know what animal this is?” Her reply was hilarious. I wish I caught it on camera. “A goat,” she replied very confidently. After a good laugh and gentle correction, we named it Sweety.  

Now for those that haven’t met Mayah, you should know she is very active and hyper. I was on the edge of my seat, hoping Mayah wouldn’t kill this poor puppy by throwing it up in the air or sitting on it like a horse, or swinging it around by the tail. After all, this puppy was just borrowed goods, we were puppy sitting for a cousin. Turns out, Sweety brought out another side in Mayah, a caring and calm little girl. Mayah and Sweety became inseparable. It was heart warming to see how gentle Mayah was with Sweety, she never tried pulling its tail. Instead, Mayah played mommy, wrapping Sweety with her blanket, pushing Sweety around in a stroller and trying to feed it a bottle and put it in her bed to sleep. After 3 weeks, it was sad to say goodbye to Sweety as she got on a boat homebound to Caye Caulker.

The Hunt For A New Pet

I loved having a lil house dog but Sweety wasn’t the best fit for us. A puppy is like taking care of a new born baby, cleaning up accidents and crying for attention at night. I already had 1 baby to care for so we will have to revisit a pet dog much later in the future. After weeks of deliberating which pet would best suit our family, we finally made the decision to get 2 pet ducklings, lol yeah I know, I can imagine your faces are twisting in confusion. Let me explain, why ducks? So first of all, Mayah has an obsession for ducks. She has a hole pile of yellow plastic ducks for the bath tub and pool. She loves lining them up and singing to them. Don’t ever try taking away one of her ducks while she has them lined up in order, MELTDOWN CENTRAL.

Now that we knew Mayah had the ability to be gentle with pets, we decided to ask a friend of ours for 2 ducklings. Mayah was super excited to watch her ducks swim in the tub of water that we had put out for them, but these ducks were not as submissive as Sweety. Donald and Daisy were wild and didn’t like to be held. A week after getting the ducklings, we added 10 new chicks to the family. Every single morning, I would pick 2 chicks and a duckling, put them in a little box and take them inside so Mayah could hold and pet them. It was a huge leap of faith in our girl, would Mayah squish them with a powerful grip or gently pat them with an open hand? Being gentle is not in Mayah’s nature but once again, our girl surprised us. After a few instructions on how to hold her new pets, she became a natural.

The Right Fit For Us

Mayah’s experiences with pets has taught her how to be gentler and patient. Although she doesn’t yet have the responsibility of feeding the chickens and ducks, she offers to help collect eggs from the nest and feed them on a regular basis. Our pets have provided Mayah with an outlet. We didn’t get to visit the playground for over a year but Mayah could not be happier running around the yard playing with chickens. Working on speech is an everyday lesson in our house, and having pets, have increased the number of opportunities to learn and use new language. We love our Chickens and ducks, big plus, we have not had to buy eggs in 2 years. So while chickens and ducks aren’t normally considered emotional support pets in movies, they are the right fit for us.