The High Cost of Contentment

By Jim Hagarty
2011

I complain to anyone who will listen, an audience that is quickly shrinking by the hour, about the high cost of keeping our pets healthy. The local animal “hospital” we frequent looks like a fancy hotel. I am surprised, dressed in my best troll under the bridge clothes, they even let me in the place.

There are now 16 hearts beating in our home (and probably a few more in the form of the odd mouse nesting here and there). There are four humans, two cats, one dog and, at last count, nine gerbils. It’s a long way from the days when only two of us lived in this little shack – my cat Grumbles and I. And despite the expense, if I am honest, which I rarely am, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

They say a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. I don’t want to be that person.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.