Our daughter Katie has been through some serious pet angst.  She loves animals, but at the same time she loathes being licked or chased.  She gets along with the cat because the cat requires nothing of her, and she only has to deal with him for a few moments at a time.

We are animal people, though, and we have dogs.  Katie’s first real dog experience was Rocky.  Rocky was a Malty-Poo – very fuzzy -but very fast and energetic.  She wasn’t quite old enough or strong enough to deal with him, so she pulled back.  We tried repeatedly, but it’s not the kind of thing that can be forced.  We lost Rocky to illness – Katie was as upset as any of us, but I’m not sure they ever would have bonded because she wasn’t ready.

In November we got Gizmo.  Gizmo is a black and white Pekingese.  Katie held him a few times, but he grew up and now – just like Rocky was – he is fast and nippy.  We thought the whole experiment was going to fail again, but we took a final shot.  We got Rocky a little female dog for a companion.  She’s tiny, and fuzzy, and Katie is bigger.  She is thrilled to hold the puppy, and now is even softening toward Gizmo, who actually laid in her bed with her this evening.

The lesson learned here is, you can’t force kids and animals to get along. It’s a trial and error process, and you have to be sensitive both to the child’s side of it, and the animal’s side.  If you try to hurry, you might cause a rift between your child and animals that never heals, or takes years to fade.  If you are patient, the lessons a child can learn from the responsibility of caring for a pet, and the unconditional love animals exhibit for their owners will last a lifetime.