When I was a kid, my house was filled with animals. Whether it was the pets in our house, the animals in the zoo or the aquarium, or the local shelter.

I was obsessed, it was fairly (very) obvious from a young age. I had all kinds of fish growing up, raised frogs from when they were just little tadpoles, turtles, and, of course, dogs. Dogs were my favorite, although all kinds of animals have a special place in my heart.

Now, here I am, almost 22 years old and I already have three pets on my own. While I'm not trying to add any more pets into my family (right now at least — ask me again in six months), it is still so so so so hard not to get another animal.

For example, I was at a pet store and saw that the bunnies were on sale for $10, and they just looked so sad in their little cage and I know that they would be just so loved in my little home... and then my boyfriend took me away from them because he knew that I would actually get the bunnies, which would stretch my budget much thinner than it needed to be.

So, you could say I'm basically a shopaholic but for pets (and I'd much rather rescue).

My pets (Finn the dog, Kylo Ren the betta fish, and Anakin the hamster) are treated like my children, and they get everything they need and more. Especially because my mother is now the pet grandma she could ever want to be. All three are spoiled like none other and honestly deserve even more because of how wonderful they are. Anakin and Finn became close friends once Finn understood that Anakin was too small for him to play with. Kylo lives on his own and hides behind things like his emo namesake from Star Wars does with his mask.

Since I rescued my dog I followed many different pet rescue pages, and every time I see a new dog I feel the inevitable need to adopt them and give them the best life because they deserve so much more than the life they had lived. Seeing cats just makes me feel like I need to round out my group of animals with a cat, and when I see cats, sometimes we have a bond and it is just so very hard to walk away.

I love animals more than people (for the most part), and being a pet-a-holic keeps not only my life interesting but also the life of my family and friends a bit interesting as well.