I've had a pet of some sort my entire life, and I've been blessed by every single one of them.

I grew up having dogs; we always had at least one dog in the house. The most pets we had at one time (for maybe six months) were four, which included: two dogs, one cat, and one hamster. Sadly, the hamster died quickly and one of the dogs turned out to be an attempted cat murderer, so we had a dog and a cat. Their names were Riley (the dog) and Grace (the cat), and we had them for as long as I can remember honestly.

My grandma moved in with my family when I was 8 and she's allergic to cats, so we had to give away Grace, and a few years after that when I was 12, we got a pug. His name is Griffin and he's about 6 now. Unfortunately, Riley had to be put down when I was 13 and he was about 9.

Griffin got a little sister named Georgie (Gigi for short) for Christmas last year, and they've literally been inseparable since. Griffin was my emotional support dog through my brother leaving for college, my friends moving away, my dad passing away and other things that broke my heart. Animals know when we need them. Super unfortunately, we had to re-home my beloved pugs because I was unable to take care of them once I moved into college. Literally, the hour after I moved into my dorm, my mom bought a kitten and her name is Suki.

The point of this article is to say that I can't imagine not having some sort of pet in my life. I may be a dog person who misses her pugs every day, but having a cat is extremely helpful to fill that hole.

Animal companionship is important; animals of any kind honestly.

They may only be in our lives for a small part of ours, but we're they're entire life. Most of the time, they don't know anyone but us. They are completely devoted to their humans, and I believe we need to be equally devoted to them.