¶ … Pet Experience Pet owners often describe the connection between themselves and their animals as something similar to the bond between a parent and their child, and while this can be seen as an exaggeration, for anybody who has loved and lost a pet the comparison is appropriate. During my first year of college I experienced the loss of a longtime pet, as my 14-year-old cat Jameson succumbed to old age after a long life. Not being there when he passed away was a bit painful, because Jameson was "my" cat in a sense, with my older siblings each having their own from a litter of kittens my parents came across one day way back when. Knowing that he exceeded the expected...

Obviously, I was very young at this point and my parents handled the bulk of his care and upkeep, but I tried my best to keep his food and water dishes filled when I got home for school, and to make sure he came back in every night to avoid predators and other threats to his safety. Every night he would crawl into…