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Sharon Ndalilah

The Cost of Owning A Pet

What is the cost of owning a pet?

A large lot of the human race fancy keeping pets. For different reasons of course. The moment you own one, something new is added to your life, more responsibilities, more love and playful games. I believe more piece of mind as well.

Pets unlike most people tend to listen if given instructions in a proper way, it is all in the training process. If taken care of well, you can have fun times although some maybe chaotic. Pets can be your best friends and when you would want an encouraging hug, they would be on your feet or your laps rubbing themselves against you soothingly. This is a way of communicating, to make you feel better.

However, at times they become quite handful. Their "sometimes not so long claws" can cause such a disaster, and by disaster, one historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor can testify to having a better definition.

His cat, Padme, clawed a 17th century portrait he had bought for £5,250 ($6,680) in 2015. It is when Grosvenor was repairing a painting by one of his favorite artists John Michael Wright, when Padme attacked. It landed at the center of the painting and raked its claws at the figure resulting to the creation of a large hole. Reporting to telegraph he said, “As I stood back to admire my handiwork, up jumped our cat, landing forcefully in the centre of the painting with a crunch. Disaster”.

While the painting was not completely destroyed, Grosvenor says it cannot return to its original condition, adding that with the more repairing works, it would cost him just as much as he had bought the painting to fix it.

But what is unique about this painting specialist, is his relationship with Padme the cat. To the surprise of many, he seems to have accepted the obvious lose and is willing to have the painting repaired. But what about his pet? This is what he was quoted saying “Padme is not a fan of John Michael Wright, and regrets nothing.”

With positive thinking the artist said the work should be fixed, and that the cat didn’t damage places that would be a bit more challenging to repair, “At least the cat landed on his clothing, and not his face.”

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