The absence of pets
![A scraggly pigeon](/student/wellbeing/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_3_1/public/media/images/2020-10/img_3981_0.jpg?h=3bfd1642&itok=ezNyZaM6)
Unfortunately, as much as I love our backyard chickens and our small mob of sheep back home, I can’t really fit those kinds of animals into my tiny one room apartment. Although, I would love to try. My current stage in life dictates that whilst I’m living out of home with nothing to my name, I have to rent property to property, and it feels like I’m always on the move. However, it’s not all bad. I am free of commitments. I can travel, go away for the weekend, not waste time feeding chickens and washing dogs and, it’s fun living a life that is day to day and not tied down with mortgages and a nine-to-five. As great as that freedom is, I find myself missing the company and companionship of all my pets and animals back home.
Animals always relax me. They remind me that all those worries and problems up in my head really aren’t that big of a deal. Just some nice juicy worms and a nesting box makes my chickens cluck. Our sheep are never bothered, just hungry for an apple treat and some fresh hay and a good scratch on the back.
So, whilst I don’t have the ability to have lots of pets when I am living independently and in the city, I still try to find ways to interact with animals. Sometimes just snapping some photos of a scraggly pigeons and watching them bob their little heads is a fun distraction. Or watching the ducks swim by the river. One of my favourites are the galahs and the lorries. Their cheeky waddle is guaranteed to put a smile on your dial as well as all their little squeaks and squawks and in-flight bird battles with the noisy miners. Something I am considering is getting a fun little axolotl or goldfish, which I would undoubtedly spoil. At this stage in life an axolotl or a little goldfish may be all the friends I can afford but they might also be all the friends I need.