“A Dog is for Life…not just for Christmas or Eid”

A family member can be your parents, your siblings, your close relatives, your next-door neighbor, your best friend at your school, and sometimes it can be your pet too!

Having a family you can go home to gives a warm feeling in your heart. It also gives you the comfort you need during the hardest times, and the happiness during the saddest moments of your life.

“They will give you unconditional love… In my own upbringing that’s how it is, a pet is a part of a family.”

Lisa Parkin, a committee member of QAWS or Qatar Animal Welfare Society, has always been compassionate and loving towards animals ever since she lived back home in U.K. Being around animals for almost all her life, she decided that caring for animals is something that gratifies her inner animal lover self – hence the very reason for being a member of QAWS. She also volunteered with the RSPCA or Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the U.K., before moving to Qatar and becoming a part of QAWS.

According to her, “As a society in general, I feel like we have an obligation to look after those who can’t look after themselves irrespective of whether they are old people, children, the infirmed or animals. Someone has to speak out for those who don’t have a voice”. In Lisa’s case, those are animals.

With approximately 230 animals in the shelter, Lisa happily shared that they are doing quite well these days since there are more people adopting pets to complete their family.

Having a pet at home is actually a wonderful thing. Not only do they provide emotional support to persons in the family, they also give a lot of unconditional love to people. Lisa added that a child around animals learns to be more responsible, empathetic and compassionate. At the same time, it is good for their health because their immune system will be boosted against allergies, infections and others.

“Think. Think about it. And then think some more. A dog is for life. Not just for Christmas, not just for Eid, not just for Ramadan. If you take a dog or a cat home, you should be prepared to care for the animal forever.”

Caring for animals though, is not an easy task so Lisa and the rest of the people in QAWS make sure that the adopters are well-informed of their responsibilities of taking an animal with them. QAWS always try to give the utmost care they could offer to the animals that come under their custody such as grooming, neutering, or even bringing them to a veterinarian if they’re sick. That is why they expect the interested adopters to treat the animals the same way if they decided to adopt.

“The ultimate goal is to find the animal a forever home. And whatever we can do to facilitate that, we will do.”

The members of QAWS visit schools, talk to people to educate and discuss with them the importance of adopting animals, and neutering, in the hope that they will have a better understanding.

“You don’t abandon a member of your family and we said that out loud to everybody who adopted from us. When you leave here and taken an animal under your care, they are your new family member forever.”

When asked what do animals need the most from their future adopters, Lisa replied, “It’s love. Very simple. It’s just that.”

An additional family member brightens up one’s home, especially if we shower it love and care, our pets will give us equal warmth and joy for the rest of the day.