Are pets really that good for us? Are we good for them?

Given:

Many people have a close relationship with their pets. These people treat their birds, cats, or other animals as members of their family. In your opinion, are such relationships good? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The Sample Essay Draft Step by Step

1. Quickly generate a strong opinion.

How would you like to be a love slave?

2. Generate supportive body topics.

My treating animals like humans may be bad for the animal's well-being. My treating animals like humans may be bad for my social development.

3. Develop body details.

My treating animals like humans may be bad for the animal's well-being. I have had many pets in my life, but I stopped keeping them after I realized how much I had enslaved them. For example, my last pet, a big panther-looking black neutered male cat, died early because of restrictions as a pet owner I imposed on him. He died of urinary tract blockage. In the first half of his seven-year life, gradually I transformed him from an outdoor to an indoor cat because he tended to roam very far away from home, often crossing busy streets or getting into fights with other cats. However, as an indoor cat, he no longer had the luxury of frequent urination to mark territory as he would instinctively do. He knew he was restricted to the litter box. On an artificial diet of cat food, he was doomed to develop mineral crystals that ultimately caused such blockage that he would have to live with a catheter. On his verge of death, I yielded to the vet's recommendation that he be put to sleep and spared the agony of surgery, recovery, and life with a catheter bag.

My treating animals like humans may not only be bad for the animal's well-being, it may also be bad for my own social development. The decision to no longer keep pets was in fact a liberating one for me. For example, the pet I talked about in the previous paragraph had become an ideal companion for me at home, so much so that I was reluctant to go out unless necessary! Figgy, as I called him, slept in my bed, arose when I did, ate when I did, answered me whenever I addressed him by name, and he was always sitting by my front door when I opened it to enter and be welcomed by his sweet little voice. Many times more than I care to admit, I hurried home to be welcomed by him, and I suffered some separation anxiety if I was delayed. Those years, I lost many opportunities to bond with people, make new friends, learn how to love people who weren't totally at my mercy for food and friendship.

4. Organize paragraph order and embed transitions.

The order and topics look logical as they are. While composing my draft, I used the not-only-but-also construction to link my two topic sentences. I can use this construction in my thesis.

5. Formulate thesis sentence.

My treating animals like humans may not only be bad for the animal's well-being, it may also be bad for my own social development.

6. Draft introduction.

How can a person who has grown up with and lived with pets all her life suddenly turn against the practice? That is what I did. And now I ask, was living with pets as though they were members of my family a good thing? I don't think so. My treating animals like humans may not only be bad for the animal's well-being, it may also be bad for my own social development.

7. Draft conclusion.

I had grown up with and lived with pets my whole life as if they were members of my own family, but after the untimely death of my last pet, Figgy the cat, I suddenly turned against the practice and have remained pet free ever since. I look back at how much that cat and all the others before him seemed to love me, faithfully by my side anywhere at home. But now I know how much I prevented them from expressing their true animal instincts, the roaming and marking territory, for example. They were in fact my love slaves, totally at my mercy and definitely not free. And I enslaved myself by my attachment to them. Now, when anyone tells me they are thinking of buying or adopting a cat or dog, I ask them, how would you like to be the love slave of a human rather than free to be your own animal self?

8. Proofread.

How can a person who has grown up with and lived with pets all her life suddenly turn against the practice? That is what I did. And now I ask, was living with pets as though they were members of my [own]family a good thing? I don't think so. My treating animals like humans may not only be bad for the animal's well-being, it may also be bad for my own social development.

My treating animals like humans may be bad for the animal's well-being. I have had many pets in my life, but I stopped keeping them after I realized how much I had enslaved them. For example, my last pet, a big panther-looking black neutered male cat, died early because of restrictions as a pet owner I imposed on him. He died of urinary tract blockage. In the first half of his seven-year life, gradually I transformed him from an outdoor to an indoor cat because he tended to roam very far away from home, often crossing busy streets or getting into fights with other cats. However, as an indoor cat, he no longer had the luxury of frequent urination to mark territory as he would instinctively do. He knew he was restricted to the litter box. On an artificial diet of cat food, he was doomed to develop mineral crystals that ultimately caused such [a] blockage that he would have to live with a catheter. On his verge of death, I yielded to the vet's recommendation that he be put to sleep and spared the agony of surgery, recovery, and life with a catheter bag. [If he survived the ordeal.]

My treating animals like humans may not only be bad for the animal's well-being, it may also be bad for my own social development. The decision to no longer keep pets was in fact a liberating one for me. For example, the pet I talked about in the previous paragraph had become an ideal companion for me at home, so much so that I was reluctant to go out unless necessary! Figgy, as I called him, slept in my bed, arose when I did, ate when I did, answered me whenever I addressed him by name, and he was always sitting by my front door when I opened it to enter and be welcomed by his sweet little voice. Many times more than I care to admit, I hurried home to be welcomed by him, and I suffered some separation anxiety if I was delayed. Those years, I lost many opportunities to bond with people, make new friends, [and] learn how to love people who weren't totally at my mercy for food and friendship.

I had grown up with and lived with pets my whole life as if they were members of my own family, but after the untimely death of my last pet, Figgy the cat, I suddenly turned against the practice and have remained pet free ever since. I look back at how much that cat and all the others before him seemed to love me, faithfully by my side anywhere [in my] home. But now I know how much I prevented them from expressing their true animal instincts, the roaming and marking territory, for example. They were in fact my love slaves, totally at my mercy and definitely not free. And I enslaved myself by my attachment to them. Now, when anyone tells me they are thinking of buying or adopting a cat or dog, I ask them, how would you like to be the love slave of a [civilized] human rather than free to be your own animal self?