Dear LPG,

I found an interesting piece of information on-line recently.  Landlords appear not to want pets in their tenants’ homes. 9 out of 10 landlords are refusing to allow tenants to have pets in their homes, despite a boom in pet ownership. More tenants are lying to landlords after finding that only 7% will accept animals.  According to research by Petco, around 3.2 million pets were bought by households during the pandemic.

It has often been said that pets can cut that lonely feeling for many people and ‘lonely’ has been the watchword for the past two years.  I wonder how many sheltered-housing complexes have altered their policies in the light of the lockdown, although another on-line article I read shows that ‘pet friendly’ does not always mean that if you need to leave your home to move into one, you can take your pet with you.

I wasn't bought up to appreciate having pets, unless you count a kitten we had that spent a lot of the time outside. My parents only got the cat to get rid of mice. On the other hand, I see how my friend has made her dog a part of her family. She often takes him for walks three times a day, and sometimes even more often than that.   She tells me that even though she owned him for a while before the pandemic took its hold, if she took him for granted before, lockdown taught her just how important he is to her.  In my opinion, she spends far too much money on vet bills and food for him, but she assures me that it's all worthwhile. 

Gloria Brown

Camberwell

Gloria shares her findings and LPG adds a little information worth reading …

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