God gives us many gifts in life, but animals are that very special gift that really can enrich our lives and teach us responsibility at the same time. As pets, an animal’s needs are very simple, and in tern they give us their unconditional love.
As Elder Porphyrios says:
All things around us are droplets of the love of God – both things animate and inanimate, the plants and the animals, the birds and the mountains, the sea and the sunset and the starry sky. They are little loves through which we attain to the great Love that is Christ.