Being dissed by the Pope wasn’t on my 2022 bingo card, but here we are. According to the head of the Catholic Church, people who choose to have pets over children – that’s me and a whole heap of my millennial mates – are being selfish and eroding the very fabric of humanity. Ouch.
When the pontiff’s insult made headlines in January, it struck a nerve, and I felt an overwhelming desire to defend my life choices. But then my rescue dog, Daisy, curled up next to me on the couch and sighed, and suddenly the comments of a childless 85-year-old virgin on the other side of the world didn’t seem to matter so much. I adopted Daisy from the Alice Springs Animal Shelter last year during a midlife crisis of sorts. After a breakup, a series of moves and a career change, I was feeling lost in the world. I wanted some stability, a reason to get out
