The Joys of Cactus Ownership

I have been the proud owner of a Christmas Cactus for almost a year and a half and let me tell you something, it's very rewarding. As you may or may not know, I have never really had a lot of luck with pets (my hermit crabs once tried to eat each other); although, I haven't completely failed at keeping fish alive.

However, I've been very successful at keeping my cactus alive (I call him Cacti). Because, when you forget to water/feed a cactus for a few days, nothing too bad happens. When fish miss a day of feeding, they start to eat their young. The noble cactus, on the other hand, is a dignified creature that does not stoop to cannibalism.

Breathing pets, I find, are mostly over rated, but it's not all fun and games owning a Christmas Cactus. It's a lot of hard work. To get it to flower, you have to make sure that it gets a long period of uninterrupted darkness. In winter, that means you have to turn off the lights when it starts to get dark outside. So basically, from November on I can't have lights in my living room from 5:00 on, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to be a responsible plant owner.

But the joys of cactus ownership far outweigh the struggles. The cactus is very quiet, polite, and it produces beautiful pink flowers every winter. A cactus will never lick your friends, it doesn't shed, and you don't have to clip it's nails. A lot of people think the cactus has a rather prickly disposition, but the cactus is actually very considerate. A cactus rarely has accidents on your rug. And, of course, a cactus is rarely in violation of a lease. It's a quite unobtrusive house plant.

Not to mention that a cactus will always sit still beside you when you're trying to watch television.

Just sayin'