I have never in my life not had animals around. I'm not sure I would know what to do without them.
I used to think this until I had Sebastian... and now, just about every ounce of energy, patience and care goes towards him and I can finally picture life without a dog at my feet.
(Although I have always been a big animal lover.)
We had two cats and a dog but when the baby arrived we had to rehome the cats due to safety reasons. So now we are down to the one dog.