"Pet Parents" are Crazy!

[Namaste Jesus]

Pet Parents are crazy. I'm reminded of this from time to time. Like when I took a day off work to stay home with a terminally ill parakeet. Then there's the time I held a sick kitty over his litter box to do his bits of business, because he was too weak to stand on his own. Most recently it was the look on my visiting sister-in-law's face as I prepared a fresh chicken breast for my current fuzzy feline friend that reminded me of my insanity.

Any other demented individuals out there?

 

[wil]

Cue the kitties n ferets..

I was not raised on a farm but have farmers in the family and have slaughtered more than a few animals for the dinner plate.

Pets? Cats are for mice, and dogs for birds...we've sewn them back up with dental floss... I am not one to spend a lot on vets...

 

[Aussie Thoughts]

Most recently it was the look on my visiting sister-in-law's face as I prepared a fresh chicken breast for my current fuzzy feline friend that reminded me of my insanity.

Our kitties are more or less working animals. Mice and other critters are a big problem down here. I can't say I've ever prepared a meal specifically for one of our cats, but they're well looked after and fed directly from our table.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

Things are a bit different down on the farm I suppose. To me, pets are like children. I've always treated them that way and sooner or later they start to act th part.

 

[wil]

Yes, that would be the difference....pet...vs working animal....animal companion vs offspring... Animal vs human... I don't mistreat animals, I treat them humanely, but not as human, not as children.

 

[Aussie Thoughts]

How about pets with pets? There's this Tomcat down here that shows up everyday just before night fall. He's actually responsible for most of the mouse carnage found in the morning. Any road, there's always a few metal drums outside the main barn and when this cat shows up, he always walks up to one of them, stretches up and places his front paws on the rim with his back feet still on the ground. He does the same thing in the morning before he leaves. One day we happened to notice what was going on. This Tom seems to have a pet mouse! He stretches up to the drum to let his friend off when he arrives and collects him again when he leaves. Go figure....

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Tovarish, aka She-Who-Demands-to-be-Obeyed, is my service cat (I'm allergic to dogs, and I flatly refuse to subject a horse to a one-bedroom apartment) and I am her human servant.

I don't consider her my furchild/furbaby, although I was her "mother" for her first several months (she was six weeks old when she came into my life.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[earl]

Pet Parents are crazy. I'm reminded of this from time to time. Like when I took a day off work to stay home with a terminally ill parakeet. Then there's the time I held a sick kitty over his litter box to do his bits of business, because he was too weak to stand on his own. Most recently it was the look on my visiting sister-in-law's face as I prepared a fresh chicken breast for my current fuzzy feline friend that reminded me of my insanity.

Any other demented individuals out there?

Of course pets become entwined in their owners' hearts nearly as much as children. Am surprised that that may be considered a bit off. Every pet we've ever had became such. Of course, there are those in this thread that don't describe the animals they may be sharing space with as pets and therein may lie the difference.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

Of course pets become entwined in their owners' hearts nearly as much as children.

My wife and I refer to our Tuxedo Maincoon as our little boy and introduce him to company that way. You should see the looks we get. Until that is, they get to know him and see how childlike he is.