Pets In Our Lives

[buddys]

My wife and I have had animals our whole married life. I have to admit I was just a casual pet owner before she and I married. She taught me that they are more than just "animals" who hung around while we either ignored or worse yet, abused them. I now can say that I am with all honesty, a "pet" Dad who takes the greatest pleasure in my dogs and cats. I've learned the depth of their love and how they react when we are scolding them. I honestly love my pets more than I love some people. If you haven't yet had this experience, I urge you to get an indoor pet and you will know the happiness that you find every day in their love.

[Narnian]

It's so true, buddys. My dog Paco is the first indoor pet I've had since childhood that I've truly loved, and the first ever pet that I am totally responsible for. My family would have "pets" that hung around, but they were meant more as a lesson about responsibility when we were kids. Inevitably, Mom and Dad would clean the litterboxes and fill the food and water bowls when us kids weren't doing it often enough.

I developed a fear of dogs as a child after a couple of confrontations with them. Loving, training, and socializing Paco has helped me to largely overcome that fear, and I smile so much more often with him and his doggy friends in my life.

[Perfect7]

Yep. Training them and training children are very similar endeavors, also. Some of the same techniques can be applied. We have two dogs and a cat living with us.

[Silva]

I have had dogs and cats before I met my husband, but he is a dog person and I am a cat person and never the twain shall meet!

We have had other pets since we got together, including chipmunks, various birds and small animals, especially when my daughter was young and she got to look after the hamsters and guinea pigs, but I would find looking after a pet too much hassle nowadays plus the expense and loss of freedom (you have to get them looked after if you want to go away).

No, I am content to sit here in the warmth watching my neighbours trudge through the snow and icy winds walking their dogs and I say to my husband,

"Thank goodness we don't have to do that!" ;D

[Meg325]

Believe it or not...I have lived my entire life without ever having a pet. We never had any dogs or cats growing up. This is probably because, we realized that I have terrible allergies. I doubt that I will ever have a dog or a cat. I guess I am probably in the minority saying this.

[knchatty]

I 100% agree with you Buddys!  I'm a pet person too - they are part of our family.  Growing up we always had 1 cat and 1 dog.  Now as an adult I have 2 cats and 1 dog.  The funny thing is I have become allergic to cats over the last 5 years.  I just pop an allergy pill each day and pet the cats.

Pets are great!

[marvinmacs]

We don't have any pet at home. My wife doesn't want one. I don't like one either. Raising two hyperactive kids is more than enough for us

But I recall the days when I was a kid myself. We had a pet cat who stayed indoor. We played a lot with that cat. One day we couldn't find it.

After three days, he ended up high up in the tree of a neighbor three or four houses from ours. The cat must have ventured outside of the house and someone wanted to mess with it. Cats knew how to go home. But it obviously ran away.

After retrieving the cat, we rejoiced a lot like finding back a lost brother.