Animals in your family

Woebot

Well-known member
My Mum just had our last dog put down.

We had dogs in our family from 1969 till last week. Usually two dogs. Right through my childhood.

The thing is, though I recall a few dogs with great affection, Budeau, Tips (most especially), Ferdinand, at the end of the day I think they were an appalling emotional drain on our family. I'll step up and say it (smirks) the attention which was lavished on these dogs would have been much better directed at me and my brother.

To that end I'd advise anyone with children *NOT* to get a dog. Or a cat. Or a rabbit. Just talk and play with your children instead.
 
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Omaar

Guest
Our cat had to be put down last year. It was a pretty traumatic experience for me, partly cos it was a funny little cat and it was sad to see it die but also cos it played an important role as a sort of nucleus for our family ... i wouldn't call it 'an appalling emotional drain', but a lot of emotional energy was directed at our cat as a totem rather than between family members. I've seen this happen in lots of other families too. Seeing our cat day die was sort of siginificant for me as it seemed to be the last thing connecting our family together really.

My mum has a dog now. So does my sister.

Personally, as much as (or because) I like animals, I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of domesticating them and shaping them into members of the nuclear family.
 

luka

Well-known member
cats and dogs chose to be domesticated. it was a deal which worked well for both parties. check out the behaviour of the foxes in grizzly man to see how easy it must have been to domesticate dogs. keeping things like birds is out of order though.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
One cat, Travis Perkins, named after the builder's merchant. She's getting on a bit now, got her in 94 I think. Definitely bottom of the love pile after the boys, though now things are settling down she's getting quite a bit. She loved the move to Sheffield, made her a much more contented cat. She's taking a bit of interest in the boys now they can be a bit gentle with her.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
ah... here it is. great article about the domestication of animals... I don't know about the stuff about cats in the first paragraph because I have had and would agagin have cats, but the rest is spot on - never thought of it before, but it's true - owning a dog any larger than your sister's handbag is simply WRONG:

http://www.viceland.com/issues/v12n7/htdocs/hey.php
 
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sherief

Generic Human
luka said:
cats and dogs chose to be domesticated. it was a deal which worked well for both parties. check out the behaviour of the foxes in grizzly man to see how easy it must have been to domesticate dogs. keeping things like birds is out of order though.

Grizzly Man...I guess the grizzlies didn't want to be domesticated.
 

Lichen

Well-known member
Our family dog is a pleasure and a menace in equal measures.

Incidences of pets getting WAY more attention than children probably reflect the parents' inability to get down with their kids, not some innate problem with having a pet in the family.


The dog does its thing, we do ours, sometimes we meet and it gets a rub on the tummy/pat on head/kick from child.
 
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