I have a small problem with people who call their dogs their children. Don’t get me wrong, I love my dogs – they definitely add joy to our lives. But when people talk about their dogs (or cats) constantly, I start to get slightly irritated. This is partially due to a conversation with a person whose cat had just died. She had recently been so devastated by the death of her cat, saying that she had just lost her “child.” She said, “really, it was like I was losing my child.”
Now I am not without empathy for the fact that she loved her cat, he was a big part of her life for about eight years. But to even compare losing a cat or pet to what it would be like to lose a child is just not appropriate. This, coming from a woman who has no children, is especially wrong. There is no comparison. (Took a month or so, but she is now completely over it. I am not sure people can get over the death of their child so easily.)
I had a cat before I had my first child. This cat was loved, it was “our baby.” As soon as my human baby was born, however, I saw the difference. A cat can be put to sleep when it is suffering physical problems you can’t afford surgery for. Can you do that with a child? Now I understand these people usually don’t have children and don’t understand the kind of love parents have for their children, but even so, I can’t imagine not seeing the difference.
A pet is a pet. We buy them or get them free to be our little companions. Some people are more involved, some people are less. As long as you treat your pet humanely, feed and take care of them as you should, who is to judge how you relate with them? The idea of owning an animal to begin with is such a strange thing anyway. So when another person I know judges the living conditions of my animal pets compared to hers, I get even more irritated.
For example, one person I know has three large dogs who live both in and out of her house. They sleep in her room at night, sometimes on the bed. I know someone who has a small dog who lives in his house, which stinks tremendously. He lets this dog lick his toes because it feels good and he thinks it’s cute. The other woman with the cat used to let her cat walk around in the house, and I would watch the cat use the cat litter box located in the kitchen to take a s**t and then proceed to jump up onto the kitchen counter to curl up and take a nap next to the bowl of fruit. There was always fur all over the place, on every piece of furniture, and all over my clothing when I left. I find that quite disgusting.
However, I have been told by these people on different occasions that they find it sad that my poor dogs (who are animals) have to be mostly outside (they sleep in a small utility room at night and have access to it in daytime) and that my cat has to live outside (as my son suffers from allergies discovered after we had already had the cat several years). I choose my son’s well-being over the cats in a heartbeat, but I do make sure the cat is cared for, warm and safe. He is an animal, though, and enjoys hunting and being outside, it is in his nature. I have seen cats locked up inside and I personally find that wrong, cats stare out the window longing to go outside and chase butterflies and stalk tiny prey through the grass. They seem to go senile when stuck inside with no access to the outdoors.
Dogs are not my priority. I care for them. I think they are happy and carefree outside. They play together, they have a huge yard to run around in and they roll around in the dirt. I don’t feel comfortable having them traipse in dirt bringing in all kinds of foreign matter from the yard into our house where my children are sitting on the floor playing.
My sister, the dog owner, talks incessantly about her dogs. The infrequent calls we have are taken up by conversation about her dogs, what she has been training them to do lately, how much she loves them, what she bought for them, and then subtly remarks how I should train my dogs this way or that. I have noticed that conversations with my mother have even been consumed by talk about these dogs! She has been the caretaker of the dogs on numerous occasions when my sister goes on vacation. She talks about the dogs, how good and trained they are (hinting at comparing them to my poor, unruly dogs who have to live outside and who I have not forced to learn how to roll over on command for a little treat) and even calls them her “grandkids,” when in fact, she never comes to offer her caretaker services to her real human grandchildren. I find it so annoying discussing dogs the entire conversation without so much as a question about my real kids. It is very strange.
The fact is, dogs are easier than children, they love you unconditionally. You have no major decisions to make about their day-to-day lives, except maybe when a major healthcare concern comes up, and then you can decide to pay lots of money to fix it or just put them to sleep – and that usually all depends on your current financial situation. Whereas, if you have the same situation with a child, you take care of it no matter what, beg, borrow or steal.
Pet owners have different beliefs and styles in how they decide to relate with their pets. Some buy dogs just for protection (including policemen) and the dogs are used only for that reason, living in a junk yard or fenced area. They have a right to own these dogs for this reason if they wish, as long as they care for them providing food and shelter. People have a right to treat their dogs like their kids as well. They can train them to walk through tunnels and race other dogs around tracks, dress them and primp them like phoo phoo little creatures, let them lick their mouths and toes, and sleep in their bed if they wish (ewwwwww!), but don’t pass judgment on how I choose to deal with my pets and I won’t either. And don’t tell me your dogs or cats are in any way loved at the same level as my kids or I’ll post a very irritated rant about it.
