Growing up, I always wanted to have a dog, but my parents said no because they can be high maintenance, costly, shed, and track dirt into the house. I gave up on wanting a dog or any pets because I soon learned that my parents are correct. Now that I am in my twenties, I have learned that many many people love pets, especially dogs and cats. My previous girlfriend loved cats. Now that I am single, I hope to find a girl who isn't so into pets, but just searching around the net and in my experience, that person is rare. What do you think of my reasoning for not liking pets? Are any of you like this as well?
i love pets. but i think its wrong to keep reptiles, birds, and rodent pets just suck. and exotic animals that deserve to stay in the wild where they belong. so the only pets i am ok with are dogs and cats because they have already been domesticated and its too late to release them back into the wild. i am gettin a kitten in about a month and i plan on gettin a husky or a rottie when i have my own place. edit:fish are boring and not worth keeping but thats just me
I love them when they're well-trained and well behaved. I can't stand dogs that don't listen to you/their owners. Really no different than how I can't stand children who don't listen to you/their owners. Cats are way easier than dogs. I have a really chill cat who never uses anything but her box, never scratches anything, never tears anything up, doesn't want to play, doesn't want to play with other animals, just wants to chill out by windows and in your lap.
Cats are actually unique in human domestication, because they can return to a feral state much easier and with great success than compared to most other domesticated animals. But you are certainly correct about reptiles and amphibians and some rodents.
They can be a hassle and sometimes its easy to feel guilty about it being bored or lonely, even when you do get to spend time with it. I wish I would've cherished the last few years of my dogs life more. My lizards are so simple though. The one little guy smiles at me sometimes
Actually, something I watched on the discovery channel said certain breeds of dogs would be extinct in a few generations but others would adapt and survive without humans. They'd try to escape from houses, eat everything including us, form packs, etc. Sadly, small breeds/pugs and bulldogs/bassett hounds and other dogs would have a much more difficult time adapting and would probably die out. And cats would have an easier time, they'd learn to hunt birds and rodents pretty quick. So long as they had a food supply, they'd make it too. They'd have a much shorter lifespan of course. Evolution would kick in again, instead of selection, basically.
I'm starting to think it might be a culture thing. I'm second generation in the US. My parents are from Taiwan. I'm guessing pets are a lot more common in western countries.
yea cats arent loyal like dogs i but still like them were you watching life after people or something?
I hate most animals. Pets are more work than they're worth for somebody like me. I know some people dig them and that's alright I guess, but I don't entirely understand personally. I COULD handle having a cat. Like, something that's clean and well trained, but chill as fuck. Just something that will sit with me at night when I watch TV or something. Haha, basically something that will only fuck with me when I want it to, and leave me alone all the other times. I know that's unreasonable, so I don't fuck with animals. Fish and other things that live in water are okay though. But yeah, fuck animals. Few things piss me off more when I'm walking and a dog runs up barking all stupid and shit. I just wanna be all "leave me the fuck alone dog" but then I remember "oh yeah, it's too fucking stupid to understand"
LOL you must've never kept any of those pets. I will agree with you partly on reptiles. Dont think a Rat is a good pet? They are super affecionate, soft, cuddly, entertaining and joyful... if I'm not mistaken, that makes a pretty good pet, no? Fish are amazing pets. I love mine. The only reason I got into fish was by looking at my sisters tank super baked. If you have a tank with some colorful gravel, fake plants, and some spongebob decorations, your tank is gay and not fun. If you have a tank with some nice sand or plant substrate, Driftwood, rockwork, Lush plantlife, you have a little piece of nature. And if you stock the tank with fish and inverts that all get along and serve their purpose, you have a little environment in the palm of your hands. its an amazing feeling. Do you think dogs and cats should be kept in the wild as well? theres no difference between exotics and 'average' pets in that sense.
You just need to try and understand them... At first blush the random jumping and barking seems pretty retarded, but when you realize that they're more happy than they've been in their entire life, just because they saw you, well that makes it kinda cute if you ask me.
Nope - this is a fact of biology. The brain of the domesticated cat is virtually identical to that of a feral cat, their trait that seem like domestication are actually better described as social adaptations. In fadeddd's example, it's different. Domesticated dogs as a species could survive, yes, but individuals would have incredibly trouble. There would be a lot of die off before due to traits of domestication. The ability for cat's to adapt to feral states is much more ingrained in their genetic biology.
Eh, most of the time they're not happy. Usually it's like "you're walking on my yard motherfucker bark bark bark". I have tried to be more understanding though and they can't help that they're "stupid".. but it just gets hard to put up with for me sometimes.