BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Child substitutes...

Stroking an animal actually lowers your blood pressure - they have lots of beneficial effects - nursing homes, retirement villages now have resident cats and dogs or visiting pets as they find they comfort and calm residents and give them a focus, helping with mental deterioration.
I know when one of my cats dies - I feel real grief and I make no apologies for that - how could I not feel that way about a friend so close that he sleeps on my bed every night (and most days)and comforts me when I'm feeling sad/low/sick - cats make you work for their affection but they give it back 10 fold - I also love the range of emotions they display - very human.
I was bed ridden with glandular fever for a couple of months - my cats stayed with me - it was over winter and I think they loved being curled up in bed all day. Nothing more soothing than a cat purring against your chest...

Cats are a different breed. I like them because they can be so stand-offish.......but their antics are truly hilarious. And I found males to be a bit more "stable" and affectionate. Just my two cents ......

I have always had male cats. When friends urge me to date I point out too them that the men I get along best with have been castrated, "do you know any like that you want to set me up with?"

I have three boys right now, Salem a black cat with a white spot on his belly, Tumnus a skinny white cat with a howl like a siren and blue eyes, I think he is a little deaf and Rufus a red tabby point Siamese mix with blue eyes who is REALLY big but very sweet natured. They are all indoor cats only.

I love my children, Thomas Ray and Bridget May, but I never view them as human kid substitutes, although I do call them my children, because they are. (Does that make sense?) If someone EVER accuses them of being "child substitutes" I will ask them, "How could THEY be kid substitutes when animals are so much better?" (For me, anyway.) Also, how are they kid substitutes when I don't WANT kids? If someone ever asks me that, I could also list off the reasons why I'd have animals ANY day over a kid.

Oh! One more thing. I get so bothered by how people think it is rude of me to call kids "it," however, when they see my children (especially my housekeeper does this), they call them "it" or the opposite sex...which wouldn't bother me if they didn't know, but they know their names (Thomas is for a boy and Bridget is quite obviously for a girl), and plus, everytime they do it I correct them.

And when my fiance is at work, whenever people ask him if he has kids (why? I mean, he's 24 for Pete's sake) he says yes, and shows them wallet pictures of the children. Most of the time, they either sigh or make disapproving noises. Which is ridiculous because if he had a kid they'd be swooning.

Rant over.

One of the guys on another forum I frequent was adopting a dog last week. Someone replied "you are insane, imo. May as well have a baby. At least a baby craps in a diaper. Forget last minute day or weekend trips. "Sorry, can't leave my dog."

You have the rest of your life to be responsible for a dependent. Be young and free while you can."
(He's a dadda, can you tell?)

To which I had to reply ... "as for the last minute weekend - that's what kennels are for. Kennels do not work for children. And the diaper thing ... I've never had to wipe my dog's butt, it takes a week to toilet train them and not a year, and the pickup takes me five minutes a week. Less than you spend on one diaper change - and that's for two dogs."

Yay for why dogs are better than kids. But cats are my favourites.

We had family portraits made a couple years ago with the furries. My mom (who is generally accepting of our no kids/critters only lifestyle) made a comment just a few weeks ago about how nice it would be to have a picture of us. When I pointed out we HAD family photos, she said "but I mean WITHOUT the bunnies." Nope, no can do. Two of the buns in those photos are no longer with us, and every day I am eternally grateful that we have such wonderful, professional portraits of them.

The photographer had baby bunnies dumped in her driveway (in the country) - someone set their cage in her drive and just opened the door! She was so grateful to our group for finding homes for the buns, she offered to do a day of photography as a fundraiser (which was incredibly successful)!

Yeah...try to find a kennel that takes kids! Good luck! LOL!

We have four dogs right now (one is a foster dog) and we managed to go to Canada for five days last week...we had dogsitters. Try finding kidsitters (not relatives) for five days!

Cindy

And the diaper thing ... I've never had to wipe my dog's butt, it takes a week to toilet train them and not a year, and the pickup takes me five minutes a week. Less than you spend on one diaper change - and that's for two dogs."

Yay for why dogs are better than kids. But cats are my favourites.

And that's IF you even have to do the training! Many pets arrive in our lives pre-trained. My cat Lucy (aka Beastie) was a stray, as I've said before. She was still a kitten when she showed up and one of my concerns in taking her in was that I may have to box train her. No need to worry. When she was still outside, I saw her bury her messes. That was good. When we brought her in, I showed her the litter box. She went right to it. Turns out I adopted a devoted litter-kicker, but that's a much more acceptable mess than I would get from a pet needing training.

I have to confess to calling her "baby" and "cutie" on occasion, but I don't think of her like a kid and I don't do any of that annoying, gibbering, baby talk. Period. Most of the time, I talk to her like she's an adult human. But she's not the brightest thing on four legs, so sometimes I have to slow down or dumb down my speech.

There are worse roommates to have than a somewhat dim, slovenly, 12 pound cat who is always happy to see me.

I had a cat AND a dog before. We had the cat for 18 years and she used to sit on my bed or sleep in my arms most nights.

My husband used to have two dogs, a cat, a hedgehog and a turtle! Sometimes in the past I have seen him watching programs on TV about dolphins and whales.

We do both love animals.

And yet we don't have any at the moment and I am fence sitting on that!
I think we would get a cat (maybe a turtle to or tortoise cos for some reason I like SOME reptiles - probably every reptile except for snakes!) (And a couple of months ago I found myself fascinated with the tortoise in the tank in the shopping centre we go to, thinking it was SO much CUTER than any BABY! Sorry but it WAS! (to me!) With it's odd nose, chubby legs, blue eyes! I was intrigued by watching it swim around.

But we DO love to travel and I do NOT want to be tied down by a pet as much as I love them. This does NOT mean I would not take care of any animals we got of COURSE I would and I did before too! It also doesn't mean they wouldn't be groomed, loved, cuddled etc. because of COURSE they would! And I have this fantasy of living in different countries! Would any animals we had adjust OK?

We both love dogs too and oddly enough we both love golden labradors and golden retrievers and white labradors too. I've even literally dreamed of having one. But - as good as it is to go walking every day with a dog - I see dogs as much more work than cats.

So I'm fence sitting about pets. Also we don't yet have our own place, we are on the top level (what if it jumped off the balcony!) and we share with a cat-hater!

I love animals so much that I won't get one unless I'm sure we can give it a great life!

I am on friendly terms with all the neighbourhood cats though, they always let me pet them and stroke their silky fur and I LOVE it!

Fence-sitter re pets (but probably yes will get some! I think it's more a matter of WHEN than if) but childfree forever!!