Your family....and your pets....

[Debi]

I sent some pics to my older brother in TX...well, no surprise..if we're in them, the dogs are in them. LOL Anyway....in a nice enough way I suppose, my sister-in-law writes back and sorta tells me to get a life. She wants me back in the working world I guess..........and, maybe I do talk about the dogs tooooooo much. Anyway, I was just wondering....does your extended family think you get tooooooooooo into your pets??? If so, what exactly do you say to them?

My kids actually get a kick out of our dogs...altho, Stef always says this.."funny how you got Addie, the girl (like her) then Hammie, the boy (like lil Dave)...have they now replaced us?" But that's just a silly joke between us. THEY love the dogs and understand that I need my babies to love. (probably are thrilled...it takes pressure off of them!!! lol)

This past weekend, I sent my little brother some pics....and even he is sort of annoyed at the dog 'thingy'. Oh well........I live in my own little corner of the universe with my furbabies.

And..........THAT'S why I like it here!! LOL LOL

hmmmmm, so.........anyone else have family that kinda thinks your 'nuts' over your pets???

 

[bogolove]

I get offended when people say stuff like that. So what if I am an animal person. I am quite sure your sister-in-law has a few of her own idiosyncrisies that you could get on to her about. I am lucky enough that most of my family is nutty over their animals. My mother-in-law sings songs to her cat (Chuck), my sister-in-law has 2 cats and a mastiff whom she loves more than her last boyfriend because he was not a dog person (now she is happily engaged to a man who loves her and her mastiff), my husband sings songs to both the dog and the cat, my mom feeds her dog spaghetti (until she got in trouble with the vet), my youngest brother loves animals too, my middle brother's girlfriend is an animal lover too, the only family I have that are not animal nutty are my dad and middle brother. But they both still understand my love for them.

So, I think you are perfectly fine and normal. I think people who don't give their animals the love they deserve are the freaks in life. You can always tell a nice person by the animal who loves that person.

 

[Renee750il]

I don't know if they do or not - they wouldn't have the nerve to tell me if they did. They all know I'm perfectly capable of never being bothered with them again - after all, I have my critters!

LOL! And you can always tell your kids they haven't been replaced - just upgraded!

 

[smkie]

My Father once wrote me that he was sick of hearing about dogs..so from that day forward I wrote..Dear Dad, the weather here is fine. How is it wit you? We are all well.......he never knew about my life and the joy in it. Tell your sister in law that for me....this is my life, and if u are interested I would be happy to share it with you. AFter all, that is what life is all about isn't it? I know many of my friends chose not to have children, and when I am with them I check how much I talk about my kids just because I do not know how they feel when I go on, but if it wasn't for the dogs...where would the funny stories come from. Gee I enjoyed my cornflakes this morning?

 

[bogolove]

I agree completely with you smkie. They are definently to be credited with a lot of my enjoyment and happiness in life. I don't have children yet, and right now my pets are my children, and will continue to be even after I do.

 

[tl_ashmore]

Oh, I have people tell me that I need to get a life because I'm always on this website talking about dogs, or looking at different breeds of dogs on the internet. Everythime I take a new picture of my dogs, I post it on the website. I don't really care what they say. My dogs are my life. They are my family and I love them. My mom was asking me the other day when she was going to get a grandbaby out of me. HA....(not gonna happen). So, I am ordering a shirt for Beulah and Dixie that says "I am the grandchild".....I can't wait to get them in...

 

[Renee750il]

I'd love to see your Mom's face when you show her Dixie and Beulah in those shirts!

I think my Mom actually prefers the dogs to anything I might have spawned . . .

 

[Love4Pits]

Like Bogo I get a bit offended when people say that to me. My dogs are my life and i would'nt have it any other way. Now my family is considered the weird ones to my extended family. My dad grew up on a sled dog training farm (where my parents live now) and was the only one of his 7 siblings who liked the dogs. I have now added to the family gossip lots of aunts and uncles and all of my moms side of the family just don't see how we can live the way we do. They say my dogs are the reason im not married yet lol.

 

[bogolove]

LOL! tl ashmore, I love the idea of the shirts! How cute, take pics!

Love4pits, you tell those aunts and uncles that the only reason you are not married yet is that you have not found anyone good enough for your dogs! It is hard to find a good man for your dogs, because you have to train them just right (the man, not the dogs).

 

[Debi]

LOL tlashmore and bogolove!!!!! Actually, you all made me feel better about the whole thing. Sooooooo, IF I'm strange...then I'm in good company.

 

[tl_ashmore]

I will definately post some pictures of my girls in their shirts as soon as I get them.

We can all be strange together Debi...

 

[Barb04]

I don't have human children as my "X" during our 20 years of marriage never wanted children. Now I have a 24 year old stepson who I love and loves me back - never had to change a diaper!

My children are my past, present, and future pets. They know and understand me better than anyone. Carl loves pets even more than me. Once he found a sick bird and brought it to a local children's museum where they have some birds and asked them to bring it back to good health which they did. Carl spends hours on dog message boards.

My mom years ago when a neighbor asked when I was going to have children, told her that Brandy (my lab now in heaven) was my child and her grandchild. My neighbor looked at my mom like she was crazy. My mom loved Brandy so very much. Not to be sad, but when my mom was ill, Brandy passed away and 3 months later my mom passed away. I know they were meant to be together and loving each other.

 

[Renee750il]

I know what you mean, Barb. Charley's Mom didn't live long after Buffy was poisoned. I made it a point to make the comment to all the "right" people that losing Buffy just took something out of her.

I know it got back to where it needed to go . . . and I'm not done with that one yet, either.

 

[fennash]

I'm quite lucky with my family. My Mum and Dad are dog mad too. Dad's a trainer and behaviourist, which can be quite handy. my kids think I'm nuts but love me anyway and I did quite well with the man in my life. He liked dogs before, he was brought up by a mum who bred and showed boxers but he'd not had anything to do with training as such. When we got together one of my boys, Ash who is a lab/collie X decided to adopt him. We now go to training classes together and we are hoping to help my Dad set up an agility club.
I think I am pretty lucky.
Lynn

 

[nicco]

Well...My grandmother doesn't like our pets, but she got used to them. My brother loves Amira, but he doesn't really like our cats coz we adopted them without his permission (like we should have his permission...nooooot ).

My mom found our first cat abandoned in the basement of a building and the other cat was found by me. Actually he was brought by some kids where I work and I adopted him. I just fell in love with him the moment I saw him .

Another good thing that happened since we have our furbabies is: because of us and because we like so much animals we made our father like them too . Our parents are divorced but we still keep in touch with our father and we get along pretty good. He didn't like animals before. But since we have Amira and the 2 cats he has transformed in another person and now he has a cat and a dog. Really funny.

If somebody told me in the past that he would get a cat and a dog I wouldn't have believed him...and now I still can't believe it, but it's true and I'm glad.

And I pretty much can't complain coz I'm sorounded by people who love animals, so...it's ok.
Kiss Kiss
Nicco

 

[smkie]

i am so happy for your Father, better late than never..to learn all the love they can teach us!

 

[pitbulliest]

People are always ragging on me because I love my dogs, and all pets so much...even my mom tells me to relax every now and then...I do get offended..because everyone has their own passion in life...and it just seems like everyone is always talking about their kids...like I give a poop about how many diapers you changed today!?!

I'll probably have kids one day, but its not a big deal..people have kids all the time and I don't see why everyone seems to be pressured....and if you don't, its like your some kind of weirdo? I see young mothers spending hours talking about how their kid learned to make chocolate chip cookies? WOOoo..big whoop de doo dah...*rolls eyes*

I hope society changes its point of view sooner than later because its becoming annoying. I just have the fact that there are so many people that don't like dogs or even hate them..its sooo offensive..but if you ever said anything like "oh I'm not too fond of children" they'd send you to a nut house..lol

I'll be honest..I'm not a kid lover myself...maybe its because I'm only 20 and never had to deal with them..but I just don't feel comfortable around kids...the ones living in my building, for example...are ALL...too noisy, messy, and whinny...one came up to Messina and started poking the poor dog in the eye while the mom just stood there and laughed..I thought to myself...like uhm..put your kid on a leash! *no offense to anyone that has kids! Just feeling rantish today...*

 

[Saje]

my bf's uncle who I complain about all the time told me that there was something wrong with me and something missing in my life that I needed to fill with animals.

That didn't go over well.

 

[Renee750il]

And have you told him to get off of Maverick and Mikey's sofa?

 

[ButtGumbo]

The ButtGumbo estate has Me, the spousal unit,our son, Leo, Josie The Wonderdog, and 3 cats. When my mom (rarely) comes over she always sniffs and snorts and looks down her nose at (especially) the dog. She despises animals. (She doesn't like me much either, but that's another story.) Last thanksgiving she suggested (demanded) I put the dog in it's cage. I did. Then I put Leo in his bed and shut the door. 15 minutes later she asked: "Where's Leo?". I simply said: "Oh, I didn't think you wanted to be disturbed, so I put all the kids to bed."

She didn't get it.

On another line of thought...since I've had two dogs as an adult, I recognize that I really missed something by growing up and never having a dog. That's something that I will never do to my child. I also think that importance is even greater because we kind of live out in the country. Sure, Josie frustrates him sometimes because she's kinda bad (and probably mildly retarded), but I listed to him when he and Josie are alone in another room, and to hear him giggling and talking to her and sometimes trying to "command" her) i almost get a tear in my eye and feel sad about my own childhood.

Egads, you guys, I'm all meloncholy tonight. I need to go and make a funny dog picture.