Are you a dog person or a cat person? Which did you have when you were growing up?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I grew up with dogs, cats, and horses as well as the standard kid thing of gerbils and mice and fish.. Other than while I was in college and living in no-pet places, I’ve always had at least one of each. Now I consider myself a cat person (I’d better be, with 18 of them!) but I love dogs too (I have 2) and really enjoy the training aspect of dog-human relationships.

I really am an Animal Person though - I have a very deep seated need for animal companionship. There were 3 chunks of time when I was away from home for extended periods dealing with my aging and ill parents, and I can remember seeing a squirrel just outside the sliding glass door eating birdseed dropped on the patio. ALL I wanted in that moment was to have him in my lap, feel his fur and his warmth. I was kind of astounded at the depth of longing for an animal friend, though I think the stress of loss and life upheaval contributed to it.

I cannot imagine not having an animal in my life. It’s one of the bigger worries as *I* age. I want to die with a cat purring next to me, but then what about the cat? (Yes, plans in place, borrowed cat, blah blah - this isn’t an entirely rational worry :stuck_out_tongue: )

42

I had both, but am a cat guy now.

We had outdoor cats, then a border collie. Later on, I adopted two tuxedo kittens, of of which will be eighteen in a month–both are/were lovely companions. So, in retrospect, I’m “both,” but probably more accurately a ‘tuxedo pet’ guy.

Tripler
So. . . I guess my next pet will be a penguin.

43

Dog person. Dog as a kid - never cat.

44

I grew up with dogs as pets, and when I moved out and got married, continued with dogs with Mr. brown. I’ve never owned a cat, though I like them.

I’ve owned and loved an assortment of mutts, but in the late 80s bought a pug pup, and never looked back. I had five pugs through the years and loved them like they were my babies, and the thing with pugs, they do look like babies - little homely babies with curly tails. But when they got very old and sick and it was time to put them down, it shredded my heart terribly. So no more dogs, since about 2007. I can’t do that last trip to the vet anymore.

45

This. Putting down our Golden who we got when the kids were little was something I don’t ever want to do again.

46

I didn’t have pets as a kid (goldfish don’t count) and I was nervous around dogs.

My wife had cats as a kid and we have had a few cats and one dog over the past 20 years. We certainly have spent more time interacting with the dog than we ever did with any of the cats, but I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call myself a “dog person”.

47

Forgot to mention that we did have two dogs (a Manchester terrier and a German Shepherd, not at the same time) when I was a kid.

48

I know what you mean about needing animal companionship. It’s one of the things I struggle with when we travel. I have to touch some FUR, man!

49

Exactly!

50

We had both growing up but not often. We were military and lived on base mostly which affected our ability to have pets.

One of the the first things I did when I moved out into my own place was get a pet. It was a cat. I like both cats and dogs but I consider myself to be more of a cat person. I also tended to keep weird and irregular hours, plus I lived in apartments almost all of my adult life. Neither was really optimal for having a dog, especially as I wasn’t much inclined (That’s putting it mildly) to being woken up to walk a dog for elimination, especially when it was wet, icy, really hot or cold, etc.

My nephew started living with me and he really missed having a dog. I told him that if we could find a house with a fenced-in yard, we could look into getting a dog. His grandfather had a rental house that came open and we moved in. I saw an ad for a corgi, a breed we both liked, a couple of months after our move and we go him.

I hadn’t lived with a dog in many years and I have to say that there have been many things I like about it. My cats have been affectionate, quite a few very much so, and liked hanging around with me but there’s something charming about the degree of enthusiasm a dog displays. We have the one dog and two cats.

I’ve really enjoyed living with a dog again but if I had to choose one, I’d go with cats. Even my most affectionate cats have a degree of independence that I like. I actually like the touch of orneriness that even the most low key cats display.

51

My brother had a dog when i was a kid. So i guess i grew up with a dog. He’s still a dog person, and has two, now. But I’m a cat person, as is my husband. We currently have 4. (That’s too many, i prefer 2-3.)

I like dogs. I enjoy visiting other people’s dogs. But they are too much work, and too needy, for my preferences.

52

This seems appropriate here: the essential difference between dog and cat! :wink:

And here’s one example of the story I mentioned before – turns out that there are several of them in circulation: :wink:

53

No pets as a kid. 100% dog person.

Our elderly neighbor’s last dog was euthanised lying in the back of out station wagon (to save her the stress of being moved into the vet’s office). That was pretty traumatic.

j

54

I can only imagine how horrible that must have been. I’m fortunate that I’ve never had to euthanize a dog. My beloved Bernie, pictured in my post above, had a neurological problem that gradually affected his limbs and made it more and more difficult for him to get up. I bought him a special harness that I could use to help him up, and it worked fine as long as he could walk.

Eventually, in his final days, he had mercy on me and on himself, and died suddenly in a ray of sunshine by the patio door that I like to think transported him up to heaven. The vet said he thought it was a sudden stroke, but I think he just gave up the will to live. He was always a good dog, and a smart dog, and knew what was best, as much as I’m sure it pained him to leave me without him.

55

Around here, there are euthanasia vets who will come to your home. We’ve never actually used one, most of our cats died quietly at home, and one was put down when my daughter took her to the vet for what we thought was going to be a tooth that needed pulling. (It was an advanced tongue cancer.) That was horrible for my daughter. But when the second-to-last car was dying, we kept the number of one of those services handy, in case she seemed to be in too much pain.

56

Yeah, I had to take myself to the far end of the parking lot. Her (very old) dog started fitting constantly and it just couldn’t be controlled. I had to lift an incontinent collie into the car for the last ride. It was horrible all round.

j

57

Most of our animals knew it was time and just let go. Our last dog stopped eating one day, had a video call with our son who was away at college, lay down, and stopped breathing.

58

We used one of the local mobile vets to help one of my li’l dudes cross over this year. He was starting to demonstrate lots of suffering after years of liver problems, and we knew it was time. Trips to the veterinarian always stressed him out, and I didn’t want him to be in a panic on his last day. So, after a couple of at-home consults, I made ‘the call.’

I got to spend the previous night on the couch with him curled up on me, and the next day was full of pets and cuddles. He was happy and at peace the afternoon we had to let him go. If you can find a mobile vet to euthanize at home, I highly recommend it.

Tripler
I miss my little dude.

59

TL;DR version: I grew up with both, and I like both, like to have both.

I am neither-- which is to say, I love them both. I even feel a need for both. If I don’t have one or the other, I feel like something is missing in my life.

I was even a borderline hoarder for a while when I owned my house, but it happened because I lived in a rural area just outside a college town, where students often dumped pets when they moved, which they did frequently. Animals showed up in droves at the end of May.

At one point we had 7 cats and 4 dogs. I don’t think we were genuine hoarders, though, because the house was clean, and the animals were well-cared for, got regular vet care, the dogs got frequent walks, etc.

We also knew that was our limit, and had a moratorium on getting more at that point.

Right now, I have one of each, and with my work schedule, that is my limit. It is also the limit my landlord decree, unless a third would be some kind of service animal. Two is still my limit, service animal or no.

I grew up with both.

My parents had none when I was born, but when I was about 16 months, agreed to care for the Dachshund and Siamese of friends going out of the country for something like 8 months, specifically to see how I did with animals. Apparently I loved them.

When I was 3, the world’s sweetest Basset Hound was rehomed to us, and 3 years later, a beautiful blue point Siamese. In another year, we took in a stray B&W kitten, about 4 months old. So that is what I grew up with.

I also had a goldfish growing up. I won it at the state fair, and somehow a fantail had gotten in with the feeder fish they usually give as prizes-- the kind that live a few weeks. My 50-cent, prize fish lived for six years, and his fantail grew to about 4 inches.

Now I have a 42 gallon tank of tropical fish-- :Panda corys, Rummynose tetras, guppies, and a loach. They swim at different levels in th tank-- corys and the loach stay on the bottom, tetras like the middle, and guppies swim around the top. So it’s a nice mix. It’s a few more fish than should be in that tank, but it has live plants, and I do frequent small changes, plus a 50% change once a month. Have lost only 2 fish in the last year, and they were guppies, none of them have become aggressive, and both the pandas and guppies breed.

Guppies breeding is nothing special, but corys rarely breed in home tanks. I take excess fry to the fish store, and exchange for food or the chemicals I need for the water.

I think you are right that you want the pets you grew up with. I have a friend who is blind (actually, Deaf-blind, FWIW), and she says she rarely meets someone who uses a service dog who did not grow up with a dog in the family.

60

The feeder fish my brother and I won at the fair lived for several years. They were untouched by the tail rot that tore through my aquarium.