# Maybe a dingo ate your baby **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524 "2007-01-03T12:42:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/141 "2007-01-04T02:10:31Z")
I started to make a post and then on preview I see _Beaucarnea_ and _Fear Itself_ beat me to it, so I’ll just say that at least this thread has a good title. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/142 "2007-01-04T02:19:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Your mileage may vary, but I agree with Elza B and nyctea scandiaca-don’t get an animal unless you are prepared to care for that animal for the rest of its life. Period. [QUOTE=Tengu] … ‘Don’t get a pet if you’re going to ditch it when a kid comes on the scene’ is not only not equivalent to ‘get an abortion if you have a pet and don’t want both’, it’s not even in the same bloody ballpark. [/QUOTE] Oh fucking a. How many of you programmed your lives 10, 15 years ago to wind up at exactly the place you’re currently occupying? You accurately predicted the career, job, house, spouse that you’ve got (or lack thereof)? I agree with responsible pet ownership, duh, I posted my pedigree as a cat owner before offering my opinions here. It’s just that sometimes, life changes. You do the best you can. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/143 "2007-01-04T02:32:12Z")
[QUOTE=fessie] \ It’s just that sometimes, life changes. You do the best you can. [/QUOTE] That’s exactly right, **fessie**. I have always believed that when you adopt a pet, you should try to anticipate the future, and whether or not you will be able to commit yourself to that pet. I was pretty annoyed with a certain sibling of mine who acquired a large dog, and then had to give it away because it needed more care than he could give it. On the other hand, it is impossible to anticipate every possible thing that might happen in one’s life perhaps 10 years down the road, and sometimes tough choices have to be made. For what it’s worth, I’m a cat owner, and it never crossed my mind to get rid of the cat when I had my daughter. Of course, my cat is so sweet & gentle, we have been more worried about the baby hurting her than the other way around. But I have had cats my whole life, and I know that not all cats are like this. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/144 "2007-01-04T02:59:01Z")
[QUOTE=fessie] It’s just that sometimes, life changes. You do the best you can. [/QUOTE] That doesn’t preclude you from making responsible decisions. Like only buying a pet if you intend to keep it for the rest of its life. If you think children and pets are 100% incompatible, and there’s any chance whatsoever you will have a child, don’t get a pet. If you don’t feel that way, but for some reason when you become a parent, it becomes impossible to keep the pet - well, shit happens. If you do feel that way, and later change your mind on having a child but not the incompatibility of pets and children…well, that’s a right pickle, that is. You’ll have to make a choice whether to keep the pet or go ahead and have a child. Of course, that doesn’t change that it’s you who was twisting Guin’s words into advocating abortion, instead of just not getting a pet. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/145 "2007-01-04T03:23:31Z")
[QUOTE=fessie] Oh fucking a. How many of you programmed your lives 10, 15 years ago to wind up at exactly the place you’re currently occupying? You accurately predicted the career, job, house, spouse that you’ve got (or lack thereof)? [/quote] Some things are foreseeable; some things are not. Moving is foreseeable. Having children is foreseeable. My position, which it seems others share, is that if your commitment to a pet doesn’t not include sticking with the pet through such almost-certain changes in life, then probably you shouldn’t get a pet. To have a cat that repeatedly attempts to scratch your new baby is not foreseeable. To fall in love with a person who is very allergic to your pet is not foreseeable. No one is saying (well, no one reasonable is saying) that when tough choices _have to_ be made, it is not appropriate to choose your human family over your pets. It just strikes some of us as premature to anticipate a problem before one occurs, to the extent of taking the irrevocable and drastic step of giving your pet away – especially when the life change is of the “probably foreseeable” variety. It’s not a matter of “bad mothering” or “good mothering” – it’s just that some people take their commitments _to their pets_ more seriously than others do. I feel confident in saying that if a person would give their pet away out of fear that a problem, not currently occuring, might sometime in future occur, then I am a better _pet owner_ than that person. IOW, I don’t think anyone is saying **Lib’s** daughter is a bad mother; at worst, they are saying that she is a bad pet owner. And though **Lib** might understandably be made defensive by such an opinion – it appears to be a defensible opinion nonetheless. I agree with responsible pet ownership, duh, I posted my pedigree as a cat owner before offering my opinions here. It’s just that sometimes, life changes. You do the best you can. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/146 "2007-01-04T04:24:28Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] I swore I wouldn’t get involved in this thread again, but I hate this line of thinking. He doesn’t need to write a saga and explain everything on his first post on something. This is what makes people not want to post. Dopers give everyone else the benefit of the doubt but each other. You never gave him the benefit of the doubt and went straight to accusing him and his daughter. You didn’t know every side of the story - not even one complete side - and yet you have been needling him over and over even when he tries to make peace or explain himself. [/QUOTE] Ooh, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one, and here’s why. - Liberal (and go ahead and extend this to “everyone”) certainly doesn’t need to explain everything in one go. Hell, he really didn’t need to explain anything at all. But to allow one thread to be shit in and another thread- that he himself started- to go two pages before introducing very pertinant information is.. not okay. Irresponsible. The OP is six paragraphs long. Liberal is well known for his history of making posts that the acronym “TL;DR” was designed for. Hell, since his triumphant return on 12/20 he has posted **a staggerin 252 times**. What’s the big deal in adding an extra sentence or two for clarity’s sake? - The very first post reply says “Out of curiosity, what makes you think a cat would harm the baby?” Nice soft pitch, there. A chance to say “well, there was this history of behavioral issues..” but it was ignored. Instead we get heartwarming stories about how his daughter puts the baby first, and smokes outside, and how much he admires folks who picks up castoffs from people like his daughter. - It takes until post #88, Liberal’s EIGHTH post in the thread, for him to bring up the behavioral issues. Eighty-seven posts go by without mention of it, and when it does get brought up it takes only a line. - Here’s Liberal’s post from the MPSIMS thread: > [@From MPSIMS Liberal](#): > > My daughter recently had a baby. My first non-step grandchild. She did not hesitate to rid herself of her cat, and I support her decision a hundred percent. The infant child is way at the top of the pyramid, and everything else — everything — including the mother herself is somewhere below. Any risk, even a miniscule risk, of anything going wrong, and harm coming to the child is simply completely unacceptable. She did other things, too, to prepare her home. Neither she nor her husband smoke inside anymore. > > She loved her cat, and she did solicit all her friends and family, and even advertised on the Net to get the creature a home. But nothing panned out, and she had no choice but to take the cat to a shelter. I just hope you won’t be too hard on the family that didn’t wait to see whether the cat and their baby got along. The infant child is so utterly helpless, you just wouldn’t believe. And we already lost one grandchild (my wife’s) to brain cancer. I’m glad my daughter made the decision she made. I’ve snipped the big paragraph on what a fabulous cat owner he is. Now, in the interest of not having to write a “saga,” he could have omitted that big opening back-patting paragraph, and written the rest of it as follows: > [@Again from MPSIMS Liberal but with bolded parts- swiped from Pit Liberal's post #88- added by me](#): > > My daughter recently had a baby. My first non-step grandchild. She did not hesitate to rid herself of her cat\*\*; it (w)as territorial, temperamental, and a bit hyper. She did love the cat. Had she been comfortable with keeping it, she would have. It was the first issue that came to her mind when she discovered she was pregnant. She and her husband talked it through and decided together that they did not want to risk any harm to the child,\*\* and I support her decision a hundred percent. The infant child is way at the top of the pyramid, and everything else — everything — including the mother herself is somewhere below. Any risk, even a miniscule risk, of anything going wrong, and harm coming to the child is simply completely unacceptable. She did other things, too, to prepare her home. Neither she nor her husband smoke inside anymore. > > She loved her cat, and she did solicit all her friends and family, and even advertised on the Net to get the creature a home. But nothing panned out, and she had no choice but to take the cat to a shelter. I just hope you won’t be too hard on the family that didn’t wait to see whether the cat and their baby got along. The infant child is so utterly helpless, you just wouldn’t believe. And we already lost one grandchild (my wife’s) to brain cancer. I’m glad my daughter made the decision she made. Sixty-one extra words, and this whole thing would have been avoided. Because frankly, I have yet to see anyone in this thread who would argue that attempting to re-home a “territorial, temperamental, and a bit hyper” cat in preparation for the birth of a child is The Most Horrible Idea Ever, especially when given the additional information that she tried to re-home it for eight months. The whole objection has been the perception that Liberal’s daughter booted the cat out for no reason at all the instant she got knocked up, and I think that Liberal is just as guilty in the continuation of that perception as those who seized on it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/147 "2007-01-04T04:44:42Z")
Okay, fine, **bobkitty** , you win the thread. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/148 "2007-01-04T05:03:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Sixty-one extra words, and this whole thing would have been avoided. Because frankly, I have yet to see anyone in this thread who would argue that attempting to re-home a “territorial, temperamental, and a bit hyper” cat in preparation for the birth of a child is The Most Horrible Idea Ever, especially when given the additional information that she tried to re-home it for eight months. The whole objection has been the perception that Liberal’s daughter booted the cat out for no reason at all the instant she got knocked up, and I think that Liberal is just as guilty in the continuation of that perception as those who seized on it. Unless this was a raging beast of a cat, it was still a ridiculously overprotective response. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/149 "2007-01-04T08:14:08Z")
Man, this thread needs that special **Crafter\_Man** touch. **The Flying Dutchman** made a special effort, but not good enough, I think. For the record, Liberal, I see exactly where you and your daughter are coming from, and support you(pl) fully. Even though I’ve kept the Staffies with our 2 year-old, I don’t see anything wrong with what your daughter did. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/150 "2007-01-04T08:32:17Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] I am an animal lover, one of those nutjobs who much prefers the company of his dogs to that of most humans. If for some reason I were unable to care for them, I would go to extreme measures to ensure their continued well-being, and frankly, I believe that I would wait and see if the cat posed a danger to the baby before giving it up. I guess. Since I will never be in that position, it is hard to say. However, I cannot fault **Liberal** ’s daughter for what she did. People simply \*abandon \*cats all the time for with considerably less justification. She made every effort to re-home the cat. She was unsuccessful. She made a tough decision. Sometimes that has to be done. [/QUOTE] Pardon me, but she had NINE FECKING MONTHS to find a new home for the cat. She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant until she did her DUTY to the cat. What in creation is so special about babies? Millions are born every day. Again, she did NOt make every effort to re-home the cat. The evidence confims that. ---
**Author:** ![Kraut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b77776/32.png) [@Kraut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kraut)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/151 "2007-01-04T08:37:28Z")
Wow, I never thought this thread would turn otherwise intelligent and thought-provoking people into complete fucking lunatics. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/152 "2007-01-04T08:38:23Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I understand your position, but cat scratches can be extremely dangerous. Here’s some information from the [Centers for Disease Control](http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/catscratch.htm). Also, a cat need not intend harm or strike viciously. A mere tap of a cat claw on the eyeball is potentially destructive. Cat’s nails — especially old cats — are extremely sharp, sharp as a needle. And long. Very long. (And all this is setting aside controversies over sanitation, hygiene, and disease issues with cat feces and infants). [/QUOTE] You certainly take the cake on ignorance. I thought that EVERYone already knew about trimming pets claws. WHAT disease issues involve infants? The PARENTS should be supervising the children to ensure that they don’t eat the feces..though chances are they are more interested in both working full time and foisting off the child rearing onto a nanny. The ONLY health issues involved are possible toxoplasmosis to pregant women from HANDLING cat feces. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/153 "2007-01-04T08:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=DianaG] Wow, that’s… kinda crazy, honey. Life happens. Sometimes, you get a pet with every intention of taking care of it for the duration of it’s life. But then you have a baby. Or meet the love of your life, who has allergies. Or you develop an allergy, or a health problem, or you have to move, or any one of a million other things. It’s an ANIMAL. To privilege it over the actual people in your life is profoundly ridiculous. I really cannot emphasize enough how very equally happy your cat would be with \*anyone \* who feeds it. [/QUOTE] If I was single again, I would damn well find out if a potential lover was allergic PRIOR to getting emotionally involved. If they WERE allergic, I’d give them the option of getting allergy shots. Giving up my cats would NOT be an option. When I adopted my cats, it was a LIFETIME committment. What do you baby-crazed idiots have against honoring committments? If _I_ developed allergies, I would take the shots. If the shots didn’t work, I would just sniffle a lot. HAD to move??!! When are you bloody ignorant saps going to start taking responsibility for your own lives? If I _had_ to move, I would FIND a place allowing cats. Period. What a total waste of skin you are. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/154 "2007-01-04T08:48:24Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] I’m afraid you’ve misquoted yourself. What you said, and what I responded to was: “They won’t quit smoking for the new baby but they give a cat to a shelter without even giving it a chance?” (1) They did quit smoking for the new baby during her pregnancy, which is what I thought you meant, since I already had said they were not smoking in the presence of the baby and (2) she gave the cat every chance toward finding a new home, which was what I thought you meant by “giving it a chance”. If by “giving it a chance” you meant “waiting to see if the baby got clawed or bitten”, you should have said so. As to the floating madness about not having a baby because she had a cat, she had the cat before she was even married. I shudder to think what a dingbat she would have to be to plan every event in her life by first asking the question, “Is this in the best interest of my cat?” She does indeed do that now with the baby, but that’s because it’s, you know, her baby. Her flesh and blood and all that. This was the first year she didn’t visit any of the family for Christmas, opting instead to develop lifelong memories for Junior of Christmas at home. I think she’s doing a fabulous job as a mother, and as a decision maker. [/QUOTE] Give it up. You will not convice ANY clear-thinking responsbile person with your bullshit. Just FOAD, 'kay? ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/155 "2007-01-04T08:52:34Z")
[QUOTE=DianaG] Babies grow up and feel differently. Cats get old and feel exactly the same. [/QUOTE] WTF do YOU know about what cats feels. Millions of babies are born every day. We don’t need most of them. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/156 "2007-01-04T08:55:57Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] She characterized it as territorial, temperamental, and a bit hyper. She did love the cat. Had she been comfortable with keeping it, she would have. It was the first issue that came to her mind when she discovered she was pregnant. She and her husband talked it through and decided together that they did not want to risk any harm to the child. In any case, it turned out to be a good decision because the baby was born literally drowning in its own feces. It had had a bowel movement in the womb, and was on antibiotics in intensive care for several days after birth. What with all the complications attending that, one more involving a cat might have sent her over the top. [/QUOTE] What a pile of bullshit. Her husband sounds totally p’whipped. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/157 "2007-01-04T08:57:25Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Why is it that you allocate yourself so many “ifs”, but you don’t allow them to others? If you could take another cat… If it didn’t pee… If it weren’t an outdoor cat… If you could find a way to make it work… Why is it your default position that my daughter just up and said, “Baby? Well, fuck the cat!”? That’s not the case, and it’s not at all how I described what she went through. Did it cross your boggled mind that she might have dealt with any number of “ifs” of her own? [/QUOTE] Stop being so defensive, you ignorant asshat. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/158 "2007-01-04T09:01:26Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Clearer to who, you? Who the hell are you? 😃 Have we encountered one another before today? Was I aware of your special comprehension needs? Backpedal, my ass. If you honestly believe that, as I typed, I was mindful of owing you a list of reasons, then you suffer from profound delusions of grandeur. [/QUOTE] I read a LOT of posts but, LIEbrawl, YOURS are the most stupid, the most ignorant, the most brainless ones on the entire Internet. ---
**Author:** ![sharx35](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sharx35](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sharx35)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/159 "2007-01-04T09:04:01Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] As this thread is about cats and not really infants, i feel it appropriate to let you all know how I dealt with a particular pet in my household. I have never experienced a relationship with a cat. They don’t care for me and I don’t care for them. Yet the other members of my household love cats so I tolerated them. My reaction was to just ignore them. One day, 4 am in the morning, I awoke when I felt a spreading warmth on my upright hip as I laid asleep next to my wife. It wasn’t my wife edging for nooky. It was our cat expressing her displeasure towards me by pissing on me. No human would have the guts to do that to me. I quickly realized i was dealing with a very intelligent and capable entity over which I had no influence at all. Next day that cat was taken to the SPCA. Fuck with me Cat? Fuck you ! I don’t like cats but I respect them like human beings. Fuck with me Cat, and I’ll scratch you out of my life like any other human being. [/QUOTE] I hope that not all Dutch people are so bloody stupid and ignorant as you. Did it EVER cross your pea-sized brain to take the cat to the vet and have it checked out? There was probably a medical REASON for its urinating on you. Frankly I say, GO CAT…if I could shit on you, I would. ---
**Author:** ![Kraut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b77776/32.png) [@Kraut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kraut)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524/160 "2007-01-04T09:09:59Z")
I take it you enjoy the company of cats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/maybe-a-dingo-ate-your-baby/386524.md?page=9)