I don’t know why you’d have to “insist” that an animal you live with and take care of is a pet. That’s basically the definition of pet.
The show looked terrible so I’d never waste my time on it.
Who in their right mind would keep a large tortoise as a pet like a dog. Having a tortoise have free range of the home. What do they even eat and how bad is their poop? Taking care of one might be reasonable but FIVE!?!?! Five big ass turtles in the house shitting all over the place, moving around the house, perhaps even walking all over their own shit and redecorating the home isn’t what I consider a pet, I call that a chore.
I’m amused and baffled by this continued “pet like a dog” construction. Can’t you just say, “he had these pet tortoises”?
In my experience, people who like bigger animals but are allergic to dogs and cats. Or just like reptiles.
Meanwhile, back at Eats…
I was at the bar watching USA v. CAN. Commercials for the “Marriage Ref” came on.
I said to my friend “Well, I guess they’ve run out of both money and ideas now.”
He agreed.
Then there was some other commercial about another sort of ‘no writing involved but we just hire celebrities whose fame we’re milking and try to make a funny show out of it but it will crash and burn but we only need to fill air until the reruns start again’ type of show.
My friend turned to me and said “you’re right. They’ve run out of money.”
Man, it feels good to be right. Just hurts to be around so much stupid.
The only reason I phrased it that way was because they spent considerable time discussing whether tortoises were pets like dogs. That seemed to be more of an issue than the fact that the guy’s wife had to take care of them (and yes, their poop was really gross). Oprah insisted that he should keep them because they were his “family.” Apparently “wife” doesn’t qualify as “family.”
I don’t know why an animal has to be “like a dog” to qualify as a pet, and I don’t know why the presence of one family member disqualifies somebody else as a family member.
I guess I’m glad I don’t watch The Marriage Ref or Oprah.
My first complaint was that the wife should not have to take care of them! If they’re his pets, he should be doing that.
I have owned up to five ferrets at once, with my husband, and I took on all of the animal care duties. I scooped litter boxes, cleaned cages, fed, watered, took to the vet, exercised them, sought out new toys, washed their sleeping bags and hammocks, etc. That was my job in our household.
The “like a dog” thing is most likely because with non-mammalian pets it’s harder for people to really discern how much “personality” the pet has and how deep a bond it’s possible to form with the animal. And depth of bonding is absolutely an integral issue when deciding whether a problem pet stays or goes. (I’m speaking in general terms, having watched neither show. The previews looked beyond execrable.)