Two beagles and a cat. One beagle slips under the covers and sleeps at the foot of the bed. Cat sleeps where ever he wants. Generally in a clothes basket or a chair. The puppy, Winston, sleeps where ever he feels like. Sometimes front room chair. Sometimes in bed next to old beagle, Nordberg.
Boris, the cat has a bad attitude. If I give him food he does not like he will push the bowl on the floor. If I insist he will eat it, and give it to him again, he pushes everything from my desk to the floor.
No. 4. We have 2 dogs who slept on our bed when they were young and small(ish) but not now. Two big dogs (Labrador and other who is same size) and two people on a queen bed don’t fit comfortably (well, not comfortably for the people). They are also allowed on only one chair, designated the dog chair.
They understand “Out of the kitchen!” when food is being prepared and they are underfoot, but will push the boundary by lying on the floor by the door and just have their noses on the kitchen floor.
My girl is amazing about not eating food that I haven’t given her. I often eat at my computer and set my dish on the floor without a concern. I have caught her twice eating food that she should in the year I have had her. The first time I had thrown away a pound of bacon and then left the open trash bag on the floor. The second time she helped herself to some cheese curls that were in a bag on the floor. Both times I scolded her with bad dog and both times she hid behind the couch and wouldn’t eat until I made up with her. Other than those two times, she has never gotten into food that wasn’t hers. I often buy fresh cookies and leave them in the bag on the floor. She’s a pretty good girl.
I used to sleep with my cocker spaniels, but it’s like I woke from a dream one day and realized that no, I did not like animal hair or animal shmutz in my bed, no matter how much I loved my dogs. So the rule changed and my dogs know that the furniture is for people, not dogs, and they can come up for a visit only by invitation, only rarely, and only for a short time.
The cats are free range, except on the counters, and all counters must be bleached before using anyway. Cats are not allowed IN the under counter cupboards, but I am installing child locks because reasoning with them does not work. Cats are discouraged from being in the bathroom because they do not close the doors they open to come in. Cats are Very Strongly discouraged from getting in the bath with me. The Siamese cat is allowed to be a bed footwarmer.
Parrots are not allowed on the floor and may only travel on a human hand. They are permitted to try to steer by leaning. They are expected to remain in the designated parrot area wherever they go. They are allowed to destroy any object in the designated parrot area, that is what it is designated for. Parrots may watch television, but are expected to limit the conversation .
I voted “pets allowed indoors but only in certain areas, all other verboten”. Allowed in the mudroom, the foyer, the playroom and the TV room. Not allowed in the kitchen, family room, living room or bedrooms. He’s very respectful of the rules; allowed on furniture if he recognizes one of his two blankets draped on them.
I find it disgusting when people allow their dogs into the kitchen. My SO used to live in a house with roommates he didn’t know and the dog would jump and lick at food. It was filthy and disgusting. Cats less so, if they don’t jump on the table/counters.
I voted free rein, but with a few forbidden areas. Our dog is too big to get on counters, but she’s not allowed on furniture either. We were going to let her sleep in our bedroom (but not in the bed), but at some point the first night she started licking herself.
Yeah, no, I’m not listening to that.
The cat goes wherever he wants to go, and he doesn’t want to go on the kitchen counters. I think he’s maybe ventured there once or twice in his eleven years – and I let him stay there until he wanted to get down (not very long) because I felt that making a big production of it would be the kind of thing he would turn into a twisted, endless cat game.
I was worried a few years ago when we got a new leather couch, but again, luck was with me because the cat jumped on the couch the first day and apparently thinks the texture of leather is Evil From Satan and has never been back. He won’t even sit on a person’s lap if the person is sitting on the couch, and he’s a big fan of lap-sitting in general.
So, it’s good that my boundaries and his personal boundaries seem to be the same.
What an excellent outlook on life. I am firmly of the belief that the world is a better place because there are cats in it.
Admit it…
You wrote all of that as a thin excuse so you could post the picture of your kitties 
And they look like the best kind of cats. I love tabbies. My “Garfield” with the singed whiskers looks exactly like your orange tabby.
I’ll counter with a shot of Roxy, our Romanian cat. Friends brought her to the USA several years ago; then when they had a new baby, they gave Roxy to us.
Oh yeah, no WAY could the dog be in my bedroom. He once barked at the door (he’s a non barker 95% of the time) while we were doing it. Yikes.
2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 chicken!
Dogs - have beds on the floor in the living area and the bedroom, they are expected to go into the house and sit on those (I also have leads to attach them to those beds if necessary). Definitely no free ranging and not inside unless I’m inside.
Cats - not on kitchen counters (my last cat couldn’t jump high enough … the new ones going to use the sscat air blower and water pistol) … but otherwise pretty much free range (plus they have their outside enclosure) … including sleeping under the covers and leaving the electric blanket on for them. I wipe food prep areas before using them anyway … we have enough flies and insects around that are probably worse than the cats!
Chicken - is convinced she’s a house chicken, didn’t help that when building she would just walk through the frame … door has to be closed to keep her out!
The cats can go anywhere they like, except (1) the closets where we keep clothes that must remain cat hair free and (2) the kitchen counter, where we prepare food that we don’t want to come into contact with their darling little poop feet.
Hell, it made me laugh to see as an option, but yeah, I have one (of three) that loves to come into the small room as I drop a deuce. So that’s my vote.
Joe
We have one cat, and we lock her in the living room at night and in general keep her out of the bedroom. We don’t have any countertops to speak of to keep her off of.
Ah, the joys of cooking in an Asian kitchen…
Well, I have two dogs, both of which are small. They are restricted, but the restriction change. Basically, they are not allowed to be a in a room where I or another family member are not.
This does mean they sleep with us, but only in my parents’ or my bed, not in my sister’s, as they seem to want to pee on her bed for some reason. (They sleep on the dirty clothes pile in the floor, which they never pee on.) I personally like their warmth, so I let them on my bed. My parents just have never had the heart to knock them off.
Also, while the restriction is for supervisory reasons, it’s also because my dogs like to whine. I used to try to set them up their own bed in another room, but they will not shut up long enough for me to get to sleep. And I am not leaving them outside, as bad things happen to dogs that are left outside in our neighborhood.
1 dog and 1 cat, me, and two parents.
The dog is confined to the upstairs by a baby gate unless directly supervised downstairs - she’s just too liable to get into stuff, trip my dad up, or pee on the carpet. Upstairs, she has free reign. She’s a little girl - under 10 pounds - and a true lapdog with a very thin coat, so she’s almost always in someone’s lap or curled up somewhere soft and warm. She’s also very, very affectionate, so she gets a lot of affection in return. She usually sleeps with my mom or with me.
The cat goes anywhere in the house but is specifically thrown off kitchen counters and table if she tries. She’s mostly stopped trying. I got her an enormous cat tree for my bedroom, and when she’s had enough of the dog, she retreats there and usually spends the night there. I move around too much at night for her, but I don’t mind her sleeping on my bed. I prefer it, actually.
What bugs me is that when we got the dog as a puppy, we had the choice of crate training her so that she wouldn’t pee or poop inside. I was all for that. I read the training books and asked the people at the pet store, and they all said crate training was for the best. I was home almost all the time, and I could have done it.
But, my mom foots the bill for the dog and decided that puppy pads would be more convenient, especially since she works long hours and couldn’t reliably take the dog for walks. The problem with puppy pads is that once they’ve been laid down on a part of the floor, the dog forever associates that area with permission to do its business there. So a very large area of the carpet in my mom’s bedroom, on the stairs landing, and in the living room is now puppy pee place, and Mom is going insane over pee stains.
I like animals but I do realize they are animals. So they have rules. Dogs belong on the floor or in their doggie bed, not on my bed. Cats belong on their designated cat places and not on the computer keyboard. Dogs and cats do not beg for food at the supper table.
I love pets but they need boundaries like everyone else
The cats are not allowed in the bedrooms or bathrooms, on the countertops, or on the leather couches. At night, they are shut in the laundry room. These are all my husband’s rules for the cats, but we all enforce them because we don’t want the kitties to get in trouble. Unfortunately, it also means there’s hardly anyplace you can go to spend quality time with the cats unless you want to sit on the floor. Were it up to me, the cats would have free rein.
On the other hand, what Dog wants, Dog gets (Dog help us all). She doesn’t generally sleep with us at night, but lately she’s even been making inroads there (she says she’s cold).
In what language? Just curious.