Your family and pet care.

In My Humble Opinion
1

By “family” I mean the people you are related to by both blood AND marriage.
Do they do their homework before adopting/buying a pet? Have they left a string of dead, traumatized or abandoned pets in their wake? Do they feed, water and get their pet adequate vet care? Not necessarily $$$ surgeries, but shots, exams, worming, etc?

My family on both sides is a mixed bag and my own parents were craptastic pet owners when I was a child.

My parents…
*Got a totally inappropriate breed for a really not that active family in the suburbs: a young, untrained, Siberian Husky. Dog ate things, chewed things, and ended up biting me in the face.

*Accepted a brother, sister pair of tabby cats from a coworker. The cats were never fixed. The male got in fights, lost an eye and disappeared. The female birthed several litters before my mom took all the cats, save one, and dumped them in a vacant, wooded area, across town.

*Impulse bought a dog from a pet store. Said dog was, luckily, healthy, sane and smart. I loved that dog to death, but they never really took good care of her. She had long fur which rarely got brushed/groomed, had rotten teeth when she was elderly, only saw a vet three times in her life (spay, when she was deathly ill, and when they diagnosed her with cancer) and was fed cat food.

*Got finches and allowed them to breed till the cage was full.

*House was infested with fleas because they never bothered to buy topical flea treatments (this was the late 1990s, they existed).

My mom has gotten better over the years. All their current cats are fixed, as was their late Pit Bull. The pets are fed a better and special appropriate food. My dad on the other hand, is still craptastic. He would rather send a dog to the pound then look into training and thinks nothing of making off handed “take it out back and shoot it” comments when a pet is sick.

The rest of my family is a mixed bag.

Three of my mom’s family members have only had a few pets and those lived long lives and were well cared for.

My mom’s youngest brother on the other hand…

*Has had several of his dogs killed by poison set out by a mentally ill neighbor due to the dogs roaming onto his land.

*Lost a foal due to not monitoring the in labor mare.

*Kept a young stallion in the same herd as his mother when said stallion was old enough to breed her.

*Bought a herd of horses after his kids had only taken a few lessons.

*Keeps one of his dogs tied up outside 24/7 while the other wanders wherever it wants to.

I’m not close with the people on my dad’s side, but I know several have pets, no clue how they are taken care of.
I do recall the various stories my dad told me about the people he grew up with.

*A relative living in a mobile home literally threw her small dog out the door because it peed inside.

*An elderly relative would shoot dogs with a BB gun.

*My dad’s parents brought home a new dog, didn’t tell him, and when he came home from school the dog thought he was a burglar and chased him around the house.

2

We spend more on health care for our animals than ourselves. They can’t tell you what is wrong.

Currently our adopted/rescues are a 20 year old cat, and a 12 year old dog. Kricket, our pointer mix dog, still goes snowshoeing with us.

(I just got an MRI today for a shoulder problem, so we look after ourselves as well).

3

Too late to edit my above post.

Re: family…

My Dad had a Cocker Spaniel that he loved to death. And fed the dog to death. My wife and I tried and tried to stop it. But my father would not have it. Nearly got in a physical fight about it. If I hadn’t intervened, I suspect my wife would had kicked his ass. (My Wife is 5’2" 120lbs, my Dad was 6’1" 200lbs.) My wife doesn’t like to kill spiders, but enough was enough. (She used to work at an animal shelter)

Ya see, Dad pretty much threw us out of his house when we objected that the dog was given a huge plate full of Chinese take out. Enough for 3 people.

The dog, Charu, would get plates full of people food. Plates. Full.

The dog, the sweet dog could barely stand at the end. A 40-50lb Cocker Spaniel.

Gaa. Poor Charu. We did what we could.

4

My family has mostly had cats. My dad did once have a dog, and now I have both a cat and a dog.

We have always taken good care of our pets. They get vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and are microchipped. Since I was a child I remember the lesson our parents taught us by example. If you own a pet you are obligated to take care of it.

5

I bought a Jeep so I could keep taking the dogs out running in the desert for exercise/recreation.

I don’t have any health insurance. :wink:

If they die, I’ll freeze-dry them one at a time till they’re all gone, then kill myself and get a huge discount on a group cremation.

The cat, however, can go screw!

6

I was raised to take total responsibility for the well-being of my pets. I’m currently spending thousands of dollars to keep my cancer-patient kitty alive, pain-free and happy, and it’s not the first time I’ve done this.

I do have one relative, a cousin-in-law, who considers all pets to be expendable. He’d rather just let a pet die than take it to the vet.

7

My whole family treats pets like royalty. Even the ones who are kind of animal hoarders, their animals are not neglected and they have juuuust enough pets they can take care of (and/or relatives now help care for).

Even my literal-crackhead cousin who has moved about 7 times during the life of her little dog, and has been in and out of rehab and jail, has managed to raise the dog to over 14 years old now.

My disabled and on-welfare aunt and cousin have been great pet owners to dogs my whole life, even now with their blind dog.

We’ve been lucky - I haven’t had to disown any relatives due to improper attitudes towards animals!

8

We’re cat people up to our ninth long term cat. All our cats except for one lived to no less than seventeen, and one made it to nearly twenty-two.

How do you think we treat them?

9

Going out to at least third cousins if not further, we treat pets as we do ourselves or damn close. We keep them clean and safe, treasure them highly, and respect them as we would ourselves. We don’t go for $20,000 medical treatments to extend lives of pain and little value but we don’t do that for ourselves either so all in all I feel pretty good about us all.

10

I’ve always said that if reincarnation is real and time is an illusion, I want to come back as one of my family’s pets.

However, I’ll add that I’ve done enough research to take an attitude of benign neglect with my cats, medically speaking. That is, they’re indoor cats with two doors between them and any exit, so I don’t traumatize them with regular vet visits or annual vaccinations, because they’re at very low risk. Rabies shots every 3 years is fine for them. If/when they appear ill, then they go see the vet, but otherwise, they stay at home, lazy and happy. (Neither one has been ill since we beat the kennel cough they came home with at adoption.) They’re of healthy weight, so they free feed dry kibble. They’re not picky about litter boxes, so I use 100% superabsorbent crystal litter and empty it once a month when it starts to smell. I got two to keep each other company so that I can leave them home for an extended period of time without boarding them. They’re great little roommates.

11

Both sides of the family are pretty good about taking care of critters. Mostly. One idiot BIL overfed his corgi so much, the poor dog could barely walk. He finally listened to his vet and got the dog’s weight under control.

My MIL loves cats, but she doesn’t want them inside. So she’s sorta taken in stray cats for a short time, then they ended up dead, usually by wild critters, and at least once by cars. She dotes on her dogs, but tends to overfeed them. However, she has always had them spayed, and she keeps up on shots. She just seems to think that buttered toast is a proper snack for a dog.

My youngest sis has 3 dogs and 2 cats, all rescues, and she spoils them all rotten. They’re all fixed and they all get their shots. She lives in the city, but the dogs get walked every day - one is a greyhound so he needs to get out. But sis has gotten to the point that she’s decided when these critters die, there will be no more. We shall see.

We’ve always treated our dogs and cats well, but, like my sis, we’re of the mindset that when the current batch go to their respective rewards, that will be it. One cat is 11, one is 9, and the dog is going on 5 (I think.) I’ll miss having pets, but I’ll be glad to be free of the responsibility when the time comes. I’d like to be able to plan a vacation without budgeting for a critter sitter.

12

My family has a good track record with cats, but that’s about the only thing they keep. My in-law side of the family has a history of getting animals, then getting rid of them.

Example: Paid out of the nose for a Himalayan kitten- then rid of the kitten because it “bites and climbs on things”. (It’s a KITTEN. That’s what kittens DO.) There’s also a history of back-yard breeding, which they have thankfully backed away from.)

Different set of in-law relations got a dog, then gave away the dog on Craigslist because “they did not want the neighbor to shoot it’”. The neighbor had poultry, and the dog had a habit of slipping the leash and making a beeline for his yard. Hmm. Maybe if ya’all actually did something with your dog other than tie the poor thing to a cinder block out front for hours at a time, she’d be less likely to be a hyperactive maniac and an escape artist.

Takes a deep breath.

On this end, we treat cats/dog like family. Annoying, furry family who dropped in one day and decided to not move out. That is to say, spoil them rotten, and take them to the vet when they begin to get -too- full of themselves.

13

We’re very attentive to our pets’ health and diets. They’re our little family members and deserve to be cared for. They have feelings, and we have a moral responsibility to give them happy, healthy lives.

We’re also very attentive to our pets being good pets. In the case of the cat, of course, it’s not that big a deal once you have made the decision to keep him inside - but even then, he’s a well behaved cat in part because he was taught from an early age what’s okay for him to do and what isn’t. It is unthinkable that he’d, say, jump on a counter to get to food.

My wife and I are of complete agreement that a dog’s behavior is a reflection of the owners, and all dogs either of us have owned have been very well trained and disciplined dogs. Our new dog will be the same, and we’ll put in the time and pay for obedience classes to ensure the dog is a model canine citizen. I find poor dog behavior offensively inexcusable; I know Fluffy is jumping on me because he’s excited, but it’s not Fluffy’s fault he’s jumping on me, pal, it’s yours for being an incompetent owner. With a cheap class or a couple of books, that won’t happen. An adult dog - give puppies a break, they’re learning - should never jump on people (or do a hundred other things I see bad owners let their dogs do.) Any dog can be trained out of that, and a disciplined dog is a happier dog.

14

I was raised by parents who were also raised with pets and believed strongly in treating them responsibly. Our pets were all much-loved and appropriately treated.

I raised my boys the same way and they are both responsible and loving pet owners today.

We did have one casualty over the years. My older son had a tiny turtle in a bowl. When he went to camp one summer, I took the opportunity to thoroughly clean his room. I put the turtle’s bowl on top of a tall wardrobe in the room while cleaning and forgot about it. It has haunted me for years…that poor dying little thing that couldn’t make a sound to let me know he was there and needed help.

15

All of our cats are rescues.

And we feed them top flight grain free food, scoop litter boxes twice a day, and never let them go outside.

About the only difference is, before we’d subject them to a long hospital stay, we would likely put them down*. Cats are miserable outside their own home.

  • depending on many things, of course, including prognosis.
16

I grew up in a house with a lot of cats. My mom just never got ours fixed and they kept having babies. I don’t know why she let it happen. She was an unusual person and I am turning in to her. I did the same when I was younger. I just didn’t get that one cat fixed and I should have. Then one of her girls got pregnant, etc. I finally just in my early 40s found myself with four cats, all fixed. All shots. All healthy.