When I was a kid, I had a dog and cat and the cat slept on the bed (or wherever she wanted to) and the dog slept on the floor. (He liked that better as the heat came up from vents on the floor so he’d sleep by it.
Both got Christmas and birthday presents. Usually a rawhide for the dog and kitty treats for the cat
And yes as a kid I would dress up the dog and take pictures of him. He liked to wear collars and hats, The cat wouldn’t tolerate any attempt to dress her up and since she had claws it wasn’t worth the struggle, since the dog let me do whatever I wanted to him
Of course now that I’m an adult if I had a pet I wouldn’t do that, but when you’re a kid, well that’s what pets are for right?
The dogs sleep in our bed and get new toys whenever we travel (a bribe so they’ll forget we left them) and at Christmas. I didn’t check the cook special meals option but we do occasionally to regularly mix pumpkin into their kibble.
I have a set of antlers that I put on them at least once a year but that is just for my own amusement at their disgust.
I picked “cook special meals” but usually it’s just buying a variety of greens (usually 2-3 kinds a day, sometimes more) for the rabbits, making sure to include one that’s high in Vitamin A for their eyes, and prepping them (chopping/separating if we’re going to eat part and the rabbits will eat the rest, looking for any that are going bad, etc.)
I also baked homemade “dog biscuit”-style dry treats at one point, since a lot of commercial treats really aren’t good for them. These contained finely ground hay and oats, plus mashed banana, cooked and mashed carrot, and a little bit of honey; I used a recipe from the House Rabbit Society.
So my response is really “salad prep and one batch of hard cookies.”
The Druidess is very much a pet person. Prior to our engagement, my home was pet free for about two years. She had, and now we have, two largish dogs of…inexact genetic background…and two lizards (bearded dragons, I think). The lizards mostly get fed and occasionally petted, scritched, taken out of their enclosures for romps on the floor, and that’s about it. The doggies are allowed to sleep with us in the bed, get presents, and typically get a bite of whatever we’re eating at the end of the meal.
Strongly suspect either dog would violently object to being dressed up for any reason, and can’t say I’d blame them. They are dogs, not dolls, and we would not inflict such indignity upon them.
Cats can sleep on my bed whenever they want to - except at night, when I’m sleeping. I find both of them intermittently disruptive in different ways, so they get shut out when I go to sleep. They’re reasonably tolerant of it, since I’ve been doing it since they were kittens, though one does act like a desperate two year-old avoiding sleep at times in the way he tries to ineffectually resist being tossed out.
Otherwise, that’s about it. No dressing up, no cooking for them/special meals and usually no Christmas gifts ( I won’t say never, but I don’t go out of my way to pick up toys for them on Christmas ).
The dog has heart problems and arthritis, and getting her to eat anything is typically a challenge. She gets the gourmet dog food, and I’ll usually add some chicken or cheese on top, then nuke it briefly so it will have more smell.
The parrot eats bird pellets, but he also gets to sample from what I’m eating or drinking if it’s something he likes, like ice cream, cereal, OJ, or pasta.
I marked the first 3. I’m not cooking special meals for the Kimber puppy but my last dog ate chicken and rice during the later part of her life due to colitis.
Kimber likes presents and she likes sleeping with me so she does both. Betty never seemed to like gifts so I didn’t buy her any - depends on the pet I guess.
My little dog sleeps with me because it pleases me. My cat has started getting under the covers on the other side and I like that too. It’s like a snuggle sandwich! My pit mix doesn’t get such treatment, but I do occasionally fix him up a special treat. I feel bad when he has to stay outside (in his dog house) on cold or rainy days so I’ll heat up his Gravy Train with hot water and mix it with whatever leftover we have in the house. I do not COOK him anything though.
Once my daughter bought the little dog a Santa suit. That was not my idea but I admit he looked mighty cute.
The cats sleep on the bed, the dogs sleep on their beds in the floor. (Unless Dolly is alone upstairs, in which case she will sneak onto our bed to nap.) They each have their own little stockings I made for them and get the toy/treat supply renewed at Christmas, which keeps them happy and occupied while we open our stuff.
I didn’t check the cooking meals or dressing up thing, though I suppose it’s technically open to interpretation. Everyone gets turkey-flavored canned food on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and if we’re cleaning a bunch of aged dry goods out of the pantry I might make up the occasional batch of critter cookies. Also, the dogs get bandanas after a bath.
Actually, the cats spend more time on the bed than I do.
Today is the 10th birthday of one of my cats, Paris. Tonight he’ll get a few pieces of hot dog, a green olive and some popcorn. Of course he’ll share these with his sister Vienna, except that instead of popcorn she’ll get Cheerios.
Dogs sleep on the floor, in their own beds, beside our bed. Sometimes I will make a pallet on the floor and join them, as a treat.
We got started cooking for the dogs in an effort to find something their digestive systems could tolerate. Now we cook batches of food, refrigerate, and warm it up in the microwave before serving – using a recipe devised for us by a canine dietitian (how’s that for a profession? Sounds like the aspiration of teenage beauty contestants everywhere).
Sadie hates clothing and will mope if she even has to wear a coat in the cold, and she’s short-haired and not cold-adapted, so we don’t make her.
Simone, on the other hand, seems comfortable in clothing and even excited about it at times. She’s also very thin-coated and sensitive about the cold and likes to sleep in a hoodie, T-shirt or blanket if it’s chilly in the house. So we dress her up a lot, partly to keep her warm and partly to amuse ourselves. Sometimes we put her in costumes for events.
The Cat sleeps on the bed (although I do shove her off my pillow), is generally well-treated, and gets to be a proper noun. She does not get presents for special occasions, nor does she get home-cooked meals. In fact, she gets zero table scraps and carefully chosen and measured kitteh food for flab loss.
However, in the last year I have spent well over a thousand dollars on vet bills and airplane trips (two moves), and she has not even had what I consider a major illness. As of this winter, I spend $50+ a month on injectable arthritis meds for her, which many would consider excessive for a slightly gimpy senior cat. I just want her to be comfortable and happy for as long as possible; she’s “only” 14.
I guess you could say I’m a crazy cat lady, and all of my crazy cat lady energy is focused on one cat at the moment.
Our cats are allowed to hang out on the bed until lights out and then they get booted out of the bedroom. They have both come up with the “foolproof” plan of turning on the charm and purring their little heads off while visiting because no one could possibly kick them out when they’re being so cute. They both seem genuinely surprised every night when this brilliant scheme doesn’t work. Of course, every now and then, we fall asleep before the girls get dismissed, so they do sometimes get special sleeping on the bed privileges for at least part of the night.
Special occasion presents are pretty much just special meals (usually some variety of gourmet canned food) at this point, since the cats generally won’t touch anything we’ve paid actual money for. Twist ties and scraps of paper apparently make ideal cat toys, whereas a $5 fuzzy mouse toy isn’t even worth acknowledging. They also have a bizarre love of carrot bags – after we go through a bag of carrots, the empty bag goes on the floor and the cats seem to delight in sitting on it. I don’t get it…
If my wife is cooking pork, my cat will usually get a piece or two tossed her way – she is a total pork junkie and will not leave us alone to eat any pork-related meal until she has stuffed her fuzzy little face as well.
No costumes for the girls – they’re cute enough without outfits. Plus they’d probably scratch our eyes out.
It’s definitely written as pop science, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Lots of factoids in short bits, which is fine with me, I’m mostly reading it on the train.
We not only allow, but actively encourage our cat to sleep with us. We also get him presents. No special cooking, but he likes to have a taste of whatever we’re eating and gets his own little plate at thanksgiving.
Oh yeah, the cats sleep with us. Generally down by our feet, although one does like to come up from time to time and snuggle under the covers for a bit. She leaves again when she gets too hot (or we’re too wiggly). Sometimes they get a piece of whatever meat I’m cooking (especially if it’s bacon), but that’s pretty infrequent.
No cats on counters or on the table, though. Not that they don’t get up there anyway; they’re just not supposed to.
