It's not like a cat, every time I see a young couple with a dog, it clearly means they really do want a child, want an anchoring co-responsibility and something to love, but have wrongly decided the dog will be less of a burden on their lives. But a dog needs walking twice a day, clearing up after its poo, feeding twice a day, can't be left alone long, and means you can't go wherever you want for holidays. Just have a child at this point! How hard do these young people think a child is? It's obviously more work than a dog, but not to the extent of not having a dog at all. I also think increasingly a lot of young women who do want children, are in relationships with men who don't, or are happy to delay. So they get a dog in the meantime.
I'm also noticing a performative kind of childishness here as well in young women: cooing over their dog and cat "babies". I associate it with people who wear headbands with ears. Grow up already, whether or not you choose to have pets or children.
I have had dogs and cats all my life. I can remember clearly sitting with Wags at age 6 when everyone else was mad at me, looking out at the San Gabriel Valley in south CA. Fast forward to my current buddy, Mad Max. He was a throwaway cat, found in a bush beside a freeway. I had recovered enough from difficulty that I had just bought a house and Max came on board. I was watching Gibson's "Mad Max" at the time, hence the moniker.
He's 16 now, slowing down (I am 75, ditto) and having another heartbeat in the house has been/is really nice. He was very much a free range cat early on, and learned the local ropes from an older semi-feral cat I named Carrots (a ginger) who adopted him as a pal. The two of them would prowl the neighborhood in the day, Max and I would take a walk before retiring at night. Naturally he would hide when a neighbor appeared and asked why I was in the street. The excuse that I was walking my cat drew puzzled looks. Finally, Max didn't hide well enough and I was, sort of, exonerated...
We are both facing fewer days ahead than behind, but accepting life is to accept death. I may outlive Max (one never knows) and I will miss him, but not how I would miss one of my three children, whether or not they can stand to talk to me. I would not open a vein to preserve Max. I would in a second to preserve one of my kids, by whatever tool I could find. They are not remotely the same, but I love all of them.
The Collins's say that dogs are just for maturating the nurturing instinct. But im not convinced humans haven't evolved a separate instinct for a relationship with a dog.
Clearly, the purse puppy thing is more the former. But im not convinced the way most dog owners treat their pups isnt actually a totally unique relationship type
It's not like a cat, every time I see a young couple with a dog, it clearly means they really do want a child, want an anchoring co-responsibility and something to love, but have wrongly decided the dog will be less of a burden on their lives. But a dog needs walking twice a day, clearing up after its poo, feeding twice a day, can't be left alone long, and means you can't go wherever you want for holidays. Just have a child at this point! How hard do these young people think a child is? It's obviously more work than a dog, but not to the extent of not having a dog at all. I also think increasingly a lot of young women who do want children, are in relationships with men who don't, or are happy to delay. So they get a dog in the meantime.
I'm also noticing a performative kind of childishness here as well in young women: cooing over their dog and cat "babies". I associate it with people who wear headbands with ears. Grow up already, whether or not you choose to have pets or children.
It's so hard having friends with pets, that treat them like kids, and want no kids themselves. They truly have no idea what they're missing!
I have had dogs and cats all my life. I can remember clearly sitting with Wags at age 6 when everyone else was mad at me, looking out at the San Gabriel Valley in south CA. Fast forward to my current buddy, Mad Max. He was a throwaway cat, found in a bush beside a freeway. I had recovered enough from difficulty that I had just bought a house and Max came on board. I was watching Gibson's "Mad Max" at the time, hence the moniker.
He's 16 now, slowing down (I am 75, ditto) and having another heartbeat in the house has been/is really nice. He was very much a free range cat early on, and learned the local ropes from an older semi-feral cat I named Carrots (a ginger) who adopted him as a pal. The two of them would prowl the neighborhood in the day, Max and I would take a walk before retiring at night. Naturally he would hide when a neighbor appeared and asked why I was in the street. The excuse that I was walking my cat drew puzzled looks. Finally, Max didn't hide well enough and I was, sort of, exonerated...
We are both facing fewer days ahead than behind, but accepting life is to accept death. I may outlive Max (one never knows) and I will miss him, but not how I would miss one of my three children, whether or not they can stand to talk to me. I would not open a vein to preserve Max. I would in a second to preserve one of my kids, by whatever tool I could find. They are not remotely the same, but I love all of them.
The Collins's say that dogs are just for maturating the nurturing instinct. But im not convinced humans haven't evolved a separate instinct for a relationship with a dog.
Clearly, the purse puppy thing is more the former. But im not convinced the way most dog owners treat their pups isnt actually a totally unique relationship type