have you ever thought as one of your pets as family?

[Guest Alchemist]

I do, I think of my dog Buttons as my little sister. Whenever people ask me if I have a pet dog i say no. And when they come over and see my dog they ask why I lied and then I tell them that is my little sister. I love her so much she never has been treated like a pet. When I am home alone and I am eating, I put her food bowl on the table and she sits in the chair and eats next to me, that is how special she is. I tell people if they ever lay a harming hand on Buttons that I will kill them, because I will.

[DeathBug]

I have family I've thought of as pets, if that counts. Alas, I have no pets, because I'm allergic to animal dander. My sisters have a hamster...

Even if I had an animal, I'd still see it as an animal.

[kaisha]

All of my pets are like my family, heres a list of my pets: 6 dogs, 1 hamster, 1 fish (we also have about 22 fish in the ponds in the yard).

[Guest Hieis Black Cat]

I always think my animals are my family. ^-^ I love my cat as if she was my little sister! Oh...and btw, I'm new here...soo yeah...Hi everyone, now back to the topic. My cat is my family no matter what! No questions asked.

[Kuraineko]

I have a black cat named Christopher Ibis and I love him as though he was my own. I spoil the poor thing, way too much.

[Black Moon]

Yeah, my little baby cat. (Okay, he's not a baby, but I think of him as one.) He goes where I go in the house, and he's my little bunny. :3 (He's like a minx or whatever, so he has a bunny-like tail.) And there's also my other cats, which are like family. I have four cats, and ALL of them are treated better than my dad and I put together ... Tee hee.

[Charles]

[quote name='Sepiroth']I do, I think of my dog Buttons as my little sister. Whenever people ask me if I have a pet dog i say no. And when they come over and see my dog they ask why I lied and then I tell them that is my little sister. I love her so much she never has been treated like a pet. When I am home alone and I am eating, I put her food bowl on the table and she sits in the chair and eats next to me, that is how special she is. I tell people if they ever lay a harming hand on Buttons that I will kill them, because I will.[/quote]

I love my pets and consider them a part of the family but not to that extreme. That is, I consider them family pets--they're a part of the family in a different way than an actual person is. I definitely wouldn't classify my dog or cat as a brother or a sister, for example. They're not human; it's important to make that distinction for sanity's sake. lol

Eating with an animal at the table is poor hygiene and demonstrates a lack of class. I hope that you break out of that habit or people will find you creepy and disgusting.

[Dragonboym2]

[COLOR=Blue]I've had a orange tabby named Eggnog once. She was adopted from an animal shelter, but mom had her declawed for some reason. She ate a plant in the backyard, and died. That was along time ago.

A year later, we got Samantha. Sam was all white with some grey on top of her head. She was adopted from the same place, but she was very nice. She loved people, and loved to be around us. She would sit in front of the door when we'd get home, and spend nights with me. She had a near death escsperience, but two years later, she tried to cross out very busy street, and got hit by a car and died. We really miss her.

When we got to out new house, we got a new cat with it. The people who used to live there, couldn't take Winston with them, and left her with us. Winston is all black, and is getting old. Winston didn't like us at first. She would brood all day, and spray on the walls when she got angry. A month later, our neighbors down the street had a litter. I came by to see. They were little new borns, two boys, and three girls. I'd come there a couple times a week, and watch them grow. One day, they could see, and hear at last. They were all over the place. :catgirl:
Two were climbing up stairs, one was getting groomed by his mom, and the other tow were playing some sort of game of "King of the Mountin" on the sofa. :catgirl:

They were very cute, and sweet too. Most had names. The three children living here named them The youngest called a little Black and white one, "Bark." The two sisters called a black and white one "Freckles" because of the spots on her face. A calico was called "Fuzzy" until she could get a proper name. The oldest, a little oragne one, had no name yet. The runt of the litter, a calico called "Mitzy", seemed to like me. I saved her. You see, the youngest of the children a two year old, picked Mitzy two inches off the floor, by the ear. She squealed in pain, and before their mom could leap into action, I did. I forced him to drop Mitzy, and she fell to the floor. Their mom ran over, and picked Mitzy up, and took her back to the sofa. Mitzy was fine, no damage was done, but still, that was unaccepptable.

I desided to adopt Mitzy. We came to get her, and take her three houses back to our place. When we got home, we showed Mitzy to Winston. Winston snarlled and hissed at Mitzy, and ran off. A tertitorial dispute. Mitz went off for a few hours to exsplore. I kept an eye on her to make sure she kept out of trouble, and she did.

We had Mitz for many years. She should be full grown, but is smaller than most cats. She is very loving, sweet, and for some reason picked me as her favorite. She spends every night with me, and mom and dad say they think she misses me when I'm gone. Winston and her get along now, but Mitz tries to get Winston to play games with her. No luck. They are part of our family, and they allways will be.


"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2 [/COLOR]

[Panda]

Yes, my pets are very much active members in my family. Unconditional love from pets is an amazing thing. No one in the world greets you when you come home like a dog will. Whether you are gone for 5 minutes or 5 days they will be overwhelmed with happiness at your return. I just love that about my dogs. My cats on the other hand show their appreciation of us in a different way. By climbing on my lap and purring. Studies have shown that petting a cat will lower your blood pressure. My cats help me relax when I am stressed out.

My parents announce themselves to the dogs as "grandma and grandpa". I am sure they just do this to give John and I the hint they want grandchildren. -meh- I do not treat my pets like people though. I refer to them as "the kids" but I do have rules that need to be followed. For instance no one begs at the table or steals food from plates. You can leave a pizza on the table and the dogs won't touch it. Look at it, but no stealing. They do not eat "people food" either. I am very strict about nutrition and my pets. I am sure this comes from my veterinary past.

Speaking of my veterinary past I have seen my fair share of extreme pet owners. People who will share their water from a cup with their pets, sharing food, leaving their estate to their pets, dressing them in their clothing on a daily basis...it's just plain weird. Now I am not going to say that I haven't dressed up my dogs. I would take them to the business area of town dressed up on Halloween for the kids to see. Nothing like seeing a pair of 100 lb bumble bees!

Like any good "parent" I have pictures of "the kids" to share with everyone!

[center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/Panda_chan_/misc/heshar.jpg[/IMG]
Harrison the cat and Heston the dog.[/center]
Harrison was a rescue cat from the vet clinic. He was born with a birth defect, his front legs didn't grow properly and they are bent. He likes to sit up just on his back legs. He pretty much looks like a bowling pin or penguin when he does that.

Heston was a rescue pet too. He was found covered in ticks and flea. Mostly skin and bones. He is really afraid of men. Poor guy wouldn't make it in a regular home so he lives with me. Lots of work on behavior and he is not as afraid as he use to be...and not so skinny either!

[center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/Panda_chan_/misc/ana.jpg[/IMG]
Ana Ng[/center]
"Ana Ng and I are getting old and we still haven't walked in each others majestic presence." She is Siamese if you please or if you don't please. She is the typical Siamese cat who knows the world turns for her.

[center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/Panda_chan_/misc/bun.jpg[/IMG]
Brynner[/center]
Brynner was adopted from the Humane Society. He was one of 12 in a litter. His mother was killed by a rancher. As you can tell from the picture he is a big happy dog. When he stands up on his hind legs he is as tall as me. Oh, and he weighs more than my mother.

I love my pets. I call them my kids. Like siblings they are all expected to get along. No fighting! They all get presents on Christmas. I would never refer to them as my real children though.

[Arcadia]

[quote name='Panda'] Unconditional love from pets is an amazing thing. No one in the world greets you when you come home like a dog will. Whether you are gone for 5 minutes or 5 days they will be overwhelmed with happiness at your return.[/quote]
[size=1]I couldn't agree with you more. I absolutely adore pets and though all my family has at the moment are a whole bunch of koi fish, we only recently had the best yellow lab in the world. She actually passed away at the beginning of the fall semester and even though I still miss her tons, she's was old and in pain and I'm glad she doesn't have to go through that anymore.

She was a real sweet heart, though. Labs are well known to be very playful and energetic and she was both of these but she was also very quiet. She hardly ever barked, and I don't ever remember a time when she jumped on somebody. She was the family dog, but there was kind of a hierarchy of who she paid the most attention to when we raised our voices. Dad always came first, and then me, mostly because I spoiled her. And despite being 90 lbs (she was a big dog, heh), she loved to cuddle and be loved. She used to do this thing where she'd come up to the couch where one of us was sitting and sit right next to us and lean on us. I think that I was her favorite pillow, and vice-versa. You can see her [url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/studded_tonfa/IMG_1588.jpg"]here engaging in one of her favorite past times[/url]. Casey was the best.

Anyway, I'm the kind of person who can't go into a pet store without wanting to take all the animals home with me. Eventually I'd like to have some birds. I love them, and I love the whistling. My grandmother has birds and it never gets old. Talking to them is so much fun, heh.

I like cats, too, though I consider myself more of a dog person. My neighbor has a few cats, though, and they all seem to like me pretty well. One of them in particular, Meeko, always comes over for attention when he sees us outside. He's incredibly big and fluffy and is the most affectionate cat I've ever seen. We've let him in the house a couple times, once while Casey was still alive, with interesting effects. Needless to say, Meeko is kind of an adopted cat, even though he doesn't technically live with us and we don't feed him or bathe him or anything. lol[/size]

[Wolfen91]

oh yes!!! i used to have a cat name Puma and i loved him to death! He was like a brother!! Unfortuatley he got so close to me that he got separation anxiety, so he would use the bathroom outside the little box. I didn;t have the money and what i needed to help him so i sent hom to an animal shelter for better care. i don't know where he is today but i will always love him. Hes about 2yrs old now, I had him bout a yr. i could tell him Ne thing, he would always greet me when i came home form school. well enough of my sad story but the point is an animal is a friend and can be like ur family

[elfpirate]

[b][size=1][i]Of course[/i] I think of my pets as family... because they [i]are[/i].[/size][/b]

[b][size=1]That's why they call it "animal adoption"... not "animal imprisonment".[/size][/b]
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[b][size=1]You adopt a pet for the entirety of its life... or, that's the idea, anyway.[/size][/b]
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[b][size=1]I love my pets a lot- they have their own little personalities and temperaments- and they are so loyal(as long as you're treating them properly). [/size][/b]
[b][size=1][/size][/b]
[b][size=1]My rat is a great source of entertainment, as well- she's got a quirky personality and [i]loves[/i] to play. [/size][/b]
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[b][size=1]She's the only rat I've ever known that will actually play games... and she frequently tries to get me to play with her- kind of like a puppy does... it's hella cute.:D[/size][/b]

[Semjaza]

I think anyone that had a decent pet would think of it as part of the family. I don't particularly love dogs in general, but I love the dogs our family has owned throughout the years. Anyone that says they'd think of it purely as an everyday animal obviously just hasn't had a pet... or at least not a good one.

I have two cats, right now. The dark grey one is Napoleon and we think he's a Chartreux. He fits all the descriptions from appearance to attitude. He's more like a dog in many senses than a cat. He doesn't do a lot of typical cat things like jumping up on furniture and clawing things.

[URL=http://img28.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img28&image=cats8vo.jpg][IMG]http://img28.exs.cx:81/img28/9433/cats8vo.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

On the other hand, Ava does everything I'd figure a cat would do. She's constantly on top of things if she thinks she can get some sort of food out of it (she has a really big obsession with people food). She's really quiet otherwise and extremely feminine in appearance and actions, particularly when compared to Napoleon.

They're both incredibly affectionate. I'm used to people's cats hiding under things when people come over, but neither of them do that. They generally want to be petted and held on to.

I really care about both of them. They help me feel a lot better on bad days and it's really nice to have them around when no one else happens to be around.