Have 2 Legged Children, Get Rid of 4 Legged Children...

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grace

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Hello All,
I really did not know where to post this (Just my thoughts,Opinions, and Memories).
I am a new member, and I appreciate your patience with me.
As I wrote, I am a new member to this forum, however, that does not make me a "Young Person". Smiles .....
This is what bothers me..... As I have written before, I spent MANY years working in Veternary Clinics - The "Thing" that upset me the most was when young couples decided to have "2 legged kids" and therefore, could no longer have "4 legged kids".
I can not tell you how many times people called to have their "Pets" adopted out, as they were expecting a child - So many times clients dogs and cats were tied to a front post - (Before opening office hours) Just so they would not have to confront the fact that their "pet" would probably have to be euth - Forget that, KILLED !!!
Why Why Why ? Can people not see that raising our children with our "4 legged kids" is THE BEST for all involved ? There is so much more I could write about this - So very many positive reasons to involve our children / sharing an enviroment with animals, all types of animals !- That in itself is a huge life lesson !
My children grew up with dogs, cats, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and parrots plus chins ! And guess what ? All involved received a positive experience ! Oops ! Almost forgot the iguanas ! Smiles
Thank you for listening, Grace
 
I don't understand that either. It seems like life has enough room for kids and some pets. If we ever have children, I will not get rid of anyone. The animals were here first! :) I'd rather say that I don't want to have children because the animals would suffer. :)

Children do benefit from having animals around. It teaches them so much, not just responsibility but compassion and humanity and kindness. It's important. If my parents didn't let me have pets when I was a kid, I wouldn't have understood that animals have feelings and intelligence. I see animals so much differently than people that don't have pets. I look at them and I see that they are little people! :D
 
I've also never understood why people get rid of pets when they have children...especially chins. I mean really, unless you have a whole house full, how much time do they really take out of your life?
 
Dear AZChins,
I never thought about it until your message - I do not have friends that do not have "pets" (Any pets). Interesting, Grace Hmmmmm.......
 
Some people just don't handle multi-tasking well. *grin*
But seriously, not that I condone giving up pets. I personally think it's a lifelong commitment. But that does not mean others are capable or required to keep those same obligations. Geez, if you think about it, this is where foster care and adoption comes in with human babies too! It all comes down to an individual's ability to handle responsibility...or not.
 
I have two very much loved little dogs due to people not being able to handle the responsibility of their pets due to their life situations. My third dog is from a shelter. I have a cockatiel I got from someone here on CnQ that could no longer care for it. My parakeets are all from the shelter from a hoarder case. I absolutely LOVE getting people's hand me down pets. Their loss is my gain. I feel it's 'meant to be' when an animal finds it's way to me like that. Once an animal is here, it stays here. It has been very, very rare I've rehomed an animal.
 
A few years ago my husband had some skin issues .Our Doc thought it might be alergys to my pets (it wasn't).He asked my husband how attached I was to our pets.My husband told him it would be easyer to find himself a new place to live than to get rid of my pets.;)
 
I have some in-laws that won't have pets because they will disrupt vacations or just go away for the weekend. We always grew up with animals. Growing up with them gave us the responsibilities to take care of them. When we go away we would find a neighbor kid to come by and take care of them.
 
knowing that most pets we get have an average lifespan of 8 - 20 years. one must ask theirself "where will i be at that point in my life". and make the decision BEFORE getting the pet. i cant imagine my life without furry little friends (and scaley ones too!). fish dying is how my son learned about death. my golden dying a few years ago made him really understand how the death of a loved one can affect you. he still talks about Molson and my son was only 5 when he died. Pets impact our lives and I would not want to live without having that kind of unconditional love.
 
I hate when people do that. Or here's an even better thing... I just LOVE it when my sister-in-law gets new pets. She will go adopt them from the Animal Welfare place... which costs money... She gets tired of them, and either sends them back to AWL or gives them to someone else... Then they sit there and complain because they don't have money... But if you only knew how many times they have gotten an animal and given it away... UGH! I waited to get an animal because I was still young and wanted to be able to do what I wanted. Now I have 3 chins, 2 fish, and a dog. I can't imagine living without them. And I still want to have a kid or two, but I will not give up my animals for that. I want my kids to have pets.
 
I work at a vets office and also did fostering all my childhood and that and moving are the main reasons why people get rid of their animals...... and I never understood that... because neither of those reasons would make me get rid of my animals.
 
This is something that irritates me. I mean...if you know someday you want kids and that you won't be able to care for your pets when your kids are young...wait to get the pet!

I plan on having kids later in life and I won't be giving up my pets. Not one of them will leave because I made the commitment to keep them. Not to mention any child of mine is going to learn to respect animals at an early age. The thing that taught me responsibility faster and better than anything else was having a pet and being taught to care for it.
 
I've never understood that mentality either. I learned to walk in part b/c my grandmother's Great Pyr/Golden mix let me hang onto his fur and would very slowly, one step at a time, help me circle the living room. My aunt's border collie/beagle then got the job of herding me back into the living room after I'd started running around the house. The dog I grew up with was like a brother to me; I went into my first of several severe depressive episodes when he died. And people who have had a pet or pets for 5+ years just dump them when they have a kid instead of teaching the kid to respect the space and needs of the animal. From the outside of one of those situations, it looks like lazy parenting and the animals deserve better.
 
When I was born my parents had several animals (cat, dog, bird, lizards) as well as a toddler (my 1 1/2 yr old sister) and very little money, yet they still managed just fine. In fact the bird and the cat were very good at keeping my older sister entertained while mom took care of me. The bird would whistle at her and sing and the fat cat would lay on top of her.

I think a lot of people are just plain lazy and would rather sit in front of a computer or tv while their baby sleeps than take care of the animals so they get rid of them. Yeah, new parents are going to be tired and worn out for a while, but animals don't take a ton of time to feed, water, and clean up after (unless you have a ton of animals like Susan...lol) and most of them are content to just be in the same room as you. It'll be rough at first, but that doesn't mean you just give up.
 
I was reading this and nobody seems to have brought it up yet, but I was curious... what happens if you have a child and had full intentions of keeping your pets, but then found out that they were allergic to the animals?
 
I think that people should really consider all the good and bad points to animal owning before getting a pet of any kind. It's a major commitment and you have to really factor in every aspect of your lifestyle. If there is even one thing in your life that doesn't match with the criteria for giving the pet a quality life then you really ought to reconsider getting the animal atleast until things in your life change.

I had a dog that I had to find a new home for when my baby was born. It wasn't because of the new baby that he had to go it was my condo association. He was a 70 pound dog and where we live people are only allowed dogs up to 30 pounds. Plus he was having problems adjusting since we had just moved in and then the new baby too it was just too much for the dog. He ended up incredibly anxious and then he was having seizures. I did everything I could think of to try and keep him but the condo threatened to fine us 50 dollars each day the dog stayed and my trying to ease the dog's problems were not working so I ended up sending him to my inlaws. He was very happy there when he was alive because they live in a quiet place and since we visit a lot we still got to see and love the dog. We even paid for everything the dog needed while he was living there. In the end he died of cancer and had to be put down because he was very sick but not because nobody wanted him anymore. If it hadn't been for all the grief the condo association was giving me I would have just kept him with us.
 
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mk94 said:
what happens if you have a child and had full intentions of keeping your pets, but then found out that they were allergic to the animals?
Click to expand...

Decide based on the severity and type of allergy whether the child's room becomes off limits to the animal and anything it's been on/around, whether shots/a prescription allergy treatment to promote immunity are an option, or to rehome the animal as a COMPLETE last resort. Allergies aren't usually a death sentence if handled correctly; I had dogs and cats growing up and my parents are each allergic. They knew that and managed the symptoms until they built immunity to the individual animals b/c the pets were part of the family too. Of course, other families would handle it differently. That's just how mine did things twenty-some years ago.
 
mk94 said:
I was reading this and nobody seems to have brought it up yet, but I was curious... what happens if you have a child and had full intentions of keeping your pets, but then found out that they were allergic to the animals?
Click to expand...

I'm allergic to dog dander. I have two dogs. The biggest thing people don't realize when they or their child is allergic to a dog or cat is that you can manage the animal's dander. I bathe my dogs which makes it so I can hold them, cuddle them and play with them without being in a constant state of stuffy nose and sneezing.

My dad and brother were allergic to cats when I was growing up. We have always had cats because my mom loves cats. I got the duty of bathing all the cats(foster and personal cats) once every two to four weeks to keep the dander down and it worked just fine. If we found my dad was sneezing excessively we'd bathe the cats and vacuum and he'd stop sneezing.

Allergies to me are not a death sentence. I lived with a girl who had asthma and allergies. In that house we had four dogs and two cats between all the roommates. She didn't die and never had to be rushed to the hospital. We bathed the animals every two weeks and kept that place as clean as possible. And her case of asthma was severe as well as her allergies to cats.

Allergies are manageable...people just don't want to put the work that's required into keeping the pets.
 
I had dogs and cats all through my childhood. So did my husband. We can never understand the belief that a new baby makes it impossible to keep your old pets. My childhood border collie kept an eye on my brother, me and my cousin when we were young while we played outdoors, and my niece is learning to stand and walk partially because of my parents' very tolerant lab. I could never imagine my life without animals!
 
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