Part of the family

hampshirebabe

I've got 2 girls, (daughters) and 2 cats, and my girls often mention our cats, they are members of the family, but its funny how so many cats, and dogs probably, are just pets. We've been to lots of friends houses over the summer holidays and a fair few of them have cats, but we never knew. It sounds odd writing it down, but I'm sure some of you will know what I mean. We're home schooling so we get to hang out and chat about everyday things more than kids at school, well I get to chat with the kids more too, I often hear my 2 saying Prince did this, or Princess did that. This morning it was Prince got into the girls bedroom and woke them up with his loud purring, so they were both a bit extra tired and grumpy!

catkins

hampshirebabe wrote: »

I've got 2 girls, (daughters) and 2 cats, and my girls often mention our cats, they are members of the family, but its funny how so many cats, and dogs probably, are just pets. We've been to lots of friends houses over the summer holidays and a fair few of them have cats, but we never knew. It sounds odd writing it down, but I'm sure some of you will know what I mean. We're home schooling so we get to hang out and chat about everyday things more than kids at school, well I get to chat with the kids more too, I often hear my 2 saying Prince did this, or Princess did that. This morning it was Prince got into the girls bedroom and woke them up with his loud purring, so they were both a bit extra tired and grumpy!

I've got cats and until 7 weeks ago also had a dog. They are definitely part of my family although I know a lot of my friends and possibly family think I am mad or strange (or both!). I have one wall of the alcove in my living room that has pictures of them and upstairs on the landing are pictures of previous animals. Other people have pictures of their children so I don't think it is odd for me to have pictures of my pets but I know some people find it odd.

My dog was left alone as little as it was possible and if I and OH were going to be out for more than 4 hours we got a friend or my neice to come round and sit with him for a bit and maybe give him a walk. At one time I worked a 2 days a week for a couple of hours and only earned minimum wage. I had a dog walker onone of those days who charged £12 an hour so I had to work 2 hours a day just to pay her. My neice walked him the other day and I paid her £6. None of my work colleagues could believe I did this. They all said I should just leave my dog as he would get used to it but I didn't want to.

NewKittenHelp

I have to confess that I don't understand people who have pictures just of their pets all over their house. A former friend has pictures of all her dogs covering the entirety of her walls - we're not even talking good pictures, just normal pictures that you'd take with a disposable camera for the most part. Things like one of her dogs asleep on a rug - not cuteness, nothing extraordinary, just a dog laying on a rug with its eyes closed. I really don't get why people have those sorts of pictures.

I do understand including pets in informal family shots because they are part of the family, but to almost have a shrine to them - that's just weird to me. But then having staged photographs of family on display is weird to me too. And don't get me started on those bloody photoshoots that people have - when has anyone ever looked natural while curled up in a circle cut of a wall? NEVER. It doesn't work, it looks terrible and you will always, always, always look like a 'Before' picture.

NewKittenHelp

hampshirebabe wrote: »

I've got 2 girls, (daughters) and 2 cats, and my girls often mention our cats, they are members of the family, but its funny how so many cats, and dogs probably, are just pets. We've been to lots of friends houses over the summer holidays and a fair few of them have cats, but we never knew. It sounds odd writing it down, but I'm sure some of you will know what I mean. We're home schooling so we get to hang out and chat about everyday things more than kids at school, well I get to chat with the kids more too, I often hear my 2 saying Prince did this, or Princess did that. This morning it was Prince got into the girls bedroom and woke them up with his loud purring, so they were both a bit extra tired and grumpy!

Do you mean that you didn't see their cats, or that they didn't talk about them?

Chakani

Our animals are part of the family, but I wouldn't talk about them to someone who I didn't judge was interested, in the same way that I wouldn't talk about my children to someone who has no interest in children.

All my "school-mum" friends know we have a dog, as she comes to school with me every day. Some adore her and make a huge fuss every time they see her, and ask after her if she's not there, some don't even know her name. Everyone's different, and I don't really see why it matters, or why it would make the animals more or less a part of the family. My kids are more likely to talk about their friends to me than about the cat though.

lostinrates

We don't have children, sadly. Our family is completed by our animals. We have stacks of photos on our phones (dh) amd computer (me) but we don't have photos of them in the home. In fact, we have few photos in our home, its not our thing really.

We don't drag them around where they are not wanted, but arenage house /pet sitting when we are out for long days. Atm we have two dogs (plus other animals) but have talked about getting our younger dog a pet passport so when its just her as a fog here we can take her with us to europe ipn the car, she would just love that. We travelled acroos europe with cats, i think one dog would be much easier!

catkins

NewKittenHelp wrote: »

I have to confess that I don't understand people who have pictures just of their pets all over their house. A former friend has pictures of all her dogs covering the entirety of her walls - we're not even talking good pictures, just normal pictures that you'd take with a disposable camera for the most part. Things like one of her dogs asleep on a rug - not cuteness, nothing extraordinary, just a dog laying on a rug with its eyes closed. I really don't get why people have those sorts of pictures.

I do understand including pets in informal family shots because they are part of the family, but to almost have a shrine to them - that's just weird to me. But then having staged photographs of family on display is weird to me too. And don't get me started on those bloody photoshoots that people have - when has anyone ever looked natural while curled up in a circle cut of a wall? NEVER. It doesn't work, it looks terrible and you will always, always, always look like a 'Before' picture.

I certainly don't regard my photos on the wall as a shrine. I don't have children but do have pictures of my family also. There are not tons of photos but the ones I have are really good ones - a couple have been put onto canvas and I have had loads of comments about how good they are and did a professional photographer take them (OH did).

I also have photos of other animals/wildlife I have taken. They mean more to me than some painting.

catkins

We did't tend to take our dog to crowded places - boot fairs etc unlike some people but we did tend to go out for the day on Sundays unless it was hot and go to the beach or the forest etc. Me and OH enjoyed it and it seemed good for the dog to go out for a day rather than just his normal 2 or 3 walks a day.

I know people though who rarely take their dog anywhere other than its daily walk and often that walk is short. I find that quite sad. My dog used to get so excited especially at the beach as he loved the sea and sand