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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Top reasons to not get a new pet

I frequently read blogs where a mom is lamenting that their children are begging for pets. Here are my top 5 reasons why you should not give in:

1. Do not get a puppy unless you wish to have another child because they equate the work of a new child.

2. Do not adopt an older dog. You don't know what "baggage" they are coming to you with. If you don't have time to fix their problems, don't get them.

3. All small rodents bite - hamsters, gerbils, mice, rats and guinea pigs - they all bite. Don't get one. Even if it is a sweet animal by nature, your kid will figure out how to get it to bite them.

4. If you hate cleaning up vomit, don't get a cat or dog. The dog will clean his own vomit and will volunteer to clean the cats.

5. Any pet you get requires CLEANING. And here in lie my biggest grip:
- with rodents, if you do not clean their cages, they die or smell horrific which would make you want to kill them
- with fish, if you do not clean their tank, they die
- with dogs, if you do not wash them they will smell so bad you will lock them in the garage until husband comes home and you fiercely refuse to recognize dog as member of the family until he cleans said dog.
- Cats do not require cleaning of themselves but as a new reader of my blog "screamish" pointed out recently, they will race across your couch with litter feet thus making everything in their path dirty and making you clean after them.

So if you have enough housework to do and are exhausted by the end of the day and can't figure out how to get all your dishes done, make dinner, do your hair and have pretty nails, don't get a pet. Your kids can get pets when they move away to college and need to fill the void until they have kids - like I did!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice blog they are giving tips for about dog.
Dog Ramps

Anonymous said...

So...

I love my cats, but they are definitely alot of work. There is no puppy in our future no matter who much the kid begs.

crazywildberry said...

Thanks for blogging this. I have been tempted lately to give in and get a dog for our son. He would love it and I think it would be beneficial for him. However, I think the extra work would have me going insane in no time flat! I might get a pet down the road a little when we don't have any small babies in the house. And he can tend to the puppy or dog on his own. (Well, with a little supervision.)