Overall: When did we start being pet parents?
Overall: When did we start being pet parents?
By: Bill Mead
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Posted by editor Mon Oct 16, 2006 15:10:06 PDT
Viewed 547 times
0 responses 0 comments I have always thought of myself as a dog owner but that term seems to be out of fashion these days. I'm now classified as a pet parent, according to the animal rights people.
I don't think my dog cares what I call myself as long as I keep sharing my breakfast bacon with her. And as irritating as I find political correctness, I have to admit that I have always treated our dogs as members of the family, often to the disgust of my wife who frequently reminds me that our current fur ball is “just a dog.” Intellectually I accept that but it's hard to think of Isabella as a lower form of life when she fits so well into human society. I'm not claiming she is the smartest mutt in town, but she anticipates most of what we are going to do and understands dozens of English words. I read somewhere that a dog's IQ is close to that of a three-year-old child. Knowing that, how can you think of the family pooch as livestock?
It's pretty obvious that most dog own— oops! — pet parents don't consider their dogs to be livestock. For example, how many goat owners do you know who regularly take their critters to be groomed and perfumed? I have no idea how many entrepreneurs in Tehachapi earn honest livings by pampering dogs and cats but you'll have to agree that pet services are a respectable part of the economy almost everywhere.
Over the last 50 years we have paid hard cash for just one dog and the price didn't amount to much. All the others have been freebies. That's why we were struck senseless when we learned that two of our grandkids had paid a thousand bucks apiece for their dogs. Compounding the shock, our granddaughter then had to shell out another grand to save her newborn puppy from a dangerous ailment known as kennel cough.
About the same time, our grandson and his girlfriend, apparently feeling that an only child might be lonely, went out and blew another thousand dollars on a second dog. Since all three dogs weighed less than five pounds each, I was able to show that the grandkids' front end costs for pet parenting amounted to $267 per pound. How could I think in such a twisted way? Hey, you know how insensitive I am.
Now that our San Diego granddaughter and her husband have sunk more than $2,000 in a creature hardly bigger than a ground squirrel, they are thinking of going into the pet business themselves. Nikki is a proven sales whiz, while Buddy has created a highly-successful advertising business at an age when I was still grubbing for paltry wages, so I'm not worried that they might lack business acumen. Nor do I think the pet business is going to go into a major recession even if the country does. Lassie will always get taken care of while Timmy might have to wait for new shoes.
I'm sure there are folks who are contemptuous of the growing trend toward treating pets as people. I think some of them believe that the affection lavished on dogs and cats should be directed instead toward other humans. I can't go along with that. In my experience, people who are kind to their animals are nearly always kind to other people. Love is not a limited commodity. There is always enough to go around.
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