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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1894 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 17, 2026

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What kinds of pets do you all have? And why are dogs the best?

I have a female cat, and have so far been resistant to other pet project ideas. I do cooperate with the neighbors to make sure there's food out for the neighborhood strays, but that's mostly not on me, it's a village cats policy.

Your kids don't want puppies???

Of course they do. I'm simply not onboard with the idea(or my wife's many other pet ideas).

How come? What's the block for you? With dogs specifically.

Though I am curious about your wife's other ideas now, lol.

Dogs of the sort I would be ok with smell bad, and I don't want to add to my list of yard chores by cleaning up after them, and they're expensive to get one I'm ok with having. They are also loud, and unlike cats(which strictly speaking need water, food, and litterbox- and that can be delayed for a day or two) we would need to make arrangements for walking etc if we went out of town. It's possible that someone I know might rehome a dog because of moving and I would be ok with getting it, but I'm not trusting a shelterpet, not with a dog(that's where cats come from though), and I do not wish to spend hundreds of dollars on a purebred, nor am I thrilled about the puppy stage.

My wife grew up in a veritable zoo, and I am, needless to say, not as onboard with the wide variety of animals. She’s more or less ok with this, although I suspect when our kids get older she’ll push a bit harder to let them have bunnies and fish tanks and caged birds. Some of these sound like worse ideas than the other.

Curious effect of the way people have become more conscientious pet owners over the last few decades - fewer random puppies about. When I was a kid, the main way you got a dog was because a neighbor or friend of a friend had a dog that had puppies, and they put out a "free to a good home" call through the grapevine. More people now do the "responsible" thing and get their animals fixed, so your choices are either a paid breeder or rolling the dice on some irresponsible person's shelter dog instead of being blessed by middle class serendipity.

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