My son's class is doing a little project on names. It is one thing that everyone has. They have to find out what their names mean, how it is special and why their parents named them that. I was there (in the classroom) yesterday when they were discussing this and was asked to share about my kids. Then after some discussion, one child said he was named after his parent's old dog.
a dog !? !? Hmmm.....
I am no fool, I know people love their pets. I love mine. But when is it taking it too far? Is it right to love your pet as much or more than people? Some treat their pets with more love and respect than their fellow man. You know, the being that acutally has a soul? Unless....do dogs have souls? Do all dogs go to heaven??? Can you even put a limit on love?
I know God loves dogs, he created them and saw that they were good, but he didn't create them on the same sacred level he created man.
Is there something wrong when we (not me) can pay for air conditioned dog houses yet we can't feed the hungry or give to the poor? Is it going too far when our dogs become ill and we put out thousands of dollars in vet bills? Maybe not if one can afford it, maybe yes if one has to go into debt to keep an animal alive.
I'm not sure. I have not made up my mind on all of this I am just asking questions and exploring my thoughts. I am also not making any judgement calls on people who love their pets.
So even though I am not sure on exactly where I stand, here is what I do know...
1. I feel weird when the vet or groomer refers to me as 'mommy' to the dog. I am not his mother.
2. Feeding our dog is enough of a financial strain for us. If he needed vet treatment, we couldn't/wouldn't be able to do it.
3. If we lost our dog, I would miss him. I would be sad and I'm sure I would cry. But, I couldn't, in good conscience, go to grief counselling seminars where people in the group have lost children and spouses. (this happened to friends of ours who lost a baby hours after he was born).
4. While I love my dog and enjoy his company, it (my love) doesn't even remotely compare to the love I have for people, especially my family.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
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6 comments:
I'm sensing permission to get rid of the dog! True?
Steve
No, not at all! I love Rocky.
We put our dog down after 16 years this summer - it was sad, but not sad like my Dad died sad. Still we do miss him, but as we can't afford the vet bills either we are not getting another dog.
I could just imagine the swear words I would have used if I had been your friends...
What a crazy world!
I agree with you on a lot of what u say. But in the same breath i am this huge animal person that even seeing a bird suffer in the wild makes my heart twinge. For us when we got our dog we purposly set aside an emergency fund in case she was every very sick and needed treatment. We have been fortunate that she hasnt, just minor stuff here and there. I dont know, I think that my decision on forking out money to care for her would depend on the vets adivce on whether she would even live or not. I dont agree with people who shell out thousands of dollars even though tthey know the pet will die. I am however a strong believe in the fact that if you have a pet that needs medical attention/surgery (non life threatning)that you cant afford that those animals should be given to someone who can afford it.
I could never imagine a human going to grief counselling for losing a pet. I know I will sad and probably down when Belle goes, but goodness....counselling. I shake my head. I didnt know people could do such a thing.
While Chris and I are not weird animal people who spend thousands of dollars on our dog she is our kid at this time in our lives and she is very spoiled. But not in a weird way....she gets lots of treats, we feed her good dog food and she gets walked all the time.
Sorry that was a whole lot of rambling for probably nothing.
I would just like to say that people who refer to themselves as "mommy" or "daddy" when speaking to their pets, makes it up onto my top 10 list of pet peeves of all times. ~shivers~
I love my cat dearly..but I agree with your post. grief councelling for a pet? those people probably needed councelling wayyyy before their beloved pet died...
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