I’ve owned most of the common furry pets (except guinea pigs and rats) and there’s unique challenges with taking care of each of them. What is burdensome is also different for each person.
I love cats but I don’t think I’d adopt another. I don’t want to catproof my shelves nor my plants. I don’t want to smell kitty litter either.
I love rabbits but same thing. I don’t want to rabbitproof my house. I don’t want to clean litter boxes. And most importantly, I don’t want the hassle of finding someone to take care of them when I’m gone.
I love dogs and will probably stick to dogs. I like going on walks and sitting in the yard. I don’t mind drying his paws off when it rains or walking the yard weekly to pick up his turds.
All pets are great. Animal companionship is the best.
Cats are great, but they’re nocturnal. Many will skitter around, scratch stuff, scream, or otherwise bother the heck out of you when you are trying to sleep. I get so little sleep as it is, I’m not willing to deal with that again.
my cat isn’t noctural. not all cats are the same.
Cats are crepuscular, meaning they’re more active at dawn and dusk, but they may be somewhat active at any hour if they have slept enough.
That’s possible, too. My cat wasn’t like that but I know my friend’s cat is banned from the bedroom
6am I am sitting with my half-adopted stray by the heater cause I don’t have a cat door and he panics if he wants to leave and I’m not there to open the door
It’s -1°C outside so I have to do this… until I get the right gear
Cats aren’t necessarily little bastards. Mine has never knocked anything over, doesn’t climb onto anything other than the couch and bed, and ignores all of my houseplants.
Also, kitty litter is awful. Pelletized horse bedding is a much better option. Cheaper, lighter, easier to clean up, compostable. It smells like pine trees instead of piss-soaked clay.
Yeah but you don’t know that until you get the cat. I have a ton of houseplants that would kill a curious cat, too.
Also, kitty litter is awful.
You’re not buying the right kitty litter.
Recommendation?
We use tidy cats stone pellets with the pee pads liner.
Not environmentally friendly, but it’s the first time I’ve actually not minded dealing with the box.
We never used normal litter, it’s terrible. We used to use the tidy cats brand scoop able stuff. And that worked… Fine. Solids came out easy enough. But urine was either too gummy if you tried scooping it too soon. Or it broke up into stinky little bits too small for the scoop, if you waited too long. And God forbid the cat dig to the bottom before peeing, so the clay glues itself to the bottom of the bin, amplifying the goo/break problem.
And eventually, no matter how well you scoop, the little bits of urine build up and start to stink like ammonia, until you have to throw all the litter away and wash the box. Which is extra unpleasant if it’s winter.
But the stone pellets and pad? The solids are easily scooped. And the urine is trapped in the pad, locked in, never smell it.
And no matter what you do, cats will track litter around the house. But the stones are so big and heavy that they almost all fall off the paw before they make it 5 feet from the box, so the area to clean is much smaller. And the stones are surprisingly less annoying to step on.
My friend has the cedar pellets, and it’s better than litter, yes, in some ways. But I still smell the ammonia.
I will say we’ve never tried the crystal cat litter, and some of our other friends swear by it.
Yeah, we buy an amazing blend of sand. Leaves no odors, no dust, and has great clumping.
I’ve met many people that were confident their house did not smell like cat urine. Fewer that were correct.
My advice is to never get birds, it is very different from other types of pets. I love having them, but it honestly requires a certain level of insanity. Which means keeping them is absolutely not for most people
I don’t think I’ll get another pet that requires a cage after hamsters! (My rabbits were raised like cats, litter trained and no cage)
Birds shouldn’t really be caged either, though it does create some problems how to keep them safe in your home (especially with other pets). Personally I have them just free in their own room, and they only sleep in their cages (for safety). If I couldn’t do that, I’d have them in an aviary when I can’t supervise them.
Perhaps “cage” was the wrong word - I meant pets I have to corral to a specific location…but I would prevent my cat from going outside so maybe that’s not it either lol
So I guess it’s just back to my original point: I find the space and care accomodations required for birds to be much too inconvenient
Oh that is an entirely valid point! And again, I definitely would not recommend birds to anyone, it’s that type of thing where you kinda need to stumble into by yourself. It’s just, like with rabbits, people still have misconceptions about keeping them in cages, and I’m always ready to correct facts about that… Since some people still get even those tiny round cages and put birds in them, it’s truly awful
That’s my friend’s parents. They get little budgies and keep them in the worst cages which means they only get the worst parts of pet ownership
Heartbreaking! Poor birds :(
My cat’s winter workout is walking from bed to food bowl and back.
Cats rule.
You’re funny. The cat woke me up for food is the reason the dog got to pee outside before the sun came up.
my wife woke me up for food (we shared the last bagel. it had no garlic) and it’s the reason the cats got extra snuggles this morning
Lol, you got me… But my dog would die for me. It’s my honor to walk her in the snow. In fact, I’m hardly even worthy.
You would be surprised by a cats loyalty.
My cat would die for me too. He’s my little one-eyer one-brain-cell angel
My cat went up against a dog that was twice his size because it was fucking with our other cat. He didn’t even like our other cat.
Aww. Snuggle pirate
My cat would kill for me. Innocent people. Minding their own business.
Did you copy paste my cat? He is an orange pirate as well
Adorable! My cat looks just like him. He is a rare neurologic FIP survivor, my miracle baby.
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Dog shoes my friend. They make fleece, rain boots, waterproof winter, lots of choices. I found a local grandma that makes them but they’re also sold at pet stores.
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You do you boo. One of my best memories is seeing my puppy frolick in the show for the first time. Just getting up the mountain is a bitch with him in the car.
No brown or yellow snow
you’re really missing out. can’t let the dogs have all the fun
Y’all in this thread need to get yourselves automatic feeders and start putting out wet food during awake times and not the crack of dawn.
As far as my cats are concerned, any time there’s not wet food available is awake time.
They make auto wet feeders now too, apparently…
I will never understand letting your pets dictate wakeup hours, except in the special circumstance that it’s a puppy because they can’t hold their bladder. My cats have never woken me up for food. In fact my cats and dogs have always known that if they annoy me, I will stay in bed longer out of spite. I will wake up and lay in bed until I am ready to get up, and no pet is going to annoy me into feeding them. The closest I’ve ever had to a pet waking me up is my current golden who doesn’t wake me up for food, he wakes me up to cuddle, but is fine if I go back to sleep.
It’s not about what you feed them or when, it’s about setting boundaries. We feed canned food morning and night. Our pets sleep on the bed, and know they will get their food when I’m ready to be awake.
My cat knows she only gets food when I get up.
Once she gets hungry she doesn’t give a fuck about that and starts messing with everything next to the bed. I never give in to that and just put her outside the bedroom, but next time she will try doing it again anyway. She’s determined to get her food, even if her ways have never worked. She might just be doing it out of spite tbh.
Imagine sleeping in cat hair tho
I find dogs shed significantly more than cats in general.
They smell a lot worse, too.
In my experience it depends. Most cats smell better, but I had one cat that wasn’t great at cleaning herself and definitely had a bit of a stink
Conversely, my dog is a northern breed and doesn’t have much natural smell, plus he likes to roll in my fresh sheets, so he usually smells like fabric softener
Imagine doing laundry? Yeah the fur sheds, but you just clean more often to compensate, it’s fine.
Nah you can’t do laundry fast enough to not sleep in fur constantly. My dog has his own bed and he’s short haired and still I have have several air purifiers and clean at least once per day to maintain everything. So people who sleep with cats are straight up hoarder territory of nasty imo lol - tho I don’t judge as connecting with an animal like this might be well worth the mess for some people.
imagine not
Done
Nothing wakes a cat owner faster than the sound of hyuk hyuk HYUK HYUUURK on the only piece of carpet in the house.
True, but also no slop water drinking or wet dog smell. Give and take
my cat likes to fake hyuk ON THE BED and then turn and look at us like “so you’re up! and my food bowl is mysteriously empty!”
I hope my cat doesn’t learn that trick.
Or a dog owner
Idunno, my flatmate has a dog and he’s never woken me up like that. The dog has though
i have a cat and a dog and they both want to go out in weather like that. they love being outside.
neither of them want to cuddle in bed, either.
Maybe it’s you…
So, have an invigorating walk with your buddy or wake up with red eyes and a runny nose, but at least you were warm and comfortable?
Does this happen to people who aren’t allergic?
It can but my body adapted after a few weeks. Others may not be so lucky.
Im not allergic to pets.
Are you claiming dog people who are being forced to walk through blizzards don’t get sick or something?
This but with my cat standing on my chest screaming in my face for no reason
Lucky. Your cat faces you while standing on your chest screaming its head off. I wake up to the 'ol one eye winker.
On occasion though, that pic is accurate and so worth it.
Right before the unprovoked slash attack
Can’t argue with that; I’m nursing some scratches from this morning.
the cat: “wake up and feed me instead of strangling me”
Make it 5, and only one or two are screaming. The rest are nipping at my fingers or nose, throwing paws in my mouth or on my eyes, or circling around my legs. All because we want breakfast, and breakfast time is “whenever moms alarm goes off, or we wake her up”.
My dog goes outside to piss and shit. He’s a very good boy.
Sure, I’ll take him out for walks once I’m up but, to be honest, I need the exercise as much as he does.
My dog doesn’t have a shit box in my house that I have to clean constantly. That makes up for the 3 months it’s a little cold out.
Is scooping poo out of a box daily really any worse than bagging it up on a walk daily?
I’d say the weather is a factor
they have the genuine automatic litterbox that arent death traps, i see people hating scooping up poo use those.
Bagging it up on a walk is decidedly worse than scooping it out of a litter box if the dog happens to have diarrhea. At least the litter clumps up, making cleanup much easier…
Good luck training a dog to use the box consistently though.
Having it in the house constantly coating everything (usually clean laundry) with a dusting of poo is definitely worse.
Fenced yard with a small dog, so I don’t have to pick it up on the daily, only if he poops on a walk.
Especially with big dogs where you’re picking up fresh, steaming, human-sized turds with nothing but a few microns of plastic between it and your hand.
For big dogs, I wear boots and kick the dookie into a fine mist against my neighbors houses as a disposal method. I have warrants in 3 states.
Clearly you don’t live as far north as I do. :P
Nah, it gets plenty cold here, I’m mostly just playing around with the classic dog people vs cat people war.
I’m fortunate to have a fenced yard and a dog that absolutely does not fuck with the cold. He’s out, does his duty, then back in within like 2 minutes.
Well, for reference, the city I currently live in has a -19C/-3F minimum average temperature.
I generally prefer cats over dogs for other reasons, though.
Why don’t we just train dogs to use a litter box? 🤔
Or a toilet? One of my previous cats used the toilet all on her own. If she could figure it out without help, surely training a dog should be easy enough.
- I don’t train my dog to use a litter box because I don’t want to clean out a shit box.
- You probably could train one to use the toilet, but you’d probably need to make some modifications to make it possible. I don’t see most breeds of dogs being able to balance themselves quite well enough for things to work 😅
That’s a thing and people.do, especially apartment dwellers. Dogs learn it quick too.
It’s just no one would have an animal shit in a box in the house unless they absolutely had to.
Oh…
I trained my dog on a litter box. She only pees in it. I’m very glad I did.
However, I’m fortunate enough to have a basement I could put it in where it’s out of sight.
Are you saying you don’t clean up after your dog? Otherwise, you’re cleaning up shit daily. Litter boxes are not typically cleaned daily(constantly) and they make auto litter boxes that clean themselves.
Litter boxes are not typically cleaned daily
Your house smells like cat shit, you are simply nose blind to it. Please clean up after your cat shits.
None of that makes what I said untrue. I don’t even have cats, lol.
Then let me tell you as a cat owner, that you should clean litter boxes (at least) once per day 😅
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Small dog in a fenced yard, picking up after him is a non issue. His business breaks down in a matter of a couple of weeks and there’s never enough to become a problem. If he goes while on a walk, i pick it up.
It’s just your specific case. If you have an outdoor cat you also don’t have to maintain a cat toilet.
I don’t think it’s good to have outdoor cats. They’re very destructive to small animals (songbirds included) in the area.
No, I’m representative of all dog owners. If a cat is left outside, it is technically a form of mountain lion, which does not count.
Dogs rool, cats drool.
No, they just come and shit in my yard instead.
The neighbours cats have made it their goal to shit in our vegetable garden and buying the little turd there. I dislike them as much as people that dont pick up after their dogs.
What do you mean “no”? Your cat-owning neighbors don’t maintain a cat toilet, do they? Just as a said, so “yes”.
No, as in they dont have to maintain their outdoor cat.
I get to do that instead. Oh joy for me.
Squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits must also piss you off. Also bears.
His business breaks down in a matter of a couple of weeks and there’s never enough to become a problem.
Your yard and shoes smell like dog shit, you’re simply nose blind to it. Please clean up after your dog shits.
Have we met? You have absolutely no basis to make that claim. My yard and shoes smell fine, my sense of smell is fantastic. Why don’t you worry about your own yard rather than making assumptions about mine?
I don’t have a yard. Now who’s making assumptions, hmmm?
What are you smoking? You need to clean litter boxes daily.
And your claim is that most everyone does?
I wish my cats would nap with me like that, but it’s my fault for not getting them used to it when they were kittens. They’ll stay put for a minute under my arm and then dart off the bed.
Mine sleeps with me but will randomly start clawing at my neck while purring in the middle of night.
I think she thinks that’s “petting.”
That’s kneading. Kittens will knead at their mother’s stomach while nursing, and adult cats usually continue the behavior to a lesser or greater degree. Some do it subtly and gently, and others are made of knives.
I was surprised my cats weren’t sitting on my lap, so when they were close to two years old I started holding them captive for very short periods while petting them how they like, and now I can’t keep them off me. It seemed like the only reason they weren’t sitting on humans before is that they didn’t think it was safe.
Aww, yeah, cats are like that. It speaks volumes of people who can earn their complete trust.
That’s not my case here, as we treat them with utmost respect. I actually have all of them on my bed right now, but they just don’t tolerate being cuddled that close. One of them does like kneading and sleeping on us, but It has to be on his terms or he doesn’t want it.
Yeah, that’s what I figured they were like and why I was content to let them be if they didn’t want to sit on me. We just kept having these moments where they clearly wanted to snuggle, but seemed to be afraid I would crumble beneath them and shatter their tiny paws to dust. We’re getting to a point now where I can even adjust my position underneath them, but only sometimes.
I think its part personality too.
this cat clearly wants to escape in the picture
