Do you regret your pets?

[LittleLottieChaos]

I know there are regular threads on people regretting their children… but I’m interested to know, are people similarly regretful of their pets? I currently am looking after my old childhood cat - he’s an old gent now, poos/wees inside and randomly vomits after eating. He also has to be securely locked downstairs at night or he’ll come up and wake us all for food/drool on our heads.

After spending years thinking ‘yay I want a dog and a cat, in fact a whole menagerie’ now I’m thinking ‘no, I’ll just have my kids…’

YABU - I never tire of my animals

YANBU - I sort of regret them at times

I don’t regret getting my dog but like lots of pp I often think how much easier life will be without him. He is and always will be very well looked after but he has long term health issues so he’s very expensive and the hair drives me mad. I find him very tying and often wish we could do something more spontaneous. We don’t have any friends/relatives to look after him beyond feeding/letting him out so everything has to be organised well in advance or he comes with us. He also barks at pretty much everything that moves outside and has damaged furniture, the windowsill, window and floors. I do love him and he is adored by my dd but my feelings towards him really changed when I had children. I just don’t have the mental and emotional space to look after something else as well as 2 small children. I don’t ever want another pet but sadly I think this will lead to arguments in the future as DH grew up with pets (I never had any) and can’t imagine living without one. I’ve got him to agree to a few dog-free years once ours is no longer here and I’m hoping that will convince him that life is easier without one!

My dog is 5, he has a really sensitive tummy so regularly pukes and shits in the house. I get up some mornings and want to cry. Takes me hours to clean it up, wash dog beds, blankets, the dog, the bath after his bath etc. Our circumstances have changed in that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in Jan thus year and walking him is really a chore some days. I do love him but it is really hard having him some days. I won't have another pet after this one

I feel sorry for pet cats and dogs whose owners appear not to realise the truth of the saying,"better a week too early than a day too late". Animal euthanasia is almost always painless and immediate for the animal concerned. I have had animals (horses, ponies, dogs and cats) all my life. I have been present with them at the ends of their lives. They were all unconscious within a minute and died calmly immediately or very shortly afterwards. Please don't be so cruel as to allow them to live in pain and confusion. If you're unable to afford the process, please take them to the PDSA, who will support the animals' needs without requiring the owner to pay more than they can afford. Please allow your pet animals a dignified and painless death.

@tentosix

I never wanted dogs, but DH and kids did so guess who ended up looking after them and cleaning the mess they made? I remember them with fondness though and loved the cuddly spaniel we had, but foot is firmly down and we are having no more dogs.

Same here.

I think dogs are sweet, loyal, loving animals, (the ones who are trained/looked after properly, and aren't left home all day barking and being a PITA to neighbours, and allowed to run around off their lead.)

However, IMO they are a tie, and hard work. Need walking every day, make noise and mess (much more than cats.) And they can't be left for more than a few hours. Huge commitment IMO. Not one I could be bothered with. They also incur much higher vet bills than cats. (Or any other household pets.)

Also, as a few posters have said, you can't just go off and do things, unless you know the dog can go too. You can with a cat. They can be left overnight and even for a few days at a push. We have a catflap (as many people do,) and ours can get in and out whenever they want, and we have a couple of neighbours who will feed them 2-3 times a day, if we go away for 2 or 3 days...

They sleep half the day anyway, and although they need love and affection, they aren't as needy as dogs, and are happy to be left for 2 or 3 days. The catflap allows them access in and out of the house, and as I said, our neighbour feeds them while we're away.

My family always had a dog. My mother was at home all the time though when I was a child/teenager, so doggo always had company, and my dad loved walking the dog. We had a big garden too (half acre,) so there was lots of space for doggo to run around anyway.

But yeah, I wouldn't have the patience for a dog now. I couldn't give a dog the love and attention it would deserve.

Nope. My big rescue cat sheds bloody great chunks of black fluff all over my carpet every single day but she gives the best nose kisses and is wonderfully disdainful.

I adore my kids, they are the light of my life but my pets offer much better cost/time benefit payoff 😂 I wouldn’t be without any of them

Not for a minute, always happy to see you, greets me at the door after work like I’ve been away for a week! My dh did express some regret after 2 years but was told if it was the dog or him that the dog was staying.!! He’s nearly 5 and been so good for my health, I’ve lost over 2 stone with long walks and even on rainy days he gives me a reason to not have a pj day!

We had a dog (a boxer) that the ex got. I didn’t want one as we lived in a city in a small house with just a yard. Plus we both worked. The ex never walked the dog or picked up her poo. muggins ended up looking after her. She was lovely but hardly trainable and I was too tired to want to walk her after a days work and looking after the kids. So always swore I’d never have another. Too many people get animals that are not then looked after properly IMO. They’ll even swear they love the animal! But really would you lock up someone you love and make them spend all day on their own and not exercise them properly?

We lost our dog some months ago after 13 years and we so miss her! We will have another one...not a replacement, as she was just so special, but s/he will be a new experience. For better for worse with animals I think, and when we take them on, we have a responsibility to care for them in their older years. We had so much joy from our dog, as did other people, so caring for her when she was poorly was a given.

I bottle fed a 10 day old kitten who was not expected to make it. Had her 18 years. Towards to end when she was getting dementia and incontinence, it was not fun. But I did not regret her. It would be like regretting my mother when she got dementia and needed nursing. My animals are part of the family and you take old age along with everything else.

Yep, I do kind of regret my Ddog. She is with me for life and she is so, so loved. BUT she is an anxious rescue, has to be crated at night as otherwise she wees or poos in the house, won't go with a dog walker which is hugely limiting, don't want to leave her in kennels in case she thinks she is back being re-homed again, she doesn't travel well in a car AT ALL and makes you feel incredibly guilty as she shakes and/or vomits (unless she has taken prescription level anti emetics which are unaffordable for everyday at £10 per tablet), barks continuously if walked in a group- which includes just our family.

She is incredibly loving, very devoted to me in particular, has no prey drive and would never run away and is really gentle with the DC so she has many plus points. But, when we got her using a dog walker and being able to leave her in home boarding to go away (hige issues with her anxiety, her poor car travel, and refusal to eat) mean it just hasn't worked out the way I thought I'd carefully planned for.

Plus, she is a spaniel so is pretty smelly being a bog-magnet, and also won't run with me! She has ruined my running fitness as I don't have time to run and walk her so obviously she gets walked and I don't run.

It hasn't worked out as I hoped for and planned. And probably another decade plus of this to come as she hasn't turned 5 yet!

Ddog returned to live with me full time 2 weeks ago as my ExDP decided that he "no longer had the lifestyle to commit to the dog" prior to this we were sharing DDog 2 weeks each.

I have a physical disability with some days better then others, ddog obviously needs a walk every day and I don't have a fully secure garden I can let him out in, so it's taking some adapting, working from home some days, day care, a local secure field and my amazing family to help me out when needed but I don't regret him at all, he's a rescue and fairly reactive on the lead so working with a behaviourist to try and improve this, if he pulls me over and I end up in hospital I may regret somethings but never that I have him.

Can't image life without him and he makes a good sofa buddy

I don’t regret them, however I wont be getting more cats (I think) and 2 digs max... I want to reduce the number when they die due to the work mainly and malting

He’s old and you’re selfish. Pets are for life.

I regret our dog.we share him. But circumstances (aka Covid) has meant the other family are stuck in NZ for the duration and probably after til NZ let people fly in and out without restriction.
The dog is allergic to everything, a nervous ninny and needs a lot of grooming. I spend more time caring for him than I do my kids. He needs socialising allllll the time otherwise he kind of loses the knack.
We may end up with the dog as our own if the other owner doesn’t come back soon because he won’t know them any more… I wish I’d never said yes to the whole arrangement.
I love him and always miss him when he isn’t there…. I just think I’m not a dog person. I like them but the commitment is just too much unless they came out of my own body…. 😆

We adopted our cat from street. She doesn't use litter, scratches DS when he gets by, occasionLy starts hunting us yet I wouldn't change her for anything.

Do we regret our pet, not for a single second. We love her to bits and she shows so much love back. She senses problems and knows how to react. I have many falls and on 1 occasion was near hypothermia and she kept me warm and kept licking my wrists . Another time I knocked myself out and she was there again and tried at one stage to push me up . Bless her. She is only a small .very clean house trained dog. Dh says he never realised you could love an animal so much. She also knows your every word and brings so much joy beyond belief.

No, we have two Siamese Cats and two Poodles. They cost a fortune in pet care costs when we go away. The cats mean that I get covered in hairs and I hate that. The dogs cost a fortune in professional grooming. All that said, neither DH or I would be without them. They are endlessly entertaining and loving and an integral part if our lives.

My cat is a total pest, badly behaved and never gives me a minutes peace to even go to the toilet but I don't regret getting her at all. I live on my own and coming home to her waiting at the door for me brightens my day. As soon as I come in the door she meows to be picked up and she purrs so loudly. She also loves to snuggle when she wakes up in the morning and I love weekend mornings when I can just lie in bed and cuddle her instead of having to rush off to work.

No because they are family members!

Haven't read through but it rang so true to me. I bought guinea pigs for my 14 year old as I felt she was old enough to handle them. She's great with them, however they live, on average, 8 years and she's off to Uni in september - I'm extremely allergic to them. Next we bought our son (14) a budgie - I did loads of research and thought I'd bought from a trusted breeder - however the bird was ill from the start! Copious amounts of money, many hours travelling to and from a specialist vet AND as a family we'd all fallen in love with him - he died - wasn't even a year old! Finally we have a rescue dog. We adore him! But, being rescued at only 5 weeks from a puppy farm he has a number of issues including not being capable of being left for longer than 3 minutes without dissolving into a quivering wreck. Again Dog Behaviourist are not cheap - but whilst I wouldn't call myself an animal lover I passionately believe that if you are responsible for a life (human or other) you have a massive responsibility to take this seriously and do the absolute best you can! The lengths I go to are seen by others are ridiculous, but my dog gets v. stressed, v. easily. Do I resent this??? Yes I bloody do!! Especially as he's my husband's dog and he works abroad 6 weeks out of 8. We have 4 kids but he ALWAYS asks after the dog first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve spent £800 on one dog, £700 on another this month, about to pay a £3.5K bill for investigations/CT scans on the first and don’t care. They’re worth it. The bill for the horse was £700+ this month due to being on boxrest/having strangles. He’s due to be scoped next week to see if snot is still present-£300. Dunno what we’d do if we didn’t have the money.

I don’t regret them, but I do resent that their lives are so short compared to ours.

I did regret the Goldfish we had years ago. Who knew two little fish would require so much faff, and such a big tank?!

I never tire of my pets. I keep tarantulas. I have 31 and they don’t smell, they don’t make a mess, they don’t make any noise…they just need fed and watered. I feed the baby spiderlings a few times a week and offer adults food every week to two weeks so it’s very minimal work. I’d say I spend around an hour a week caring for them I total. They are easier to care for than a house plant! And no vets bills, cause you don’t take arachnids to the vet.

Our cat is my wee chum - I love her so much. I really struggled MH-wise last year, and she made me laugh every day, or sat on my lap when I was crying. Sometimes I walk in to a room and find DP singing to her or telling her how pretty she is, and it breaks my heart.

I hate that she trails hair everywhere she goes, right enough, but I’ll take it.