Tell us your stories about choosing a pet for a chance to win a £100 voucher for a pet shop of your choice

[TinaMumsnet]

Should we get a pet? What pet should we get?! Is your family desperate for a pet? Or do you already have one?

Choosing a pet can be exciting, impossible, heart-warming and heart-breaking – sometimes all at once!

We'd love to hear your stories about choosing a pet so share them with us (with photos if you can) for a chance to win a copy of What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss plus a £100 voucher from a pet shop of your choice.

It's the literary equivalent of buried treasure: a brand new, never-before-seen rhyming romp of a picture book from the legendary Dr.Seuss! It's the story of a classic childhood moment: a brother and sister visiting a pet shop to pick a pet, but neither being able to decide which one to go for. Every pet looks like fun, so how in the world do you just pick one?!


'There are moments of genius on every page' - The Telegraph

This discussion is sponsored by Harper Collins Children's Books and will close on 14 March.

[jt75]

My rescue dog was cowering at the back of a pen. She gradually inched towards me and let me stroke her.

[suzyq50]

I picked our dog from a litter of 7. He was the only boy, was the youngest & all the other pups kept biting his ears. All very endearing to me so I picked him.

[missserendipity]

When we lost our dog to old age the house felt so empty. When we felt enough time had past we started to look around. I knew another puppy to grow with the children would be right for us. We went to view some puppy spoodles ( springer x poodle) and I fell for a lovely cutie who fell asleep on my lap and thought this is the one.... with that in bounced a ball of fluff who immediately pounced on my 5 year old twin boys, full of confidence and mischief ...... 4 years and many shoes later he still is a fluffy, confident and mischievous boy and we wouldn't have it any other way :)

[AnnaGrant]

We rescued some guinea pigs that were up for adoption at Pets at Home. They were brothers and one had had an infection, and by the time it was cleared, they were too 'old' for the shop floor. Our kids are madly in love with them, and got to name one each. Which is why we have a 'Carrot' and a 'Steve Rodgers' lol

[emms88]

I didn't get to choose my pet, the girls at work got it into their heads that I'd like a chicken and when my birthday rolled around, suprise...3 chickens!

[liamell]

I chose our boxer puppy whilst the children were at school...then when they returned, our little bundle of joy was curled up on a cushion on the sofa.

Squeals and squeals of delight

[silviam]

I've never chosen a cat, cats normally choose me!

[janeyf1]

It feels like pets always chose us rather than the other way round. We didn't actively look for or choose pets but opportunities tended to present themselves along the way - eg friends and acquaintances having too large a litter of new born kittens needing help. We have always been delighted with our new family members and since been given kittens, we have loved cats ever since.

[lizd31]

I believe that the pet should choose you. I've had 13 cats since 1987, most of them strays & 2 of them adopted from cats protection. When I lost my blind cat Treacle to cancer I went along to the cats protection to adopt another cat. I went with the intention of adopting an older cat which had possibly been in the shelter longest & had less chance of being adopted but when I arrived they said that they wanted to show me a 12 week old black kitten, Charlie, whose owner had thrown him out of the window with his partners belongings when they split up. I had always carried Treacle around with me on my left shoulder, he was also a black cat so when I was introduced to Charlie & he immediately jumped on my left shoulder & started licking my face I knew he was the one for me. He is now 13 years old & still fit & well.

[cazzzie987]

My Mum's cat had 7 babies, usually My Mum would sell them but one had a bad hernia so we ended up having her.

[tabbaz123]

We recently had to help my parents to choose a dog as their old faithful sadly passed away. This was more challenging than we thought and trips to dogs sanctuary proved to be a nightmare. My parents saw a dog on line that they fell in love with so we went to the charity only to be told that the website was months out of date. THEN in a local shop window was a picture of Tom - a 'war dog' from Bosnia that was living on a rubbish site in a cage - It took a fair bit of paperwork and charitable donations but they got Tom into the country. We spent a lot of time at the vets but now he is doing really well and a lovely lovely dog :)

[grumpymummy3]

We wanted a cat for ages but had to convince the husband. Starting searching on advertising sites and found really cutes ones. We all kept showing him pictures and he eventually gave in. We went to pick from a litter of 4 kittens and managed to agree on the same cute little girl kitten. The boy kitten was the favourite but lost out as he scratched our youngest chid.Our new is a great addition to our family.

[ThemisA]

We wanted a dog and decided it would have to be a rescue one and needed to be calm to suit my son's temperament. We contacted the greyhound trust and based on what we wanted she brought one for us to try for a weekend to see if we suited her and she suited us. It was wonderful and we had the sweetest, calm, affectionate dog you could wish for. She loved my children and helped them so often if they were scared at night or upset after school. We loved her dearly and she was such a happy dog.

[beckyinman]

I told my brother and sister in law I was getting them kittens as a wedding present. They thought I was joking until I turned up with two on their doorstep

[mumsnit]

It was a choice between a cat and a dog for our family pet and cats won!! We got our girl cat from Cats Protection and they are a brilliant organization - would totally recommend anyone who wants to adopt a cat. I had already chosen her from a photo and she was perfect for us. We all love her to bits and 3 years later we couldn't imagine life without her 😻

[flozza42]

We git our elderly cat nine years ago from a rescue centre he had only been there three hours, found wandering in the snow, he choose us came up to us and we were smitten! He is the most friendly loving cat ever and he is a joy we wouldn't be without him. He is a very large cat and so picking a name was very easy for Buster

[Toomanycats99]

We steady had 2 cats and our third chose us! She lived down the road and keep visiting. Despite hand delivering her home every night she kept escaping and coming back. She's now been with us for 18 months. We have just found out she's 16+ not the 13-14 we thought. She also has arthritis and has gone deaf! All she wants in her life now is a comfy sofa / bed to lie on and lots of cuddles!

[bridge16]

We had a stray kitten that used to come round our house every day and i had asked my dad if i could keep her. He laughed and said if you can catch her you can keep her so i put food out every day and eventually i managed to tame her much to my dads disgust! We then had to get her all her injections and nutured etc and she ended up being my treasured pet for about 11 years!!

[Alfieisnoisy]

Loving this thread.

We have always had cats but a few years ago as a young child DS wanted a hamster. At the time he got words mixed up. Instead of saying "I'd really like a hamster" he told me that he was "busting for a hamster"

Needless to say "busting for a hamster" went through the family like wildfire to be used whenever someone really wanted something.

So we got a hamster named Dora the Explorer who used to come racing across the room when you and the Dora the Explora theme tune.
After Dora died we had Bramble for two years.

Now we have three cats so no more Hammys can live here. All our cats are rescues including a Ragdoll cat.

DS helps by cuddling them and interacting with them. He is autistic so our cats are VIPs (Very Important Pusscats).


We also have two turtles named Myrtle the turtle (see what I did there...so original ) and Skooter. Who we rescued as the previous owners were going to dump them in a lake. They were in a really tiny plastic tank. They are now in a proper tank with heat and lighting.

[sweir1]

We chose a goldfish (goldy) only for it later to die. Upon visiting tesco, my little one ran up to the fish counter shouting are these all in heaven like goldy too?!!

[strawberrisc]

My friend at school used to live in a really big house with tiny side cupboards in her attic room. We saved and saved for ages to buy a mouse and a cage and food and bedding and were going to keep it in one of her cupboards. When the day finally came we went to the pet shop only to be told that we couldn't buy a pet without parental consent!

[fletcher992]

we have always had a dog but had a short gap so when it came to time we looked at rescues but nothing looked like it would fit so we looked online at ads and found a lovely dog- we had the choice of a lab pup or an older adult and decided an adult would be better! we arranged for the dog to visit us as I don't travel and out of a van came a lovely dog but in very poor shape. we told the owner to leave her here and go and 4yrs later she's still here snoring away on our bed and loves lots of snuggles and fuss- we go out for walks everyday and the little ones help with feeding her and play with her. we were lucky she turned out good as we had to do lots of training with her and vet visits

[Nix143]

On my way to look at a pug puppy I was insistent that I wouldn't have one with their eyes on wrong - you know, boogly or pointing in the wrong direction. So I'm on my knees surrounded by puppies and this one came running at me, scaled up my sweatshirt and started licking my face. She was so full of POW! that it didn't matter that she wasn't the most perfect dog there. 6 years on boogly eyed Gertie is still my absolute heart dog, I can't describe how much I love her :)

[andywedge]

My cat chose us rather than we chose her. She turned up one day, about 10 weeks old, all hungry and dirty. And she's never left since.

[glennamy]

We visited a farm in devon and had lots of farm animals, spiders, snakes, rats & rabbits etc and she wanted everything that was manageable. Spiders/snakes were out :) so we eventually got what she wanted the most, some fancy rats, which are very clean, gentle and attentive creatures. Her face when she received them was unforgettable and she took on the responsibility of care which was a great life learning skill. :)