Whats the point of pets?

[Mirage]

I was pondering this question today.I grew up with loads of animals,farm & domestic,but on thinking about it,I can't see the point of having pets.I can understand keeping chickens or goats or something,but dogs,cats,guinea pigs?

I asked DH what he thought & asked him to tell me something that you can get from a pet but not from anywhere else.The only thing he could come up with was that eventually you get to bury a pet in the garden!

Is it just us?Do we both lack the pet keeping gene?

Believe it or not. My two dogs are lovely, but then they are females. As a result, twinned with my bloody hard work and patience, they do not:

1. Sniff crotches
2. hump legs
3. poo in public - they go in garden for dh to collect- genius!

ds1 loves them to bits and i wouldnt be without them.

.....they do slobber though...

They sound lovely apart from the slobbers, mind you my friend has a very slobbery St bernard, it doesn't sniff but still manages to slobber as it inocently walks past you .

the only time they slobber is on walks. all the smells seem to get the juices flowing, so to speak, and it's everywhere. all over them, my jeans, the side of the pram (one is protective of babe and likes to look in to check i aint chucked him out in the bushes or something!!)
i laugh when people on walks who dont have dogs stop to pet them and for some reason they always cup their chins..... where the slobber has collected like glue, then sort of grin and shuffle away.....