If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?
I love this question today! As someone who is not a mother to human children, my pets get the motherly love and care from me. To really answer this question though, it depends on which pet I’m talking about and what kind of animal they are. I have two dogs and two cats and they all need to understand something different.
I’ll start with Ethan. Quick background—Ethan is a two year old pit bull terrier mix and we have had him just a little over a month. We adopted him from our local animal control shelter. He was found wandering along a busy street. Even the shelter workers knew that he must have belonged to somebody and had probably been dumped. He is currently underweight. After him being with us since just before Christmas, I really want him to understand that we will not dump him like his last family. He will be with us for the rest of his life. He’s a love bug and snuggles with us so fiercely that it almost feels like he’s begging us not to take him back to the pound.
Millie is another two year old pit bull that we rescued from the same shelter about a year and a half ago. I really think she is also part whippet given her shape and her energy level. Pippets are a thing (pit bull and whippet mix) and I’m convinced she is one.
We got Ethan because Millie is such a playful dog and gets so excited around any new person or dog walking by on the street. She really needed a friend to play with. Ethan immediately became that friend for her. Even on day 1. He is a much calmer dog, but he goes along with Millie and not once has complained about her seemingly endless desire to run around and play. I want Millie to understand that Ethan doesn’t want to play all the time. But I think more importantly, I want her to understand that we love her just as much as we love Ethan. She’s not as much a fan of snuggling and I feel like she gets jealous when she sees Ethan doing it.
Then we have the cats. Faye is my 18 year old tuxedo cat who is my kitty soul mate. She has bonded to me intensely. In fact, I wrote about her here:
As she continues to advance in age and as her kidneys continue to worsen, I want her to understand that I love her as much as she loves me. I think she knows this, but with Faye, it’s all about love. And even though we have two dogs and I spend most of the day in the part of the house where the dogs are (cats blocked off by baby gates), I am still a cat person.
Then there’s Nugget. Nugget is both a noun and an adjective. Actually probably a verb too. She has her own Facebook page in fact, because she is Nugget. She was a mascot for my middle school students when I first got her six years ago. We got her when she was less than a pound and had to syringe feed her every couple of hours. We nursed that little gremlin and yet, she has forgotten all of that and grew up to be a cat that hates being touched. That is, unless you’re sitting on the toilet. She sees that as an opportunity to jump on our laps and receive affection. The five-second limit does not apply then. Any other time and five seconds is about all you get before her evil side springs forth and she hisses, growls, swats, and runs off.
I’ve always thought that because she was taken from her litter at such a young age (4 weeks!) she never had a chance to develop proper social skills. Everything is on her terms. With that said, I want her to understand that people don’t want to hurt her. I recently discovered that she has kitty asthma, so more frequent vet trips are about to be necessary. It would be great if I didn’t have to have them completely sedate her to the point of unconsciousness in order to examine her. I don’t know if she’s afraid of people or just has major attitude about being touched. I just want her to cooperate a little more and understand that it’s for her own good.
Being a pet parent is great! I do my best to communicate these things to my furry friends. I hope they’re catching on.
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