CONS of having a pet
 

The purpose of this thread is to educate people thinking of getting a pet about the down falls of having pets. Us pet lovers all love our pets, but there are times when it is difficult too, often people thinking about getting pets don't know about this side and just see pets as an impulse buy and being "cute". I encourage all of you to post true stories about difficult situations (cost, loss, sickness, etc.) you have had with your pet in hopes to educate EVERYONE before they make a decision that may not be the best one for them.

add to this...your pet must be fed and watered at least once a day and arrangements made for a cat box or a walk. you can't leave town without making sure this is handled.

I have 2 cats. My male cat was spiteful against an ex-boyfriend. Call it intuition, but every time this guy came over, he used to spray or throw up. I couldn't have the guy come over (my cat was right, he was a bad guy) because I was afraid he would destroy my apartment.

If you don't clean the litterbox your house will SMELL.

Cats=hair EVERYWHERE.

I am anal and vacuum daily and dust several times per week cuz of this. Bed linens often have to be changed several times per week cuz of this too. (Can be a pain in the butt especially if you have to carry a heavy comforter to the laundromat regularly).

Winney, brush your cats... Also, if they're long haired, take them to a groomer and get them summer cuts (have 'em shaved). They really like it actually.

And yes, cat boxes are a pain. We have 2 cats and the boxes must be tended to daily -- sometimes more than once a day.

Yeah, I do. I just get really anal sometimes LOL. I think it's cuz I life in a small apartment and the hair is noticeable to me.

I miss having a dog but not enough to actually get one. I'm never home in the first place nor do I have enough time in the morning to get up & take a dog out. Sometimes I work more than 8 hours & wouldn't be able to come home at a decent hour to take a dog for a walk!

As for cats-their hair gets everywhere & I'm allergic to them.

Another con is that if you live in an apt. complex you may have to pay a deposit & then a monthly maintenance fee to have a pet!

To me, it just isn't worth it!

A big con for having a pet is figuring out what to do with them if you go on an extended vacation.

I'm trying to fly my boyfriend into Orlando next month but we're still figuring out what to do with his dog. It's stressful because his dog gets really upset when we put it in a kennel. He doesn't eat and whimpers the whole time because he fears we've abandoned him. We brought him to a kennel at our vet's office one time and when we went to pick him up, the vet assistant came out to us and said, "Errr...can you guys go back there and get him out of the cage? I don't think he likes me, he keeps growling at me." Our dog had never done that to us before so we're guessing he was just scared. Of course, when we went back there to get him, he got all excited and started licking us. :) We thought about putting the dog on the plane but I feel like it's almost abuse to stick them in a cargo carrier like that even if you give them a sedative. My boyfriend could ask a friend to watch the dog while he's gone but he feels like he'd be inconveniencing his friend.

It can be a real hassle but, in the end, it's worth it. I love my boyfriend's dog and I wouldn't give him up just because of the little bit of stress he causes when planning a vacation. :)

Con: Change stresses out your pet, and could lead to unacceptable behaviour (like peeing on your brand new couch grrr). Behaviour modifcation is especially hard in cats.

It's a lot harder to find a rental if you have an animal (especially a dog)

You can't just pick up and leave for the weekend because you need to find a kennel or petsitter.

Vet bills. If you're going to own a pet, you must be responsible enough to be willing to shell out money to the vet when they're ill or even just need things like vaccines. Within the past 5 years, we've spent a staggering amount of money on vet services (2 torn ACLs on our terrier mix, 5 operations to remover bladder stones from our Schnauzer, various x-rays, special dogfood...)

Have you ever seen the ad in magazines that has a cute little puppy on it & the heading says "He doesn't know that you can't afford medicine" or something like that? It breaks my heart everytime I see it. I know that I can't afford to shell out a ton of money on a pet-even just for shots. I'd love to have one but will have to have a little more stability (physically & financially) before I can do so.

I'm figuring out the cons now with my new kitten. We've had her for about a week now, and while she's cute during the day, she's a pain at night. She's gets a second wind or something and goes CRAZY at night. She runs around and goes into "attack kitty" mode where she's trying to catch everything, like shadows by my face or something and ends up clawing me with her needle like claws. So she ends up waking me up. Like right now. Last night I couldn't fall asleep till like 4 a.m. and am now awake at 7:00 a.m. because she kept running around and being "attack kitty".

She also tried to naw at very expensive/important computer wires.

She's a cutie when she's calmed down, but geez, I've woken up early or in the middle of the night about 3 or 4 times now.

Um...it SHITS!

On the floor, on your funiture, on the walls, etc.

Not only my bird suffers from severe fecal incontinience, he won't shut the hell up! There are times that he squaks 3 or 4 in the morning.

I'm giving it a away to one of my kid cousins. I have no more patience for this birdy. :(

It can bite your face and make you look gnarly.

-Rudey

Really, poo is the worst of it. Cats also like to throw up, but only on carpeting or the bed. It also weirds me out a little bit to think that every flat surface in my place has had a cat butt on it at some point.

Hah hah. Dogs, too. My boyfriend's dog will be in the kitchen and will start getting sick. Instead of staying in the kitchen where we can throw up on an easy-to-clean tile floor, he runs into the carpeted living room and throws up. I feel like he does this to spite us.

I try to wear my kitten out (6 month old) before going to bed. Just get a toy with a string on it and make him chase it until he's tired of it (ever made a cat pant?).

They do get a second wind in the morning and he'll be chasing our older cat (2 yr old) around the apartment starting around 5:30AM which is close to when we get up anyhow.

They also love the berber carpet that we have. Their claws stick to it so they can turn on a dime at full speed.

norcalchick: I'd also suggest a laser pointer. Just be careful, but your kitten will run into walls at full speed if you let it!

Oh, and trim your kittens nails. Trimming nails takes practice and you don't want to hurt your kitten, so until you have a firm understanding where the kitten's quick is - just trim them when they are sharp, and just take off the tip. That way the kitten gets used having their nails cut! Oh, and you'll want to ensure you have a scratching post because nothing makes my cat want to scratch like dulled nails.

Hmm... but call your vet about cutting nails. I don't see an issue cutting a kitten's nails before a certain age - but I can't remember when we starts - and better safe than sorry!


eta: Ontopic - another con is that animasl learn. Like that if they miao at both owners at separately they might get fed twice! Or that a door stop makes a really cool sound when they play with it!

if you get a day off work, your pet doesn't know and will assume you're late and you'll get a claw in your hand as a wake-up call at 5:45AM.

If you have a roommate who's an idiot, they'll train their dog badly and then YOU have to put up with it.

I think I need to take my roommate to obedience school.

I had a roommate (this lasted all of 3 months, moved out in month #3 when the following happened) who got a dog then would go away for the weekend, or LONGER and leave the dog to crap all over the house. When she did this for the very first time I was half asleep and stepped into the shower narrowly missing a pile of $hi#.

I have a guy friend with a dog who used to live with his "best friend" (who didn't have pets). They no longer speak cuz he came home from work one day early and his former friend was beating the crap out of the dog.

I guess my point is that not everyone LIKES dogs and it is hard when dealing with a roommate situation.

Good point!

Also, be sure the roommate is trained (at least domestically... like not leaving gross stuff all over all the time) before bringing any type of pet into the picture :p

How can anyone beat up a dog? That's some sick s***.

The dog still has to go for a walk before you go out, no matter how late you're running. Otherwise you'll find lots of surprises in your house when you come back.

You may not be staying out as late as you like, particularly if you live with others and you have a dog who likes to bark his head off when you come home.

Ditto on the "not going away for a weekend spontaneously" and "getting up every day at 5:45". I with the dog could understand that weekends are different and she doesn't get to eat at 5:45 am on weekends.

Add to it: Finding creative ways to chain every possible escape hatch in a fence when you have a very creative and smart dog who can squeeze her 90 pound body out of a 12"(Long) x 6" (side) gap in a fence.

Can't go somewhere right after work, even if it's inconvenient to go home first. You always have to go home first to feed and water the dog.

The expense.

Dee

Yeah, I get up early every day now including weekends. I have the option of making my schedule whenever I want but choose to work starting early in the day since my dog gets up early. I also limit my amount of alcoholic beverage intake because who wants to walk a dog if you are feeling your drinks? Add who wants to wake to a barking dog hung over?!

The second thing happened to me yesterday. I knew I had to take a client of mine somewhere at 3:45 and I would be there at least until 7PM. I had left my house around 8:30 that morning so had to drive all the way home out of my way around lunch time to walk the dog, then back to where I was to pick up the client cuz I knew I couldn't leave the dog home alone that long.

I know there is going to come a time given the nature of my field that I am involved in a crisis situation and won't be able to leave to go home to walk the dog. I don't really have anyone dependable to rely on for this, my boyfriend could do it, but it takes him over an hour to get to my house (or more if there's traffic) and I really don't want to hire a dog walker cuz I do this myself for the most part. Plus it is difficult to find trusting people........

Sounds like you just need to start feeding your dog more often. Lots of fat = no more squeezing through tight holes.

Oh, I love dogs. I just can't stand how my roommate is training him, because he's setting the dog up to misbehave and be a general little turd the rest of his life.

Let's see.............
 

Foreign object in stomach which caused excessive vomiting, vet didn't know what it was after the two hot water flushes, x-rays, and the sedative he gave my cat twice in order to perform all of this. One day visit = $448.

I caught myself switching from clumping liter to pine litter because my cat was tracking it everywhere. You name it, it was there. I was vacuuming everyday. Well my cat decided to tell me she didn't like it by peeing elsewhere. Thank goodness she never went on the furniture. I didn't know she didn't like the pine litter because she would still use it. After a vacation during which my coworker took my cat in, we found out she liked the clumping litter. 14 bottles of cat enzyme, "no go", and repellant over $200. One steam clean carpet service $80. One chem-dry carpet cleaning service $189. Thank God the new carpet for my apartment was free considering it was already on it's way to being a hot mess and I was able to downplay the whole "pee-pee" cat situation.

Other cons: My cat likes to eat cotton balls, chew on electrical wires, and eat paper. She also likes to take her food out of the bowl, eat it off the floor and leave crumbs everywhere. I have hair all over my apartment. I have a rotation of about 10 lint rollers from my house to my car and my office. Even though she has about 4 scratching posts, she loves my bedposts and my couches. Sleep, what is that again? I haven't had it since I got my cat last year. She likes to jump on the blinds at night and wake me up about an hour before my alarm goes off for affection. She's SO lucky she's too cute.

It's kind of gross, but my german shorthair pointer has a urinary tract infection. So the con is that if you get a kiss from her, its probably pretty gross.....

i've got her drinking a lot of cranberry juice

You have to consider your cat or dog when you place anything in your home. I got rid of a couple plants to prevent poisoning if she ate them. You can't just set your plate down on the coffee table or dining room table because (cats in particular) she will get it. I had to revamp some of my knick knacks and I have to be careful about candles or incense. When I need to mop I have to lock the kitty up until the floor is dry (which she HATES) because I'm afraid she'll get chemicals on her paws and then lick them. It's like having a child or a roommate: you have to consider them with everything you do.

I have had birds, and my bf has one now. The African Grey can speak and picks up the weirdest things to say. He screams my name, shut up, hello, apple, and now hola. Also he perfectly imitates the ring of the telephone which made me jump up and answer the phone at first. African Greys are smart, verbal, sneaky, fun, messy, dependent, beautiful, loud, and can bite hard. You need to feed and give them water daily. You need to clean the cage often of it will smell and attract flies. Birds need a big enough place to stretch their wings.

If you plan to get a bird, read books and talk to owners about how to take care of them. I have learned so much from reading books. Birds are fun, but they are work.

HAHA, allsmiles_22's post made me remember a story about my boyfriend's dog.

One day, their 9-year old retriever/German Shepard mix couldn't walk or function. My boyfriend went in the bathroom where his mom put her because she couldn't come in the house because Patty (the dog) hated the 15-year-old Pomeranian and tried to eat him every time she saw him. My boyfriend came in the bathroom, found her half paralyzed, and saw blood on the floor. They freaked out thinking it was something like doggie meningitis and rushed her to the vet. $200 worth of blood tests later...

She was in heat.

LOL.. she did start doing it after the vet made me put her on a diet! She used to be 112 pounds and she's down to 89 or 90 pounds now! Dang vet!

Dee

Dogs make the bf hunt harder. The last one had to go b/c he was able to accept my first dog, but not my new puppy (which I got after we had been together over 2 yrs). Came down to the cute new puppy or the bf. I picked the puppy, and have not had to suffer with a cover-hog ever since.

Still, I have to do the "dog test" on any prospects.

A cat will watch you hooking up and will like it.

If you can deal with that, go for it.

I want to adopt greyhounds but I'm never home. I'm hoping if I get 2 they can be friends. But I need a bigger place if I get two.

-Rudey

I was thinking about getting a greyhound before I decided on the pug. They make great apartment dogs. I actually had a chance to adopt two Italian Greyhounds from someone who had to give them up due to relocation, but at the time, I was still working and in school so I wouldn't have had the time. I heard that it is good to have two of this breed of dog and they sleep A LOT so if you are not home during the day, they should be okay. The person who I was considering adopting them from said they slept the majority of time he was away AND at home.

My poor male cat has a bladder infection. I realized this when he peed on my futon. At first I thought this was a behavior problem related to my puppy but I've had the dog for 6 months and nothing like this has ever happened before. When he peed twice in 5 minutes tonight I realized it was beyond a behavior problem. Thankfully the vet stayed open late for me to bring him in tonight. Cost me $77.00 for the visit and over an hour sitting in traffic then trying to find a spot trying to get to the vet though........

Waking you up at all hours of the night. My kitten goes into her psycho modes and starts running on the bed, in and out of the room, jumping on and off the bed, all at lightning speed. She'll also wake me up by licking or sniffing my face and it freaks me out.

Housebreaking a dog is definitely frusterating I'm coming to learn...but my puppy is so so so cute that it's all worth it.

His cuteness makes it really hard to discipline him though b/c as soon as he starts whining and giving me the puppy eyes I give in and I know I shouldn't!!!