![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I came home and i so much felt she was out there on her perch on the broken down picnic table. I tell myself, i don't believe in this; yet i know she was there. And, then i put out a tiny offering of food; what has happened to me?
My therapist said that people feel about their pets the way they do their children and, suddenly i owe an apology to all those i've dismissed over the years who couldn't get over their dogs. It's something different when you feel responsible and that is where the connection to raising a child is.
My therapist said that people feel about their pets the way they do their children and, suddenly i owe an apology to all those i've dismissed over the years who couldn't get over their dogs. It's something different when you feel responsible and that is where the connection to raising a child is.
From:
no subject
You're right; obviously i have children and there is a difference. Taking care of a pet follows the same pathways (again) as caring for someone. I can see if you never had children you could feel that way.
When i lost my mother, who i was caring for but in a detached way; it didn't pull the same heartstrings as the cat.
From:
no subject
I've just watched this pets=children thing develop since, what, the early nineties? It started with "pet adoption" and a whole lot of language surrounding that, which I just hugely objected to: I had students who were adopted, and I felt it was really horrible to co-opt the language surrounding adoption and apply it to... cats and dogs. Very destructive. Come 2024 and you can't even have a pet unless you can pay hundreds/thousands of dollars a year in vet bills, or you're "neglecting" them. And it's all "pet parents" and "fur babies," and dogs wearing clothes; it's just nauseating.
If they can't put you in a home when you're old, they're not your kids!
I think it's great that we're maybe more in tune with the reality that animals are deep feeling beings. But there's a bizarre disconnect between animals as members of your family, and all the millions of animals that are brutally slaughtered every year for food, etc. I mean, when I see PETA practically shutting down the Iditarod, I think... really? that's your top issue?
By the time my mother left me, I felt in a strange way that she was both my mother and my little girl. I miss her so much.
From:
no subject
Maybe.
I get your point. Before they came up with adoption and pet shelters, you went down to the dog pound, i don't know if you could even get cats from there. What would you call pet "aquirement"?
My daughter's dog looks mighty cute in a sweater, i'll leave it at that!
PETA is nuts; i'll give you that. But, humanklind is full of these disconnects. Go to the clan rally on Saturday, church on Sunday. Love your family, hate the brown one down the street.
That's so sweet and sad. You were a good daughter and you honored your mother.