I see this type of thing a lot. Both things can be true: not wanting a pet; and responsibly caring for a pet once the decision is made for you.
“I know I’ll be the one stuck with caring for it when the next interesting thing comes along.”
“We don’t have the budget right now.”
“I’ve buried dogs before and I don’t want to again.”
Oh hey a surprise puppy. Might as well make the best of it.
I think the last one is the primary reason most of the time, at least with people that end up like this. They know they love hard and they know it won’t last forever.
Dealing with this right now. Dog is super cute. It is still a terrible decision for my family, and that’s not the dog’s fault.
What is the price difference between feeding a dog and feeding a cat?
southsamurai has a great overall explanation. I would add it also depends on the age and any medical conditions of each.
We have a 45 pound dog (age 12) and a 15 pound cat (age 17). The dog is on senior/old man food but is otherwise in good health. The cat has kidney disease so we have to get only specific kinds. Per month the cat’s food is about $5 more than the dog’s, but that’s for a smaller amount.
This was my dad with his cat. He loves his little Roni now and is teaching him tricks.
album cover material, just a boss sitting on his throne
I’ll be honest, it is really hard for me to see this one as wholesome, given I’m part of a household where two people did not want a dog and one did. We got overruled. The dog-wanter promised they would do all the work, and I knew that that promise would be broken. I brought that up several times before the purchase.
Well, the people who didn’t want the dog (including myself) get stuck with all the work. I for one do not like the dog one bit. I hate it. I have a feeling if it seriously injured one of us the dog-wanter would fight to keep it and flat-out ignore any trauma that might have been acquired from that situation (and tbh that already kind of happened). I want it given to a shelter as soon as possible. The other person—I cannot gauge their feelings, sometimes they agree with me but sometimes they call it a nickname as if they love it.
I am glad for all the people who are happy but man, please don’t think because of all these “man who didn’t want dog likes it anyways” posts that you can just bring an animal home that others in the household don’t want and expect it to turn out like the memes.
I don’t like to be the person ruining everyone else’s fun, but I figure this is just one meme, a small bit of ruined fun, compared to the giant dump on my parade that taking care of an animal I don’t like and that I never wanted is. There are lots of responsibilities that can be unexpectedly dumped on me that I will handle with grace. This is not one of those responsibilities. I don’t want anyone else subjected to this because “look at all the anecdotes of people who said they did not want an animal and liked it anyways, there was a whole subreddit for that, surely it’ll turn out the same if I do it!” And if I’m just being stupid and nobody would ever take that as evidence… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
