How much do you Value your pet?

They can become for many people(inc myself) like another member of the family. Stands to reason. In many ways the history of modern humans is very closely tied to the history of domestication/pets. First it was dogs. Which was one helluva stretch at the time; "here Ug. What Og? I reckon we should bring one of those huge snarly howly huge fcukers with teeth into the family, they're cuddly. Og, you need fcukin sectioning you do, your missus will never go for it and she's dead bleedin right". But we were quids in, they helped us hunt and protected us at night. That was when we were cavemen. Then we got all poncey and up ourselves and settled down to do a bit of farming. All went well, the dogs looked after the livestock, but rats had a field day with the stored grains. Cue our cats. "here Ug. What Og? I reckon we should bring one of those hissy, snarly scratchy fcukers with teeth into the family, they're cuddly. Og, even after a couple of thousand years you still need fcukin sectioning you do, and your missus still won't go for it and she's dead bleedin right. Naw it was her idea Ug. Damn thing hates me but purrs all over her". and again we were quids in and so were the cats. And that's before we get to horses, camels and elephants(brave bugger who tried that first), even cheetahs.

As a species we seem programmed to bond with our animals and they in turn bond with us and it's healthy for both of us. It has been shown in many studies that petting our furry friends is mentally and physically good for us. And that goes both ways. Our dogs, cats and other furries get the same benefits. Though just one thing, dogs don't like being hugged. It's not in their vocab of affection signals. The majority of dogs will lick their lips when hugged, a sign of discomfort. Many don't like being patted on the head either.

dockleaf wrote: »

Why on earth does my dog climb up my legs any chance she gets until I pick her up? Then if I reach down to her, she uses her legs to push herself against my arms and climbs up to my chest and wriggles into me. She only stops wriggling when I put my arms around her and hold her. Then obviously tries to lick my face off! She's nuts.

oh sure DL they vary. Just like people, but in general they don't like it. It could also be your doggie channeling her inner puppy. Jumping to you to lick your lips for food, the hug is secondary kinda thing? Constriction of the body can be a calming thing for dogs, recalls pups being squished together with other pups. It's apparently how those anti stress dog jackets work. Funny enough I've read that wolves among themselves "hug" each other more than dogs do. It's more a paws and legs thing than full on body hug though.

Ranchu wrote: »

There's loads of good quality dry food for cats. What are you on about?

Aye but they have to throw in more additives to make it work. Put another way, cats are predators and what do predators eat? Cereals? Eh nope. They don't. They eat meat, pretty much the whole animal they hunt and catch. Same for dogs. What is so called "quality" dry food made from? Cereals and the castoffs of human cereal production to boot. Add "nutrients" and "flavour" and "ash" to keep said dogs and cats alive(and colouring to appeal to pet owners), but quality it ain't and nothing like they'd eat in the wild. They're not omnivorous animals like us. When I see roughage being touted as a bonus in dog and cat food I do go Ehhhh.. wut? Don't get me wrong, I'm no raw food fascist. They can have their own daftness, like feeding bones to pups(wolf pups don't eat them, their food is predigested/"cooked" by their parents and older siblings), but they're onto something and quite a few studies have borne this out.