Asymmetrical Information

Let me second all of these points. Puppies are not gifts, they are lifestyle choices. Almost as much as a child, ahving a dog is a commitment of time and attention. Even if you get a full-grown, well trained dog, the commitment is still huge. You now have to make arrangements every time you have to travel. You can't just head off for the weekend. You can't go out and party all night and crash somewhere else. You might not be able to go out after work before coming home to let the pooch out. And so on.

And there are many good dogs avaible from shelters and rescue organizations. Even if you want a purebred, there are rescue organizations that specialize in certain breeds--just look on the internet. And the shleters are full of good dogs looking for homes; and trust me, if you adopt a dog, after an day you won't care if it's a mutt or a rare $2000 purebred Irish Deerhound. It will just be your dog.

Having owned a number of puppies over my lifetime, I get a a real chuckle when people claim that they're so much work it's like having a human child in the house.

Let's really think about that for a second.

All of my pooches were housebroken within 3 weeks. All three of my children, however, were still messing their pants at 2 years of age. All of my pooches could feed themselves immediately. But my children had to be hermetically sealed to my wife 6 times a day for months, and then spoon-fed for another year after that. All my dogs were immediately ambulatory and somewhat self-sufficient. Yet my children had to be carried/strolled until 18 months.

Anyway, enough of that sorry attempt at parental humor.

Let me put in a plug for the mighty Whippet. A GREAT dog, particularly for those who like homebody-type pets. Contrary to the viusal impression, Whippets are extremely laid back. Their favorite thing to do is sleep. For example, Sprocket, our brindle and white pocket rocket, well she's affectionately known in the neigborhood as the "40-mph couch potato". Oh...and let's get one thing clear...if you don't like pets on your furniture, immediately rule out the Whippet. By the same token, if you need a good bed-warmer, this is definitely your dog.

Very, VERY good with kids. Very little shedding (their fur is satin soft).

All they need is 5 minutes of joyous, near-sonic running in an open area that doesn't really have to be that big (their ability to corner at top speed is quite entertaining to watch, wipe outs and everything), or a 20 minute brisk walk, and their exercise is done for the day. Then they'll head back to the couch and snooze for a couple-three ours.

You can always get a cat. (I'm ducking)
You don't have to walk cats, neuter and they'll be great. Shedding's not that big a problem. Unless, you know, you need all that love and attention... some people. I'm fairly comforatable with knowing that my cat probably cares more about that old sweater he sleeps on than me. Lifestyle choices. heh.

Podzdorf --

Cats??

I don't wanna have to kiss my pet's a** to get it to pay attention to me.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Let me second, or third, or whatever, the comment about rescue groups. We have two beagles that came from a rescue group. We went through a phone interview and a home visit just to get permission to adopt from them. We also have two children. Nobody questioned us about our ability to take care of them though.

By the way - I don't recommend beagles for apartment dwellers. They are very pack orientated and need people, or preferably, another dog around or they will get bored and find all kinds of ways to cause trouble.

Good points, many of which go double for animals other than just puppies (ask me about parrots sometime, or burmese pythons), but I wanted to comment on the pet store/puppy mill connection.

Not all pet stores carry puppy-mill puppies. And it's true that often it's hard to find out. I worked at a pet store where the puppies came from actual breeders - a "puppy broker" would act as a middleman, locating breeders with available puppies and sending them our way. And I *know* they were well taken care of once they got to the store.

On the other hand, the vet who took care of our store's puppies (he's also the vet for our dog, who we bought from my store), said that he was very impressed with my store - and he didn't know I was an employee when he said this, btw - but that a lot of stores he'd been asked to work with had been rather ... unimpressive. It's a real mixed bag out there.

I would really like to know just how prevalent puppy-mill puppies actually are. We've all heard the horror stories, but sometimes that kind of information sticks around long after the practice it criticizes dies out. I know that the Bronx Zoo, when I saw it last year, had an exhibit on how hundreds of parrots die between capture and sale for every parrot that gets bought from a pet store - complete with sculptures of piles of dead birds - that neglected to mention that pet store parrots are actually all captive-bred. Most pet stores get them in as babies and finish the hand-feeding before they're put on the sales floor. Go to a pet store - every parrot there, down to the lovebirds and sometimes even cockatiels - is hand-raised and usually closed-banded (this kind of band can only go on when the bird is a few days old and thus is near-proof of captive breeding)

(parakeets, which are parrots too, are always captive-bred but very rarely does anyone bother to hand-feed or band them.)

Sorry to go on and on, but I wanted to point out that the horror stories aren't always true. I would still go for a shelter puppy myself, though.

I am of the generation where the very idea of paying for a cat or a dog is ludicrous.

How about a low maintenance pet - one of these?

"Shedding's not that big a problem"

WHAT?!

Then you must have had one of those furless cats or you love vacuuming. Or something. My cat's (RIP Snowy!) been gone for a little over a year now and man...

Her fur is still all over the place. A white cat (but I'm sure you could've figured that out by her name) whose favorite thing was an old black blanket that we had to throw out. IT was covered in her fur -- She marked her territory well.

I love dogs (I like cats too). I like dogs who happen to be pure bred but it just seems soooo FACIST. My own 'best dog in the world" is genetically diverse. SPCA is the way to go.

Greyhounds are good apartment dogs of the large variety. They sleep almost all day, and require only a single, high-speed workout once a day. (They run 'til they get out of breath -- maybe 10 minutes.) If you adopt a retired racer, you don't have to worry about housebreaking, either. The only thing to watch out for is that some of them get lonely (and destructive) if left alone. Go ahead and adopt a pair.

As for that python - my boyfriend recently sent me the same picture to try to talk me *into* getting one. I've agreed to the dwarf variety that's only about half that size. btw, the snake in that picture is named Fluffy :-)

With snakes, shedding isn't a problem at all - it all comes off in one piece, which you can straighten out, check that the eyecaps are present (this is a health issue) and mount on the wall. Now how many furry pets can you say that about?

Hypoallergenic too!

I wanted a snake when I was younger; not even one of those big pythons, just a small one.

My mom (in essense) said, "NO!!! It will bite you and poison you. Besides, snakes are signs of the devil."

Joy. I'll eventually get one; maybe out of spite I'll name it after my mom. Heh.

For the pet lovers amongst you --

I don't know much about animals (had no pets growing up). I've heard about how having a puppy is like having a child . What about kittens? Are they that difficult to maintain?

In response to Doug Turnbull's comments - it is Irish Wolfhound and Scottish Deerhound. There is no Irish Deerhound! That may seem picky to some, but if you're a Deerhounder it's upsetting!

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