Pets and People bad behavior

Growing up on a grain and livestock farm, we always had dogs, cats and tame rabbits as pets. My mom had a horse and my dad had hunting dogs. When I was very young, we had a pet squirrel named Johnny that would steal ice cream cones from us and would eat grapes from our hands. My sister Debbie and I would care for orphaned baby rabbits and squirrels, feeding them from our dolls baby bottles or with an eye dropper. I even had tropical fish for a while when I was in my early teens.

Most of our neighbors had dogs and cats. Once in a while somebody?s dog would show up at our house and either we?d load it in the pick-up truck to take it home, or call the owners and they would come and retrieve their wandering canine. There were also the ?dumped? dogs that would show up from time to time. My mom was always a sucker for these often mange-covered and starving waifs. She would feed them, make a bed of straw or old blankets for them in the barn, and nurse them back to health.

We do not have a dog today, but have a cat named Tennessee Tuxedo who is a special pet. He brought me a mouse when he came to the back door this morning. I told him to ?check to the mouse at the door? when I let him in. He does not stay in the house all the time. He is allowed to stay inside for hours at a time but lets me know when he needs to go outside.

Pets have a special place in our lives, but just because I love my cat does not mean that you have to love my cat.

I was thumbing through a magazine the other day and found an article on ?pet manners.? The article offered advice to the pet owner in a variety of areas: what to do when company comes and they are allergic or afraid of your pet; what to do when someone wants to pet your dog and your dog doesn?t like to be approached by strangers, etc.

It seems to me the pets aren?t so much the ones with bad manners as it is the pet owners that lack etiquette. I?m sure the information in the abovementioned article was important to some readers.

I have some pet etiquette suggestions:

I. It?s never been the coyote hunting dogs that run across my property that show poor judgment. Dogs don?t know the property lines. Their owners should have the courtesy to make a phone call to ask me if it is okay to let their dogs run on my land. Chances are pretty good that I?m going to say yes, but the man with the dogs needs to respect me, my livestock, my fences, and all of my property.

II. Don?t bring your farm dog to my farm and let him run free if he does not know how to behave around livestock. It can cause stress to the cattle and if we happen to be working cattle that day, it can be quite dangerous for all of us.

III. If I invite you to my house for dinner, do not assume that I have invited your house dog to dinner at my house. I realize that you have a special relationship with your pet. I do not.

Source: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/02/07/pets-and-people-bad-behavior/

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