How is your pet looked upon in the family unit?

We have a lab that is about 15 mths old and let me tell you he is the biggest baby of them all. It is amazing how he learns and acts like one of my kids. He knows what he is not supposed to do since he is a house dog. He enjoys going out front and will knock you down to get out the door if you let him only to look back with his sad eyes saying he is sorry. We were laughing last night because when I sat down on the floor Chance got up and moved by me and laid down. He always has to be touching one of us so he can sleep it is just weird but we love him to death and don't know what we would do without him.

Our pets are part of the family unit, but we try very hard not to humanize them. We enjoy the fact that they are animals and that we can include them in our lives. However we are the boss and while they are treated well we do not allow difficult behavior from them. Other than waking me up at 3:30AM, refusing to eat certain food,
refusing to bath, refusing to quit scratching on the walls, throwing up on the floor and barking a anyone or anything that comes around. With these few little exceptions we are the BOSS.

My cats sleep on my bed aswell, they are my babies. I personally would never dress my pets, but I do relate to them as I would do to a human that is close to me. I do share food with them, but like you said nothing fried etc. that would make them sick or get diarrea. I love them dearly and I make sure they are happy and healthy.

oh no, too emotional to respond*sob*. Well i have my own pet dog, and my brothers have theirs, but my ones special:P. well, are dogs are family, definitely, but since most of us are very rarely at home, and since in my country dogs are allowed to be anyway. So, when where not at home, our dogs are roaming the neighbourhood. It's pretty safe since they don bite, cept 1, and since most ppl are dead scared of them (even though they have their own dogs, heh, funny). But are dogs just aren't that much close, close yet, but not children......

i have one dog. its a labrador named marita. she is such a sweetheart .. and the 'apple of the eye' for everyone in my family:). shes always there to greet anyone and everyone . she makes the atmosphere in the house very lively. shes naughty also at times .. chewing at bed covers at time when shes angry:). i really adore her.

We have 2 labs, one will be 13 years old this month, the other, is 10 1/2. They are pretty spoiled but not at all like yours. They don't wear pjs or get dressed in the morning. The younger one will steal socks every chance he gets.

They do get some people food, a baby carrot, some popcorn, banana. I hope other things on your list of doggie don'ts include onion and grapes.

They used to sleep in bed with us but for the older one, the bed got too high this year and well at this point, the stairs are getting to be too high. I just spent $500 on medical bills for him and I am going to guess that soon I will be missing him a great deal, his age is catching up to him.

The younger pup, who is actually the old guys son, was given a life expectancy of less than a year when he was born due to a heart defect, so he has been on borrowed time for a long time.

Our kids? MOst definitely.

I own a dog, i name her SaSa. A cute and adorable Golden Retriever. I treat her just like my little sister, when she's still a puppy i always use a spoon to feed her. Kinda like a princess eh? haha...

My family loves having pets and we consider our pets as part of the family. The pets are properly taken cared of and we do not tolerate hurting our pets even if he is a relative or a friend.

I Have Gold Retriver he is 5years old now. I get him when he was 2months, he was small and we call him Lithuanian Name "Cipis" . Every month he growed up alot, he eat alot... First day when he get to our home he was scared, and i was scared too, because i little bit afraid for dogd, but he is very good dog, he never bites to other people, he love me, and i am very glad that i have a pet, love him very much as my brother, dogs always be people best friends. But now he is 5 and he is not so young as he was ... I hope he will live as much as it possible and will make me happines when i be sad.

I have to many pets at home.We all really love all the pets that are seen after in my house.Everyone of us have a feeling of them being one of our family member and we cannot do without them at all.We all really care for them a lot and have ea\qual love for them.