Well getting more pets isn't the problem, I'm getting two more corn snakes here in the very near future BUT guess who's taking the responsibility of them....ME. That's the whole point. I have no problem with her "claiming" one of our 5 cats as her own since we consider them house pets and not individual ones (we all love on the cats and my husband and I share equally in the care for them). My problem came in with her wanting a pet but being unwilling and unable to provide care for it. She won't feed the cats or clean their litter box but she can still play with them. She doesn't help me when I spend 4 hours a week cleaning out the anole and frog tanks or ewwww yuck...handling the crickets to feed them. She doesn't want to even hold the my snake much less feed it. She wanted the "status" of having a pet much like a teenager wants the coolest cell phone/bike/clothes/ect. without having to be responsible for paying for the inital costs/paying for the upkeep cost/providing the labor and time to support the animal, etc.
I realize more and more that it's a status thing with her and that is something I totally disagree with. It's one thing to have a cool phone or a jacket but when it comes to a living breathing life, it's NOT status, it's about responsibility and she doesn't have what it takes yet. So I'm not going to cave into my husband who keeps telling me "Just get her the turtle, I'm sure you'll take care of it when she gets bored of it". NO I'm not going to enable her to be continually irresponsible and just because it's not wanted anymore someone else will step in and take over HER responsibility.

SO...it's come down to this.. and yes I've told her.

SHe can play with the cats and dog. But none of them are HERS, they are OURS. The lizards/frogs/snakes belong to me period because I am the one that looks after them, loves them, cleans up after them and feeds them. And if she wants to start helping with any of the animals she's more then welcome to, if she starts showing strong interest and innititave on her own about their care and well being we can have the "I want a pet of my own discussion" at that time.

Sorry if I sound so mean, but I've rescued animals since I was old enough to carry one and no one ONCE had to tell me to take care of my animals or beg me to pay attention to them because I loved them and had a very strong desire to learn about them and protect them. That and I'm just having a Monday. Thanks for listening to me rant.

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Chantel a.k.a. sillygirl
"I came, I saw, I adopted"

2.4.0 green anoles
2.2.0 green tree frogs
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Cobalt froglets)
0.0.1 Anerythristic 'B' (Charcoal)corn snake "Popcorn"
2.4 Domestic house cats
1.0 Rottweiler
1.0 Husband (who loves all my critters too)

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