Faith Filled Family Magazine December 2016 | Page 81

Pet Person Or Pet
Parent?
BY CHARLAINE MARTIN
If you take your pet to the veterinarian, you will probably see
on the visit summary that your
pet carries your last name in its
medical file. They speak to you
and your pet as if the pet is one
of your children: your furbaby
with a tail. Of course, the local
pet store has all kinds of wonderful treats and conveniences for
Fido and Fluffy. Who can resist
coming home to a grateful pet
with a precious treat? Not only
that, many cats, dogs, gerbils,
and other pets are given birthday
parties and have a stocking on
the family mantle for their Christmas treats. How about those
family photos? Fuzzy creatures
are often included in them, or
simply of just the animal posted
on Facebook. It is easy to see
how our pets steal the show in
our families.

Pet parenting is an expensive
proposition. According to Canadian Living, dog ownership costs
an average of $1,081, while cat
owners have it a bit easier on the
wallet at $835 per year (Robins,
2016). In the U.S., the pet parenting industry rakes in $1,641
annually per dog and $1,125 per
cat 2015, this includes routine
veterinarian care, surgical visits,
food, food treats, kennel boarding, vitamins, grooming aids or
groomer, and toys (Pet Industry
Market Size & Ownership Statistics, 2016). These figures do not
include the vet bill for major surgery, chemo if it gets cancer, and
Prozac for a pet’s depression
due to separation anxiety. The
pet parenting phenomenon influences many families’ choice to
adopt an animal as a full-fledged
member of the family.

A young professional couple,
Rachel and Brad Kerstetter, decided early in their marriage to
adopt two cats rescued by a nokill animal shelter. Both of them
grew up with pets and loved cats,
making the decision easy. The
two well-mannered felines enjoy
a comfortable home with a lot of
love and attention, but Brad and
Rachel consider themselves pet
owners, not pet parents. As nice
as it might be to have a warm
purring cat to keep them warm on
a cold night, the cats have their
own space for sleeping. Part of
the consideration for sleeping
arrangements is because the
cats would be awake wanting to
play at the time the couple needed to sleep. Rachel says the
other consideration is that their
bedrooms are cat-free zones to
make sleeping safe for guests