Good days and bad days, why your pet doesn`t care...

When the day is long, and the dog has been sick on the kids, and someone left the hamster cage open, just keep smiling!

Pop quiz, do you know the best thing about having pets and kids in the same house, at the same time? Answer: nothing, there is no good thing, not one reason why you should put yourself through this madness day after day, and yet millions of you do. Why? are you a narcissist?

The answer to that is probably yes, and also probably not. But once you have succumbed to the pleading of the kids to go out and buy that first doggie, when you finally crack, there's no going back. Because a family pet, like your kids, is for life. And there's nothing you can do about it.

It's not my pet, it's yours. And as such you will feed it and pet it and walk it and love it. I repeat. this is not my pet.

And that lasted a week, and now it is January, and it's raining and cold and damn slippy out there, and you are barely holding the lead in your cold, so cold, hands, muttering obscenities under your breath "Just go! curse you! Just go, and then we can go home where it`s warm!". While the kids are under a blanket watching Disney Plus, where you should be, but aren`t. Because all of a sudden you're a dog owner. And then it sinks in, it's not the kids' dog, it`s yours. And as such, you will feed it and walk it and love it. I repeat, this IS my pet. You will even get resentful when he plays with the kids or snuggles up next to your spouse on the sofa... Hang on, I walked you today, and fed you, where is the justice here?

Take your hands off my dog! He loves me, not you!

Before you know it, you`re booking holidays around your dogs` social life, and you don't even mind it, he`s your best friend, your amigo, he`s a "good dog", and you`re hooked for life.

You even start carrying him across muddy puddles for crying out loud, not for his sake, of course, the carpets... I`m just thinking of the carpets...

You know he wants to eat the hamster, he sits staring at their cages, waiting for the slightest error from the kids. And while as far as the rest of the family know, you would hate to see this happen, secretly you pat him on the head, and whisper "Soon lad, soon, go get em!" Because in his heart of hearts, you know he thinks he is a wolf. albeit a wolf in a waterproof coat with a fur lining that you got at Pets At Home. After all, even wolves feel the chill.

You feel like a hunter-gatherer; man, and beast in perfect harmony as you hunt through the fields and forests of darkest Yorkshire, bringing home meat for the tribe. In reality, even boning a chicken makes you gag like a child eating sprouts, and spiders in the house have you fleeing for your life, Lose the tin opener and you know you`ve got about three days before you starve, and that goes for your wolf too.

That dog is up to summat...

But, at the end of the day, even if the dog has been sick on the kids because it ate the hamster, you lost a client at work because you called them an idiot, your significant other isn't talking to you because your dog ate the hamster and she had to clean it up, at least you can get away from it all and take the dog for a walk. And he can`t wait, because he`s your best mate, and as such you will feed it and pet it and walk it and love it. And you do, because that is your pet.