It does not. That's actually exactly what I hate about dogs. I don't like clingy, smelly pets, and they need to keep their tongues off my face. Seriously guys, I don't have a heart of stone. I like rats. Rats are great. Actually, rodents in general are my favorite.
I like rats, too. My friend had one that weighed two pounds. He would get stuck on his back because he was too big to roll over.
Don't let it worry you. I'm not fond of human babies, a confession that meets a similar wall of "how is that possible?" And, like a cat that goes to the one person in the room not trying to pet it, moms seem to feel my discomfort and want to disabuse me of my reticence by offering to let me hold the baby. Now either I have to comply and hold the baby, all the while faking the de rigueur noises and faces indicative of a complete shutdown of the frontal lobes; else, I must find a way to refuse as the little group of other moms with their respective offspring tighten their circle and realize what I am. The first inquisitive velociraptor chortle/click between Brenda and Kathy is my cue to amscray.
Rats are great, actually. I haven't owned one in years though. I simply have too many other pets around my house. But honestly, most my pets take care of themselves other than an occasional pen/tank cleaning. Right now I have five fish tanks ranging between 5 to 60 gallons, four turtles, four cats, a hamster, and a guinea pig. If I leave the house for a day or two, they would all figure out stuff for themselves easy enough. They're all my little friends. What I really miss having is snakes though. I love them. I used to wrap my ball python around my arm and we would watch tv together and enjoy each other's company. I've been looking into finding a Vietnamese Blue Rat Snake. Their uncommonly sold here, but I know a shop that does every couple years. Eventually I'll get a scaly friend.
I'm a cat person. Decades ago a mommy inflicted me with childholding duties. Child got antsy. I stopped myself just short of releasing the infant to drop safely (as a cat would) from chest height to the floor. Seriously, if I hadn't beaten muscle memory the world would have been either short one [REDACTED] Jean [REDACTED] or she would have been celebrating her twenty-oddth year using forearm crutches or a wheelchair to move about the house. Spoiler She's a fetish lingerie model now, a fact that makes me uncomfortable.
Wait, so you have cats and hamsters, and you want to have rats and rat-eating snakes? Do you have a pen out back where you keep wolves and rabbits together? Edit—well, I guess that works out, in case you don't get home to feed them one day.
I had a rat when I was about 10. His name was Stripe. He died in less than a year. I was sad. True story.
Confession #2: I feel negative feelings when people prefer animals to human babies. It's fine if people don't want a kid for whatever reason, but the idea that a dog is cuter than a human baby is anathema to me. Maybe I need to be fair to the fact that human babies actually take real work to raise rather than the demi-independent nature of animals, but babies are infinitely cuter than dogs, and significantly cuter than the rest of the pets. Lol, but you know, whatever.
I think it's safe to say that it can take just as much work for animal as it would a child. A child lives longer than a dog, and you might have to give it a lot of attention for the first while before it learns to do things on its own, but it's no different than an animal. Just different speeds. You can also compare the effort that goes into feeding a dog cheap food and giving them no attention, to the parents that do the bare minimum for their child as well (which is unfortunate for either side). If I had an animal, I'd be there to pay for all medical expenses and treat it like a part of the family. I think babies are ugly (especially in the wrinkly/pruned newborn stage) and just seeing them is enough to give me anxiety. I think I legit have a phobia though, between that and the idea of pregnancy as a whole. Once they've reached the age where they can walk and talk though, it's fine-ish. I couldn't hold my younger brother when he was a baby. Just hearing him cry made me wanna curl up into a ball and start crying myself. But he's 9 now and he's awesome.
It's just one of those things. Sometimes people are better with babies, and with older kids. And um, a kid is no different than an animal? A sentient being who will live and grow and get a job and learn and create art is no different from a dog who will drool for twenty years? As if. A pet must be trained, sure, but it's not our species, and we are not responsible for making pets into the next generation. Not to mention that babies mature at a slower rate and will be a part of your life for the rest of it (assuming nothing goes wrong). They will even potentially take care of you when you are retired, while there is no chance a pet will be able to do this. The idea that these are the same is patently absurd. To be honest, the idea that a pet is the same as a baby makes it even worse for people that don't like babies. It's understandible when a person doesn't think they can raise a kid and is afraid/reluctant to take on the responsibility. But if pets and babies "are the same", then a person who doesn't like kids has no excuse.
Confession: Not a drop of alcohol has passed my lips in well over a decade. But I'm fi'in'a get hella faded right now.
I'm kinda pro-human extinction, but if I get further into the topic I'll have to call in someone to moderate me.
There's no comparison. The amount of time and energy that goes into a baby (if the parents aren't monsters) is astronomical compared to a pet. You can't put them down and leave them alone for a second at first, and they need near constant attention when awake for a very long time. If anyone spends that much effort on a pet, they're insane. New parents barely sleep, for eff sake. I enjoyed those days, but for some parents, the first year is a nightmare. After all of that, you have to continue to teach and care for them for many years, longer than most pets even live.
Not to mention that you have a pet for its adult lifetime -- when it's in the state of species maturity. As opposed to 18 years with a child in various stages of species immaturity.
