Significant Others and Family Pets!

Okay, there's Gayle's thread Make me choose you're gonna loose! in which I posted about Paul meeting my family - including Gracie the Great Dane for the first time ...

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Paul's first encounter with my family ... as soon as he sat on the living room couch, Gracie (3/4 Great Dane, 1/4 Lab) joyfully covered his face with kisses, which he endured patiently, until I told her to stop just to give him a break! She then proceeded to LEAN on him, which turned into the very first thread ever on Pet Talk many years later!

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and it made me think all of you must have stories (good or bad) about the first time a significant other of yours encountered your pets, and how that went!

Obviously, Paul passed that test (endurance of doggie kisses), and the rest is history ...

I never had pets till after I was married, so the SO/Ex was already in place. Never had any desire to have another man in my life, so I never had the problem of issuing the "pets first" rule to anyone. There really is a good side to being "partnerless". :D

I grew up around animals. We lived out in the country and had all kinds: dogs, cats, horses, pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, rabbits.
When I met Bruce he had his Cocker Spaniel, DJ, and I had my kitty Taz (both RB babies now). He was "not a cat person" only because he never had cats growing up, only dogs. There were NO problems when Taz and I moved in with Bruce and DJ. DJ learned to leave Taz alone and all was well. :) Now Bruce is officially an "animal lover". He even said so just this past weekend. :D I am a lucky girl!

I've never had an issue with needing to choose between a pet and a man. And if I did, it would be a no-brainer............my pets are my children. If you can't accept them then I don't need you!

Oh, and as far as family pets. Everyone has dogs! My mom has two (or three, she houses her pool guys dog), my brother has four and my sister has two. And now Bruce's brother also has a dog, recently added to the two cats they already had.

Bumpity - I know lots of you have stories ...

When I met John in 79, he had Batman, a gorgous black cat - he died a year later, 11 years old. I had always loved cats, but weren't allowed to have one as chlld. When John an dI had been togehter a few years, a friend of ours had split up. They had a beautiful tabby, named Sir Patrick. Their flat was empty and the guy went there to feed him every couple of days. John and I felt bad abut that, so we offered to take him. Well, I lived in aroom in a villa, so he ended up with. Later, I movd in with John and we took him along. At the time, John's son was visiting every other weekend, and he wsa allegic to cats. :( We found a nice lady who loved cats and she took Sir Patrick and spoiled him rotten. When we moved in here, we found Fister in the yard and the rest of the story, you know. :)

Muskwa, who passed away in October 2012 just days after his 15th birthday, was a six month old puppy the first time I met Stuart. They were very much a package deal. I'd never even seen a Siberian Husky before. I actually had to ask him what kind of dog Muskwa was!:eek::rolleyes:

Muskwa hated me at first sight and we had a difficult relationship for much of his life. I was simply the woman who stole his Dad's attention and I was only useful when he was sick, wanted a Dentastix or wanted to show Stuart how mad he was at him. Muskwa was my best friend when he was mad at Stuart! He was an elderly dog before he finally made peace with the fact that I was staying! I loved him dearly, still do; he was the smartest dog I'll likely ever know and he taught me a great deal about huskies, fencing construction, leadership and life in general. We loved the same human, but Muskwa was never my dog!

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Originally Posted by Glacier

taught me a great deal about huskies, fencing construction, leadership and life in general.

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Hee hee - that gave me a grin! Not a lesson you were expecting, huh?

I grew up with dogs, a guinea pig, and a couple fish. Mike grew up with and around dogs. He's always had Labs! We both wanted to get a dog, and finally after we moved in together and lived at the current house for a year, we got Ryder in December of 2012. We're pretty happy. We're dog people!

The first time our boyfriend met Spook, she curled up on his laptop bag and fell asleep. :rolleyes: :D When I first met hubby, he had a big German Sheppard. Me and that dog became instant friends. He reminded me a lot of a dog my parents had when I was really young.

My late Sophie was my heart kitty. She was a feral I "fostered" and pretty much lived in my bedroom closet for the first month I had her because she was so scared. She warmed up to me, though, and we became inseparable. Eventually I was brave enough to let her wander around the house unsupervised (was living at my parents' at the time and their cat did NOT take too kindly to other cats...). She would still mostly stick to my bedroom/the basement and she would let my family pet her but she was not one to actively seek out attention or greet anyone when they came home, except me.

My boyfriend came up to visit me that New Years. His first day here I had to work a short shift at work. He texted me a picture of her sleeping with him. I was floored. She NEVER actively sought attention, much less slept or cuddled with, anyone but me.

Eventually he moved up to be with me, and she treated him as she treated me. Slept cuddled with us, would climb in his lap while he worked (he worked from home), but still gave the rest of my family the cold shoulder.

Sadly, a few months after he moved up here, a family friend brought an Easter Lily over for my parents' (unbeknownst to me). We noticed she hadn't been eating and when she vomited I rushed her into work, but it was too late. Both kidneys were gone. The Drs said she had to have had an underlying congenital kidney disease (typical of siamese and siamese mixes) for it to affect her so quickly and so viciously, so I had to make the hard decision to let her go. It's been almost 3 years since we said goodbye, but I still miss her every single day.

When I brought her home, I was in the darkest point of my life. My husband had left me for another woman and I moved in with my parents. When my boyfriend moved up here, it was like she knew I was in good hands with him and felt she could leave me to become an angel for someone else.

All my animals took up with Michael when they met him, so I took that as a good sign :D.

We got Jake together, though he is 110% Michael's dog. Follows him everywhere and Michael is about the only one that the goob will listen to :rolleyes:

Though my recent Ex hasn't been around recently I think Mikey liked him. He was always wiggly when he came over and excited. The ex knew he was part of the deal, like every future BF will. He liked walking him with me and we took him hiking together several times! Mikey loves everyone but he definitely loved showing "dominance" on my Ex which was quite embarrassing but overall I do think he approved.