Significant Others and Family Pets!

[Karen]

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 ...

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!

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 ...

[pomtzu]

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".

[Taz_Zoee]

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. 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.

[Karen]

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

[Randi]

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.

[Glacier]

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!

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!