Because it's so random (lemming), also, cats.

[azurelunatic]

Your LJ Soap Opera
LJ Username
Your spouse:	shammash
They'll have an affair with:	memnus
You'll have a retaliatory affair with:	mamadeb
Your rival:	status
Who will try to kill you?	status
Chance you'll survive till the end: - 73%
This Quiz by sarcastro - Taken 12068 Times.

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Somehow, I don't think shammash and I will ever take that turn in our relationship to each other. I think we're going to stay in the human/familiar roles, and that'll be fine with both of us.

Speaking of which, the whole "parent of pets" thing is sort of weird. I can see how having a dependant animal puts one in a quasi-parental role, with the making of decisions, the care and feeding, and so forth, but pets don't exactly grow up and leave home, unless you're a rehabilitator, in which case they're more clients than they are pets. (What do rehabilitators call the animals they work with, anyway? Is there a specialized term?) And if you raise an animal from its childhood, you are in more of a parental role, but many of the people I notice using the parental terms to refer to their relationship with the critters may not have done this.

But you don't tend to have to nag a pet to clean its room or do its homework, just to stop barking and/or get off the damn counter already, as you're shedding on the toaster. (shammash sits on the toaster, the daft cat.)

Comments

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

YOu realize I'm currently laughing hysterically? A retalitary affair? Me?

It croggles the mind.

[azurelunatic]

Indeed. And Moshie having an affair with Brian is really out-there too.

[sraun]

Speaking as a pet-owner who uses the child metaphor - adopting a pet, of whatever age, is like taking on a three to four year old human child. But the child doesn't have opposable thumbs, and is safe to leave alone for extended periods of time. But you are committing to caring for this toddler for somewhere between two and twenty years, depending on species, breed, and age of pet when adopted.

Part of it is that there isn't really a better metaphor. Child may not be good, but can you think of anything better?

[azurelunatic]

Well, marriage sort of springs to mind, but that's very much not right either, as it has all sorts of baggage that a human/pet relationship doesn't include...