What is wrong with these people?

“To each their own..”

Some people find it fun.

I have numerous animal friends on Facebook, including a turtle, a dog, a chinchilla, and a hamster.

It’s so easy to make a Facebook profile. Most people, if they make one for their pet(s), do it as a joke. The card thing is a little strange, I guess, but I’ve never heard of anyone writing whole cards out in the ‘character’ of a pet. I have received birthday cards, though, from families who’ve all signed the cards together and included their pets’ names. Does this disturb you for some reason?

I personally am more interested in discovering my pet’s personality rather than assigning it one. But I would not criticize others for indulging, and I don’t really see what the big deal is.

As @Jude says, to each his own.

I don’t have pets but I understand people that relate more to their pets than they do humans.
I do agree with you on the part about talking to the pet on the phone; that’s a little overboard.

Ask Milo.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with people personalizing their beloved pets. It’s sweet, it’s fun and so far as I know, harmless. I do it myself.

And in my opinion, if more people subscribed to @Jude‘s (and my) philosophy of “To each his own,” the world might be a better, safer place for all of us.

We all love our pets, I sing to my animals, talk to them, have about 10 nicknames for them, love them dearly but am not neurotic about them.

I have, for the fun of it, signed them up on political mailers and sometimes receive propaganda addressed to Marwyn & Gadwicke.

‘Marwyn, we’re counting on your vote!’

I joke about ’ my muse the goose’, but do not insist on others playing into my eccentricities.

I write humor, so, it ties into my overall silliness, but, there is a line.

No form letters from my pets and I don’t ask others if they want to talk to them over the phone.

There’s humor and then there’s fullblown nuts. haha

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. I think, for some people, their pets become a serious hobby – serious enough that they might start treating it more like a person than a pet.

I haven’t come across facebook profiles for pets and I’m not sure what kind of action I’d take if I received a friend request from a friend’s pet… I have considered making a facebook profile for one of my cats, several of my plants, etc., but good sense prevailed in the end and I didn’t.

I guess it boils down to how pleased people are with their pets. If you think about it, creating a facebook profile for a newborn baby (that I have seen and no, I’m not facebook friends with any newborns) is equally as ridiculous. The newborn in question can’t control the page, doesn’t really have a personality that is apparent to anyone other that its parents and yet parents think nothing of doing this for their kids. It’s because they’re so stoked about having that child that they want to spread the joy around a little, I think.

That said, if someone asked me whether I wanted to “talk” to their pet over the phone, I’d politely decline.

Chuckling… A relative of my Husband has made facebook profiles for her dogs. I regard this as rather sad… It is probably more sad that he has befriended them! That said, unfortunately, the relly in question does have some, er, issues. Nuff said on that one.

But, talking to pets on the ‘phone? Why not? Eh? My Sister had a cat that regularly came and purred to me down the phone. She knew my voice, was undoubtedly perplexed at how it came to be inside the telephone receiver, but nevertheless we communicated. It made us humans laugh. Nothing wrong in that I say!

And, for that matter, Christmas cards. Our cats are included, to those we know who also keep animals. It seems only right, as they are part of the family…

I have a relative who is mentally disabled (“retarded” in non-pc language) and lives on her own with a lot of family support.
She has a dog that has birthday parties – with picture on cake, visits to Santa with pictures, of course and any number of events with doggie friends.
Dumb as we think it is, we drive her and often pay for these activities because it makes her happy.
So be it.

my brother directed me to his dog’s facebook profile made by his gf. The ‘info’ section made me want to vomit. I thought it was wierd….it was the first time I ever heard of people doing this

There is nothing wrong with it. It is a personal bond and action that someone takes and gets from their animal. I find it far healthier behavior to love a pet like this as opposed to many other things that people do.
It maybe too cute for you, but it is not for them.
It is a positive thing, how can you bash it and say there is something wrong with them?
Are people that sing to songs in their car by themselves a measure of something wrong too?
It was only 15 years ago that people thought having to check email more than once a day was a crazy obsession.

I sign my dog’s name along with mine on cards to people who know her and love her. If someone thinks I’m weird, so be it. My obsession, my life.

They enjoy it. It is harmless. What’s the big deal?

If you’re around animals a lot, and you take the time to notice, they do have individual personalities. I don’t know about a facebook page, but they are different.

I understand the love people have for their pets….they are part of the family….I don’t mean you having a family photo with the pet, loving your pet as a child, or including the pets name in cards and things…that’s fine..

I’m all for “living your life as you see fit” until it involves me…

So when you become the pet and express that to other people outside your family….you send a card that is solely from the pet…or sending requests to be your pets friend…that is what I find disturbing especially when they project their own views in guise as “the pet”

It doesn’t bother me , they’re just crazy about their pet. I draw the line with this one: I had a close girlfriend I loved to talk with on the phone. After she had her baby I’d call her and she’d put him on it right away so I could hear , “ga ga boo boo slurp” when I was dying to talk with her. When he got older, he’d aways ask, “who is this?” when I’d call.

I am reading a book right now called ‘Wesley the Owl – the remarkable love story of an Owl and his girl.’

Heh! I have toyed with the same theme for my own book, but, damn, Stacy O’ Brien beat me to it!

‘Marwyn the goose- a remarkable love story of a goose and his girl.’ SIGH ;-)

I suspect you won’t have to worry about this too much with this person if you cant accept them for who they are.
I have a few good movies to suggest you watch if you don’t get it.
Hachi – A Dogs Tale I owned an Akita for 12 years and this story is amazingly true.
Marley and Me

Enjoy your homework. Come back after you have watched both and give us an update on your feelings.

@blueiiznh

Hachi’s is an awesome story.

@blueiiznh These movies have nothing to do with my question….Neither of them have people impersonating their pets…

How about this….I love my sister, What would happen If I opened a face book account using her name and picture…and pretended to be her?

Or this,,,,I love my car, What would happen if I opened a face book account pretending to be my car? honk

loving something and pretending to be something are two different things….

@coffeenut

Um, what? You might actually fool people if you were impersonating your sister. You’d also be influencing her life unfairly. But no one’s going to believe that your dog has opened up its own Facebook account, and your dog is not going to affected by the (innocent) fun you have pretending to be him.

Really a silly comparison.

Re: the car. It’s a little strange, sure, but what’s the big deal? It’s not worthy worrying about.

@coffeenut In my opinion I think these movies are very relative to your question. I was merely trying to offer some tools show the deeper bonds that some people and families have with their pets. That in turn may help to answer the question you listed of “Can anyone explain this to me?”.
As I originally stated, it is a personal bond and action. Some of it is in fun, some of it more serious.
We are all faced at times with actions from others that we don’t get. If wish you success on your search for peace on this topic.

My aunt has two cats, holds birthday parties for them and even invites other local cats to these parties.
She had professional photographs taken of each of them one Christmas, and it is hanging in her hall with pride.
They all have a wonderful time. What’s wrong with that?

I’ve also had a Christmas picture taken of my pet with the money for the picture going to the Humane Society. I have a nice picture and the money goes to a good charity. Win.

Guilty of that.
Always do a Christmas goose pic. You can see Marwyn if you search for my question from last month.

’ Would you care to share your favorite pet pics’

Lots of great sharings! :-)

It is anthropomorphic and has been studied for many years.

Because it’s fun and cute. There’s nothing wrong with people adding a little levity to their lives. Pets add a lot of enjoyment to an otherwise dismal world. And most people consider their pets to be family members rather than just live stock.

It’s something silly and fun to do with the pets you adore. I’ll admit that for a while, I was using the “Catbook” app on facebook. (There’s also a fishbook and dogbook.) People from all over the world have created profiles for their cats, and it is so much fun! You click on cute cat pictures and read their profiles, then you can friend them with your own cat profile. And some of the humans are so witty when they add all the information on the cats. It’s cute!

I got this the other day from a dog…. (edited) I thought it was a little weird not getting something from the owner as well…

Diesel gives Christmas presents to his doggie cousins, and receives gifts from them as well.

When I write thank you cards for Christmas, I add in that “Diesel really liked ______ and wanted to make sure you thanked Zippy/Shadow/________ for him.”

Not so big on talking on the phone. Of course, people put their 2 month old infant on the phone, and I think that’s a little too much for me, too.

Facebooks are kind of fun. Diesel doesn’t have one, but I’m friends with Lisa the monkey. I’ve received cards with pictures of pets, with and without people. (Lisa sent me one of her licking a candy cane.)

Sometimes they’re cute and that’s why you do it. Sometimes it’s because you have an appreciation for the added dimension our furry family members bring to our lives.

@chyna I have Diesel’s picture taken with Santa. The procedes go to MA Vest-a-Dog, that provides bulletproof vests for our canine friends in blue. I like the charity aspect, too. :)

@coffeenut that is awesome!!! The owner/sender thinks highly of you too!

Oh come on guys… you know you want to create a new profile for your furbaby.

Er, further to my earlier post, as @coffeenut adds further tiny, but unnervingly revealing detail… Hm, sending card/message etc from animal, without apparent human intervention does smack of weirdness. I’m guessing that those who do this have something to hide, so using the transitional identity of their pet permits them to express it in some way…?

My Hub’s relative is inclined to strangeness, her pets are more than just important to her, they are her friends and confidantes. Their facebook profiles read like humans… But, she doesn’t send greetings cards solely from them. This is a new one on me.

So, @coffeenut are there deeper issues at stake here? Is ‘woof’ code for something… deeper???

@auntydeb The impression I got from the card was that it was intended to make @coffeenut smile. I don’t think it’s particularly weird. I would have smiled if I received that card… And I enjoy fellow humans, too.

@Taciturnu At what point would you consider something funny/cute changing to something else? Funny/Cute can only last so long…. 3 times? 10 times? 20 times? 50 times? 100 times?

How much is too much?

I understand your point, but I wouldn’t be bothered with thousands of cards from a dog. You know it’s the person, you know they’re thinking of you and you know they love their dog.

My family does that a little. We do gifts “from” the pets at christmas and get them toys. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a pet’s facebook page. But, I guess it’s an attachment that they’ve made. Like little kids and their toys.

What is wrong with people who don’t get the advantages of being a pet owner.

@WillWorkForChocolate The furbaby profile sounds good to me :-)

@WillWorkForChocolate The link didn’t work yesterday, or I’d have known 24 hours earlier how wacked you cat people are. :)

I agree that it can be a bit cloying at times, but I also think that it demonstrates one of the most beautiful qualities of humankind: the ability to mingle our minds with other beings. We may be the only beings in this quadrant of the galaxy that can transcend our personal perspective and put ourselves into the skin of even a different species. We can even do this in a subtle way with inanimate things (see Snowman by Wallace Stevens).

It makes no “sense” perhaps, but it’s one of the things that makes us human. One can go too far too either extreme, really: overly objectifying other creatures is arguably worse than overly “subjectifying” them.

@Adirondackwannabe Oh dangit, I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t broked it. And hey, I resemble that remark! =0)