Is/Are your pet(s) your friend(s) or your baby(ies)?

As you probably are sick of hearing, Milo has one sycophantic slave, who does call him the most extraordinarily silly terms of endearment.

My old beagle is a friend, my orange cat (which if you have a good one you know they are the sweetest things in the world) is my baby.

For me, if you cradle it in your arms or let it on your lap its a baby, if you wouldn’t dare do such a thing its a friend.

Neither, really. They are my pets and my pests ;) I do love them, but in a completely different way than I love my friends or my children.

they are family, but not the same as children. i don’t think it’s necessary to categorize them as either or – i think they can be just “pets”

I let my friends on my lap and in my arms….

By the way, props for the very painstaking compensation for the possibility of multiple pets, tinyfaery!

@lefteh; Would you try to hold my beagle in your arms? And I would argue some of your friends pretty much are your children.

My wife and I have treated our two cats as our babies for the last several years. I imagine this will change a bit when we have a real baby in the fall.

I’m breeding a rare strain of Lyretail Guppys, so the baby fish are my babies. They are also my pets, but mainly, they are my scientific experiment.

I treat my dog more as a friend. I talk to him closer to the way I would talk to a friend than to a baby, but at the same time keeping in mind that he is not a human being. I show him a lot of things and let him sniff them, rather than tell him things.

He is my brother, but he is not (in my opinion) my parents’ son.

@Pete; what are HIS views on this?

I do not kiss my fish on the lips.

Brother, actually.

@Gail: He wags his tail a lot. I take that to mean our relationship suits him well enough.

I have a lot of different fish. Most of them are just inhabitants in my tank. I care about them, but theres no real bond. There is two exceptions though. My peacock mantis shrimp vladimir (only pet with a name) and my porcupine puffer. Vladimir is different because hes just so bad ass and pretty smart so i have a respect for him. The puffer is just cool, he acts more like a dog than a fish and always gets real excited when i come into the room and swims up to the front of the glass.

@psyla how did you obtain these guppies? Ive been looking to set up a breeder tank and this would be a great fish to breed.

My dog, is my friend; however, I think my cat owns me. He isn’t sure if we are friends, yet. The fish are just happy that someone in the house feeds them and my daughter’s guinea pig, well, we tolerate each other!

My dog is my wise sister and also my coach. My kitty is my ex-baby who has grown up
and become a man-cat and believes me to be his girlfriend.

Children all the way. I am away from home right now and miss them terribly.

Pets are children! Unless they are tarantulas or scorpions, or something with equally disagreeable dispositions. Then they are specimens, for study and enjoyment, not free to roam.

What about uber’s uberbatman shrimp, Vlad the Impaler?

Sounds delicious. sorry, uber. joke

@knotmyday no offense taken. ^_^ they are a eaten in both Japan and Italy if given the chance id try one. Though obviously not mine.

I have 5 kids. Two are human, walk on two legs, are not furry, and I gave birth to them. Three of them walk on four legs and are furry. Some people call them “cats”.