Pet Parents (1 Viewer)

[Nisey55]

It looked like a scene from Lady and the Tramp.

The dogs reclined along the leather-lined booths or sat at the bistro tables. They stood on hind legs to assess the pastel-hued pastries behind the counter, and delved into immaculately plated dishes.

Dogue – pronounced like vogue – is a new San Francisco cafe just for dogs. And on Sundays, it offers a $75 tasting menu.

Since its debut in March, the prix fixe for pups instantly attracted a fair bit of rage, ridicule and rumination about late stage capitalism and societal decline. Inevitably, it also drew in hordes of millennial dog parents from the Bay Area and beyond.

Much of this passed right over the dogs’ heads.

On a recent weekend, a group of mutts at the tables up front were happily wolfing shortbread cookies, frosted with a wild game-infused icing. In the back, a fluffy little guy was too nervous to eat his pastry – eyes widening at the chaos all around. Between bites, the dogs sniffed and licked each other, tangling their leashes around the tables.

Co-owner Rahmi Massarweh, a classically trained chef, started the venture after burning out in fine dining kitchens. Humans, he said, could just never appreciate his art the way dogs do……..

‘Not for the human palate’: the fine dining cafe where dogs eat like royalty

Dogue – pronounced like vogue – is a San Francisco eatery just for dogs. And on Sundays, it offers a $75 tasting menu

www.theguardian.com

It looked like a scene from Lady and the Tramp.

The dogs reclined along the leather-lined booths or sat at the bistro tables. They stood on hind legs to assess the pastel-hued pastries behind the counter, and delved into immaculately plated dishes.

Dogue – pronounced like vogue – is a new San Francisco cafe just for dogs. And on Sundays, it offers a $75 tasting menu.

Since its debut in March, the prix fixe for pups instantly attracted a fair bit of rage, ridicule and rumination about late stage capitalism and societal decline. Inevitably, it also drew in hordes of millennial dog parents from the Bay Area and beyond.

Much of this passed right over the dogs’ heads.

On a recent weekend, a group of mutts at the tables up front were happily wolfing shortbread cookies, frosted with a wild game-infused icing. In the back, a fluffy little guy was too nervous to eat his pastry – eyes widening at the chaos all around. Between bites, the dogs sniffed and licked each other, tangling their leashes around the tables.

Co-owner Rahmi Massarweh, a classically trained chef, started the venture after burning out in fine dining kitchens. Humans, he said, could just never appreciate his art the way dogs do……..

‘Not for the human palate’: the fine dining cafe where dogs eat like royalty

Dogue – pronounced like vogue – is a San Francisco eatery just for dogs. And on Sundays, it offers a $75 tasting menu

www.theguardian.com

I would love to see the dogs lapping up their $75 Sunday brunch, but I can't imagine being in the same room with their twisted reality owners.
$75 is a good donation for people who don't have enough to eat.
It's like over spending on children when they are just as happy with some love and a big cardboard box.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Interesting article
==============
Since 2012, Dana Topousis has lost four dogs — all young Dobermans — to illness.
Galen died of heart disease; the others, Homer, Romeo and Ruthie, succumbed to different cancers.

So, she knows grief, which she calls “a lonely thing.”

“I live by myself, and my animals are my family, so it takes me a long time to recover,” said Topousis, of Davis, Calif., head of marketing and communications for the University of California at Davis. “Also, because my dogs were young, there’s unexpressed love — you think about all the things you won’t get to do with your dog.”


Pet parents often say that losing their animal companions can sometimes be as hard as, if not harder than, losing a human family member, experts said.

“Your pets follow you into bathroom. They sleep with you. They are your shadow. Human family members don’t do that,” said Leigh Ann Gerk, a pet loss grief counselor in Loveland, Colo., and founder of Mourning to Light Pet Loss.

“Humans don’t go crazy with joy when you come back inside after getting the mail. Human relationships, while important, can be difficult. Our relationship with our pets is simple. They love us just as we are.”


People want to help, but often don’t know how. Sometimes their comments can hurt.
“Greater society doesn’t recognize the intensity of this loss and the grieving that comes with it,” said Jessica Kwerel, a D.C. psychotherapist who specializes in pet loss………

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/31/grief-pets-loss/

 

[0rion]

Interesting article
==============

“Humans don’t go crazy with joy when you come back inside after getting the mail. Human relationships, while important, can be difficult. Our relationship with our pets is simple. They love us just as we are.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/31/grief-pets-loss/

And there's the problem. People expect too much out of other people and expect to be the center of everyone's universe. Doesn't work that way and making your own self absorbed world out of pets isn't the answer and isn't healthy. Learn to think of others and wait your turn to be exciting and interesting and if that day never comes then guess what.....you're not exciting and interesting.

 

[porculator]

I'm in the "to each their own" camp but I also reserve the right to strongly judge these people

If nothing else, it's very unhealthy to treat your dog like a child because we aren't wired to bury our kids every 10-15 years. It must be absolutely devastating when your dog croaks out if you've been putting them on a pedestal like they're your child.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Weird this thread popped up today
We lost ‘my’ cat today - we’d gotten her and her brother before Katrina (they evacuated with us)
She was ‘my’ cat bc on the trip back from Baton Rouge, on the spillway, she had her front paws on my shoulders and back paws on the seat - she claimed me
Her brother passed a few years ago, but she made it to this day
She’d been in decline, but hadn’t expressed pain, and then she quietly passed under a table
Sad

 

[Sun Wukong]

Interesting article
==============
Since 2012, Dana Topousis has lost four dogs — all young Dobermans — to illness.
Galen died of heart disease; the others, Homer, Romeo and Ruthie, succumbed to different cancers.

So, she knows grief, which she calls “a lonely thing.”

“I live by myself, and my animals are my family, so it takes me a long time to recover,” said Topousis, of Davis, Calif., head of marketing and communications for the University of California at Davis. “Also, because my dogs were young, there’s unexpressed love — you think about all the things you won’t get to do with your dog.”


Pet parents often say that losing their animal companions can sometimes be as hard as, if not harder than, losing a human family member, experts said.

“Your pets follow you into bathroom. They sleep with you. They are your shadow. Human family members don’t do that,” said Leigh Ann Gerk, a pet loss grief counselor in Loveland, Colo., and founder of Mourning to Light Pet Loss.

“Humans don’t go crazy with joy when you come back inside after getting the mail. Human relationships, while important, can be difficult. Our relationship with our pets is simple. They love us just as we are.”


People want to help, but often don’t know how. Sometimes their comments can hurt.
“Greater society doesn’t recognize the intensity of this loss and the grieving that comes with it,” said Jessica Kwerel, a D.C. psychotherapist who specializes in pet loss………

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/31/grief-pets-loss/

I've lost pets and I've lost people and losing a pet doesn't even occupy the same universe.

 

[Goatman Saint]

I've lost pets and I've lost people and losing a pet doesn't even occupy the same universe.

No not even close.

But it was nice this last week. My cat must’ve known I was sick and was right beside me the entire time. Which is very different than how she usually is. I love my cat. She’s treated very very well. But she’s still a cat

 

[Nisey55]

Weird this thread popped up today
We lost ‘my’ cat today - we’d gotten her and her brother before Katrina (they evacuated with us)
She was ‘my’ cat bc on the trip back from Baton Rouge, on the spillway, she had her front paws on my shoulders and back paws on the seat - she claimed me
Her brother passed a few years ago, but she made it to this day
She’d been in decline, but hadn’t expressed pain, and then she quietly passed under a table
Sad

Sorry about your Minnou, but wow she lived a long time didn't she?

 

[Semper]

Interesting article
==============
Since 2012, Dana Topousis has lost four dogs — all young Dobermans — to illness.
Galen died of heart disease; the others, Homer, Romeo and Ruthie, succumbed to different cancers.

So, she knows grief, which she calls “a lonely thing.”

“I live by myself, and my animals are my family, so it takes me a long time to recover,” said Topousis, of Davis, Calif., head of marketing and communications for the University of California at Davis. “Also, because my dogs were young, there’s unexpressed love — you think about all the things you won’t get to do with your dog.”


Pet parents often say that losing their animal companions can sometimes be as hard as, if not harder than, losing a human family member, experts said.

“Your pets follow you into bathroom. They sleep with you. They are your shadow. Human family members don’t do that,” said Leigh Ann Gerk, a pet loss grief counselor in Loveland, Colo., and founder of Mourning to Light Pet Loss.

“Humans don’t go crazy with joy when you come back inside after getting the mail. Human relationships, while important, can be difficult. Our relationship with our pets is simple. They love us just as we are.”


People want to help, but often don’t know how. Sometimes their comments can hurt.
“Greater society doesn’t recognize the intensity of this loss and the grieving that comes with it,” said Jessica Kwerel, a D.C. psychotherapist who specializes in pet loss………

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/31/grief-pets-loss/

I tell ya I lost one of my dogs in 2018. For someone like me who has trust issues with people it was devastating. I can’t even describe it. My wife and brother were worried for me because I took it so hard. So I get what this article is talking about.

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Optimus Prime]

I was having a conversation with a woman about her 'kids', and I swear it took 5 minutes before it became clear she wasn't talking about human children. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless

 

[SystemShock]

I don't call myself a "dog dad", or refer to my dogs as "fur babies" or "children", but I love my dogs, I take care of them, I feed them, bathe them, groom them, protect them, take them to the doctor, give them medicine when they are sick, play with them, discipline them when they misbehave...

So, in a way, I guess I "daddy" them...

 

[Optimus Prime]

Jader Alexis Castaño, a Colombian university rector, was left depressed after he lost his dog Simona in a divorce, often unable to stomach a meal due to his grief, according to court records.

But Castaño wasn’t the only one torn up over his inability to pet and play with his “hija perruna,” or “dog child,” as he often referred to Simona.


After Castaño and his former wife Lina María Ochoa split in 2021, Castaño’s rare visits with Simona left him convinced that the pup was “emotionally affected” every time their encounters came to an end, court records state. But Castaño’s ex-wife was not willing to allow preset, guaranteed visits.


What could Castaño do to see Simona more often? He opted to take the matter to court, where judges ruled in October that the dog should be legally considered “his daughter” and treated as such in divorce proceedings — the first such ruling in Colombia.

Last year, Castaño sued his former wife, demanding scheduled visits with the pooch. Castaño alleged that Simona was part of the “family’s nucleus,” and that both he and the dog had been adversely affected following the divorce because his former wife did not grant him frequent visits, the lawsuit states.


What started as a lawsuit demanding a regular schedule of visits with Simona turned into a bigger legal question for the Colombian court:

Was the dog like any other member of a family, like a toddler, whose parents shared custody after separating?


The Bogotá Superior Court ruled that Simona the dog had indeed been an official member of the “multispecies” family before the divorce tore it asunder…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/09/dog-colombia-court-member-family/

 

[TheRealJRad]

I don’t know that I would go so far as to say the dog deserves that level of rights, but I would certainly agree the dog is emotionally affected. They’re empathetic animals and they attach to their humans. It’s certainly reasonable to suggest the dog is bummed when one of those humans leaves.

 

[saintmdterps]

I have a patient whose wife died of cancer 10 years ago. They had a cat and a dog. The wife was an in-home hospice patient and when she passed, the cat sat right next to her and, as he put it "made an absolutley human wailing sound"

Yes, pets are empathetic, but indeed still pets. That said, people who can't take care of plants, animals, or children should not have them.