By Wally WachterRetired Herald Managing Editor
TO MOST PET LOVERS, animals are human. They can talk to them, understand their barks, purrs, whimpers or other sounds. And in most cases, they can indulgently spoil them.
In television commercials, cats eat out of the finest china and dogs turn up their noses when they don't get their advertised puppy chow. On many TV programs, pets are the favorite actors.
This is not fiction, but reality.
Pets, mainly dogs and cats, have become pampered species. They live in luxury in their homes. They have special nutritional foods designed for them canned varieties of all flavors.
Pets have their own special divided eating dishes. They have their own softly padded beds. They have treats in as many special varieties as we have candies. They expect them and demonstrate their disdain when they don't get them.
Pets were just as loved when we were kids. But they never enjoyed quite the special treatment they get today.
With the increasing affection shown them by their owners, they have become smarter. They know if they beg with subtlety around or under the table, someone in the family will be sure to slip them pieces of steak or hamburgers without the others knowing it. They know they can have access to the sofas and chairs as soon as everyone is in bed. And during thunderstorms or other trying times, by acting scared, they can snuggle up to their masters or the kids in the big beds.
Pets were just as loved when we were kids. But they never enjoyed quite the special treatment they get today.
Cats were taken for granted. They usually had a purpose, to rid the house and the environs of rodents or other pests. Their diets consisted of what they could catch, augmented occasionally by leftover canned salmon or other table scraps. They lived on or under the porches and were seldom allowed in the house. The back porch usually was their dining room.
Dogs, too, were fed outside. Their menu was fat meat, chicken skins and other remnants of the family dinner. Their treats were bones they could gnaw on and bury or hide when they tired of gnawing. Veterinarians today advise against giving bones to dogs.
The pet canines had their own dog houses in the back yards, where they rested and slept. These were padded with straw in the winter to keep them warm. Long leashes were were looped on the wire clotheslines that extended the length of the yards, giving the dogs the entire yard to move about.
The few dogs that were allowed in the house usually had sleeping quarters in the basements. Of course, when the dogs were cute little puppies, they were allowed some freedoms inside the homes until they were old enough to deal with the outside.
We had many other kinds of pets during our younger days. City ordinances have restricted raising of some of them.
When we were toddlers, before the automobile became common, many homes in the town had barns instead of garages. Horses were not uncommon. They were assigned the duties of pulling heavy plows or the family carriages.
There were backyard coops where families raised chickens, ducks and geese. The poultry provided daily eggs and special Sunday fare when there were guests for dinner. Many families also raised rabbits in wired coops in the backyards. Some also had guinea pigs.
Fish bowls stocked with colorful goldfish were common in many homes, and many families had bird cages with canaries, parakeets or love birds. These, of course, were the homes without cats.
We also had pet miniature turtles, white mice and any toads, lizards and field snakes that we could smuggle into the house.
There is an advantage to the special in-home care we give our house pets today. They don't howl or bark in the middle of the night, keeping whole neighborhoods awake.
Maybe a little spoiling pays off.