RE: Is your family being supportive for your pet hobby?
It's just my husband and I, and he was the one who got us our first bird and then our first cat several years later. It's kind of a funny story how the cat came about. It was our anniversary; I'd been in a bad car accident and was suffering an incredible amount of pain and was loopy on prescrip meds, and the hubby was trying to figure out what could take my mind off of the bad situation and bring some joy into my life. He stumbled upon a "free kitten" sign and chose a cute, rambunctious tabby out of the home's garage. He brought it up to our bed and plopped it on me (it was crawling with fleas, by the way!). I took one look at it and said (remember I was loopy on meds): "My dad's not going to let me keep it!"
My dad and his entire family HATES cats! Many of them are hunters and they actually shoot cats if they see them wandering in the woods - what JERKS, I know!!!! Ugh!!!
It's funny, but now that all of us kids are grown up, we all are cat owners! And when dad comes to visit, our cats love to go hang out on the couch with papa!!! hahaha
My mother grew up with cats and loves them, though she's not been allowed to have one since marrying my father over 55 years ago. She comes to pet sit our animals when we go on vacation. She is very supportive, but my father still pretty much hates cats. He does get a kick out of our bad boy Tonkinese though.
The parents weren't too supportive of when we spent thousands of dollars on a very sick cat years ago. Dad was especially disapproving and said some unkind things during that stressful period.
My Quaker bird hates my dad. Dad tried picking the bird up one time and Picasso bit him. The Quaker bite is always a very nasty one, meant to draw blood and hurts like heck, so dad flung the bird to the floor. Picasso has never forgiven him and goes batty whenever it sees dad!
So that's the story of my family and their support of our choice of pets. Oh - the hubby despises the Tonkinese cat of mine. It has actually been a real source of conflict at times between us. That's hard when your spouse hates your most beloved pet, but I think we've come to an understanding now.
I was very curious about Fishbone and I'm glad I got to see his answer on this question! I wondered if he was married since I don't know any women who like snakes - except myself and one of my grandma's. Now I know he's got a good match for a spouse! Cool! :-)