How Much Do You Incorporate Your Pets Into Your Lifestyle?

by Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger

17 Nov 2008 02:11 PM

A while back in another article I asked how much your pets influence different aspects of your lifestyle, from work to home life. But now I'm wondering about how much you incorporate your pets into your lifestyle.

I got to thinking about it when I came across a cartoon in a Woman's World magazine. These two ladies were standing in front of a refrigerator in what was supposed to be one of their kitchens. Pinned to the refrigerator was artwork of paw prints. The one lady's saying to the other, "No, we don't have kids. That's our dog's art work."

That is so something I would do. (Have Murph or the cats paint and then display it on the refrigerator.) It's kind of surprising I haven't done something like that yet.

But there are plenty of other things I do that incorporate my pets into my lifestyle. Maybe you do some of these too?

• Include them on your return address labels. No joke. All of "Team Pryor's" faces and names are on these caricature labels I got from Vista Print.
• Write about them in Christmas letters. Do you write a yearly family holiday missive? I can't resist. Not only do they include updates about what happened to Wayne and I in the past year, but I also tell about Murphy, Mr. Meow, and Tabby's adventures. (A couple of years the letters have even been written by them.)
• Include them in signatures. Nine times out of ten, I sign off birthday cards to various friends and relatives "Love, Wayne, Courtney, Murphy, Mr. Meow, and Tabby."
• Help them send cards. Speaking of greeting cards, Murphy, Tabby, and Mr. Meow have been known to send everything from birthday cards to get well cards to people or other pets.
• Refer to them on shopping lists. Wayne always laughs when he's helping me shop and comes across "Murphy food" or "Tabby and Meow treats" on my list instead of "dog food" or "cat treats."
• Include their name on the answering machine greeting. Currently I think ours says, "Hey there, we can't come to the phone right now, but you can leave a message for Wayne, Courtney, Murphy, Tabby or Mr. Meow after the beep." It's amazing how many people will leave messages for our pets asking them to tell us to call them back.

I'm sure there are some other things I do that I'm forgetting about, but these were the big ones that came to mind.

Do you do any of these too?

Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.

Learn more about Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k.

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Samual (11722) 17 Nov 2008 04:03 PM

Our working dogs round up our live stock and kill or chase off any foxes that get into the holding, our pet dog Boo collects birds and rabbits we shoot, generally makes a big mess too.

Courtney Mroch (9169) 18 Nov 2008 01:41 PM

Oh boy did Murphy perk up when I read this comment out loud to him. He wants to know if Boo ever needs help, especially with the rabbits. Then he wants to know if Boo likes company and can he have a visitor because he'll hop the next ship over. (He doesn't do planes.)