I recieved the following in an email, and it really hit home.

Permission was given to cross post this message - as long as the authors' name remained intact. Upon reading this - I realized that this struck home in a big way - and the terms furbaby, furkid, furperson - are all things that are part of the gradual eroding of our rights as pet OWNERS.

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Semantics and Rhetoricby Anka Andrews

Increasingly, in my various reading of dog related articles, I find myself referred to as 'pet parent' or 'pet guardian'. I don't care for that.I'm a woman. I am not my dogs' mother, I'm not their parent. I'm not some freak of Nature, haven't given birth to dogs or cats or any other pets. While they do have parents, I am not one of them. Their fathers know nothing of their existence, having been no more than sperm donors. Their mothers would not only not recognize them if they saw them but would quite possibly offer to mate with them, or fight them for food.

While all of this may be de rigeur in some strata of human society it does not fit into commonly accepted human norms. To be designated 'petparent' diminishes the concept of parenthood.I am not a pet guardian. Guardianship implies oversight by someone else, a third party who sets rules of conduct and care with which I have to comply. I make my own decisions about my dealings with my dogs according to my conscience and the values I hold which govern my interactions with living things. I guard my dogs' welfare to the very high standards I've set but I am not their guardian. I am their owner. They are my property. I can sell them at will. I can store them in crates. I can sterilize them, or not. I can show them off. I can treat them and feed them any way I chose to. Parenthood and guardianship bestow rights to that which is being parented or guarded. The guardian of an estate, for instance, has to make sure that the contractual provisions of the estate, its rights, are being met. Parents speak for their children in defense and support of those children's rights.

Dogs don't have rights; neither do trees or rocks or crocodiles. Rights are a human concept. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Those are the basic human rights. Dog ownership requires of moral people that we do all we can to protect our animals' lives, offer them as much liberty as is safe for them, and do what we can to help them be happy. By allowing ourselves to be called pet parents and pet guardians we are giving consent to abide by a standard of conduct set for us by others.

Animal Rights groups and politicians are queuing up everywhere to limit our rights as property owners. They tell us that we must neuter our pets. That we may not keep them confined in kennels and crates. They limit where and how we can travel with our property. They make demands on and regulate our ownership and thusly whittle away at our rights. Primary cultural change is often insidious. It seeps into our consciousness gently, slowly and with great subtlety until we've bought into it without ever having noticed. Like high fructose corn syrup, it pervades. We do it, here, on our e-mail list. We talk about our fur kids, mommy and daddy doing this or that with them, we proclaim that they're our children.

They are not. They're our dogs. We are their owners. It's time for a reality check.

People watching

Well, life has been boring, but, watching people certainly is not.
The last shows were great for people watching (not much else) - one person was like a kid with a stick - shove it into a hornets nest, stir vigorously, and then sit back and watch the fun.
Grow up dude - the intimidation tactics don't work any more, we are on to you!