Really?

So, as previously posted, I had the opportunity to drive down to Santa Barbara and listen to Julie B. Beck. It was a great experience, a very spiritual experience. BUT...as I sat down, I sat in the backish. On the hard chairs that were set up in the Cultural Hall of the church. I sat down behind another girl who had a baby not much older than Jacob, with CRAZY long blond hair that just stood up everywhere...it was pretty cute! But I looked over to my left, and across the isle and a row up a lady had a dog on her lap. Yes...a DOG! One of those little dogs with the longer hair. The yappy dogs. I had to do a double take to make sure that this lady brought a dog to a church function...in the church. As much as I didn't want to believe it, she did have a dog on her lap. Not only, though, did she have a dog on her lap. This dog was sitting on a fleece blanket, which had been tied and doggy sized. Oh, but wait...it gets better. This dog had a bow in her hair. A bow! There's more. It was wearing a DRESS! I was shocked. I was trying so hard not just start laughing...but no one else seemed as surprised and sickened as me. I was sitting through the meeting, trying to ignore this lady and her beloved dog, but it really was the biggest distraction to me as she would pet this dog, and hold it up like a baby and hold it over her shoulder. But then the lady did something that took the cake. You would think that just taking a dog to church in a dress and bow would have done that, right? But, no...she pulled out a bottle. A dog bottle and started feeding her dog. Are you kidding me??

I was sitting there holding my baby...my human baby, and this lady was holding her dog. Okay, I'm not a big pet person. I didn't have a pet growing up. We got a cat when I was 17...but I had already decided that I didn't like pets, so I never was attached to Punkin. She wasn't just an indoor cat, either, so I didn't know where her little paws had been or what she had been eating, and honestly, I didn't want to know...so I just kept my distance. But, I cannot understand how and why pets are treated like humans. I can see loving a pet, and caring for it...AT HOME. But, dressing it up, taking it every where you go, treating it as a child...that's too much for me. I was at Target the other day, the day Noah got lost, actually, and there was a girl who was holding a "baby". It was swaddled in a blanket and looked very little. I just assumed it was a very new baby. But the girl didn't look like she had just had a baby. She was with a lady who I assumed was probably her mother, but there wasn't a baby seat in the cart, so I wondered. So, since I just had a baby, and am more aware of the babies around me, I asked her how old her baby was because it looked teeny, and she didn't have a baby. She had a dog. She was holding it like a baby, treating it like a baby, but no...it was a dog. A dog is NOT human. Yes, it has a heart and breaths...but it is not a person. Back in July, Noah was in the ER after multiple seizures. I had taken Macie outside for a walk, because it isn't fun to be cooped up in the ER "room" for too long, as we wait for the IV fluid to empty. As I was coming back in to enter the ER again, I had to wait for someone to come and open the door for me. I would hear a lady totally irate. She was yelling at the poor admitting people. She had a stroller, and the people wouldn't let her bring the stroller back to the back where the lady's husband was. Inside her stroller, was a dog. They explained to her that for sanitation purposes, they would not let an animal back. The lady pointed to me, holding Macie, and said, "You let that child go back there, this is my child, why not let us back?" Okay, lady, my child is HUMAN. What ever happened to living dogs home? When you walk in the door, they get so excited to see you, wagging their tail and yapping for you...is that no longer?

Julie Beck said something on Saturday, if we don't have children, who will? The world thinks a pet is okay. Less work. I don't want to offend people. I do understand that pets can fill a void in people's lives. That, I am totally cool with. Have your pets. I can see that they are special to you, and to a degree, part of the family. If I were a pet person, I would probably be loving my pet, too. I would make sure it was fed, clean, happy, and every need met. But, I wouldn't dress it up, take it with me EVERYWHERE I went, put it in a ridiculous stroller, and treat it like a human child. It's really just people with dogs. I have yet to see a cat in a dress!

If you have the option...why pick the pet? I hope that I didn't offend. Pets are great, they make people happy. That's great...it's the dressing them up and treating them as if they were an actual baby all day, everyday, that gets me. Dogs don't belong at church.