[QUOTE=Olivier]
I feel the same way. Very well said. I feel the same way.

I completely agree with you. There are a lot of valid points and a lot of different options on a thread like this. What is boils down to is that everyone has to do what they feel is right for them and their family.

??? Wow What a statement@!!!
 

Well, As Much as I LOVE MY SILK :rolleyes: .. If any one of my 3 children were to become so badly allergic & my child is suffering .. Than I would give silk up .. Lucky I dont think this will happen to me .. & if that does happen I have a secondary home (with my sister) should for any reason silk or tabby (my cat) have to be re-homed Silk is a frequent vistory to my sisters home and she has agreed if anything were to happen to me or my situation change she's more than happy to take BOTH my pets to ensure a happy health home for them ;) ... I would seriously consider meds before any such thing as giving him up came into the picture :thumbup: .

As a reponsible PARENT I owe it to my children to look out for the best interest & health. And take the time to expose my child to the type and breed of animal I wish to aquire BEFORE I bring it home to stay :thumbup:

As a responsible PET owner I owe It to my pet to Do research BEFORE I bring the dog,cat,gold fish,ferret or what have into my home and make such a serious commitment and think for the future if I have children what happens to my pet ??? :confused: , proper planning before you get a pet can go a long way for all family members involved :thumbup: .

I am sorry for cody :( , but as a parent I dont think I could watch my newborn baby suffer :( , if I have done all I can do .I would invest time and effort to make sure cody got a wonderful forever home :) .

every reply made had valid points and honestly we dont know what we would do until we have to make those kinds of choices. i hope my post wasn't mean and i would never want to offend anyone. but i do have a soft spot for kids...... this was a very good thread. people voiced their opinion all diff and valid and nobody was rude or attacking. i posted a thread a few weeks ago asking if it was ok for little dogs to play with big dogs and lets just say it got a little ugly... almost made me not want to ask any more questions....glad this outcome was diff.....

Okay. Kids only ruin SOME things.
 

I'm sorry if I offended anyone by the title of the post. As you can tell, I don't have human kids, no kidding!
I don't know the parents at all. I only know the people who are temporarily watching Cody, and even they seemed sad and upset about Cody's parents' decision. And you guessed it! We're all childless!
Meeting Cody last night just struck a chord in me. His temporary owner who was watching him said it was sad, because they drove by Cody's old neighborhood on the way somewhere, and Cody started wagging his tail, getting all excited, because he thought he was going home. It was sad. I imagined Otis doing the same thing and never seeing him again, and I got all weepy.
<--------------Look at that cute face.

Interesting to see the childless posters' views are so different from the people who have kids.

Anyway, I've always been more partial to dogs than kids. Maybe that will change some day.

Its is funny that you said this. I love dogs so much I am not sure I ever want to have a kid because I am afraid something like that might happen. I agree that I would try to see if the kid can be on some sort of medicine for the allergy. I really hope this never happens to me because I plan on having one kid one day.

It was really interesting to read people's reactions to this one .

Let's all hope all us Yorkie parents will NEVER have to face that decision. And as some have said, allergies can develop at ANY TIME. I can't even eat lobster anymore, out of the blue. :(

It is very hard to say what one will do until you are at that point. Poor Cody, I hope that he finds a new home where his former parents will still visit.

When my son was 6 we found a stray cat and my son became allergic everytime he was near it. His eyes would swell up , face turn red nose was stuffy. We decided to try and find another family for the cat.My son loved this cat and would never put it down even though he looked miserable. I knew the cat was not going to stay so I let my son continue to hold the cat that week. Well, my son had a terrible cough by day five and I took him to the doctor. It turns out my son had developed pnemonia from this constant contact from the cat. It was a very scarey week with high fevers and trouble getting a breath. I will never let my son around animals that are obviously making him sick. There is just no comparison to your child and your animal. Luckily my son is not allergic to our dogs!

Ouch! This is a touchy subject. While I love my yorkies, dearly, my children come first in my life. It is a responsibility as a parent to first look after and take care of their children. Sure, there are medications to control allergies but is it fair to keep a child medicated until:

A) The dog goes to rainbow bridge due to old age

or

B) My child moves out on his/her own

Sorry, but I can't justify keeping my child on medications for a dog allergy just so that I could keep my yorkies. Luckily, my children are allergy free and I really feel for those families that have children that aren't so lucky. :( You're children's safety and well being are more important...JMHO.

Besides, what are the long term affects from being on medication all of the time? It could take years and years but I'm sure that something would come out of all of it.

I hope that no one ever has to make that decision. It is a hard one to have to decide. No one wins in that situation. :(

Boy am I glaD MY KIDS ARE ALL GROWN. One of my son-in-laWS is allergic to dogs. It's the dogs dander that people are allgeric to not the shedding. Get rid of my dogs? I should say not... lol. Kids are always telling me i treat my furbabies better than them . they are all spoiled rotten every babie i have.

wow so many different views here. i got to tell ya, i had a very small dog before i had my first born. that dog was a one person dog. me and him. well the day i brought my baby home from the hospital that dog wanted to attack the bassinette. i was afraid he would get in there in the middle of the night. so the dog went. it was either the baby or the dog. that was nearly 35 yrs ago.
now???? the situation has changed.
if my son were visiting and couldn't get along with my dog i would have to kick the son out. LOL

I only wish my ex-mother-in-law were allergic to my dogs. I would have owned a kennel of dogs. ONLY JOKING! :rolleyes:

:lol tears :lol tears yeah, I'll probably change my mind someday too!!!!!

As someone who has Asthma...I can tell you from first hand experience...that "drugs" do not always work...and I have had several hospital bills to prove it. Unfortunately, some people are under the impression that "being allergic"...only refers to topical symtoms, i.e., sneezing or watery eyes. In actuality....severe allergies that lead to "Asthma", or narrowing of the brochial tubes, and can cause someone to actually die. Nothing is worse than gasping for breath and not being able to breathe. Long term exposure to the allergen also permanently damages the lining of the brochial tubes, making them less and less efficient. It's like drowning...very slowly...

. I would NEVER wish that on an another human being...much less an innocent child. If I even heard of someone keeping a pet in a household with a severely allergic child...I would call DCFS...and report them for Child Abuse.

We all cherish our pets...but I think any reasonable, logical person would concede that they do NOT replace humans beings. And I wonder just how fast the word "disposable" would be redefined, were you lying in your bed struggling to breathe and wondering if you would die that day.


Francie

In all fairness, I only heard that the baby developed an allergic rash; nothing more. They didn't mention any breathing problems or asthma.

I was given a maltese when I was 14 years old, she was my baby, named her Baby even. When I was 22 I had my first child. Well I insisted that things would not change. But they do. The moment I walked in the door with my first newborn baby, the dog became my pet for the first time ever. There were adjustments we all had to go through. It is a very different feeling. I can almost guarantee that no one would want their child to be drugged all the time to keep a pet in their family. It would be a very sad situation. But I do not agree with people giving their dog up just because they have a baby and are overwhelmed or something. I get very upset when people say they just don't have time for the dog anymore or blah blah blah. BUt If the dog is making the child sick that is different.

[QUOTE=ldenise]wow so many different views here. i got to tell ya, i had a very small dog before i had my first born. that dog was a one person dog. me and him. well the day i brought my baby home from the hospital that dog wanted to attack the bassinette. i was afraid he would get in there in the middle of the night. so the dog went. it was either the baby or the dog. that was nearly 35 yrs ago.
now???? the situation has changed.
if my son were visiting and couldn't get along with my dog i would have to kick the son out. LOL


That's exactly how I felt with a baby and a dog AND how I feel with an adult child and a dog! Absolutely the same to the letter!

Not offended!
 

Junebug, we were married 7 years before we had our only child. During all that time I loved dogs a lot more than children. I went so far as to be annoyed by the thought that in an emergency I would have to be more concerned over the wellfare of a "snotty nosed" child than the wellfare of my beloved pooch. But perspectives really do change when parenthood hits. I still love dogs, and I adore my new baby yorkie Susan, but I can't imagine thinking more of her than ANY child no matter how bratty, dirty or unattractive. (Though I certainly prefer her company over that of a lot of kids!) I think probably most people were not offended by anything you said. Probably most people who have been through the situation just remember the transition. You can't imagine how you'll feel when the change comes. But there's something about a helpless human infant who you know is YOUR responsibility to protect and who you also know will grow into an adult who will hold you somewhat accountable for your treatment of him/her as an infant. It may be corny, but it's a fact of life.

From a breeders perspective, this is why we try to be so careful about placement. If choosing between a young couple and an older one done having kids. Older couple gets pup. Sounds unfair, but my first loyalty is to the puppy, not the people. Stability is a factor.
That all being said, I have placed puppies with younger couples. My lifetime return policy will allow them a measure of comfort if they have to someday make this hard choice. I hope that I have been careful enough in making selections that people wouldn't just be dumping the dog at the first sign of a rash, but would check all other possible causes before deciding to give up the dog.

Before my kids, I raised and showed Persian Cats. DS #1 was fine. DS #2 was ill to the point of almost monthly hospitalization the 1st 4 years of his life. I never even gave the cats a thought. At age 3 he was diagnosed w/ severe allergic asthma, but at that point too young to be tested. I began 'reducing' my cat numbers by having everyone fixed so no more kittens, giving some to other show breeders/friends. Finally when he was 6 we discovered he was allergic to every animal except dogs, all grasses, trees, plants (except 3). I then took another 2 years to find the perfect forever home for my last 3 cats. It broke DS's heart, but has given him a life without breathing treatments every 3 hours night/day 365 days/yr.

It is a very tough decision to make.

I agree yes I love my dog to death, but when it comes down to it there are some choices a parent has to make. We had to put a dog to sleep because of how it acted with my kids, he bit them (more than once) and could not be a rescue. It was like when the kids came something in his head snapped and he became so mean even to us. That was the first time I ever saw my husband really cry- as a parent you do what you have to do.

I'm not 100% sure that I want kids to begin with, but I can speak from my brother's experience. He has a big dog who is not an "outside" dog (whatever that is). I swear, this dog was my brother's BABY. He carried all 50lbs of this dog around like a baby and would sing to him, coddle him, the works...

My brother and my sister-in-law had a baby boy at the end of June and I swear that the dog has NO IDEA what's going. Its truly sad.

If I had a human baby in the next few years and s/he was allergic to Stewie, I'm not sure what I would do, but I cannot imagine giving Stewie up. He OWNS me.

Pets are not disposable and should not be given up at the whim of an owner. Making the decision to get a pet is a BIG deal -- you can even plan for it -- its not like they just fall into your lap like human babies sometimes do. Accidents happen.

If my human baby developed a rash, I would do my best to keep him/her away from my furbaby. If breathing problems developed and it seemed nearly impossible to have both, I would give Stewie to someone close to me so I could still see him and would know that he is OK (but I would probably wish that I could give away the kid. Let's face it -- I don't like kids ;) ).

Oh God...how awful! What a tragedy...it must have been a very sad time for you and your husband. Sometimes...we're not given choices.

Such an interesting thread.....
and I am not about to say anything that hasn't already been said... but I wanted to put my two cents in.

I am single - no kids. I didn't even have to give it a second thought - blood family first. I love my little Otis...but I would never put his needs before the needs of my own flesh and blood. This doesn't mean giving him away without a thought... it just means that IF it absolutely came down to it - it would have to be done. Hard to actually DO..but not a hard CHOICE.