Fun Fact: Americans spend more money on pets in a year than Germany spends on its entire defense budget.
Damn right we do! Let’s face it… animals are better 
than people. There’s no chance Fido is going to hit on your husband and tell your mutual friends that he plans to grab his ass and pretend it was an accident. I doubt Lady Meowington gives a shit if you roll out of bed with Cheeto dust in your hair because you haven’t bothered to shower for a few days. She’d probably like you even more.
People suck. So… go on friends. Go out and buy a heated pet bed. Some specialty food. Spend $200+ dollars on a tree your cat is going to rip to shreds. A pink tutu for your dog. Okay, don’t do that last one. Dogs shouldn’t be in tutus. Seriously… don’t. You copy?
(I have an off topic question – have any of you gone from wordpress.com to .org? Did you have issues? Did you lose your followers? Comments? Do you still have access to the WP Reader? Yes, I’m slow and terrible with computers. Help a girl out!)
The Shameful Sheep 
Whenever I see one of my FB friends going on and on about raising money because little Toto is sick, I seriously have to wonder if they would ever do that for me.
Doubtful. Sad, isn’t it? I know my friends wouldn’t. So I guess I’m perpetuating the ‘animals>people’ fundraisers. It’s a vicious cycle lol
I guess. I don’t know. I mean, a lot of people do suck, I’ll give you that. Still, sometimes the lengths I see people go to for their pets makes me wonder.
My dog has a dress with a tutu attached.
In fact, she has a whole little trunk full of clothes. She is a teacup yorkie…how does one NOT dress a cute tiny dog that stays forever like a cute stuffed puppy?
Yes, I hear your sighs of exasperation and can feel the judgemental eyes directed toward me, but I’m just going to focus on her needs. She NEEDS coats and dresses and sweaters to keep warm and coordinating bows to keep her hair out of her eyes.
Signed,
crazy dog lady
Hahaha, I like your commitment. I can’t judge someone’s love for their pets. I’m the same way.
A pink, glittery dollar store tutu makes a fabulous “bandanna” for a black dog, though. Just sayin.
Ooo, I could see that. Nice idea lol
Makes people smile at her instead of crossing the street. 🙂
Haha yay. I’m a creeper who cheesy smiles at all dogs. I always wonder if that weird owners out. Oops lol
Creeper. But hey. Dogs are more important than people, anyway. Or at least more reliable. Plus more beautiful. Also they are good at catching rodents. I mean, what’s not to like?
Those antler things people attach to the heads of their critters are also very, very wrong.
Like the holiday headbands? Haha.
No tutu but I spend way more cash on my four cats than I’d care to admit. A sad fact is a few items on my Christmas Wish List this year were actually items I wanted for the cats LOL
Haha nice! That’s love right there.
You are the second person I ave heard who lost followers by moving. Looks like an issue they need to resolve PDQ.
As for feeding the dog.
Hmmm.
How do I put this.
Little lord fauntleroy eats better than I do.Biscuits with MEAT every single meal. I mean cooke meat, human meat like sausages or chicken or ham or mince or fish…..
OMG I need a word with myself…!
Do you do the meat cooking? Haha. I actually haven’t moved to self hosted yet. I’m worried I’m going to lose people, though. You’ve heard of that happening? Ugh
Certainly have although I don’t remember who….
As for the meat cooking, yes I cook the meat for my dog, Archie doesn’t do raw….;-)
Archie should get his own Tasty Tuesday segment haha
That might be plan…
If I tried the tutu thing Henry would slit my throat in the middle of the night. But he does have a monster of a cat tree. I tell people it’s to save the couch from the claws but he loves it and that’s good enough for me.
Right? Our cats have a huge tree too. For the claws, of course. Definitely the claws lol
I always wondered how people dressed up their cats. Mine would kill me! Well, not really they are more the slow burn type.
What’s the diff between wordpress.com and .org? Why would one care? Sorry, I just don’t know. I have my own url, bipolaronfire.com, in case ya wanna know. I think if you have your own url it doesn’t matter where you go. But I could be wrong. But your own url is COOL!
.org is self hosted so you can customize it more. And get your own domain lol. I’ve been meaning to do that, but figured I should wait in case I move to self-hosting anyways. It’s all so confusing for simpletons like myself
I am reading this: http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/ to learn more about it right now.
Thanks for the link! I read it. Very informative 🙂
It was. It kinda solved the mystery for me, like how people like The Bloggess are on WordPress, but they have their own ads. So there you go!
I think you are being a bit hard on people here, Blair. Most of us would never make our dogs suffer the indignity of a wearing a tutu. I, for instance, after taking my dog to the vet to have her ovaries removed, dressed her in a plain white T-shirt. Understated. Classic. And for her own good.
Lmao. Can’t go wrong with that classic look.
Animals really ARE better than people — but it’s not often that I actually hear someone else say it. Rock on! 🙂
Right? Woo! 🙂
I’m on the fence about dressing dogs. As for cats, I’m clear: no clothes! They’re clear, too.
I think a lot of dogs don’t mind wearing clothes. But cats…. Poor cats
I’m super glad that this post is about not putting your dog in a tutu because if you were just against tutu’s in general, I would have had to reevaluate this relationship. While dog’s should never be forced to wear a tutu, I on the other hand, am always looking for tutu wearing opportunities, which is difficult when you do not take ballet.
Haha. No, I’m for people and tutus. Definitely.
My cats say only dogs are foolish enough to engage in cross dressing.
Smart cats indeed haha
I moved from .wordpress to .me. I did it all through WordPress (the domain name came free when I paid for the premium thingy). I had a moment of panic when I switched it over, but to my surprise it was all fine. I didn’t lose any followers, and intact my stats have gone up, rather than down since I made the move. That could be some weird coincidence though. I did lose some sort of add on, but I didn’t have a clue how to use it
Awesome! Thanks for the info. I want to move, but am worried about something getting terribly messed up.
I hopped on here to read a few posts just before taking Puppy Cody for her annual vet visit. Between the exam, the shots, the blood work, the bag of prescription dog food, the prescription dog treats, and the heartworm medicine, I figure it’s going to run me about $250. But she’s so worth it. She gives me so much joy (and stuff I can write posts about, yay!). However, I have never put any of my dogs into any kind of clothing. I think any one of them would have bitten my face off if I tried.
As for WP.com vs WP.org, keep us posted on how that works out for you. I’ve considered switching, but having to maintain my own site would probably drive me bonkers. I’m happy to just write and let WP worry about the nitty gritty.
Cody is definitely worth it. I will keep you posted. I will probably switch just not sure how soon lol. It makes me semi nervous for some reason!
Love your up front, unpretentious writing style! It’s fun to read.
Thank you! I appreciate it 🙂
I’m one of those assholes who dressed up their dogs. I have a shit ton of Hallowe’en costumes for my weiner dog and had a velour one piece lounge suit for my pug.
Now I have kids, so I just torture them instead.
I can’t wait to have kids to torture. Sounds like a lot of fun
I was actually just talking about the .com vs. .org thing with someone yesterday. She’s already made the switch, and one weird thing is, if she leaves a comment on someone else’s blog, and you click on her name (hoping to go to her current self-hosted site), it still sends you to the old .com one.
Another thing is that she sort of “lost” the follow button haha. I was on her new site, and kept thinking I must be an idiot because the follow button wasn’t popping up. But I emailed her, and she said that other people were having the same issue. I’m not tech-savvy at all, so I’d have no clue how to fix something like that haha.
The clicking on her name and going to the website thing is because she needs to update the information on her gravatar profile, it was confusing for me for a while too. Jetpack by wordpress allows for the follow button. I’ve been self hosted since I started, the main issues I have is that you don’t get the ‘free’ traffic that .com generates through it’s hastagging and feed placement.
Thanks so much for the info! I’ll pass it along to her! That’ll be good for me to know too if I ever decide to self-host.
Can you still access the reader even if you don’t show up in the feeds? Thanks for your answer. I feel like an idiot making the transfer over lol
You show up in feeds if people follow you and yep I use the reader all the time no problem.
I don’t dress up my dog unless it’s winter and he’s freezing outside. But I do spoil him rotten in other ways. He’s definitely the easiest child! Good luck with maneuvering wordpress
Thank you 🙂
I’ve been self hosted since I started, it does have a learning curve and can be frustrating. The free themes are not as fancy as wordpress.com but you can find some good ones. For keeping followers it should work but I have heard of people having issues. The main thing is that getting new traffic does become a bit more difficult as the .com makes your blog easier to find to other bloggers and through use of hashtags, .org means you’re on your own (which I like). For example I had a .com site that had four followers in two weeks, my .org site took me two months to get that many followers (I wasn’t promoting either site and the content was the same).
It’s different but I think worth it because you can do whatever you want as long as you can figure it out. Jetpack by wordpress also makes things pretty handy and allows for comments etc. Being self hosted also feels more like I own the content, wordpress.com could (in theory) go out of business tomorrow and all this content would be lost, self hosted means that as long as I back up my data my content will always be there even if I have to change hosts.
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I like the idea of doing the self hosted thing. I don’t mind so much having to self promote. I’m mainly afraid of having some sort of issue and losing all of my current followers. The customizing makes me want to switch real bad though
Yeah that’s the one thing I can’t speak to, not sure how the followers will port over.
Thanks for answering the questions. I really appreciate it 🙂
“Americans spend more money on pets in a year than Germany spends on its entire defense budget.”
That’s because there are way more pets in America than there are Germans in Germany…or anywhere. Let’s face it, pets are just more cuddly.
That’s probably true lol. People are definitely more cuddly than Germans. Well, I guess more cuddly than people in general 🙂
I’m a cat person – part cat, part person – so I can’t speak to the dressing up dogs part of this post. But I did find the comments regarding .com vs .org very interesting.
Pets make good food sources during a zombie apocalypse
Mmmm true. Desperate times lol
yup, I think I would go for the ones with Tutus on running around first; most babied most tender. LOL
Probably over fed and extra plump too. Bonus lol
Can’t speak to the .com vs. .org thing … but the pet thing … well ….
I FUCKING LOVE CATS! And if anyone has anything bad to say about that I’m gonna claw your eyes out hater! Just kidding.
Anyways … We have two homemade cat clawing trees for our lovely little kitty bears and I make my own food for them from Dr. Lisa Pierson.
LINK: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood
The reason I got into making cat food is because my big fat Ted (our black cat) would hog down all his food so I couldn’t “free feed” him … and then I went down that internet rabbit hole of cat food nutrition. Ay carumba … now hubby and I our obligated in making the food for them. And they LOVE it. It’s not that hard. We’ve got it down to one hour per every 9-10 days.
Our cats sleep w/ us and follow us around like fur magnets. Love, love, love, love cats.
One time some human being told me she didn’t like cats. I actually had chest pain from that comment.
Love your posts, you keep ’em coming girl! 🙂
Did you make your own trees? I’ve thought of doing that, but I’m afraid I’m going to get halfway through and be lost with a huge mess on the floor lol. I haven’t done the home cooking of cat food yet. I have a feeling once I start to venture down that road, there’s no turning back. So I haven’t committed yet haha
My husband made one cat tree out of carpet & wooden posts, and two scratching posts: one made of a different tough carpet, and another made from a used mattress. I would never venture to make such things … they would be pathetic (and too much hard work!).
The diet thing came around because I felt guilty w/ my last cat feeding him dry food and finding out even the sh*ttiest canned cat food is usually better than dry kibble — cats need the moisture. They’re desert animals! Did you know that?
Cats evolved as desert animals, so their sense of thirst is not as well-developed as in other mammals. In fact, cats will only drink an average of two milliliters of water for every gram of dry food they eat.
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Cats were probably domesticated in the Middle East, in the Fertile Crescent around the time of the development of agriculture and then they were brought to Cyprus and Egypt. Cats’ feces are comparatively dry and their urine is highly concentrated, both of which are adaptations to allow cats to retain as much water as possible. Their kidneys are so efficient, they can survive on a diet consisting only of meat, with no additional water, and can even rehydrate by drinking seawater. Cats are obligate carnivores: their physiology has evolved to efficiently process meat, and they have difficulty digesting plant matter.
_________
I felt VERY guilty after my last cat died and when I got my new black cat a few years ago he ate differently than my previous cat. I couldn’t trust him with a bowl of dry food … he would eat it all up and sometimes barf. I went on the internet and began learning about cat nutrition … then I took that scary leap and made my own cat food.
It’s not that hard, but it’s an extra chore. I don’t have children, so I can spare the time to do this. I use all human grade ingredients: deskinned, deboned chicken thighs, chicken hearts and a bunch of vitamins & minerals I mix up in a cheap food processor that’s just for their raw food. One of the MOST important micronutrients that MUST be included for cats is the amino acid Taurine — without cats will lose their vision; this is why you can’t feed cats dog food — not enough Taurine, but you can feed dogs cat food!
Have I overloaded you w/ cat info for one day??? 😉
No, I can never have too much cat info haha. I didn’t know anything about them being desert animals. Interesting! I need to do more research. One of my cats does that with dry food too, so I can’t free feed. You’ve inspired me to look into making cat food and doing some research. It can’t be any more than I’m already spending anyway haha. Thanks 🙂
Dr. Lisa Pierson’s recipe is the one I use.
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe
I do NOT grind bones. I use the powdered bone meal instead. Husband cuts up the meat and I mix up all the “vitamin & mineral chemistry”.
When it’s all mixed up from the food processor, I spoon the mixture into plastic ice cube trays and freeze. I then get enough cubes to thaw out in my fridge, measure the amount on a scale at each feeding for each cat.
I’ve read that cats need 4-6 oz. of food per day — of course it depends on the nutrient density and quality of the food … but 4-6 oz. I do 1.5 to 2 oz., three times daily.
I boil water and add that to the raw meat, not much water but enough to make a slurry and to get more water into these desert animals! Neither one of my cats will drink water from a bowl! My other cat did … probably because he was trying to rehydrate all the time from the dry kibble. The vet told me he’d never be able to drink enough water to compensate for the effects of dry kibble.
Vets usually like it when you tell them you’re feeding your cat wet food, they usually frown on a raw meat diet thinking that most people are incompetent and going to kill their cats with salmonella depriving them of necessary nutrients.
I have been doing the raw food for about 3 years and my two cats are active with beautiful healthy coats, regular poops (no diarrhea EVER), large pee clumps, no “accidents”, no barfing EXCEPT for an occasional hairball (both have medium-long hair).
AND if you’re trying to save $$$, we get our clumping unscented litter online from chewy.com
Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Litter: https://www.chewy.com/cat/litter-accessories-410/dr-elseys
Comes straight to your door and has been the best bang for the buck we’ve found!
Can you tell I like cats??? 😉
Haha yes I can tell! That’s a good thing 🙂 thanks for the all the info. I’m going to look into it all!
Agreed…dressing animals seems silly to me. But I guess people do put coats on them in the cold? I have never done this either. I don’t know anything about the wordpress change myself? Sorry.
The coats in the cold are okay. But, the tutus or frilly ones are a little strange. Hey, to each his own I guess. As long as it’s not hurting them 🙂
Well that is a question though? Does wearing a coat make it harder for them to adapt to the cold weather? Wild animals don’t wear them, that’s what fur is for. But it’s a question for someone smarter than me to answer. ☺
I keep buying fancy collars for Minmin (my cat) who keeps losing them. And I have to consistently lie to my Mom about the cost. She probably wonders how people let me have cat collars so cheap. Or she’s just as bowled over by the cat 😛
Those cats are determined to get things off themselves lol. We tried to put a collar on our cat a long time ago. She kept backing up like she was stuck in something. I felt so bad haha.
I’m ‘liking’ this post just for the hilarious comments – as for animals dressed up as humans, People .. seriously. Now I know why taking four legged friends to the shrink is such a trend in the States – they’ve gone bonkers.
I think you’re right haha
Now, if your stat stated that Americans spent as much as the US does on its defense budget, I’d get REALLY worried, since that’s all our gov spends. Lol, sorry to drag in politics, but I’m just in transports of delight when I see my Mimiboo devour some fancy schmancy broth and chicken feast :). You deserve it, Mimiboo!
Yeah Mimiboo! I love that name haha
I call placing hats on dogs and posting pictures of it *dog humiliation*, and I love doing it. We spend a lot of money on them at a place called the veterinarian’s office. We have a room dedicated to our family and a parking spot with our name on it.
Can’t help with the .whatevers I’m a little technologically challenged myself.
I wish my vet would do that for us. How cool would that be lol. I at least deserve a sponsor plaque of some sort!
That’s what I meant, a sponsor plaque, but I’m being sarcastic—however, they may be making a new wing with the proceeds of our forced donations.
Haha whoops. I’m a bit slow at times
The price of decent animal food is cuh ray zee. We buy the good stuff because we learned from experience that cheap food leads to health issues (and ultimately more money spent at the vet than we would have spent on premium food).
Right? It’s ridiculous. One of our cats has allergies so we have to buy it. The cheap food is no good.
I’ve nominated you for an award: http://suburbanhobo.com/2016/01/27/sunshine-blogger-award/
Cool! Thank you 🙂
You’re welcome.
Another awesome post. I’m just imagining what would happen if I put Eli in a cat-size football jersey with his namesake’s (Eli Manning) number on it. He would probably rip it… and me to pieces! LOL…
Watch out for those claws 🙂
I don’t know that I’d spend that much on my kitty annually if he didn’t need prescription food. But…I’d rather not have him in the animal hospital with bladder stones again, so that’s that.
Those vet bills are a bitch lol
Sparta Puss says that only idiot dogs would allow themselves to be dressed up. Sparta Puss would rip your face off. I do everything she says.
Anything with ‘Sparta’ in their name demands to be listened to. I wouldn’t cross him either haha
Our cats were the center of our universe until we had kids. Now $700 to unplug a constipated cat seems like a ridiculous waste of money!
Wow, $700 to depoop a cat? Last time I had to do that it was around $100. The vet prices must be insane where you live!
Yup. We live close to a swanky neighbourhood (but not actually in it) and they like to up the bill with unnecessary bloodwork. The Keurig coffee is nice but not worth the extra $600!
My dog gets better drugs than I do — $40 every two weeks for Pheno Barbital. 1 pill in the morning and 2 at night. He drools in my face like an addict at precisely 8 PM every night, begging for his pills.
Wow. A junkie dog. Animals are so needy lol.
I think the cat is helping him get to the stash when I am not around. The bottle should be lasting at least a month….
Seems like a very cat-like thing to do. Hmmm….
Yeessssssssss. BTW, the cat is keeping my butt warm while I type right now. He won’t give up the chair.
Just don’t sit on him, okay? Haha
He was “moved” by the blast of lasagna fart and is now purring loudly in my lap. My lap is more comfortable than the chair, plus the chair does not stroke him behind his ears.
Plus the chair now smells like lasagna ass!
Hysterical 😂😂😂😂
Do you follow opinionated man? Jason has just gone to self hosting and as put up a post about it. I have also seen two other blogs do it and do some really good posts about it, if you want I am happy to link all three 🙂
I don’t follow him. Can you link me to them when you get a chance? No rush. Thank you so much 🙂
Its not a problem, I have them saved just incase I decide to go self hosting.
https://aopinionatedman.com/my-thoughts-on-moving-to-self-hosting-part-1/
http://www.theanxiousdragonsblog.com/2016/01/17/going-self-hosting-how-to-move-a-blog-to-wordpress-org/
https://itsgoodtobecrazysometimes.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/self-hosting/
Thank you! I appreciate it a lot 🙂 I’m going to look at them all now
when you are a rich and famous blogger remember me 🙂
Haha. One can dream. I will definitely remember you 😉
I can be pretty unforgettable, unfortunatly its normally for all the wrong reasons 😉
I like animals and I also like (most, but not all) people. But I totally agree, dogs should not wear tutus!!!!
Right? I always cringe when I see dogs wearing frilly things ! Haha