This is a little late (meant to post before the holidays), but good nonetheless.
Almost every time my wife and I take our three rather large dogs (Diva's pictured, as puppy, to the left) to a friend or family member's house, I grapple with whether or not I really want to deal with them (the dogs, not the people.) They can be a lot of hassle and work, but in the end, they usually win. So I try to be as considerate as possible to our hosts, though it's not always the easiest thing to do. This New York Times article has some entertaining stories and tips about taking your pets on vacation with you, especially on holidays to friends' or relatives' houses. And though I do refer to my dogs as members of my family, I hope I'm not nearly as extreme as some of the owners in the story. An excerpt:
Difficult guests are no longer limited to humans. The boundaries between humans and animals have been so eaten away by pet therapists, pet designer outfits and pet bar mitzvahs, that it has reached a point where devoted owners, who treat their animals as privileged children, lose all perspective on the pet’s role in their social lives.
More American households have pets than ever — 68.7 million of them in 2006, according to a new survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, up 12.4 percent from 2001.
Among dog owners, 53.5 percent considered their pets to be members of the family, the survey found. For cats, the number was 49.2 percent.
And the term “family member” should not be used lightly. Ari Henry Barnes, who works in a New York law firm, is so devoted to his cat, Romeo, that he wipes the animal’s behind every time he does “a stinky boom boom.”
Many four-legged family members are routine travelers.
Derek Welsh, the president of www.bringyourpet.com, a “pet-friendly” hotel and lodging directory, estimates the number at roughly 10 million a year.
“If you do get a green light, bring a lot of treats for both your dog and the human host.”
Yay! Finally, some scientific evidence to show that it's not my fault that I can't find anything in the fridge or cupboard until I ask my wife! This terrific article at the UK's Daily Mail offers scientific explanation for:
- why men can't find anything they're looking for around the house (hint: it has to do with men's primordial hunting skills and biology.)
-why men wait until the last minute to do their holiday shopping (hint: it has to do with men's primordial hunting skills and biology. We go for the kill and then go home.)
- why women are good at wrapping Christmas presents and men aren't (hint: it has to do with men's primordial hunting skills and biology. Our eyes are better suited for long-range tunnel vision, good for sighting prey.)
- why women are better at multitasking than men (hint: it, um... doesn't have to do with hunting)
I'm sure you're mostly wondering why us guys can't find things around our homes when we need them. According to the article (excuse the Britishism "Sellotape"),
"Men sometimes feel that this is a trick and accuse women of always hiding things from them in drawers and cupboards.
At Christmas, the list of things that men 'can't find' is seemingly endless - they can't find the Sellotape, or the scissors, or the ribbon, and, now they think about it, they're not really sure where the presents have got to either.
They're all there, they just can't see them. Men don't just say this to cause a festive feud - there is actually a scientific reason why they can't find things.
As a nest-defender, a woman has brain software that allows her to have an arc of at least 45 degrees clear vision to each side of her head and above and below her nose. This was needed to keep an eye out for potential predators.
A man's eyes are larger than a woman's and his brain configures them for a type of long-distance tunnel vision, which means that he can see clearly and accurately directly in front of him and over greater distances, almost like a pair of binoculars - useful in times gone by for tracking down prey, but not so helpful when it comes to finding things in cupboards.
The female hormone oestrogen also prompts nerve cells to grow more connections in the brain and makes it easier for a woman to identify matching items in a drawer, cupboard or across a room and later remember objects in a complex random pattern - such as where the ribbon is in relation to the Sellotape in the cupboard.
New research suggests that male brains are usually searching for the word to go with an item, so if the tub is facing the wrong way and he cannot read the label, he virtually can't see it.
This is why men move their heads from side to side and up and down as they scan for a 'missing' object."
Now men have a good reason for frustrating their girlfriends and wives by not being able to find things!