Oh, Gotta Love Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_re_us/us_fea_pets_ap_poll_psychology

Having retired two long-term relationships due to this sort of namby-pamby feelgoodishness regarding how pets "listen," take my below observation with a grain of salt. I have one thing to say to the type of woman depicted in the picture with this story:

Lose some weight, maybe he'll pay more attention to you.



J

Keywords being "A lot of times, I'm just venting....complaining...."

Nag! I wouldn't want to listen to that shit either.

My thought would be her pets listen better than her husband because she cannot handle two sided conversation. Love to hear yourself talk much??

Meh.

Being a big girl myself, here's my grain of salt: I don't think it has anything to do with her weight. She didn't say her husband doesn't pay attention to her. She just said if the pets are "around when she's venting" type thing. Double standards are everywhere though I suppose. You have to be so so height, so so weight to be worth anything. <shrug>

The comments are the only thing I read on the article....one said it best....

"you can be talking to your pet, but is does not mean it is listening....or something like that.

half-assed ftw

I talk to my cats. I have no expectation that they listen, but they're certainly empathetic. That's the point this article fails to make...we're all animal by nature and can communicate on a variety of levels...levels that spouses tend to ignore as familiarity and indifference grow--the same things that folks tend to complain about in their spouse's attentiveness.

With indifference grows apathy, and in most cases, the desire to stay svelte. An animal doesn't provide a human being with a desire to look good or stay attentive to listening themselves--they're just non-judgmental.

Judgment implies caring enough to judge.

And I'm back to my nutrisystem...heh.

J