I must get something off my chest...

[Flyndaran]

Personally, I dislike "furbaby" as it sounds to close to furball and butt baby.

[Gilgamesh]

Joining a bit late, but...

Furbaby annoys me, but what I find worse is that some people want to think of my dog as my kid. I love him to bits, but I am not anyone's mother. He's a dog. He has a mom somewhere, and let me tell you, she's a real bitch ...

Seriously, I understand that some people want to treat their pets (almost?) as children, but I don't [want to treat them like that]. Please, don't tell me my dog misses his mommy, or that my baby wants to kiss me. He's a family member of sorts, but to treat him as a human would easily become animal abuse, because "baby just neeeeeeeeeeds cake when mommy and daddy eat it" (I bet a bone would go down better).

[Saydrah]

Okay, y'all saw me coming into this thread a mile away....

I use the term furbaby occasionally. I do call my pets my "kids." I don't want human kids, so there's no confusion there. No, the pets are not humans, and yes, people who think their pets ARE humans are doing them a big disservice. You're not going to get anywhere trying to housebreak a dog with a pie chart, any more than you could toilet train a kid by sprinking another kid's pee on a bush outside to motivate the child to scent mark. But I don't think just calling your pets "kids" automatically means somebody really thinks they are the same as humans.

For example, what else am I going to say when I come home and greet all the animals? "Hi, pets?" "Hi, all?" "Hi, kids!" just seems more natural, same with "Goodnight, kids," at night. I do call myself a pet parent, not an owner, most of the time-- though I have no problem with the term owner.

And yes, my dog Gus is "baby, kiddo, honey," all the cute nicknames, and I do call myself his mom and SO his dad. "Give dad the ball," or "Where's your dad," are phrases he understands.

Honestly, I don't really care if it bothers people-- It's kind of like a qualifier to me. If someone gets on my case about saying something like, "Well, I have to get home, the furkids are probably missing me," I know they're not really worth developing a friendly relationship with for me, because they're also not going to understand if I have to cancel attending a party because I have a sick rat or something like that. My pets are important to me, and anybody who doesn't grok that isn't really going to like me much.

And yes, family comes first for me too. My human family is number one. My niece especially. But between a human I've never met and the dog I've had since literally the instant he was born (I helped deliver his litter), the dog is my priority every time.

[Cat]

*hides face in embarrassment* I refer to my cats as the furbabies (amongst other not so friendly names when they fight or get sick on my bed) and my mother actuall called them the grandcats.