Valley Voice
October 2012
11
Mister Helpful’s Dating Guide
Pets and Dating
It’s all about your Happiness
By Mr. Helpful, M.D.
Pets are a great way to get to know your date. A Pet is the most common day to day relationship that a person can have without it being another person. So how people treat or interact with their pet shows everyone just what kind of a person they are on a daily basis. Everyone has a different idea of what is a “Pet.” 1. Favorite family member that they can’t live without for more than 5 minutes 2. Like a roommate that has been around for years 3. Just that fur ball I feed once a week 4. Other lesser variations That being said, look at how YOU talk to and treat your pet. Answer truthfully because everyone else knows already. Are you always doing the Baby Talk voice to your pet? Do you always HAVE TO do the Baby Talk voice? Are you nutz? I’m sure you love your pet, but are you more interested in humans or animals? Come on, don’t be so cynical, humans can be nice sometimes. What about your Date’s interaction with their Pet. What do you notice? What kind of person do they become when their pet is around? Different, slightly different, completely different? How much attention do they give their pet when you are in the room? We’re just talking about Dating here, but if you are crazier for and about your pet instead of the human date standing in your bedroom, you might want to reconsider ... things. Can you be away from your pet and be WITH a date? Physically, mentally, emotionally as well? For how long? Yeah I know you have to feed your pet, I’m not a monster. But, do women get a dog as an unconscious substitute for a child? Do men keep fish or reptiles as a link to their “childhood control and darker slithering boy” issues? I’m just asking here, can you date with the pet you have? Or are you toooo attached to the Pet/Owner
relationship? I ask these things both in jest and in all seriousness. Is there room for someone new in your life? Can you date someone who doesn’t like your type of pet? Can you date someone who has a different pet than you? These are considerations that sometimes don’t come up until it’s too late. Knowing yourself and your multilayered preferences are an important part of Dating. My friend Heather told me of her one date with a bird owner. They met at a yoga retreat and she invited him to her town for the following weekend. Her date drove 3 hours for a potential overnight romantic tryst and when he got out of the car, he reached back in and brought out his pet bird in a very large cage. Think for a moment how you yourself might react to seeing something so very unexpected. Heather was a gracious host and invited her date and his pet into her home for the weekend. Certainly a first for Heather, she learned more about that bird than she cared to remember. That bird, loudly, became the center of attention for the 15 hours of the date. She did tell me that romance was certainly lost the very moment the bird cage came out of the car. Mostly that this guy FAILED to mention that he was going to be bringing his “talking friend.” Who required, nay, demanded everyone’s attention if the conversation went elsewhere. So every few minutes for the entire weekend, the bird reminded them that he was in the room. A romance killer for sure.
Find Mister Helpful’s Dating Guide on Facebook, hit the LIKE button and read the expanded versions of this column. Up next from Mr. Helpful – Tell the Truth.
Deadline for new submissions October 18th 2012
What is your level of attention you give to your pet when people are talking to you? Can you give a small amount of attention to your pet and yet still be respectful to the person and conversation already in progress? Or do you completely break away from the human being and go into snuggle snuggle yumyums for my little baby boy, yes you are, my little baby boy. Mommy loves you, where’s your toy? Get the toy, go get it, go get it. It’s over there, by the door, get the toy. OH good boy, good boy!!
submit to: paulie@yampavalleyvoice.com
I ask this because my very own wonderful mother will
Moving Colorado and Routt County Forward Steve Ludwig Diane Mitsch Bush University of Colorado Regent
Colorado House
Jessica Garrow
Tim Corrigan
(CD 3 district)
District 1
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Colorado Senate
be chatting with me on the phone and she will then start talking to the cat as if the cat will understand the logical reason for her, the cat, to please not do that thing that it is doing at that moment. Yes I get to listen to a 40 second, one sided conversation my mom is having with her cat. If I were having that same phone chat with someone I wanted to date and they started to do that, a click in my head would alert me to the fact that I am now chatting with someone who has turned a dark corner. My wonderful mother has only one cat these days. I have two. I love my Mom and hope to one day introduce her to someone I love. Most likely that person will also like cats; just not in a crazy cat lady way.
Routt County Commissioner
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