That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
...and so will the cat. (Sorry, Claire.) From AOLnews:
Medical researchers have long shown that contact with pets can often help both the physically and mentally ill. But now, veterinary scientists say sleeping with your pets increases the chances of contracting everything from parasites to the plague.
Diseases that travel between animals and humans are called zoonoses, which has to be among the greatest words ever.
But zoonoses, apparently, are a lot more dangerous if you sleep with your pet:
For example:
- A 9-year-old boy from Arizona got the plague because he slept with his flea-infested cat.
- A 48-year-old man and his wife repeatedly contracted MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which their physicians eventually attributed to their dog. The animal "routinely slept in their bed and frequently licked their face," the California experts reported.
Kissing pets can also transmit zoonoses. A Japanese woman contacted meningitis after kissing her pet's face.
But disease can easily be transmitted by your pet kissing you. The study cited cases where a woman died of septic shock and renal failure after her cat, with whom she slept, licked open sores on her feet and toes. In another case, a 44-year-old man died of infection after his German shepherd puppy licked open abrasions on his hands.
To which I reply: I don't care. My magnificent dog, Illy, who is pictured above in her favorite location -- the beach in Santa Barbara -- and in her favorite pose -- staring intently at a tennis ball -- is going to climb up on my bed at some point in the night, whether I want her to or not. And the risk of zoonotic infection (which is impossible to say without laughing) is just something I'm going to have to deal with, along with the risk of everything else, like the cigar I'm probably going to smoke this afternoon, and the text that I'll send at some point this week, from the car, while driving.
Yes, yes. I know. But there's something so simpering and fearful about all of these "risk" avoidance articles. It's all part of what I call the Bicycle Helmet Culture we're all a part of -- and I know that bike helmets are officially Good Things, but I also can't help thinking that there's something increasingly small-minded, risk-averse, and fearfully paralyzed by a culture that keeps trying to sand the edges off of life.
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Dec '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Honestly, I don't care if your dog kills you. He/She's your dog, he/she's your problem. You pays your money, you takes your chances.
Now, don't take that to mean that I don't care if you die, Rob, far from it, I just mean that it's your choice to have a dog inside, so you assume the risks that go with that. Seems simple to me.
This is why I was so vehemently opposed to socialized medicine in the US, because of the logic that inevitably follows.
I don't care if your dog might kill you, so long as I don't have to pay your doctor bills.
Just like you wouldn't care if I ended up in a little ball inside a race car somewhere, so long as you didn't have to pay for my subsequent un-balling.
You assume the risk for your choices, I assume the risk for mine, and everybody lives a happy (and hopefully fairly long) life.
When you pay for me and I pay for you, then everyone wants a say in what we do, and freedom is effectively extinguished.
Jul '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
"I also can't help thinking that there's something increasingly small-minded, risk-averse, and fearfully paralyzed by a culture that keeps trying to sand the edges off of life."
That, Sir, is as apt a statement as I have seen in a long time. Well put, for a funny guy.
I am unalterably opposed to the relentless silly anthropomorphism that pervades our society. It is a sign of a decadent and profoundly unserious culture. Pets should not sleep on beds! The only thing worse is our apparently incessant need to fret about every goofy detail of life.
I blame both on the feminization of the culture. (duck!)
Dec '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Since I was in high school, I have marveled at the risk averse nature of most people. They go about their lives almost paralyzed by fear.
Every time I see a kid riding his bike wearing knee, shin, and elbow pads, a helmet, and wrist braces, I feel sorry for him. The poor little feller probably avoids his bike as much as he can because it takes half an hour to put all that crap on, and then he can hardly walk (much less ride the bike) once it's there.
I run machine tools at my shop every day that could kill me. I used to race stock cars, which make contact with one another, and concrete pretty often. Any one of those crashes could have kill me. When I was in school, I had many classes that involved high explosives. Make a big enough oopsie with those, and I'd have been pinkish cloud of vapor. And sometimes, when I make the 2.1 mile trip from my shop to my home, or vice versa, I don't wear my seatbelt. That could kill me too, if I ran into a cow or something.
I could also get hit by a meteorite tomorrow . . . which could kill me (or, I suppose, make me rich and semi-famous for a bit).
When people come into my shop or see the race cars, they are always incredulous that I'd take such risks.
But there's the rub. I've done a lot of things in my life, many of them very risky, but I'm still here. And, I would further say that I have greatly enjoyed the portion of my life already lived. From my point of view, the risk:reward ratio has been very low indeed.
Edited on Jan 24, 2011 at 5:56pmDec '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
"Cat-to-human transmission is pretty rare. The more common route for the transmission of toxoplasmosis is undercooked meat. So if you're worried about it, keep the cats and stop eating the other animals (or cook them better). "
I never eat a rodent that's less than well-done, and always avoid eating their brains.
"And needless to say, don't eat out of the litter box."
NOW you tell me! But those toxoplasmosis parasites do change rodent behavior. It's like what M. Night Shyamalan was going for in The Happening....
Edited on Jan 24, 2011 at 6:07pmMay '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
~Paules: It's precisely because Native Americans had no domestic livestock that they were susceptible to European diseases.
Can you provide citations/links? I've never heard that.
Jul '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Rob, this is another side of you. I suspect you put up this post simply as an excuse to show us a picture of your dog.
And I like you all the better because of it.
Sep '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Yeah! And didn't they recently determine that walking in dirt as a child builds your antibodies or something? Everything fun and warm and silly is right off the cliff with these people.
May '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
How does this compare to the various things that can go wrong sleeping with other humans?
Aug '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
When I was growing up, we had a cat that my brothers and I called Suzy Creamcheese (after a Zappa song), but that was known to my father by the disparaging moniker "Toxoplasmosis." As in: "Toxoplasmosis, get the **** off my chair." My family adopted a dog a couple of years ago, and one of my great pleasures has been witnessing the transformation of my wife into a dog person, who lets Biscuit sleep with my daughter and even permits him on our bed on occasion. I am often amused by these stories with sensational headlines. Then you read the story and find that the fatality was a guy who took a dog in off the street, and the dog defecated on the guy's hernia incision, or some such.
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Kenneth: Rob, this is another side of you. I suspect you put up this post simply as an excuse to show us a picture of your dog.
And I like you all the better because of it. · Jan 24 at 6:13pm
It was shameless, I admit.
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Right. Well, there's that. You want to avoid that at all costs.
Aug '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
When I read the article I couldn't help thinking, maybe the problem isn't having the cat on the bed. Maybe the problem is that the guy allowed his cat to become infested with fleas!!!
Hellooooooo...
Aug '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
Speaking of surprisingly evil cat behaviour:
http://www.cracked.com/article/226_6-adorable-cat-behaviors-with-shockingly-evil-explanations/
Aug '10
Re: That Dog in Your Bed Will Kill You
You named your dog "Biscuit".
Am I the only one who thinks that is really, really sad?
;-)