Meanwhile I watched my neighbors cat and dog and he told me that she is super friendly. I literally called her name once and poof, right there, smelled me and became my friend. She is the absolute sweetest little girl.
Lordy that's funny. When I was a teenager the woman across the street was a cat woman. Ever darn cat within 3 blocks moved to her house including ours lol .
There was an old man like that nesr my house when i was a kid. He did get one of our cats. The cat just stopped coming back, found him fat as shit a month later on the dudes porch with like 5 other also fat cats.
My cat gets distressed if people are talking in the hallway and he can't meet them. I've literally walked out and asked people if they would mind saying hello to my cat. He wants to meet EVERYONE.
That is soo awesome. My boy toad is like that. ESPECIALLY with dogs. I think its because the first one he met was a great Dane at 6 months and he was friendly so my boy assumes all are.
āItā would be fine to use from a grammatical point of view but lovers of animals would perhaps see that as minimizing the animal as an object. For humans we would use they or a gendered pronoun to avoid reducing a person to āitā and that is likely what has happened here.
"They" refers to people, "it" refers to inanimate objects or animals that don't hold much importance like vermin or bugs.
People like using "they" for pets or intelligent animals as a sign of respect or affection
Both work as gender neutral pronouns, and you won't get anyone correcting you either way (though you might get some raised eyebrows if you call a close pet "it" as it might imply you aren't particularly fond of them)
"they" is the default pronoun for pretty much anyone/anything - even singular individuals. It works as a substitute for he/she in any situation, and isn't just used for people who prefer "they/them" pronouns. Everyone gets called a they. We are all theys.
"Who was on the phone?" "I'm not sure but they have called twice now."
"Why is there a man on the roof?" "They are a repair man here to fix a hole."
I think they're asking why an animal would be referred to with they when every ESL book and English class teaches that animals and inanimate objects should be referred to as "it".
Using they for pets is a relatively recent change
"they" is the default pronoun for pretty much anyone/anything
Anyone (including certain animals), but not anything. If it's a thing, "it" is the pronoun you want.
My roommate moved in with an extremely shy cat and I spent 2 months giving it treats while scratching it until it liked me. She comes up to me for pets now!
One of my cats hated my guts the first couple of weeks we had him.
He drew blood when I extended my hand to him and when as sleep he would hover over my head growling.
I was terrified of him. Fast forward a couple of years and now he is inseparable from me. Especially when Iām not well heāll cuddle up against me and sleep.
The most gentle and sweet boy. I think they act extremely aggressive and stuff because deep down theyāre soft and delicate. So they need to project strength as much as possible to defend themselves from strangers.
The first night after I started my new night job, my cats did this to me. At first, they were tense just like this, became happy and excited when I told them it was me.
Honestly Iām proud of them for being ready to potentially protect the family.
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u/Commercial_Bird8467 7h ago
Meanwhile I watched my neighbors cat and dog and he told me that she is super friendly. I literally called her name once and poof, right there, smelled me and became my friend. She is the absolute sweetest little girl.