Please! Tell me you don’t let your pets sleep and cozy up with your children in bed. If your pets are sleeping with your kiddos you need to study up on infection control and read this post. Did you know cats and dogs carry C. diff? You may not be so worried me saying that until I tell you that Clostridium difficile, often called C. difficile or “C. diff,” is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon.
If that doesn’t worry you, then you should also know that dogs can carry the bird-flu virus. In general, humans who catch a humanized Influenza A virus aka bird-flu, usually have symptoms that include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, conjunctivitis, and, in severe cases, breathing problems and pneumonia that may be fatal.
Oh, I can’t forget to mention the ticks, fleas, and tapeworms. These vectors riding on your pets can carry a slew of infectious diseases that can cripple and slew you. (haha, slew and slew) Are you aware of the tick called the Dermacentor? Also known as the American dog tick, this tick has been shown to carry Lyme disease.
I am sure you don’t want your kids experiencing the symptoms associated with Lyme disease including loss of muscle tone on one or both sides of the face (called facial or “Bell’s palsy), severe headaches and neck stiffness due to meningitis, shooting pains that may interfere with sleep, heart palpitations and dizziness due to changes in heartbeat, and pain that moves from joint to joint. If I am right then don’t let your pets sleep with your children! I think I have said enough.
Just in case I haven’t convinced you on why you should not let your pets sleep with your children, hear me out on my biggest pet peeve (pun intended): The Cats Bathroom Ritual. Firstly, bare-pawed they walk onto their toilet (their litter box) that has been previously flushed (walked and danced on) by them covering up their ‘new business’ with their ‘old business’ and some Fresh Step Scoopable Cat Litter (smell should be your last concern, but isn’t that nice?).
After they are done defecating and micturating (pooping and peeing) in their chamber pot, they proceed to do the kitty box two-step (I suspect this is the cats feeble attempt to the equivalent of humans wiping themselves). That is like us wiping our butts with our hands! Yuck!
The part of the the cats whole bathroom routine the really disgusts me is the last step. After they step out of their sewer box, they proudly trod around your homestead, into you kid’s bedroom, hop onto Johnny’s bed and proceed to bread knead his pillow with their disease ridden paws. Need I really say more?
Your pet needs its own bed. Clearly! A pet bunk bed will allow your pet to be at the same level or height as your kiddos bed when the pet is on the top bunk. This will help your kiddo and the pet with the transition and separation. Obviously, a pet bunk bed will accommodate two pets.
