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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thurbane" data-source="post: 3271346" data-attributes="member: 43273">Thanks for all the replies.OK a few answers:Cats - no. Sorry, I'm just really not a cat person. I dont dislike them as such, but would never have one as a pet. Either you need to keep them cooped up inside all the time, or you let them out and they go killing native fauna (it's their nature, so you can't blame them). Also, there are already a ridiculously high number of cats in my neighborhood...Mice/rats/gerbils/guineapigs - maybe. But most likely not. I know people who have owned most of these at one stage or another (had a friend who bred rats and guineapigs), and to be honest, they all strike me more as vermin to be kept out of a house than as a pet I would be interested in keeping. No offense intended to owners of any of these, BTW...Fish - no. I've owned fish before. Too boring, die too easily.My lease firmly says "no pets without landlords permission", and since my housemate is really, really anal about sticking to anything vaguely resembling a legal document, I would be compelled to be above board about it. So I guess, if the landlord says "no" to any pet, I'm outta luck. But I know people with the same landlord, and from what I heard, they are quite reasonable about things like this.The issue of "why" is harder to answer. I miss my dog (a lot), and I'm hoping a new pet would help fill the void. I realise that birds and mammals are a lot more likely to return affection than a reptile, but ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated with reptiles, especially snakes and lizards. When I was living with family, they were all pretty "reptilephobic", so owning one was never an option. Same with birds, to a degree; no one in my family really wanted a bird in the house. Also, of the three animals I mentioned, my housemate is most comfortable with a lizard. In terms of a parrot, I would like to spend a lot of time with it, and teach it to speak. The flat probably isn't big enough for a decent sized cockatoo or galah cage, so I'd be looking at something smaller, like a parrakeet or budgie. I'm told that parrakeets are quite good talkers.I'm also told that ferrets are a lot of fun - probably the next most interactive mammal to a dog or cat. The smell wouldn't really bother me (my dog used to pong quite a bit, too), and I have a good friend who is a vet who could remove it's scent glands.It's a hard choice...</blockquote>

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