Are pets worth the trouble?

Wherein these two stories would be in the NO column


From Ann Althouse is a link to a tattletale parrot:

The African grey parrot kept squawking "I love you, Gary" as his owner, Chris Taylor, sat with girlfriend Suzy Collins on the sofa of their shared flat in Leeds, northern England.

But when Taylor saw Collins's embarrassed reaction, he realized she had been having an affair -- meeting her lover in the flat whilst Ziggy looked on, the UK's Press Association reported.

...

Taylor said he had also been forced to part with Ziggy after the bird continued to call out Gary's name and refused to stop squawking the phrases in his ex-girlfriend's voice, media reports said.

And from Begging to Differ comes the tale of possibly the world's dumbest cat:

Day 3: Mrs. G out for the day, me and FIL at home. Early afternoon. Hear mewing outside. Curse. Look up, Gus is in the same precise spot. Call Mrs. G. Come to consensus that the answer is not to employ fire dept. at cost of (reportedly) hundreds of dollars for a 1-minute kitten rescue. Answer, instead, is to let the cat figure out how to get down, because otherwise this little endeavor is headed for painful, utter failure.

Several hours later, Gus is still there. FIL and I step outside to assess the situation. FIL says, you know, when I was a kid, we’d get cats out of trees by tossing rocks at it.

I arch eyebrows, look over at FIL. FIL turns palms up, adopts “I’m just sayin’” expression.