>>>One thing that amazes me with Americans is this letting the cats and dogs into bed and/or to the dining table.<
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>Well, I'll have to agree with you there. I've never allowed my pets to have the run of the house (I haven't had pets in years, but I used to for many years).

We've had hedgehogs as pets, then we also had a cat (which was quite slim while we had the hedgehogs - they seemed to be faster than her to get to her food), had a couple of parakeets and a parrot, and for the last eight years or so we have a guinea pig. The birds and the guinea pigs are the only ones allowed inside, simply because they're pretty much confined to their cages or pens, 99.9% of the time. We actually never let the parakeets out, and the parrot had forgotten how to fly - he'd climb out the cage, up to its roof, and then had a lot of trouble coming down :).

Actually, that parrot was a traitor. After the dog died (after a three day binge during a long rain in November - we visited this summer, and there are dozens of dogs around the neighborhood which look quite like him), the bird and I were the only males in the house. And then he lay an egg.