Well, Ethan had Wolfram...Sprite still wants to write a story where Wolfram comes to live with Justin, because Sprite doesn't trust Ethan and those strange noises he makes.

A good show with responsible pet ownership was 7th Heaven. Simon gets Happy (the dog) when she gets lost from her owner. Later, the owner shows up and I don't remember why, but Simon gets to keep her. When Simon leaves for college, Ruthie becomes Happy's main person. Happy was even in the credits and got fan mail!
There was also an episode of 7th Heaven where two of Rev. Camden's parishioners asked him to take their dog to be "put down" because they just couldn't bear to do it. (The dog was very old.) It was very sad, but Rev. Camden couldn't do it either, so he took the dog to her favorite park where she died quietly in the company of a stray dog that she played with before she got sick. Naturally, Rev. Camden took the stray to his parishoners to adopt, because this was 7th Heaven and everything worked out like that.

The dogs on Desperate Housewives are another story. They're seen once and never spoke of again. Mrs. McCluskey does have a cat, who has been lost in a tornado and kidnapped.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Lol, I forgot about Simon. Didn't he get dyed too?

(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

Yeah, I think I remember them dyeing poor Happy. LOL.
Happy was a real member of the family.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

So agree with that article, but I really think it's because animals are hard to work with and producers don't want to put the effort into working with them since they're unpredictable and take a lot of camera takes.

You know what's interesting though, you'd think there'd be far more pets on QaF since it's a hell of a lot easier for gay and lesbian couples to add pets to their family than it is children. I know several gay/lesbian couples and they all have a multitude of pets. I could easily see Ben with a cat sleeping on his lap while he writes or Emmett with a little mutt of a dog. And Debbie, well Deb and Vic CERTAINLY would have had a pet or two in their time. Carl with a trusty old lab.

I used to love the duck and the chick on Friends, but those disappeared after a few seasons. There was Comet on Full House, but very few shows pop into my head that have animals that are consistently featured on the show.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Debbie in real life would have had twenty cats.

(Reply to this)(Parent) (Thread)

I think at least three or four in the house and about 20 strays she fed at the back door.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Debbie collected plenty of strays. They just weren't cats.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Best article on face of earth.

Y'know, I'm pretty sure there's some kind of cage in Justin's room in S1... A gecko, maybe? Or some of those stick-insects?

I remember Brian mentioning them in a fic, and Justin telling him he gave them to Vic when he moved out early s2...