In the hard earned yards of being a family, and there's been a worthy few that I have been a part of and beholding to in all ways of kinship, I like the idea of having a cat or dog because its a good thing, knowing and loving human folk as we do, to have some companion that isn't actually human. It's just part of my Culture as a Western kind of dude to have an animal or two around. They are your 'pets' for sure, but they are also your teachers of the Nature of Existence and Being. Dogs and cats have been our worthy Companions, as worthy and as meaningful as we are, for thousands of years. We have done extremely well together as a clan. A dog or cat can help a young person to know what it means, practically, to have some kind of child-thing around, so as to learn how to take care of them. This helps us all. This would certainly be useful to us old folk, to have children who somehow had experience in looking after something as the need arises. Now, my preference would be to have both a young girl dog like Prancing Holly, and a young boy cat like Cosmo...in the photos you can see how well they would get along. Now, that's family. That's actually a good Irish family.