Quote Originally Posted by Annarose15 View Post
I have been known to drink straight from the garden hose. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. There have actually been studies showing that children raised in homes with pets have fewer allergies as they grow up - I take the same approach with most germs.
I'm not sure how sold I am on those studies... we had no fewer than 2 dogs and 2 cats in my house at the same time while I was growing up, plus wildlife rescues when stray animals/cars/kids got to them, plus no fewer than 2 rodents at a time once I hit my double digits, plus my biracial background giving me access to wider varieties of ethnic food, plus my grandparents live even deeper in Amishville than I do, and my grandfather was a carpenter, and I was over there a LOT... and I still have a ton of environmental and food allergies.

Dogs, cats, dust, mold, mildew, pollen, hay, apparently nearly every stinking type of moss and unfinished wood (made THAT discovery with Quetzal when hives appeared )... and that's JUST the environmental ones. Food's even worse. I have heart problems, a resulting shot immune system, and a weak digestive system. Despite all that I've been exposed to as a kid, which is frankly a lot more than most kids nowadays, these are things that have been present since birth. And considering my family never raised me to wash my hands after touching the animals (barring the wild ones), the only times I've ever caught anything from an animal were a couple infections from the hunting dogs. I think people think of these diseases that could occur and don't consider the likelihood of them ever catching hold.