Follow TV Tropes

Following

Jealous Pet

Go To

Impa: The pup. It... doesn't... let me... hug her.
Nabooru: You're annoyed... because a small puppy... won't let you hug Zelda?
Impa: Yes.
Nabooru: You're not useless. You're just an idiot.

This is the type of clingy pet who is so attached to their owner that they won't let their new significant other, child, pet, or whoever else the plot demands get near them. They're not an Angry Guard Dog, but they do have an Undying Loyalty and protectiveness over their owner.

A character who is on the opposing side of the animal's disdain is unlikely to be hated by other animals. It's this one pet who dislikes them for trying to "steal" their owner's attention, or for supposedly trying to take advantage of them.

There is some Truth in Television to this. Some pets are known, even as a breed or species trait, to only get attached to a select few. Cats are especially prone to this; many cat owners have experienced their cat being extremely hostile to their romantic partners, to the point of attacking them. In addition, it's pretty common for some breeds of dogs to be hostile to their owners' newborn children, as they regard the tiny, pudgy human as an intruder in their territory. One of the leading causes of dog abandonment is the dog biting at a baby. This is why if a family or family-to-be is going to get a dog, it's important to research which breeds might get freaked out by small children and infants or ask if the dog is safe around small children.

Compare to Boyfriend-Blocking Dad, My Beloved Smother, My Sister Is Off-Limits, Infant Sibling Jealousy, and Friend Versus Lover.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • A Hey You, Pikachu! commercial features a boy playing the game in question nonstop without giving his pet dog any attention, much to the dog's dismay.
    Dog: [blows a bugle] Looking for love here!
  • A 2018 Subaru commercial involves a woman whose dog hates her boyfriend. The dog is always glaring at him and trying to steal her attention from him.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Discussed in Inubaka when Yamarin considers getting a new dog to keep her current one company, as her work has been getting busy. Teppei advises her against this because it would make her current dog jealous instead of happy. They did a test run with a stuffed animal, and sure enough, Lucky did not like seeing Yamarin cooing over the new "pet", and starts to act up (i.e. pooping and peeing all over the place) to get her attention back.
  • Mametaro in Massugu ni Ikou detests his owner's Aki's boyfriend and considers him to his enemy. Mametaro is very protective of Aki.
  • In a manga-only Naruto omake, Akamaru is shown to hate Kiba's new girlfriend Tamaki.
  • In The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, when Sorata and Mashiro are about to share their first kiss, their kiss gets interrupted by Hikari (one of Sorata's pet stray cats) jumping on his face. Mashiro remarks that Hikari must be feeling jealous.
  • In Spy X Family, Short Chapter 3 shows that the family dog Bond can get quite jealous, as he shredded Anya's beloved penguin plushie when she decided to sleep with that over him. He immediately regrets it after Anya found out that it was him and told him that she hates him for it.
    Bond: (Anya reading his mind) "Penguin bad. Stole Anya."

    Comic Books 
  • In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Old Lace is shown to have a bitter feud with Molly's new cat, Rufus.
  • One Silver Age Superman comic had Krypto feeling jealous over his master's friendship with Jimmy Olsen. Much of the book is him having a nightmare with Jimmy being disloyal to Superman and cruel to Krypto. The dog wakes up relieved, realizing that the real Jimmy is nowhere near as bad as his dream counterpart.

    Comic Strips 
  • In Footrot Flats, the Dog is insanely possessive of Wal, and will go to ridiculous lengths to interrupt any date between Wal and his girlfriend, 'Cheeky' Hobson.
  • For the most part, Garfield is accepting of Jon's relationship with Liz, but he occasionally will stray into this territory in service of a gag.

    Fan Works 
  • The Bolt Chronicles: Played with in "The Cakes," "The Walk," "The Cameo," and "The Ship." Bolt (and in one instance Mittens and Rhino) is portrayed as disapproving of Penny's love interests, but for good reason. The dog only wants his master to have the best, and Penny normally chooses unwisely. Moreover, Bolt goes no further than registering basic disapproval, usually via dirty looks and grumbling.
  • In Their Bond, Zelda's pet wolfo Goro doesn't take to her lover Impa. Notably, Impa was there first as she raised Zelda, while Zelda adopted Goro when she found him orphaned. Goro becomes near-instantly attached to Zelda and is constantly getting between her and Impa. He won't even let them hold hands.

    Films — Animation 
  • DC League of Super-Pets: Krypto the dog has been with Superman since both were babies, and Superman is his only friend. When he realizes Superman is very serious about Lois and needs Krypto to give them some space, he gets very jealous, imagining in a montage that Lois will take his place. The plot of the film is kicked off by Krypto not hearing that Superman is in trouble because he's too busy binging and listening to music.
  • In Hercules, Hercule's horse Pegasus becomes jealous of his love interest Megara nigh instantly. As his first act after hero training, Hercules rescues snarky beauty Megara and falls in love with her. His flying steed Pegasus does not share his liking for her. During their first flight, he purposely makes it difficult for Meg, who has a fear of heights. He eventually comes around after Meg frees him from captivity and saves his master.
  • In Lady and the Tramp, Lady begins to feel neglected when Jim Dear and Darling stop spending so much time with her. Jock and Trusty explain to her that Darling is expecting a new baby. Tramp overhears and tells Lady that once a baby is born, the humans will give more attention to it than to their dog, even going as far as to mistreat the dog by giving it leftover baby food instead of juicy beef, and a leaky doghouse instead of a cozy bed by the fire. When Jim Dear and Darling's new baby is born, Lady becomes both fond and very protective of him.
  • Implied in Pinocchio: Figaro the cat doesn't like Pinocchio at first. It's never revealed why, but the man who made Pinocchio wonders if Figaro is jealous.
  • The Secret Life of Pets: Max is a terrier adopted by a young woman and lives a happy life in the city. Then she brings home a second dog named Duke, who is large, clumsy and uncouth, and Max becomes jealous of the attention she gives him while Duke crowds him and makes him miserable. Max's plan to get rid of Duke backfires and both get lost in the streets, which sets up the main plot.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Garfield's jealousy of Odie is what kickstarts a majority of the events of the live-action Garfield movie. After getting punished for accidentally knocking over a majority of things in Jon's house, Garfield sings about the time he used to spend together with Jon, then locks Odie out. Odie runs away, leading him to be found by Happy Chapman, a greedy TV host looking to bank in on the popularity Odie achieved from a dog show the previous day. When Garfield finds out, he sets out to rescue Odie.
  • Otis from Son of the Mask didn't like Alvey Avery at first, since his original "dog house" became Alvey's room.
  • The final segment of Movie 43 features a cat who takes this trope to obscene levels, including masturbating to pictures of his owner.

    Literature 
  • Animorphs: Marco's dad gets remarried with his son's math teacher, who has a pet poodle named Euclid who hates both of them.
  • In the The Berenstain Bears book "The New Kitten", Lady the dog gets jealous of Gracie the new kitten. The vet suggests stroking Lady more to rectify this.
  • In Callies Kitten, Callie the cat actually has several reasons why she dislikes Celia the new baby, but one of them is the lack of attention.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo: Danglars' wife has a small yippy dog that doesn't like Danglars, growling at him whenever he enters his wife's chambers. It gets punted across the room when Danglars needs to have a serious discussion with his wife.
  • Played for Drama in Flawed Dogs. The showdog Psycho Poodle Cassius becomes deeply envious when his owners adopt the protagonist, a dachshund named Sam, and Cassius frames Sam for various horrifying events to get Sam kicked out, kickstarting the story.
  • In Lia Geraskina's In the Land of Unlearned Lessons series, when the protagonist gets a dog, his Non-Human Sidekick cat can't help but feel jealous (even though they do eventually get along quite well). Then the family is also given a parrot, and all three of the pets begin to constantly argue which of them is the protagonist's best friend (when the protagonist himself is, they think, out of earshot).
  • In Woof Woof Story, sapient wolf Routa yells at the equally sapient carthorse Mare when she expresses envy at his and Mary's deep friendship.
    "Woof, woof! (No way! Lady Mary is my lady and mine alone! Now leave! Leave!)"
    "Whinny. (Y-you don't have to say it like that.)"
    With a whinny Mare pulls her head from the window.
    Hmph. I’m the only one my lady can hug.

    Video Games 
  • Fate/Grand Order: Fou is completely sentient despite what his fluffy adorableness and lack of human speech suggests, so he's frequently shown getting annoyed if Fujimaru and Mash encounter another adorable creature in their travels across time.

    Web Animation 
  • Simon's Cat: In "Double Trouble", Simon's Cat discovers a kitten as his "little brother". It's also where the actual conflict begins for the rest of the series.

    Western Animation 
  • The Disney animated short Feast features a dog who does not take kindly to his owner's new gal pal, primarily because she takes him off table scraps and puts him on normal dog food. He's actually ecstatic at first when a fight causes the two humans to break up and his master dives into junk food to heal his broken heart, but the pup soon realizes how miserable his master is without his girlfriend. Leads to a heartwarming moment when the dog engineers the two meeting again and patching things up, giving up the food he loves to make two people happy... at least until their baby is born, who is more than happy to bring back the feast of scraps.
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series: When Lilo & Stitch meet Experiment 254 (Named Mr. Stenchy by Lilo), it becomes adored by Lilo, while Stitch grows envious of the attention his cousin is getting. So much so that he willingly lets Gantu take Mr. Stenchy away which causes Gantu to start adoring the little creature making 625 jealous. Makes one wonder if Mr. Stenchy was also made to invoke jealousy in his fellow experiments.
  • One episode of The Loud House has the Loud pets getting jealous over a new dog Lana found since it was taking all the Loud kids' attention.
  • This is used as a major plot point in season 1 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Shaggy and Velma are in a Secret Relationship because Shaggy knows his dog Scooby will be jealous of it. When Scooby learns of it, it causes a rift in their friendship.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

Krypto And Lois

Krypto realizes that his owner Superman is serious about Lois, and fears that she will take his place.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (8 votes)

Example of:

Main / JealousPet

Media sources:

Report