Pets

[MartyS (Gromit)]

It's amazing the stuff dogs will eat. I had a dog once who ate a glass Christmas ornament. He was fine, though. By some miracle he managed to pass the shards without incident.

I've seen a little jack russell eat an entire pigeon and thought the same thing, how can the bones not tear up her intestines?

[Bob]

My dog finds a lot of slobs with bones near their trash and chomps them up with zero problems.

Greyhounds are also fed nothing but frozen chicken necks as their only food.

Dogs are tuff.

[Zombie Monty]

 

Finally took the plunge and adopted a shelter kitten yesterday!



I named her Boo.  She was pretty skittish when I first brought her home, hiding under my bed and up inside the springs of my box spring.  Took a while to coax her out, but now my box spring is on the ground so she can't do that again.

But after playing with her a bit this evening, she has gotten over her fear and shyness and is coming up to me and jumping up on my bed and desk.

Still need to get her used to the litter box (luckily she decided that my bath tub would be a good place to do her business, better there then on the carpet), so now I have the litter box in the tub hoping that the next time she goes she will use the box.

So anyway, I have a kitty!  And she is awesome!   

[wurwolf]

She looks a lot like my cat, Kitty. A sort of patchwork of orange and grey tabby with some white thrown in. I guess that's a calico.

[D.B. Barnes]

Finally took the plunge and adopted a shelter kitten yesterday!

[Mrs. Dick Courier]

Pretty girl!

And its great that she's warming up to you only after one day.  Some kitties aren't like that.

[jasimon1]

Look who is coming home with me this weekend!!!!

[wurwolf]

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so jealous!!! How sweet! Male or female, and what is his/her name?

[jasimon1]

LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so jealous!!! How sweet! Male or female, and what is his/her name?

His name will be Flower. I let my boss's kids pick the name out and they decided it should be Flower since my chinchilla's name is Bambi. Not sure how I'm going to stand waiting till Saturday but it's about a 3 hour drive so no other option really.

[wurwolf]

Just the most adorable thing. All of the other hedgehogs will make fun of him for having a name like Flower but he can just tell them to STFU! Does your new condo have any restrictions regarding pets?

[jasimon1]

The only restrictions are no pit/pit mixes and nothing over 50 lbs. It's kinda mean but I like the no pit rule since it specifically says not even as visitors which makes it so my sister can't bring her pit over that I can't stand. "Sorry, condo rules!" He isn't a horrible dog, he just doesn't realize he's not the size of a dachshund. And he put a huge scratch in the piano at my parents house that will one day be mine which put me over the edge from general dislike to hate.

[wurwolf]

Yeah, the no pit rule does sound kind of mean (and dare I say a bit classist?) but I can see the reasons behind it. I swear they are the most rambunctious dogs. They really don't belong in an apartment unless they're well trained, and let's be honest, training a dog is a lot of work.

On another note, shortly after Chance passed I sent an email to the woman who was my contact at his shelter. I thought she should know that he was no longer alive and what had happened. She checks her email sporadically and I knew it would be a while until I heard from her, and last night I received this email from her. It helped put things into perspective for me, and I thought I would share it here.

So Sorry to hear about Chance.  He was such an awesome boy!

 We had almost the exact same thing happen to us with a 13 yr old Chow mix we took in from a couple who had a “free dog” sign in front of their yard because they had to move and they couldn’t take "Chowie" with them.  She was an awesome dog too.  We had her less than 4 months.  She always breathed heavy like most Chows do, but as the fall weather started to turn damp she would wheeze and struggle a bit for breath like someone who had asthma.  It kept getting worse and for longer periods of time as the weather got colder/damper.  At first, it only lasted a min or two, but after a few weeks, it was lasting a bit longer.  I made a Thurs appointment for her, but the Sunday before it she had a bad episode.  This time it lasted over 5 min and it was more like hyperventilating than asthma, then she threw up blood.   I knew it was not just asthma then.  I rushed her to the ER vet.  She gasped for breath for 40 min by the time I got her there.  She struggled so much she peed and pooped herself as she laid on her doggie bed on my passenger seat.  As she gasped, she would look up at me while lying there as if she was asking me to help her breathe!   After the 20 min drive, the ER vet did a quick ultra sound and said 2 of her organs looked like swiss cheese.  I was so beside myself I don’t even know which 2 organs he said.  There was nothing that could really be done so I held her and cried like a baby while she was put to sleep.

It is hard going through times like that with seniors, but I am glad I could be there for her in her time of need.  I am glad I could give her joy, love, and compassion her last couple of months.  I am glad I could be with her when she needed me most.  I just wish I had her to the vet earlier so that she didn’t have to struggle for breathe the last 40 min of her life.  Again, on the positive side, she may have struggled longer and died all alone had I not taken her in.

You and Onil gave Chance something he probably never had before, love and true friendship.  To his previous owners, he was probably "just a dog" - there when you want him to be, but ignored or passed to someone else when you don’t.  With you guys, he was part of your family.  That is what he will remember.  Life with you was icing on his cake!  It put the “golden” in his “golden years”.    What you did for him was what I wish everyone’s intention was when getting a dog- to get a dog for what you can do for the dog, not what it can do for you, even though they DO add so much to our lives.  When you take in a senior dog, you know that you will not have him long but you will pack that little bit of time left with what the dog should have had all its life – compassion and loyalty.  You are both strong, selfless people, or you wouldn’t have considered taking in a senior buddy.  I am grateful to you, Onil, and your daughter for giving Chance such a high quality of life especially when he needed it the most.  I hope the satisfaction and joy you received from Chance and gave to Chance is not overshadowed by the pain of losing him.  I know that is all Chance or any of us want from our loved ones…

Gratefully,

Mary

[Bob]

Yeah, I am such a fan of big dogs (like dobermans!) that I really do not like any kind of rules like that.

Of course, if I owened an apartment buiding, I would want to limit damages, expenses, lawsuits, etc, so I kind of understand why some people have them. 

[jasimon1]

Yeah, I am such a fan of big dogs (like dobermans!) that I really do not like any kind of rules like that.

Of course, if I owened an apartment buiding, I would want to limit damages, expenses, lawsuits, etc, so I kind of understand why some people have them. 

I truely believe you can't judge a breed as a whole. My sister's dog is just annoying as hell. Her other one is the sweetest thing in the world other than the fact that she has to be as close as possible to you and would prefer if she could actually get inside your skin. I once held her on the way back from a trip and she ended up wedging herself between my back and the seat at one point because it was the best way to be as close as possible.

[wurwolf]

I do think that breeds have "types" though.  Every pit/staffordshire or mix I've ever met has been so incredibly rambunctious and high-energy that I just wouldn't ever want one.  Even when they're submissive (one on campus sprints towards you at .5 mach and then rolls over and shows you her belly, slamming into your legs as she does), they're still just big cows.

Yeah, I agree with this a lot. Sweet as hell but so full of wild energy that I don't think they're the right dog for me. Plus I'm like five feet tall and a dog like that would constantly be knocking me on my ass.