Pet and Animal Thread

[khouji]

Okay, now it's the time for talking about animals, which can be really close to your heart (pets), but some of you can really afraid of them. Are there animals which you really are afraid of? Or is there something that you love? Do you have any pets? Want to tell us about it/them?

[lhb412]

I just want to ask everyone: how do you read when you have a cat? As far as I can tell it senses when I'm reading and then parks between the book and my face.

[klen7]

i have two cats and a dog. i also have a kid. i used to be a dog person, but now that i am a kid person i am not a dog person anymore. my wife is still a cat person, so we will likely always have cats, but i am done wanting to take care of a dog in the future. the dog we have now is good, but he is getting older. we have one cat that is good and the other cat is not very smart. i did not want two cats, but my wife did. she tried to endear the newest cat to me by naming it Minya. Minya is the good cat. the not very smart cat is Fizzgig. he is a handsome cat, but he is sometimes destructive. i like the cats best when they are sleeping.

[O.Supreme]

I've always been a cat person. I enjoy dogs, other peoples dogs, but I recognize they are a huge responsibility, and rather than be selfish and own a dog that could potentially be miserable, and turn disruptive/destructive, I'd rather just not own one, and enjoy other peoples dogs.

As for cats, even then I've only ever wanted one at a time. Occasionally as a child, and now as a married adult there have been 2 in the house, but when I was single I had zero pets because, again, I did not want to be a bad pet owner. Currently we have one cat. A large fluffy Orange Maine Coon named Snarf. He does exactly what others are describing. My wife reads her tablet in bed (I don't read in bed), but he always *nudges* her to want to be petted at that time. The kids are responsible for feeding, cleaning, and grooming him. Its a nice distraction and teaches them to be responsible and care for other living things. We are currently also steward of another cat. A Siamese named Mushu. He is indoor/outdoor, while Snarf is strictly indoor. Mushu is surprisingly nice for a Siamese (Id always heard they were antisocial). But I'll still be glad in December when our friends who are currently out of the country return and take him home. I don't need/want to get attached to another cat. One is enough.

[DannyBeane]

I have my dog Charlie who I've had for 5 years. I have my corn snake Frankie, who I've had for about 1 year. I have a cat, Sherlock who I've had for about a month. And then I just got a betta fish, MURDERFACE, who I got several days ago. I've had animals all my life and couldn't live without them

[klen7]

^ i don't trust your fish

[jellydonut25]

I've had dogs my entire life growing up and I currently have a boxer/lab mix named (Poison) Ivy.

My wife always had cats, and we had a cat, Attila up until about 4 years ago when we started to bring baby stuff into the house and he started spraying on it and pooping in the crib and stuff...couldn't have that, so the cat had to go. The good news at least was he was in the shelter for less than a day before getting adopted because he really was a pretty cat.

After Ivy goes (she's 9 right now, but only 45 pounds, so she will probably make it a few more years) we're probably gonna take a break for a little bit. It's tough having a dog and not having family around to watch her if you want to go on a trip or something. Might enjoy a couple years of being able to not have to worry about that before getting another dog.

[O.Supreme]

Yeah my wife came with a cat (Brooklyn) we had until I had to put her down at 15 because of kidney failure (I had to take her to the vet because my wife couldn't). We wanted to be pet free for a while, a couple years would have been nice, but in early 2013 (after only being without a pet for about 5 months), some REALLY REALLY stupid family member made a joke about my daughter, who was 8 at the time, which started a chain of events which cold have been a really bad disorder. Fortunately we acted immediately to correct the situation ,and part of that was to give my daughter some additional responsibility through pet ownership, and also act as a distraction. Its funny to think that was almost 5 years ago now. My daughter doesn't even understand why she was so upset, but thankfully its all in the past. We have a good loyal pet, and he should live a good long life as long as the kids continue to care for him.

Also, I know this could cause this thread to tumble out of control, but what your opinions on *comfort* animals? Not to be confused with service animals. I mean if an animal is performing an actual service, that is amazing and wonderful, more power to you. It's just that I see so many people walking around in stores with comfort animals, and I don't really understand the reason for it. I mean unless you are at PetSmart or another store that has a posted policy for allowing pets, they should not be permitted IMHO. I mean when I see dogs in purses at Target or Wal Mart its a little upsetting. But I've seen pets in restaurants recently, and I'll turn right around and walk out. I've done it probably 3 times in the past 6 months. I read a ton of articles about stupid things like

"Woman kicked off flight because her comfort Pig was now allowed on".....and I just wonder, what peoples thought process is on this. If anyone here has a comfort animal, I mean no offense, its just I was always taught, you cant always have everything the way you want it. I've missed films at times, because I could not get a babysitter when our kids were little, I'm not going to take my screaming baby to the movies and ruin it for everyone else. same with the flights. If I knew I could not fly without my Dog, Cat, Goldfish, Hamster...whatever...then guess what? I would not be flying on an airplane. Id want to get myself well enough so I would not need such things.

[khouji]

I have a cute chihuahua which I bring everywhere I go. She's with me if I got to a mall, parlor and anywhere else. But lately some establishments won't allow pets inside their building if they have no carriers. Can anyone recommend me a good carrier for my chihuahua?

[klen7]

how did we get this far into a thread about pets and cute animals without anyone posting a picture?

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

My mom has a shih Tzu dog named Maddison who sleeps with me every night for some reason she's getting on the older side, almost 14 now and we don't think her health is the greatest she's been losing weight and potentially has cancer. For my moms birthday we're getting her another dog a miniature yorkie which she'll have to wait to get until the end of March or early April since it was just born.

When I lived with my cousin we had a boston terrier named Roxy and we had a basset hound/cocker spaniel mix named Copper after the hound dog from the Fox and the Hound.

When I get my own place with in the next few years I plan on having a dog and a cat and wouldn't mind either a bearded dragon or a corn snake.

[DannyBeane]

[O.Supreme]

[klen7]

^^ Charlie is a handsome dog. I still don't trust the fish.

Here's Fizzgig

[jellydonut25]

My Ivy girl:

[DannyBeane]

[lhb412]

[klen7]

^ Yep. The Mrs vetoed "Hoggle" because "that's a terrible name for a cat" - we already had a Ludo years prior, so Fizzgig won out.

[O.Supreme]

Snarf (down in front) Mushu (Up top)

[khouji]

I just want to share this to everyone who has small dogs, as I was searching for a carrier for my chihuahua I stumbled a which I think is a perfect fit for my chihuahua, aside from that it also different sizes for every size of a dog. It will be my first time using a pet carrier, what do you think about this product? I'm open for more suggestions though.

[Benjamin Haines]

[klen7]

Good luck with KC. We went through that with our cat Ashitaka years back, it was pretty tough at times, but he got a comfortable extra year out of it before the cancer won out, in the end you know your cat better than anyone and will know when to say when, fingers crossed.

[Benjamin Haines]

Thanks. His chlorambucil arrived and I started his treatment yesterday. He always handles taking medicine well because he knows it corresponds with meal time. I'm glad you were able to give Ashitaka another year of life after his diagnosis.

[DannyBeane]

And now introducing Lucy the Hognose snake!

And here is one of Frankie, have to give him some love.

And Frankie ate his first full size mouse today!

And here is MURDERFACE'S fully planted tank. All though you probably can't see them, he has two african dwarf frog room mates as well as a giant mystery snail that keeps the place clean! MURDERFACE still isn't trustworthy btw.

[mbozzo]

I has a pet dog named Memphis. He's over 2 years old and is a rescue. He can be loving, but is afraid of traveling, because of what happen to him when he was a very young puppy.