The Pet Thread!

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tenbones

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Okay - show us your family pets! You know you want to. Or show us a pet you'd like to bring into your family. It's a general pet-thread!

My wife and I are volunteers for the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas - basically we're advocates for rescuing all those Greyhounds from racing tracks as they, thankfully, begin to close around the country. I *highly* recommend Greyhounds as family dogs (as long as you have a decent yard) - they're the laziest animals on earth, until they want to play - in which case they'll run like cheetah on the Serengeti at shocking speed for 5 minutes, then sleep for 10-hrs. They're the fastest couch-potatoes on the planet.

This is Navi - she's a former Coyote hunter. Even now... she keeps her single-radar dish up at all times on the alert for the possibility of a werewolf attack, or a snack-situation to develop. If she were playing card - she's the Joker.
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This is Inara. She's the Princess. She's a former racer. Now she's royalty. She has the powers of mind-control.
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This is Barnabus Aloysius Maximillian. He's a big baby. Barely three. This guy was thrown out of the back of a truck as a puppy and was living like a feral wolf in the wilds of West Texas for the first two years of his life. His best friend was a skunk and they lived together in this deep hole he dug and the skunk dug out beneath a big Mesquite tree. Locals thought he was a wolf... but in actuality he's a big-ass Staghound. He was terrified of humans... until he joined our pack. Now he's a giant snuggly assistant editor. He also smiles when he's upside down. The only thing he'll attack are flies. So yeah... he'd hurt a fly. Nothing else.

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So show us your babies!
 
@ tenbones tenbones My mother rescued a Greyhound she found wandering around Huntington Beach; the dog had some crazy irrational fears and almost certainly was badly abused but grew to become a wonderful companion for my mother.

Our lease doesn't allow pets but the wife and I feed a poor mangled kitten; he's in bad shape with a milky eye, matted fur, and no hair on his tail. I don't know what happened to him but he's absolutely terrified of humans. If I get anywhere near him he bolts.
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This is Murphy. A friend who works with cat rescue describes black and white cats as "usually placid". Not this one. Our vet has diagnosed her with an anxiety disorder. This pic may actually have been the last time she was able to relax enough to curl up on my lap to take a nap. We had her on kitty prozac for a while, but the process of getting the pills into her was stressful enough to counteract the good it was doing her. Now she sleeps most of the time and seems happier for it.

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Behold Cat, the most dignified of creatures. This is Isaac, who loves bellyrubs and chewing All The Things. He also sneaks under the covers of the bed at night to cuddle up against my girlfriend's back and complain loudly if I breathe in his face.

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This is the best photo I have of Pixie, who only has two speeds. She's a Cornish Rex, which makes her half cat and half alien. She likes to play fetch and bite things that surprise her. It's winter here at the moment, so her favourite spot to be is inside GF's jacket while she sits on the couch under the heater. Her favourite food is What You're Eating and her subject of interest is What You're Looking At.

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We are currently without pets. For virtually all my life I had pets, dogs and cats and even a parakeet. But none by my choice, and I ended up being the one that did a lot of the care taking. I told my wife I got to pick the next one even if the next one meant none.

I expect I’ll cave if she stops working and get a couple of dogs. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying my moment of selfishness :smile:
 
We are currently without pets. For virtually all my life I had pets, dogs and cats and even a parakeet. But none by my choice, and I ended up being the one that did a lot of the care taking. I told my wife I got to pick the next one even if the next one meant none.

I expect I’ll cave if she stops working and get a couple of dogs. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying my moment of selfishness :smile:
I hear you. I used to have pets my entire life. Mostly dogs, but I've had parrots*, raised koi, cats, a gerbil. Girlfriends that had snakes, iguanas. But I spent almost two-decades petless (well not true on second thought. I had hermit crabs with my son for most of his childhood... but whatever).

Owning a pet is a huge responsibility.

So when we got into advocacy for greyhounds, we thought we'd cheat by being just a foster home. We thought we'd just get the best of both worlds. TOTAL FAILURE. We fell in love with our first dog approximately .02 seconds after meeting her. Then we immediately said "She needs a friend!" then got Inara within a couple of months. And we kept fostering so we rotated a third slot. But eventually we failed there too when we found Barnabus. There's a lady in our organization that warned us about "foster failing" with greys. She never intended to ever have any pet dogs. Now she has six greyhounds laying around her house.

I still wanna do some beekeeping someday.
 
We are currently without pets. For virtually all my life I had pets, dogs and cats and even a parakeet. But none by my choice, and I ended up being the one that did a lot of the care taking.
I hear that. Getting cats wasn't my idea, and she offered to be the one to clean the litter trays as an incentive to agree, but somehow I'm the one scooping crap every day.

So when we got into advocacy for greyhounds, we thought we'd cheat by being just a foster home.
I have a friend who got into fostering sick kittens for the SPCA that needed quarantine and treatment. He still has one of the first because even though she was completely healthy at the end of the quarantine period, every time she saw the SPCA vet, she would sneeze in his face.
 
she's GORGEOUS!!!!!!
Thank you. We still have some behavioral issues, due to her past abuse, but she's loving as all get out. Her biggest problems are her need to jump up on people to show them love, and still fighting potty training, which has never been this hard with another dog. Ever. Mind you my last rescue was trained, and wonderful, and my previous Great Dane got it after one really simple lesson---only had an accident once (when we moved and she no longer knew what was "good potty place" and once she got it, it stayed. At least until she got ill and I cannot say it was lack of brilliance on her part or bad training at any time.)
 
We had pets during most of my youth. Usually one cat (all cats we owned were called Spikkie), but also a parakeet when I was very young and a varying number of gerbils, all of which remained unnamed.

As a kid I used to walk a German shepard called Prins, owned by a farmer (Mr. Spek, which translates to Mr. Bacon) who lived near my grandparents. I couldn't understand a word of the farmer's heavy dialect, I just came over to pick up the dog for a walk. (He also had the habit of chewing tobacco, which sure didn't improve intelligibility.)

I'm mostly more of a cat person than a dog person, though. We plan to own a cat again someday. The house we currently live in isn't fit for keeping pets but once we find a new house we'll seriously consider it.

I'd also love to keep an iguana, either a desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis) or a chuckwalla (genus Sauromalus).
 
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This little derp is my best buddy Samson. His bed is under my mini painting desk. He comes up to my office and hangs out with me once my wife goes to bed. He is about to turn 11. We adopted him when he was 9 months old.

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With me pre-beard.
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This is our family's other dog Max, who loves my wife and son, but barely tolerates me. We adopted him almost 2 years ago now. He turns 10 in Oct. He had a hard life previously and was obviously abused. He's scared of pretty much everything.

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The two of them enjoying the fire.
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Dafuq you want, man?!?
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Chillaxing
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My forum pic is Sean. He's a purebred Siamese "apple head", the original Thai cats before they were bred into the current version. He's a rescue. I was signed up for emails from the local pound and late Friday night I got this notice of all the available pets plus the new pets who just came in, but no descriptions, just pictures. I blew up the pic of this tiny kitten and knew he wasn't a regular short hair. The next morning we were at the shelter right when it opened and we beelined for the new arrivals. We couldn't believe our luck and I had my girlfriend stand over the cage while I went to get a shelter worker to lock down the adoption ASAP. Moments after I burnt through the paperwork, a rescue group came in looking for him, because purebred appleheads are rare and rescue groups can x10 the adoption prices of the city pound. But Sean was ours and two days later he had his nuts snipped off and the vet confirmed our boy was the real deal.

Now that you have seen Sean, he shall expect your eternal worship.

He's the first purebred we've adopted. Unless you count the pure evil of black cats (which I adore)!! Unlike our previous cats, Sean does not tolerate the existence of other creatures (he's actually charged dogs, and murders fish in hours of their arrival) so currently we're only hosting one god beast in the condo.

And Siamese are all that you've heard about them. That Disney song speaks the truth! They are Siamese if you please, and they are Siamese if you don't please.
 
I used to have a purebred Blue Point Himalayan cat named Lancelot. I raised him from a little puff-ball kitten with a litter of baby chihuahas. He acted like a dog. Loved that cat. Alas someone stole him on his third birthday...
 
Her colouring is striking, that’s why we picked her from her litter-mates
 
Her colouring is striking, that’s why we picked her from her litter-mates
I'm especially enamoured with her forgetting to put her tongue away and her fear of banana peels.

I've found that lots of cats really dislike bananas. No idea why that is.
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With cat behaviour, of course, there's always an exception.
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Lots of cats are afraid of cucumbers, apparently. But Jasmin has no qualms with those.

Capriciousness, thy name is cat...
 
This is Rufus Underfoot, a feral cat that adopted us in Setu Babakan. He was streetwise and an inveterate scavenger but very friendly and playful. Sadly, he got run over by a car and will be missed. Just out of the frame is my father-in-law playing with him.

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This is my dog Sprocket. Though a slightly older picture of him. He's a little bit more old man (and he is having some problems with a skin condition that we are treating currently, so he's got some bald spots at the moment). He's part basset, so he's got tiny short legs. His body and head and paws are all from a big dog. his legs are from a little dog. He is friendly, super lazy, and the stubbornest animal you will ever meet. He does things on his schedule. His schedule is always slow. He is also dumb, except when food is involved, then he is suddenly very smart. We've had him for about 7 years, got him when he was about 2. He was found just wandering the streets. No idea where he was before that. He never had any aversion to humans or anything though, he loves everyone on sight.
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This is my wife's dog Lucy. Lucy is an old lady who is at least 11 years old. There are vet records going back to 2009, and she was an adult then. We got her roughly 3 years ago because her previous owners were very very old and could no longer care for a pet and they had no family. She is hyper and acts like a giant puppy. She also needs your attention. Right now. At all times. She also has no brain in her head. We often tell her she is lucky that she's pretty cause she is not bright. She hides under my bed 90% of the time. I call her a furry cave goblin. She is also THE SOFTEST and she always smells nice. It is weird.
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Then we have my wife's cat Fraulein. We got her as a kitten and she is about 10 years old now. She is part siamese, part ragdoll, and 100% derpy. She is so crosseyed that her vision is very very poor. She walks into walls a lot. She is the nicest cat though, if a little bit obsessed with people. She has to be sitting next to SOMEONE at all times. She doesn't like it when people are not home. If I'm the only one home she just comes and screams at me in confusion.
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Sprocket and Lady are SWEEEEEEET!

Fraulein looks like me in the morning. Around the block a few times. Tired. But content.
 
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This is Molly. I took her for a six month dog sit- five years ago. She bonded with me in that time to the point that after she went home she would drag her owner to my house. He’d had her for four years previous to the dog sit. After about two weeks we had an uncomfortable conversation and I took the dog back. She then barked him for getting too close to me. She doesn’t like to get more than ten feet away from me.
 
It’s been several years since I last owned a pet, my life right now isn’t conducive to owning one. But, my last pet was a real character and pics of him keep popping up in my Facebook memories and it does get a little dusty.

I present to you, Bubba!





Bubba was something else. My dad absolutely dislikes cats and he loved Bubba. It was not unusual to see Bubba sitting next to Dad as he drove his tractor around my parents place or following and supervising my dad as he landscaped. In my dad’s mind, Bubba was a dog in a cat body. As you can see, Bubba lived up to his name .

Rob
 
The weather is turning cold where we live, and since both myself and my wife work from home, Jasmine will come and beg us to sit in the lounge so she can be in our knee... which is lovely but we need to work!

So, the solution, christened The Donut of Warmth:
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This is a heated bed with a squishy outer ring and her favourite blanket in it. She is now a happy and toasty-warm kitty cat!
 
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