Our furry (& not so furry) friends!!!!

[Janel]

Fluffy got me all excited about talking about our best friends--our pets-- on another thread....so I thought I would start a new topic!!

I don't know what I would do without my dogs---they love me no matter what....I wanna hear about yours....and doesn't Jim have pets, too? I think I read about them .....
I have a mini schnauzer named Samson who has a beard and big bushy eyebrows. I carry on long conversations with him and I'm pretty sure he catches every word!!!! He knows when I cry--comes and lays as close to or ON me when I shed a tear...he's 10 years old. I sleep with him every night like a teddy bear, he loves to "spoon"........
My daughter has a cairn terrior (Think Toto) named Cricket who I adore. He LOVES to play frisbee, ball, stick or whatever you choose to throw, he'll go after it and bring it back...If you say...I can't reach it, baby---he pushes it closer and closer until you pick it up and throw it again!! He talks back during conversations and goes...Rooo, rooo ROOOOO when he feels you're not listening!!!

[fluffy]

oh how sweet.........i grew up with a Cairn called Tam....and he used to guard my pram.....

Well at the moment i have Fluffy.......11 years of grumpy geriatric feline quirks..........i've had her since she was baby.....so i feel like mummy to a problem child.......
Then there's Daisy.......a British Blue....who thinks she's human and will chatter away in miaows........she's also enormous and chubby (it's the breed) and has all the grace of a tractor.....but again it's the breed.....she likes to lie in my arms like a baby whilst i rub her tummy.......

But the love of my life was Tiddles........a while back i was very ill and Tiddles literally came to me out of the blue as a stray.....but i'm sure the great cat god sent her to me... She helped me through the worst of it......... and for that i'll be eternally greatful......
We treated her like a baby.....she would sleep between us in bed with her head on the pillow and her paw around your neck.....if my fiance was in bed B4 me i would come through to find Tiddies literally snoring bubbly wet snores in his ear.....
We used to hold her like a baby too........paws around our neck...head snuggled under our chin and we'd put a hand under her bottom.......
Hell, i even used to read her bed-time stories.....lol.......
It was a sad day for us both when she died..............
ok ok so maybe i am a little animal crazy..... .....(it gets even worse.....lol )
ok so i wanted to have her cremated to scatter her ashes on a tree or bush.........so we got the ashes back......(in a pine casket nonetheless...the real deal...) i bought the rose bush and the huge ourdoor pot ....just in case we moved house you see.......well, when it came down to it my fiance said 'she's not being scattered outdoors!!!!..she's going to stay in the house where she was safe and warm and loved..........!! how could i argue with that coming from a grown man??..............so i still have her little casket, next to her photo and collar on a shelf...............
I loved my little 'Tiddies bear'............

ah well, life goes on....................i've loved and lost people too.......i guess it's because she was there to give me the cuddles i needed at a difficult time.......... .......Thankyou Tiddles..........xxx
mummy

[Clemmy]

My baby brother loved dogs and my mom was always reluctant to adopt them, until one day he brought home this puppy ... half-poodle, half-something else... and we all fell in love with her. She bacame the baby of the house.

I remember coming back home from school one evening and the lights were dimmed and everybody was whispering... because Julie (I called her Juliette) had gone through a surgery and she was recovering from the anesthetic.

She would go from room to room waking everybody in the morning...and she loved to be cuddled. I would be sitting in the living room with my boyfriend and she would jump between us and put her head on my lap waiting to be petted. She was 14 when she got very sick and passed away... I was very sad especially because I was away from home doing my master's. It took my mom three weeks to tell me what happened. It's been now 8 yrs that she's gone... Ju, we miss you!

I do not have any pets currently... My dad just gave my niece a puppy today -- she called me this afternoon and gave me all the details... She was so excited!

[Janel]

When my kids were tiny, I found a kitty for sale and brought her home. Then I called my husband and asked, "Can we have a kitty?"!!!!! anyway--she was the love of the family. The sweetest personality--very "un-cat-like" as she would even come when called. She was mostly indoor but loved to skitter around the perimeter of the house at night. And when I say skitter---ya know that hunkered down trot that cats will do when a little nervous about what might be on their tail? That was her--never ventured away from the house.

Our backyard has a 6 ft wood fence all 'round---one night at 1pm, my dog Samson and I sat straight up in bed at the same moment. My husband was oblivious.....there was cat screaming just under my window but not like a fight...different...

I ran outside and called around the corner for Sweet Pea and heard the sound of an animals body and nails scratching heavily on the fence. I didn't realize then that I had heard her murderer go up over the fence. I was too scared to run around the corner into complete blackness so ran into my bedroom to look out the window. I saw something lying on the ground that I knew was Sweet Pea. I ran back outside again, this time without fear for myself and absolute terror of what might have happened. I won't ever be able to describe my heartbreak at seeing her broken body.
At the emergency vet that night, I was told that her trachea had been crushed and neck broken. A coyote had come into my babys own backyard and taken her life. She died minutes later when her heart arrested. The vet wrapped her in her blanket that we had brought her in and laid her in a box made for burial. My kids and I wrote goodbye messages to her on the box and then my dad---who took a day off from work just to do this for me---buried her in his rose garden as I sobbed....a grown woman.....mourning her kitty.....
Why do our pets' deaths affect us so? I guess because they love without condition...and we are supposed to protect them from harm and I feel like I failed her that night....
Maybe we should quit with the sad stuff---tears are slipping down my cheeks.....thanks for sharing yours, clemmy and fluffy!!! And thanks all for listening---you can just send me the bill for the therapy, k? Shall we move on to happier tales?

[quirky]

my dog Samson

How often do you take him for a trim?

I grew up having parrots. My father raised them in the basement of the hardware store. I had an interesting childhood.

[fluffy]

Why do our pets' deaths affect us so? I guess because they love without condition...and we are supposed to protect them from harm and I feel like I failed her that night....

awe..........i'm sorry about sweatpea.........it's a sad story

but i guess we almost see our pets as babies to be loved unconditionally......i'm in the UK and we are famous for being doolally about animals........in fact we are famous for caring more about animals than fellow human beings............i'm case in hand.....in a busy main street in Glasgow a junkie sits with his wee dog wrapped up in a blanket, day in day out........when i'm down i always make a point of giving him some doggie treats or dog food as the wee dog looks so sad in the cold.......occasionally i'll buy him a sandwich but it's the dog my heart goes out to........................am i mixed up or what??

fluffy

[quirky]

I can't even go to the sad place. The parrot I posted a pic of on the member's thread, Dutch...I was saying "goodbye" to him because we were going to California on vacation and Dad had sold him.

The next owner mistreated him and he died.

[Janel]

How often do you take him for a trim?

I actually do it myself. After picking him up one too many times from the groomers with nicks and cuts on his poor little neck , I bought a trimmer and learned how to do it myself! I have NEVER nicked him! He's so good, actually leans into me as I trim away and kisses me from time to time!! And even though he gets baths on a fairly regular basis, he isn't kept trimmed at all times of the year. I like letting him get all curly and furry! But we keep his beard and eyebrows trimmed---he just wouldn't be himself without those!!

[fluffy]

The next owner mistreated him and he died.

OH NO...................GOD,HOW AWFUL FOR YOU...........

that's really tough.........i love parrots...we have a neat little zoo in aberdeen and they had a fantastic avairy full of parrots.....however they all had to be put to sleep because one bird had some atrocious bird plague and they couldn't keep the rest alive waiting to see if the'd contract it............it was awful.......

fluffs

[FunnyGirl]

aww.. I feel for you Janel. The same thing happened to my grandmother, but she had two cats. Both were raised from a baby and one was 15 years and the other 5 years..

I wish I could get a cat, but my brother and my mom are allergic.... so I ended up begging for a hamster. I was 9 years old. We finally got the cutest peach-colored thing for my birthday, and named her Cuddles. She lived for two weeks. Died of the horrible disease wet-tail.

So I waited until August and again we bought a hamster. Another peach one, just a little different. AWW! when we bought her she was so small and cute! (we named her Cuddles II but called her Cud Bud or Hammy.. stuff like that) Even though she made loud knawing sounds chewing on the bars at night, and banging noises running on her (so called "sound proof") wheel, we still loved her. As she grew, she was very healthy and smart (you could tell by the way she knew here way around the house.. in her ball). We brought her on 3 vacations, and she was lost at home 4 times (every time being found by my brother)... *sigh* She was a good hammy. She lived 3 years and died of old age (which is OLD for a hamster... maybe 80 hamster years). She died some time in April when I was still 11 years old.. ....But this probably isn't as sad as a real pet dying- like a dog or a cat. My grandpa's dog was poisoned by these jerks at a garage sale 1 year ago...

We've only had 3 pets in our lives: one fish, one frog, and one hamster.

[cotton]

We had a dog for 10 years then the stupid idiots that lived next door stole him and barbecued him.

[fluffy]

But this probably isn't as sad as a real pet

don't say that Funny Girl..........she was your pet, you loved her and took care of her..........she WAS a real pet in every respect......
'small or tall we love em' all'.......

fluffy

[fluffy]

We had a dog for 10 years then the stupid idiots that lived next store stole him and barbecued him

.
_________________


what happened?

fluffs

[cotton]

For about 20 years I thought my dog ran away cause that is what my parents told me and my brother and sister but abaut 1 year ago my father told us that the day after my dog was missing the mexican family next door had a barbacue and my dad could see what looked like our dog on their fire so my Dad went over there and asked what they cooking and they lied and said pig. My Dad grew up with pigs and knew what a roasted pig looks like plus my dog was too big to look anything like a pig. My Dad SWEARS it was our dog. Iwouldn't mind but he was a good dog and never harmed anybody. I don't think my mom was to happy about my father telling us what really happened and I wish that he never did cause we all cried after we heard that.

[fluffy]

god, that is just horrific............what about the police.......there must be animal cruelty laws about that sort of thing...........
i'm so appalled, and so very very sorry for you and your family..............
it's awful losing a pet but one you've had for 10 years!!............it'd be like losing a member of the family.......

fluffy