Never had a golden retriever, but when I was a vet tech, way back in the day, they were the most wonderful patients. And friends who have had them love the breed.
Dogs and cats alike break our hearts. They just don’t live long as we do and inevitably leave us! My last dog, the 72 lb.er referred to above, was my ‘soul-mate’ of dogs and I still cry when I think about her, and it’s been over 15 years since I lost her (and got the lovely little dog I have today).
I think the bond between people and these critters is just amazing. I wonder at it every time I see a child with a puppy or a kitten, the way these very different species seem to belong together. Me, I’ve had just about every kind of critter you can have as a pet and then some, including a pet rat, a snake, even 120 mice (not when I had the snake!). Ha! That really made my mother so very happy. Especially when the snake got loose and we never found it. But losing a hamster or a bird, while very sad, just doesn’t have the impact losing a dog has had on me. The only thing comparable was the horse I had and then had to sell. Never got over that one either!
I like tarantulas. They’re especially fun when you can get your kids to like them, so you can send the grandparents Halloween cards of the grandkids with giant spiders crawling up their smiling little faces.
She was absolutely gorgeous. The whole litter was made up of stunning looking dogs. She had the extremely loving nature and desire to be close characteristic of Malamutes, who are bred to be very connected to their human families, and that sharp, Shepherd intelligence. She was pretty special.
Yeah, Vic, when she stood on her hind legs, she was just about as big as me (at 5’5" and 112 lbs!). A little different from the 9 lb. little girl I have now, who fits much more nicely in my lap when I’m writing!
I have two. One’s a big fat lazy thing, and if he decides he wants to sit with me, I can’t write at all. The second is smaller and usually curls around my feet…though sometimes he will perch his bottom right on my Macbook. I think he likes the heat.
I’m afraid I’m gonna have to put the cat among the pigeons here. No pun intended… Okay okay, you got me. Of course it was.
I dispise cats, for the simple reason they are sadistic predators that kill an estimated, and massive, 250 million creatures a year, just in the UK. The huge downside to this, other than the bleedin’ obvious, is that very few of the creatures killed, are those ‘one’ may wish to be the cats victim. I love wildlife
I do, however, have a Leopard Gekko. Maybe I should call him OS X!
Well, I don’t blame the cats as much as the cat owners. We have many free, wandering cats in our neighborhood, and some of them go after the birds I attract with my bird feeders and crap in my garden and the like. I think it pretty reprehensible that people let their cats out to make other people’s yards their litter boxes! But it’s not the cats’ fault–it’s the disrespectful owners who think it’s okay to let their cats wander anywhere they like. I mean the animals don’t know that my yard is off limits to cats! That I’m allergic to them, they can even be deadly if I don’t have an inhaler handy, and that I might object to having cat shit on my property.
But the cats are just being cats! I’m not crazy about them as pets, even without the allergies, but I hold nothing against them for being what they are! I guess the people are being what they are too–inconsiderate!
I do agree the owners hold a lot of the blame. How easy is it to put a bell around the cats neck to warn birds, and the like, cats are near? As for the pooping, I guess a well placed cork might do the trick.
Unfortunately, bells just make life more dangerous for the cat itself. It took all of a week for my hounds to realise the bell meant there was a juicy cat hiding nearby…
Bells wouldn’t help much with my cats. They can pop breakaway collars off in about ten minutes flat.
Doesn’t matter, though, as mine live indoors. The neighborhood birds are safe, but provide much entertainment. It keeps the cats safe, too: the lifespan of an outdoor cat is something like a third of an indoor cat’s. Even less than that around here, as coyotes wander through every so often.
I too blame irresponsible humans for problem cats. What’s the point of inviting another animal into your life if you’re going to ignore it?
Yeah, it’s the equivalent of getting a dog then leaving it outside on a chain or in the yard all the time. Why bother??? And they usually end up barking constantly and bothering the neighbors (who can blame them?). So it’s not just irresponsible cat owners.
