Our pets

[taxlady]

GG, I understand. We thought long and hard before spending the money on the I-131 treatment for Shreddy. Before any treatment, he was hungry all the time and skinny. His vertebrae were protruding a lot and I could feel his ribs too much. I probably wouldn't have done anything about it if he had been happy and comfortable.

 

[Dawgluver]

Grandma had an old farm dog, he had been found sleeping around the smudge pots in the fields, hence the name Smudge. When my sister was born, that dog would not let anyone but Mom and Grandma near the baby. All her baby pictures had Smudge in them, too. When Dad got home from Korea, Smudge wouldn't let him near the baby for the first couple days, even though Dad was one of Smudge's best friends.

When Mom had Baby Bro, we had the nastiest, most cantankerous cocker spaniel who hated everyone but Mom. Mom insisted that Dad take anything that smelled like the baby, blankets, diapers, who knows what, home from the hospital, and let that nasty dog sniff it. And when they brought Baby Bro home, that evil cocker never left his side.

That said, I would never trust any animal to be left alone with a baby or small child. Beagle is the world's sweetest dog, but is under my watch at all times with little kids.

 

[CarolPa]

Age has a lot to do with the treatment you get for your pets. We once spend over $1K for surgery on a dog, but he was otherwise young and active and lived another 5-6 years afterwards. I was still working and we had the money. The dog we have now is older, at least 13. The vet wants to do blood work looking for a diagnosis because he has a "rat tail." His tail doesn't bother him, he's eating, doing his business, normal weight, and we just don't have the money as retirees to be putting money into a pet who is not going to be here much longer, anyway. This will be our last pet, simply because we cannot afford to give a pet the medical care they so often need.

 

[Addie]

Age has a lot to do with the treatment you get for your pets. We once spend over $1K for surgery on a dog, but he was otherwise young and active and lived another 5-6 years afterwards. I was still working and we had the money. The dog we have now is older, at least 13. The vet wants to do blood work looking for a diagnosis because he has a "rat tail." His tail doesn't bother him, he's eating, doing his business, normal weight, and we just don't have the money as retirees to be putting money into a pet who is not going to be here much longer, anyway. This will be our last pet, simply because we cannot afford to give a pet the medical care they so often need.

And that is why I don't have my own pet also. Plus the cost of food. I will live through Spike's Teddy.

 

[CarolPa]

And that is why I don't have my own pet also. Plus the cost of food. I will live through Spike's Teddy.

When I was growing up my friends had a dog, and every night after dinner, all the scraps from the plate were scraped into the dog's bowl and that was what the dog ate. That was so common back then. It is really not recommended to do that because a dog's digestive system is not the same as ours and foods would effect them differently. Some dog foods can get very expensive.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Our sweet 18-year-old Elwing died yesterday. I was feeling pretty sick (side effects from a new med), so DH was home when it happened. I'm so thankful for that. He took this photo of us last fall.

GG, I am so sorry your sweet Elwing is gone. :'( Big hugs to you.

 

[CarolPa]

My dog likes to lick the inside of my shoes after I take them off. Why is that? It's so weird. When I go to bed, I kick off the slip-ons I wear around the house, and then I can hear him over there shuffling around and when I look, his snout is deep into my shoe. He used to carry my shoes out into the hallway, but he hasn't done that for a while. He's a tiny Maltese, and I would like to know how he gets those shoes out into the hall, but he only does it in the middle of the night. At first we thought we had a ghost the first couple times we got up and found the shoes in the hallway. This was during the time when I was in the hospital every few months, and it seemed that every time he did that I ended up in the hospital. So I am really glad he quit doing it.

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

I just discovered Nimbus (a.k.a. His Most Royal Highness the Supreme Fluffy-butt) will allow me to scratch his head to the beat of Panic at the Disco's cover of "What's This?" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". The beat of "The Copper Wars" by The Cog is Dead is, apparently, also tolerable for head scratching. Making him dance to any songs is, however, completely unacceptable. Not that I thought I'd actually get away with it but I figured since he was being so accomodating it was worth a try.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I just got my last set of scratches healed and you pose such a challenge. Latté is sleeping, she should be receptive to a good rhythmic skritch...

Torment a cat time...

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

Lol. Go get that kitty!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

She's humming like an Evinrude...apparently she likes it.

 

[purple.alien.giraffe]

It's because cats are weird.

 

[LPBeier]

Yesterday Monkey and I built a shelf. It is one of those wooden 13" cubes and this one has three horizontal shelves for paper and two half vertical dividers. I made up the cube and she jumped in as I was screwing the top on.

I slid the first divider in and she moved over, same with the second and third. As I put the first half-wall in she was pretty well scrunched in as much as she could be. I tried to put the last piece in and she just sat there willing me to just try and get her to vacate the premises.

But I then turned on her laser beam and all resolve went out the window as she worshiped the little red dot!

 

[taxlady]

What's the difference between people and cats?

Cats like noogies.

 

[LPBeier]

Yup. They do.

I swear that Monkey wakes me up just to give her a noogie. If I am in my chair on a bad night she will jump on my lap and nudge my chin with the top of her head. when I take my hand and scratch her there, she sits and enjoys it then jumps down and goes back into her "fort" to sleep.

Thanks cat, now I'm awake!

I really do love my cat, honest.

 

[Cheryl J]

Aww, I love the kitty stories. LP, the shelves you put together sound nice. My kitty loves to insert himself in any projects I've got going on, too.

One or two of you may remember that my Blackee was bitten by another cat last month and had to have surgery. Almost all of his fur has grown back, and he is doing great! I couldn't find the original post, I could have sworn I put it here in this thread.

 

[LPBeier]

Cheryl, I am so glad Blackee is doing better. I do remember his ordeal. It is as traumatic for us as it is for them when they are in distress.

Monkey was a surprise addition to our family and while her kitten antics are sometimes wearing on our 10 year old dog, Violet, and us, she is a breath of fresh air as well.

Speaking of her, she just came into my office, jumped up, said hi and is now curled up in the middle of Violet's big bed. It is so funny to see this little black fur ball in the middle of a four by four foot dog bed!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I don't know who likes the night time ritual of noogies more, me or Latté. I lay in proper cat bed position, she gets comfy and I fall asleep during the scritches, while she hums away.

 

[taxlady]

You guys keep equating scritches and noogies. Do you mean the same kind of noogies that I mean, like Three Stooges noogies? I mean the ones where you use a knuckle to rub hard on the top of the head or on the forehead. You know, the kind that people hate and I think they hurt.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Latté appreciates either...of course, I don't do noogies hard, I like my hands on the ends of my arms.