For animal lovers

[candor]

Wimpalicious sounding pretty good right about now? What's Kiley done?

Um, today?
Pooped on the carpet
Peed on the kitchen floor
Tipped the wastebasket in the living room and flung the trash around.
Opened the bathroom cabinet and pulled out the Comet.
Got in a fight at the dog park.
Broke through the barrier in the back of my car and got his white hairs all over my black upholstery.
Bit Paul (OK, that was an accident).
Peed again on the bath mat an hour after I took him out.
Growled and barked when I put him in his crate for the night.

In other words, an ordinary night in Spazzville.

[Gutmutter]

I was up late helping my cat have kittens. 3 white, one tuxedo. Congrats Pom on your little bundle of joy.

[Pomeraniac]

I was up late helping my cat have kittens. 3 white, one tuxedo. Congrats Pom on your little bundle of joy.

CONGRATULATIONS on the kittens, Gut!!!

A TUXEDO kitten? How wonderful! I have a "weekend cat" named Smudge who is a tuxedo cat. I'll post pics of him one of these days.

I saw you in The Counting Game and I noticed you need homes -- I have no idea where you are, Gutmutter, but if you're in New England then I HIGH HOSEY A KITTEN.

It would be for my next door neighbor, who euthanized his beloved 18 year old cat (who was in kidney failure) the very day before I euthanized my AV.

Every single night since then I've been taking my weekend cat over to his house every night after work and then delivering the weekend cat back to the office where he lives, full time, at 6:45 a.m. so that his workers can enjoy him.

It's a hassle, but at least Joe the Neighbor isn't left alone after his devastating loss

I'd love to get a kitten for Joe so please PM me if you're anywhere near Massachusetts.

Thanks

[Gutmutter]

Pom - I tried pming you from home and my computer spazzed right when I hit send. So if you didn't get it - i am central north Ma on rt. 2 so we could meet half-way when the time comes if you would like. (I don't drive in Boston - off I go to the phobia thread.)

[Leftcoaster]

Posting to belatedly acknowledge and sing the praises of microchipping your furry friend.

A few weeks ago, I took off for awhile, and while I was gone, so did my little buddy. I inadvertantly left the door open to a room with a window left open for kitty access and my little Chewie pal, who takes it as a personal affront when he isn't included on out out the house activities decided to do a personal neighborhood watch. Ordinarily he comes back within a quarter hour if he gets out, but with me gone longer he strode into unfamiliar regions.

It isn't the first time my motley mutt has got out, but this time he took off without his collar. Sadly, I failed to appeciate at first the dire situation, as the panic didn't set in until he'd been gone for a couple of days. I placed an ad in the paper, but didn't realize how different people view critters differently. Sure that he was going to be home in a day or so, I neglected to plaster the landscape with missing posters, focussing my energy on coverring an ever increasing grid, becoming haunted by the idea that he was travelling now on the block I'd just checked. I checked the shelters with the same sort of depression I recalled from seeing such good little critters behind bars before, but somehow forgot about the Humane Society until they called me in regards to my ad. They had a dog that matched my description except where my guy was neutered, the dog they had wasn't. I left them to a daily call.

After about 5 days and decreasinfg temps my dread increased enormously, particularly when someone pointed out to me that being such a keeper someone might decide to do just that. I increased the reward I offered, even though I didn't have it, hoping that greed might spark greater observation. I started kicking myself, realizing that ads regarding a "Yorkie" might be someones mistaken ID for my wire haired terrier. Colors were mixed up to the point where I was calling about ANY dog that remotely fiot the size even if they described the color as being black when my gut is reddish/gold.

To bring this to a close, on the ninth day, headed out of town to feed a friends critters while she was laid up in the hospital I stopped by the Humane Society for the first time, having relied on phone calls to that point. They told me they still didn't have anyone that met my description, but when I went back to the kennel my hoarse little buddy was waiting to greet me and I went back and told them that he while might have regrown a set of balls, that was my dog. While there, I disclosed that I'd put out the reward I didn't have but emptied my wallet of a couple hundred bucks in immediate gratitude. Being friendly folk, they offered to microchip my pal, normally something they charge 25 bucks for (what a bargain). They said that ANY SHELTER is required to scan for these chips, and had they had one to scan we would have been reunited a week earlier or so. Sounds good to me. I don't plan on letting him loose, but you never know.

On a related RANT, taking my pal with me to feed my friends critters, I nearly lost him again, PERMANENTLY. My friend, softhearted fool that she is, took in a Wolf/Dog mix that another friend could no longer handle. A good dog, but a nightmare waiting to occur in an instant if you let your guard down. Letting her dogs out when I arrived, Wolfdog went for the throat of my terrier, intent on one thing, and that thing wasn't nice. I was sure I'd have one dead dog, if not two before I was finished, but somehow got them separated (amazingly). Even though my pups tongue was turning black he still managed to notch both the Wolfdog's ears.

I don't believe anyone has a reason for owning this sort of Wolf hybrid, and most of the people that do that I have heard of do it for money, not love. Nothing but condemation do I have for these breeding capatilistic fools that put their wallet before the well being of those poor devils they are churning out. Wolf hybrids have no purpose for being other than greed, other than the fools like my friend who might ultimately lose her house or even her freedom for attempting to care for an animal that has no business being around pets or children.

[Catt]

That must have been really scary for you and your little pal. Glad to hear he's OK and back home safely.

[erin_dye]

Good to hear you found each other again. It was fate that made you stop at the Humane Society that day.

[candor]

So glad to hear you got your dog back, Leftcoaster. I know what you mean about the wolf hybrids. I think there's one that comes to the dog park. He's beautiful, but he doesn't act like a dog, he acts like a wolf stalking prey.

[Leftcoaster]

I'm of course overjoyed to be reunited (and thanks to you all), but beginning to feel like a prison warden, as the little guy seems to feel he has unfinished business to tend to and I've had to drag his mangy little butt back indoors a couple of tiomes since he got home. It would be easier if kitty was only an indoor resident, but I can't see depriving HER because he is feeling frisky.

I have learned from my scare and he is weighed down with a pound or so of assorted ID, and I've given considerable thought as to what I did wrong with my search and how I need to approach it if it ever occurs again. Chewie was named for Chewbacca from Star Wars, they look like cousins if not siblings.

I feel bad about Wolfboy, who has dug a cave in the middle of my friends back yard. Around me, or another adult, he's just a big doofy dog. But if he forgets himself and goes into chase mode, WATCH OUT. I figure there has to be a rescue place for this guy that is much more appropriate for him than a neighborhood where despite precautions it seems more a matter of when than if that something tragic occurs. My friend is dead set against abandoning him to his fate at a pound or calling for euthenasia herself, which I understand, but she's lying her self interests underneath the poor critters interests in my estimation.

I don't understand people that get a hair up their butt to have a particular kind of animal because it suits their present 15 minute attention span only to turn their backs on it after discovering that reality doesn't match the fantasy they had. I vasnpooled with a woman for a while that after determining that she HAD to have a dalmatian, kept it in a 4 foot square cage in the garage, never taking this hyperactive dog on any walks.

One of the most appropriate animal orientated books I ever ran across (forgotten title) was designed to match up prospective owners with an appropriate dog. It gave the characteristics for different breeds and indicated their expected needs so that a couch potato might spare both themselves and the dog the misery of aquiring something like a greyhound that needs to run for miles a day to keep content. Great book concept, IMO, but like the woman I mentioned, too many people never consider the animals needs, just THEIR immediate desires. That is the reason I understand most shelters don't adopt out dalmatians around the airings of 101 Dalmatians or adopt out bunnies around easter. All things considered, critters seem more humane at times than many people.

[Pomeraniac]

Here's a panoramic view of "Smudge," who is my "weekend cat." He lives across the street from me in an office, five days per week, but he gets really depressed over the weekends when he's left alone, with nobody to keep him company but the office's other three cats. He's a wonderful people-cat, much more like a dog than he is a cat.

At first the office people thought they'd try to find him a permanent home but then we all realized that he'd be left alone while his new owner went to work, so he'd still be depressed. In fact he'd be even more depressed, 'cause he'd be left alone five days per week rather than two.

The solution we all came up with is that he lives in the office all week while the workers are there and then he comes to my house every Friday night. I pick him up on my walk home from my train station, bring him up to the apartment, and he hangs out here with my two dogs and me until very early on Monday mornings, when I return him on my way back to work.

He's a real sweet guy, very affectionate, and he gets along great with my dogs. He got along great with my av, too, when my av was around, and he's getting along great with "Tuxedo," my new Pom. He outweighs my new Pom BY 15 lb (!) so I think it's a very good thing that they get along!