Our Pets

[Regina]

They get into mischief and sometimes seem to cause more trouble than they're worth, but we all really love them, right? Yesterday my silly cat was up to some of her usual nonsense when my daughter decided to grab her camera and take a video of her. She still hasn't transferred the video to her computer so I can snag it, but it got me to thinking we really DO need a pet thread here, and even though I can't yet share the video I CAN currently share at least a still shot of Spice.

Let me introduce you to her. Spice is a Persian cat that a woman in a town not too far away listed on Craigslist. I first saw the ad when I put some kittens up for adoption and I decided not to follow through because I certainly don't need any more cats. I mean come on, already, we have at least a half-dozen outside cats plus two more that sneak into the house and try to raid the guinea pig cage every chance they get, plus Syera's cat Peach and my other daughter's cat Audrey, Jr. A few weeks later I was looking through Craigslist again and the Persian cat was still listed so I decided to go ahead and e-mail about her. I got the feeling that the current owner had decided she might like to breed her but am not completely sure. She said she had a batch of kittens and they had died, blaming it on Spice's small size. I told her not to worry, as soon as was reasonable I would get Spice spayed.

There is something that appears to be fairly ingrained in Persian cats in that they tend to be really finicky. They're finicky with food and finicky with people. Spice is no exception. She isn't a people cat. She likes certain people but sadly I'm not one of her favorites. She adores my son and adores Tonya's daughter. She tolerates the indoor dogs, probably because they were here before she was. She doesn't like the other cats very well, either. I'm not sure but maybe she wasn't well socialized as a kitten. Most of the cats we have are super friendly because they've been snuggled since they were tiny.

Spice and I have pretty much developed an understanding. She understands that I feed her and clean up after her. In return, she allows me to give her a bit of petting.

She is surprisingly playful, though, and just about every day she does something that makes us laugh. She's always looking for a box to nap in or a perch to sit on. Yesterday I found her sitting on the small end table where I keep the phone. Seriously, there's barely enough room there for the phone, much less a cat! It's a good thing she's small!

Here is a picture of my silly, silly Spice the day she decided a TV tray was a good napping place. :MrGreen:

[Regina]

A few years ago we decided to get a couple of guinea pigs. When we came home we actually had three, two older ones who had been together for a couple of years and a young one just a few months old. A couple of months later my daughters decided to go to a guinea pig show and they came home with a fourth!

Firstly, I have to say that guinea pigs aren't the easiest animals to care for because they do require a very special diet that includes plenty of fresh veggies. A lot of people think you can just put them in a small cage, give them pellets and a piece of orange and be done with it. Like humans, guinea pigs can't synthesize their own vitamin C but like humans, they are also prone to diabetes when given foods with too many carbohydrates. If they actually ate enough of an orange to get enough vitamin C for the day they could easily end up with diabetes. Since their teeth are constantly growing they need veggies rich in calcium but if they get too much calcium they'll get kidney stones. I had read a lot of the horror stories about guinea pigs online but me being the way I am decided nothing like that could ever happen to any of our guinea pigs. I was wrong. One of the older pigs developed some sort of a cyst on her side that required surgery to remove it. It cost around $300. She also ended up with some type of respiratory infection, another $200 to fix her up with a trip to the vet and antibiotic.

Unknown to us, the guinea pig the girls brought home from the show was pregnant. She had one of the most adorable little faces we ever had seen but unfortunately that cute, shorter than average, little face was also her demise because later on she got to a point where her teeth became overgrown because they couldn't wear down properly and we had to put her down, but only after spending about $300 for the vet to tell us there was nothing they could do other than filing her teeth which would need redone about every two months.

There are also a ton of horror stories about pregnant guinea pigs. It isn't uncommon for one to end up carrying so many "bubs" that many of them die at birth, or the babies become so large they kill the mother during the birthing process. Also, if a female guinea pig doesn't become pregnant within the first ten months of her life, her pelvis bones will fuse together preventing future births. It doesn't, however, prevent conception, just prevents the birth which of course kills the mother and bubs. Extra vitamin C and plenty of exercise during pregnancy is an absolute essential so the mother doesn't become toxic or develop other complications. As one might imagine, as soon as I figured out this guinea pig was pregnant I spent the next weeks just about as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. I read everything I could then consulted people on forums because I wanted to make sure we did everything right. After weeks of waiting I got up one morning and looked in the piggy cage to find that she had given birth to two little bubs and here is a picture of them! We named the little girl Jennifer.



As it turned out, one of them was a boy and the other a girl so we gave the boy to my youngest sister and kept the girl. By now she's the only little piggy we have left and she's quite the character. During the first while of her life she was in a large pen with the four others, including her mom. She always hated the fact she had to share anything. She wanted all the food, all the hideys, everything to herself. Eventually the oldest pig died and soon thereafter the one that had been her pal for years passed on. Then the third and much younger pig died as well. It's not uncommon for guinea pigs to grieve themselves to death when they lose a herd-mate but I really didn't expect the youngest of those three to die too. I declare, though, Jennifer is the happiest guinea pig ever, having that huge cage all to herself. I'll have to see if I can get a more recent picture of her because she's absolutely adorable!

[LoserInc]

I have had so so many pets. I've had geese, horses, a bull, snakes, cats, dogs, lizards, bunnies...eeesh.

My current little one is Yazi. She was a rescue. A little runt out in the middle of the road. When I got her, she could completely curl up and sleep in my hand. She's much bigger now, and geez, I think she is in kitty teen years right now because she is all angsty. I'm waiting for her to post little kitty Twilight posters up in her poopy box hut.

[Regina]

Oh my yes, cats can be angsty, can't they? Sometimes they brood and mope around like crazy. I remember when you got her, LoserInc, she's growing into such a beautiful cat!

[LoserInc]

Problem is, I think she knows it. After she has her evening treat, she primps in the bathroom mirror. She's almost a year old now, so, definitely those teen years. "hold me, don't hold me, hold me, I growl at you and run away" lol.

[lkandak]

Adorable pics and great stories!

I have an Akita. He's the bestest friend! He's really loyal and always makes my day. I don't have a pic right now, but he's white and gorgeous.

I also have a Snapping Turtle. He's turning 3 this year. I found him on a parking spot, the size of a dollar and all dried up. He had roundworm, but after a few trips to the vet, he's all good.

He's surprisingly friendly too. Whenever I let his walk in my room he climbs my bed and sleeps under my pillow. He's real cute sometimes :MrGreen:, but he's great at making messes and I have to clean his tank every other day. :headache:



This is my painted turtle. I found her (I thought it was a he, then a she, then a he and now I go with she. It's hard to tellwith pond turtles.) in June 2008. I have no idea how old she is, but she was in my front yard. I have a feeling she's wild, but I have no idea where she could've come from.

This little guy [or girl] over here is Flubber. He's a Pacman frog. He's one year old. He thinks that he's able to swallow anything, and tries to bite me every once in a while.


I have 9 Hermit Crabs. They're all adorable and funny in their own little ways.

I rescued 2 baby birds before, 1 blackbrid and 1 dove. The little blackbird fell out of it's nest in a park and my dog found it (But didn't touch it) and I took it home. It ate worms out of my hand, it even followed me around the house when I put it on the floor. I was teaching him to fly (I had him for 2 weeks, but was going to let him go soon), he would fly around the rooms. One day, when I was away on a trip, I opened his cage and he was so happy to fly around the room that he was looking at me when he was flying and then hit his head against the wall, and that was it.
RIP

The dove was a tiny little bird. I found him in my front yard and fed him baby bird food. Around a week later, he died. It might have been that he got some food into his lungs :(

RIP

[Regina]

What a cool assortment of pets! :D Trying to raise wild baby birds is a difficult thing indeed. My mom successfully hand-raised a wild magpie, which I think is probably the easiest to do. In this bird's case it wasn't super young. She reared it on bread crust and milk, just soaking the bread crust in enough milk to make it soft then the little guy could eat it. I can never forget that bird. When it got hungry it would peck on the back door with its beak and say "Knock knock".

[LoserInc]

I so want a hermit crab! KAWAII!!!

[lkandak]

(04-05-2011 01:55 AM)Regina Wrote:  What a cool assortment of pets! :D Trying to raise wild baby birds is a difficult thing indeed. My mom successfully hand-raised a wild magpie, which I think is probably the easiest to do. In this bird's case it wasn't super young. She reared it on bread crust and milk, just soaking the bread crust in enough milk to make it soft then the little guy could eat it. I can never forget that bird. When it got hungry it would peck on the back door with its beak and say "Knock knock".

Thanks Regina. The bird sounds adorable. Reminds me of a squirrel that got stuck in my garbage can 3 years ago. He was a baby, and I put him in a small box and fed him milk and nuts. A few days later, I let him go and he still came back to my backyard for the nuts I left out. He stopped a year later, but just last year I saw 2 gray squirrels in my front yard, one had a large white tail just like him.

I hope he's ok now, since squirrels don't live that long in the wild...

(04-05-2011 02:06 AM)LoserInc Wrote:  I so want a hermit crab! KAWAII!!!

They're really cute and fun, but they molt alot and spend lots of their time underground. :MrGreen:

[tontrin]

Okay, my daughter took some pictures of our dogs this week, so here you go.

Molli is a dog we got at the Humane Society. We don't know for sure what kind of breeds she is, but she is definitely part some kind of racing hound. You can tell from her pics, and she absolutely loves to run. She is loud and obnoxious (if she doesn't like someone she sounds like she's going to attack and eat them), but she loves us very much. She also thinks she's a lap dog, although it's hard for her to sit on a lap without causing pain from her bony legs. She loves to cuddle on the couch or bed with us.
   

The thing is, when we got her at the shelter, she actually picked us. We were lucky since she was only eight weeks old when we adopted her. We wanted to take her to the room where you see if the animal likes you for one on two (my daughter and me) time. When the lady opened her kennel, she growled at her and backed up into the kennel and did not want to come out. She did not like her. She got the little pup and we went to the room. Once she was with us, she was happy. She snuggled into my neck and wouldn't move from that spot, as if to say, "You're taking me home and there's nothing you can do about it."

The other day, she hurt her leg somehow (she was probably out running when that happened; she's always running into things and getting banged up) and has been toting a bandage which she ripped off today, and her leg is doing much better.
   

Mr. Piglet, on the other hand, is our shy little Chihuahua. We got him from a neighbor when her family was having some problems and they were trying to lighten their load of pets (they had a lot of them). He shakes a lot and is afraid of almost everything, I think "even his own shadow", to quote Winnie the Pooh. He is a little lap buddy and loves to snuggle on my lap.
       
He is scared a lot. (See his eyes bugging out.)
   
But, he's adapted well to getting along with Molli. For the first while he was very afraid of her, with good reason. Sometimes she would charge at him at full speed outside, run over the top of him and he would roll over the ground. He became very good at ducking and getting out of her way after a while. He seems to be pretty smart that way.

He also has some kind of health problem that only first surfaced to our knowledge when he got in the middle of bigger dogs playing too rough and Molli attacking him and he had a seizure. It was scary, because we thought he was dead. He was not moving and did not seem to be breathing. He was like that, literally scared stiff, for about twenty minutes and then he finally started to move his eyes. I think it took about two hours of holding him before he would walk. Then for I think about a couple of months he walked sideways and kind of in circles.

He had only one other minor seizure a long time after that, but he wasn't completely petrified and came around quickly. So at least it hasn't been a bad problem. He is a very sweet little dog.

[Regina]

Aww, it's Molli and Mr. Piglet! I'd wave at them, but yeah.

I like Mr. Piglet and Mr. Piglet likes me. He likes just about anyone's lap!

[Simbody]

Such wonderful pets.

We have a new cat, we got her right around Halloween. Rather she chose us. The fist month we moved in she would show up on our doorstep in the wee hours of the morning and cry to be let in. I'm not sure if the previous tenant abandoned her or another occupant in the complex. When I moved in they were making it harder to have a pet. I had to go through some hoops to get them classified as companion pets.

We named her Jetta, she is solid black with copper eyes. Weighs just over 6lbs and is on the tiny size. Lily, has gained at least that much since Jetta moved in, I think she is afraid she will go hungry if she has to share her food. Which is odd, we have had Lily since she was 12 weeks old and she is 7 1/2 yrs old now. She has never gone without food, I've always left a bowl of dry food out for her and it's filled everyday, but she still has this fear of going hungry. Anyway, she lost a lot of weight when we had the dog, because they played constantly. So I know some of it is just the lack of exercise.

Anyway, Jetta is such a character. She loves to sit in the windows and loves high places, being small and slender she can get just about anywhere she wants too. One of her favorite spots is the girls dollhouse. The others are the top of the 6ft bookcase, and the top bunkbed.

Here is a snapshot of her in the dollhouse, she likes the bed. Barbie has been evicted this is now Jetta's home.
   

She also likes my desk. I have a cabinet Armour desk and I have added a lamp inside it, one of the clamp type lamps with an adjustable neck. She loves to sleep under it. These 2 pictures are her on my desk, as you can see she loves to block my monitor but sometimes she stretches out or curls up out of my line of site....lol
   
   
   

[Regina]

I love the cat in the doll bed! They're so funny that way! Never a surface can be found that won't make a good perch. I declare, our silly Spicy cat keeps us so entertained with her penchant for perches that it really doesn't matter that she's not the most sociable and snuggable cat, because her antics always make us laugh. The other day my son had taken one of those small lounge chairs for children out of his room, the kind with three sections where the sections all fold on top of each other. He set it in the living room and within minutes Spice had claimed it for her own. Today I was trying to find a chair for my desk that doesn't kill my leg and in my search I found a small rocking chair (am going to try it at my desk, don't know if it will work, but whether or not it does, we can use it in the living room) so we brought it into the house and the first thing we knew, it was filled with cats.

[tontrin]

That pic with the cat on the doll bed is just great, Amy! What a pretty little kitty. I've enjoyed everyone's pet pics so far. It's nice to share.

[nkuhlwind]

Love everyone's pets! I'm a bit of a pet freak myself-we have mules, dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs. Here's a link to a fun video-http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.p...9820085617it's our last batch of pigs in a pool!! Here's another link to pics of some of my critters-http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?s...0787988337.

There are no kitty pics yet-we just got them over the winter. Edgar is a cat who thinks he's a dog and Vengence was drowned, crawled out of the bucket and got out on the road where my son's girlfriend picked him up. He seems to have some brain damage from the ***** attempt but has a really sweet personality.

Dogs are my first love-I used to show and breed Anatolian Shepherds and the kids were also involved in showing. Now I just have two old Anatolian Shepherds left.

Doobie the Doberman is my constant companion-he goes everywhere with me, is great with kids, other animals, livestock, and is very obedient.

8-Ball is mutt given to me by a friend (some friend!)....he gets into everything and drags things all over the yard! Amazing that something so small could be so destructive!

Red and Elvira are two young mules-eventually we will break them to ride. They are lovely, sensible girls-half sisters with the same draft horse mom and two different mammoth jack dads.

I hate to tell you all but the pigs and chickens we raise to eat. They do live the good life while they are with us-how many pigs do you know with a swimming pool??

BTW-I do love the cat in the doll bed-poor Barbie!!!!!