Pets (2 Viewers)

[ChipEnvy]

I've got two cats. This is Molly, she is 14. I don't have a pic on my phone of the other one, probably because he won't sit still long enough for me to get a decent shot.

 

[hod]

Bella the (prematurely grey) beagle.

 

[jbutler]

looks like she's on the phone.

 

[bergs]

Picture of Truman, my nearly 10 year old English Bulldog. He's a fat snorting farting drooling love machine.

 

[links_slayer]

Me with my favorite mutt on a walk last winter

 

[guinness]

My 176.5 pound guerrilla. He eats pillows.

 

[Big Jilm]

ooops

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[Milo013]

My 176.5 pound guerrilla. He eats pillows.

What breed? As for pillows, at least he isn't humping them, like my boy Chester . . .

 

[Toby]

My 176.5 pound guerrilla. He eats pillows.

Could he take down a bear?

 

[iblonger]

My family and I have worked with rescue dogs for over 6 years years. Not long after we were married we adopted a fluffy 40 pound nut case (in a good way) from the humane league. After 10 good years he was diagnosed with cancer.

We then found a little lady on pet finder at a semi local rescue.


After seeing how overwhelmed the lady running the rescue was, we offered to help. We then began foster dogs. We fostered several before we received two brother, lab pitbull mixes. We named them Reggie and Randall. (Im an Eagles fan). Randall was adopted and we ended up with Reggie for over 6 months.

So he just stayed....



Many more fosters and we received a heart worm positive pittbull. Some of you helped name her over at big blue. After 6 months of nursing her back to health, my wife couldn't part with her.

So she stayed....



We can no longer foster with 3 dogs in my house, but I still help with home visits and promotion. I am very proud to say we have fostered and rehabilitated over 60 dogs in our time with the rescue, and it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life.

Here is our pack being read to by my youngest.

 

[jbutler]

iblonger, that is a beautiful story - you're a saint! those dogs are beyond lucky to have had you guys to love them.

 

[Mr Tree]

Texted from my wife today.

 

[grandgnu]

I give you..........Two Cats One Fork!

 

[jbutler]

turns out slayer is pretty soothing to the feline ear.

 

[jbutler]

not mine (thank god):

 

[Mental Nomad]

Nice shepherd, Had one as a child my favourite dog by far.
For me I have fish..
Old lady let me set up a saltwater aquarium thinking it would be cheaper than getting a dog.... Pretty sure she was dead wrong lol
I don't even like thinking of the $ i put into all the corals and equipment it's crazy.

A marine aquarium is bad enough - but a reef? Yeah. More than a dog.

 

[detroitdad]

just picked up a shock collar for my puggle. His Beagle traits are dominate. I just can't get the barking under control. Hopefully the vibration mode will be enough to train him. If not, I'll be forced to shock the little bastard.

 

[Mental Nomad]

just picked up a shock collar for my puggle. His Beagle traits are dominate. I just can't get the barking under control. Hopefully the vibration mode will be enough to train him. If not, I'll be forced to shock the little bastard.

Sorry, man. I have two Eskimos (white Spitz), and I'm failing to get their barking under control, too - fortunately, they're quiet when nobody is entering the house. But on poker nights... sheesh. Every time the door knocks.

 

[detroitdad]

Tucker knows there is shit in the field. Every time we let him outside he patrols the back fence barking at the damn field. God forbid somebody walks in front of our house. Then he is pissed off for an hour or so.

Today is the first day we have used it. Ive set it for vibration only. It seems to be working. Its just a matter of if he adjusts to the vibration before he is broken of the barking.

fwiw, I've had a dog for the better part of 40 years. I was a Canine PO for 5, trained dogs for another couple of years. This is the first time I have had to resort to this, lol........damn dog.

Other than that, he is a blast. Very playful and entertaining.

 

[Mental Nomad]

Black dogs, like yours, xxmurrxx, are beautiful, but so hard to photograph well!

 

[Jeff]

Its awesome that you've fostered so many dogs. I bet thats a lot of hard work. Were all of them successful? Were you able to train all of those dogs for adoption?

 

[Mental Nomad]

Ill clarify myself then. I think all animals show a great sense of 'love' to their owners but I believe its a more special bond if that animal has come from a terrible situation. so its not quite all about the pet to the owner love its the back and forth bond may be more higher at times.
Dont know about dogs. Only have had cats my whole life

But I still stick by my words of adopt rather than buy. Too much overpopulation. Yes I understand the need for some breeders for rare breeds etc. But puppy mills are atrocities.

I think most animal psychologists will agree that pets like dogs have much less of a memory for their prior condition than we do. They may have conditioned behaviors from past experiences, but they're not "living in the past" nor comparing it to the present. They live much more "in the moment" than we do. As a result, when a dog is loving on you, the dog is just loving on you - and when it loves, it loves its people with a more pristine love than most people can understand.

And I agree that puppy mills are atrocities, and anyone who unwittingly buys at a retail pet store is always contributing to the atrocities.

 

[detroitdad]

kept him busy while I watched football on SUN.

When he is done chewing on it he won't rest until he finds a suitable hiding spot. In the cushions of the couch, planters, toy box, lol..........He acts frantic until he gets it hidden.

Never had a dog like this before.

He also hides it under the blanket in his kennel. Cool watching him. He actually covers it with the blanket.

 

[iblonger]

Its awesome that you've fostered so many dogs. I bet thats a lot of hard work. Were all of them successful? Were you able to train all of those dogs for adoption?

We were failures 3 times - Two of them we adopted , which in the fostering world is called a failure as a joke. We did have 1 that was eventually euthanized. She was so mistreated in her former life that it was the best thing for her. We did try for over a year with us and two different behavioralists. It was horrible knowing that some pups just cant be saved.

 

[ChaosRock]

This is Bubbles! I am glad she lets me live at HER house 8) She absolutely loves poker night when she just lays underneath one of the tables and tries to tilt players with her farts...

 

[Tommy]

My GSD loves to lay in front of the poker chips cabinet. Protecting the chips I guess.

 

[bchico]

Chaos shes beautiful! My boy Chico passed away a few months ago after 12 awesome years. Trust me his farts were wayyy worse!

 

[MoscowRadio]

I love when this thread gets bumped for this post. It gets you right in the feels. Here's to many more years with Bruce, Jack.

i'll save an extended post about all my pets for an afternoon when i have a bit more free time. but this thread reminded me of an errand i have to run this weekend for an xmas present for my stepdaughter, Casey. we have a basset hound named Bruce and they're very close. Bruce is getting up there in years and i can see her get down when his age comes up in conversation. she knows he's not going to be around forever.

sometime this past year she was roughhousing on the floor with him and i took a couple crappy iphone pics. despite the quality, one looked cute and captured a lot of their relationship:

i commissioned a virtual artist, dax gordine, to adapt the photo as an illustration. it was a real J5 experience - super responsive, asking for other photos of Bruce and Casey to make sure he got things right, and the price was ridiculous considering this is his primary profession and he's basically doing this as a lark and a favor. he sent the below illustration and i'm taking it for framing this weekend at a local shop here.

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That's a beautiful pup you've got there, Chaos.

 

[ChaosRock]

Hey bchico! Sorry for the passing of Chico... He was a very good looking boy... I'm glad you guys got to enjoy each other's company for those 12 years... That's really all we can do man...

Chaos shes beautiful! My boy Chico passed away a few months ago after 12 awesome years. Trust me his farts were wayyy worse!

 

[jbutler]

thanks for the love for that photo, guys. it now hangs upstairs in Casey's bedroom and she was crazy about it xmas morning. but i realized i haven't posted pet photos other than those, so here goes.

first, there's the aforementioned bruce. i've had basset hounds my whole life and i love them. i know everyone thinks their preferred breed is the greatest and i'm no different. plus, bruce is dumb and lazy so we really connect.

on his birthday:

evacuating just before hurricane katrina (the closest hotel that allowed pets was an hour away; fortunately, it was less than a mile from Parx Casino ):

he loves the snow, but i guess on this, the first snow a few winters ago, he didn't know what to make of it, so he took to the higher ground of the tiki bar:

but don't get the wrong impression: he spends greater than 90% of his life in this position either on a couch or on his bed in the kitchen:

we also have outdoor cats, which were gradual and initially unintended additions to the family. about 5 years ago a cat started coming around the house on occasion and we ultimately figured out she was feral. of course we understood that if we began feeding her that she'd continue coming around, but we are animal lovers and were completely fine with caring for a feral (we weren't really familiar with feral cat care then - we just called her a stray). we have a large lot (for a beach community) with lots of foliage where she could relax in the shade and feel safe enough to sleep overnight, so she stuck around for a long time.

at first we just started calling her "the what-the-fuck-cat" on account of the markings on her upper lip that make her look constantly incredulous. ultimately, we named her (before we knew it was a her) walter thomas friedman in keeping with her WTF initials.

here she is peering into the basement from the side porch:

we tried very hard to trap her and get her spayed, but it was in vain. her amorous impulses led to four additional ferals. our intention at the time of their arrival was to capture them and put them in a no-kill shelter for adoption, but we eventually decided to let them stay around, a decision made easier by the fact that walter found a new stomping ground and hasn't been around for a couple years now.

the downside of our unintentional acquisition of these cats was that we avoided giving them real names so as to not become too attached to adopt them out. consequentially, the non-name monikers we began using stuck as real cat names, so we have the most boringly-named cats in history. we started calling them "the smooth white one," "the fluffy white one," "the black one," and "the striped one." these gave way to smooth, fluffy, blackie, and stripey. very creative.

fortunately, we were able take each of them in for spaying/neutering as soon as they were of age. sadly, stripey was hit by a car very soon after and he's no longer with us.

smooth maxing and relaxing behind a plaque in the side yard:

fluffy, the consummate hedonist, enjoying a leaf pile:

stripey and blackie enjoying the fall sun:

finally, gone but not forgotten, our indoor cat ally passed away about a year and a half ago. she was a beautiful charcoal, skin and bones all her life, but totally loving and sweet. she lived 17 years, so she had a good run and she knew she was adored by all of us.