<p>My beagle does not like most other dogs, growls at S’s friends, tore up the cushion on my living room couch (I slip covered), has broken a lamp, has to be crated when we’re at work or she wets on the carpet, etc. I love her anyway and will never give her up.</p>
<p>One of my dogs bites me, a lot. </p>
<p>We have three dogs (and one is big) on our bed every night and two snore. The other licks herself constantly. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in years. </p>
<p>Fishymom, my two little ones also reverse sneeze.</p>
<p>I don’t have a dog, but I have a cat. I have to keep all my prescious things like my bikes, air mattress, and camera out of his reach.</p>
<p>And he likes to bother me at night when I’m sleeping, and sometimes pretend my hand is a flying scratch/bite toy. Everytime the old scratches on my hands disappear, there’s bound to be new ones.</p>
<p>I recently discovered two bald spots on his fur. I don’t know if he was previously abused, or what. They look like scars. Anyway, apparently he likes to attack wiggling shoelaces. When I slide a shoe lace around a corner and out of sight, he always has to come chase it down. This cat needs a hobby.</p>
<p>No dogs for me - but I have recently learned to clip my long haired cats’ fur. First one and then on Sunday I managed to do the other one who is terrified of the clippers. He looks absolutely hideous. I keep asking him - who cut your hair??? I also have to give him a bath every other day because he can’t reaach back there to clean himself. I’ve never had a cat that had to have so many baths. And yes, he hates water. Have to clip the claws first or I’ll end up like spectastic.</p>
<p>I remember sleeping in the dining room walled off by couch cushions until my puppy was paper trained. ( I was about 12 & had badgered my parents for months for a pet telling them my 6th grade teacher said every child should have one. I agree)</p>
<p>I also gave our oldest cat sub q fluids daily for about 4 years. </p>
<p>We also let each of our pets have one big medical expenditure.
Our oldest cat had laser surgery for a sarcoma on her nose. She lived till she was 21.
Our labrador had her spleen removed when she was 14, she lived for two more years.
Our youngest cat died at 19, without having had any significant health problems.</p>
<p>
you cut your cat’s fur? I’ve never heard of that before. Do you do everywhere (and I mean Everywhere ;))?</p>
<p>And I do trim his claws. But he still does damage to me. If I hadn’t trimmed his claws, I would be needing stitches</p>
<p>This entire thread brought tears (and laughter). I love my dog, and I loved the 2 before he came into my life a year ago.</p>
<p>spec - especially “there” :)</p>
<p>Long hair cats are a new one for me and one of them starting throwing up hairballs every other day. I researched what to do and what I came across online was get rid of the long hair - cut it. I took one cat to a dog groomer and they did it but he was pretty traumatized and it was expensive. So the next cat I bought the clippers for the same amount as a trip to the groomer and tried it out myself. The first time is the worst and it does look better now (after about 5 haircuts), but then I did it on the scaredy cat and he looks pathetic now. I’ll have to see if I can get him to sit still next time. I do leave the mane and head alone so they look pretty lopsided. But it’s better than cleaning up the vomit every other day. And now I don’t have to vacuum every day either - hopefully your cat is a short haired one who doesn’t get so fat he can’t clean himself.</p>
<p>the only time he threw up was when he was left outside for two days, showed up at my door, I let him in and fed him. I guess he overate, because I saw almost the entire bown on the floor, wet. Apparently, he didn’t bother chewing them.</p>
<p>This is a wonderful thread. You guys are amazing and I am very jealous,of the beagle parents. Someday a beagle will come into my life.</p>
<p>When our last dog became was ill and we knew we were going to have to put him down, the last night we had him was very sad. The dog couldn’t get comfortable and finally went outside and refused to come in. Our daughter took a blanket and slept with him under a pine tree. In the middle of the night, the dog went crazy barking and treed two raccoons that had come too close my daughter. Bittersweet night.</p>
<p>Oh, onward. What a bittersweet story.</p>
<p>Wow, Onward. That’s quite a story. Put a lump in my throat.</p>
<p>Our lab was so funny.
I bought her a cot bed & an electric bed warmer, but the only place it fit was in the living room, next to the couch.
( the cot was much easier to get up from than the floor & she couldn’t get on the couch anymore)
Or so we thought.
Several times when I ended up sleeping on the couch to keep her company on her bed, I woke up to find * her keeping me * company on the couch! (& I would be shoved into the crack between the cushions while she was stretched out.)</p>
<p>I came home one day to find our 80# lab paralyzed from the chest down. No known injury but she had a bad back and we thought maybe she slipped off our picnic table (she liked to sit there). Vet thought we should put her to sleep- thought there was only a slight chance of recovery when swelling went down. We set her up in the tile floor and changed her blankets every hour or so as she was completely incontinent. Somebody stayed next to her 24 hrs. per day- she looked so scared. Her friend, our little doxie mix, never left her side either. After 5 days, she slowly regained most movement and ended up being with us 2 more years.</p>
<p>^ did they do an xray?</p>
<p>My elderly arthritic dog sleeps with me. Every night I lift the 60 lb lab onto my bed. At around 3 am. most nights I lift her off, help her down the back porch steps, lift her up the steps and back onto the bed.</p>
<p>Twice a day she gets lifted in and out of the car for rides for morning coffee for the husband, or to run errands with me.</p>
<p>We intentionally bought a house with a downstairs bedroom when we moved to PA and had another elderly lab.</p>
<p>I never thought of getting a house with a downstairs bedroom for the dog.</p>
<p>I must really love my cat because I am willing to clip the poo off his butt when it gets stuck to all his fur. I also tolerate his waking me up in the middle of the night meowing in my face, kneading, and purring. :)</p>
<p>Once money is a little less tight I think I will start investing in sanitary cuts year-round and lion cuts in the summer. He seems so uncomfortable and even with a window unit our 2nd story apartment can get pretty hot. </p>
<p>Oh, he also gets to lay on the dining room table to his heart’s content. He started doing it in the summer so he could lay in front of the AC. We didn’t have the heart to kick him off because he looked so blissful in the breeze. </p>
<p>And thanks to this guy I pretty much have stopped wearing all of my black clothes. His fur is EVERYWHERE.</p>
<p>When we got our young one, after the first night of listening to her cry in the crate, we gave up. Put our younger son’s bed on the floor so she wouldn’t fall off, and she slept snuggled in his neck for months (actually years, but she alternated kids after awhile). I got up in the middle of the night for a month to take her out to the bathroom, so she didn’t use his bed as a urinal.</p>
<p>But what I’m going to do for them now, is take them out to breakfast. They’re just laying on the couch, staring at me with their big brown eyes. I’m going to break my diet, just for them!</p>