<p>Twix is our third guinea pig "rescue’.</p>
<p>Guinea pigs can be sooo sweet. We’ve had a few over the years…</p>
<p>Well, we’re getting adjusted to two new kitties that we got from the shelter yesterday. The shelter told us that everyone that came in for one pet yesterday, ended up leaving with two pets. Good!!! Those precious babies need good homes!</p>
<p>They are so precious to watch…climbing over each other…biting each other…scratching their new mommie …LOL (I don’t mind).</p>
<p>What I love most about reading these stories is that most of your pets (my dog included) have been rescued from a shelter. Kudos to everybody who adopts a pet. These animals make terrific pets and very often have fewer health problems in the long run than pure breeds.</p>
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<p>Very true. We adopted 2 pure breds from rescues - the first an Irish Setter and our current dog, the St. Bernard. Both of these dogs had/have skin issues. The St. seems to have allergies that we can’t pin down. It comes and goes, but it is frustrating to her and to us. The dog I wrote about, Bernie, was the mix and I am certain that is why he had no issues and lived so long for a large dog. I have said if we adopt another dog after this, it will definitely be a mixed breed.</p>
<p>My Dog: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the time of Cooking, serving and Dining!</p>
<p>My lovely dog change from being a loving and caring dog to a voracious and adopt a “patrol guard” dog duties at the time that I’m cooking; the cute cat cannot come near the kitchen or dining room when is time to cook, serve or eat. He chased her out of the perimeters every single day.</p>
<p>My favorite dog story of ours:</p>
<p>Mac sleeps on the bed with us, Bullet’s side. One morning the alarm clock went off, Mac rolled over and hit the snooze button, then laid back down to go back to sleep.</p>
<p>Myrtle our rescue is Houdini, she can unlock any kennel with her paw. She also knows how to pull down baby gates with her teeth. We quickly gave up on ever trying to kennel her in the house.</p>
<p>Sisko is a 5 yr old Catahoula Leopard Dog. This breed is the state dog of Louisiana, and, indeed, he may have come to California as part of the Katrina rescue. I rescued him from a dreadful Los Angeles shelter where he was scheduled to be put down that day. He had quit eating and drinking due to depression and was on an IV. His medical record already read “euthanized due to illness”, so he is something of a miracle dog, having escaped the needle twice. When I got Sisko, he had apparently never been in a car or house and had to be dragged into each. However, he gave me a big smile when he realized that the soft dog bed was his, and he started eating and drinking immediately. He got his name by growling at the comet at the beginning of a Deep Space 9 episode - he had never seen a TV either. Sisko was just going to be a foster dog, but he earned his way into our hearts quickly. He is a dark brown merle with bright blue eyes (one of which is bicolored “cracked glass”). Sisko is now a well traveled fellow who accompanied us on our 5 week trip to Alaska where he got to see wildlife of all kinds and ride in a jet boat. As a velcro dog, he never lets me out of his sight. He rarely barks, but makes odd whine/growl noises of all kinds, including a very vocal yawn/greeting. His reading of human body language borders on the telepathic. He loves other dogs and humans, but hates skateboards.</p>
<p>astrodeb,what a wonderful story!</p>
<p>Samwise the Stouthearted: Our black & tan guinea pig, named (of course) for Sam in Lord of the Rings. He is quite old, 6 years, and I have noticed that he is getting quite skinny under all that fluffy black fur. But he seems happy, is eating okay, so we are just enjoying his company. He likes to “sing” (purrs along) when D2 sings in French to him. I am allergic to him, but I love him anyway.</p>
<p>Willow: Black lab, inherited from my brother when he died. Also getting along in years. She isn’t very friendly to other people and dogs, but she loves us.</p>
<p>^My previous cavy lived until age 7; had to be put to sleep.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry about Mittens. How sad.</p>
<p>Charly- 126 pound Golden Retriever. When WildChild was 16 and being a Problem, he thought it would help ground him to have a dog. We already had 3 cats and a nasty, 14 year old Poodle that I inherited a couple of months before when my uncle passed away and said Poodle was kicked out of Aunt’s nursing home. WildChild took our check book, found a breeder, and without our permission bought a Golden Retriever puppy. The puppy was precious. We kept the dog, sent the kid away, and to this day 7 year old Charly is our dearest friend. He is HUGE and the darling of the neighborhood. Kids run from their houses when H walks by with Charly screaming, “It’s CHARLY!!!”</p>
<p>Ragdoll cats Willie Nelson (5) and Waylon Jennings (almost 2). We adore Ragdoll cats (after many years with wonderful Maine Coon cats). D and her husband have 2 Ragdolls as well who come to visit. WildChild has a Ragdoll in his student housing (against regulations- imagine that!) </p>
<p>Tortie cat Callie (part Maine Coon)- I took her on in December when a co-worker married and the husband claimed to be allergic. I don’t know why I thought we needed this 6 year old cat, and I was expecting H to say no, but he somehow agreed that we should take her. It took about 6 weeks for her to come out from under the bed (she had been an only cat and had a single woman owner) but now she is part of the family- except when it comes to the giant dog…</p>
<p>Buddy, our small 95 pound (compared to Charly) golden “rescue” is a counter surfer. He can open the bread box, grab dinner off the counter…well, he and Annie are banned from the kitchen when food is out. </p>
<p>One holiday I made a prime rib. I made enough for two meals…I took the second day prime rib out and put it in the bay window. Buddy went airborne and somehow got the prime rib. </p>
<p>I screamed at the sight of Buddy with $50 worth of prime rib in his mouth, my husband came running and Buddy wouldn’t let go. In fact, he was SO excited he began to pee on my kitchen floor. Annie (who we suspect was abused in her first home) began to tremble, not with happiness. She was new here and terrified that something horrible would happen to Buddy. Finally my husband got most of the meat out of Buddy’s mouth. </p>
<p>We had In and Out that night. Annie had prime rib…and Buddy ate dog food. And we sanitized the kitchen floor.</p>
<p>So sorry for your loss, as pets are absolutely family member.</p>
<p>We have two dogs.</p>
<p>Conroy, the Pem (Pembroke Welsh Corgi) is 6 1/2 years old. He has typical Corgi character traits. We believe he must have seen the movie “Psycho” as a puppy. Any time he hears the shower door click, he rushes through the house barking, coming to rescue us from the shower monster. He prefers to be in the room we are in (herding instinct.) At night, he sleeps in the hallway, equal distance to all bedrooms.</p>
<p>Buffy, the Labradoodle, is 2 years old. She’s a smaller Doodle since the father dog was a toy poodle. She’s a curl girl for sure. She loves to play, 24/7. She lives to play. Did I mention she’s into play? She just about kissed us to death when we returned from a three day ski trip.</p>
<p>We’ve also sent two other dogs to the Rainbow Bridge but they had long, health lives of 15+ years.</p>
<p>Penzi (short for Kipenzi, the Swahili word for "pet’) our girl Basenji. Her gait was so regal. She was pretty quiet but when she spoke up, it was with the characteristic yodel. She was blazing fast when she wanted to be.</p>
<p>Artemus was our Beagle dog. He was very family oriented. But more so, he was food oriented. Secure anything edible. This love bug once ate the housekeepers pay (we then switched to checks.)</p>
<p>ellebud- Charly is TERRIBLE about stealing food, too. He will take it right out of your hand and off the counter. H and I were trying to get some elderly church supper group guests out of our house one night (slippery, wet driveway) and really looking forward to an almost-whole leftover pumpkin pie. By the time we got back in the house, Charly had eaten the entire pie. We were furious.</p>
<p>I love this thread.</p>
<p>We’ve had some great pets.</p>
<p>We adopted a pair of twin sister cats from a yard sale. At first we only wanted one, but their owner insisted they stay together. We named them Porgie and Garp. Porgie after Porgie Tirebiter, the character from the 1970’s Firesign Theater comedy album, “Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers”, I think it was. Garp after the John Irving character. P & G went on neighborhood walks with DW and I. No leashes, you can’t put a leash on a cat; they would romp ahead or dawdle behind but we’d never be out of their sight.</p>
<p>They would groom each other. Seeing them lick each other’s faces was quite a sight. When they got older they stayed outside and came home only sporadically. When we had seen neither for about a month we thought both had died, but then Porgie showed up for some petting and loving, left, and that was the end.</p>
<p>Then there was Lucky, our chocolate brown standard poodle. Smartest, mellowest dog you can imagine. He joined our family when the kids were young. He flew in from Pennsylvania. I picked him up at the cargo terminal at the airport, put him in the back of my SUV, and then took him to the nearest patch of grass for a pee and our introductions. It was instant mutual love.</p>
<p>A few Lucky stories:</p>
<p>Eating. He ate dinner with the family every night. He ate dry dog food. If his bowl was empty when the rest of us sat down to eat he would look at us quizically until someone, usually DS, filled his bowl. He ate methodically, as if every piece of kibble had its own place in the cosmic sequence, starting from one side of the bowl and proceeding very deliberately piece by piece. Then there was the “snorkeling”. He’d drop a piece of kibble in his water dish to soften it then go in to retrieve it. Picture a dog bobbing for apples and you’ll get the idea. He did this at every meal and it was precious.</p>
<p>He never once ate “people food”. Of course he would have liked to, but I believe it never occured to him to try.</p>
<p>Pack behavior. He viewed our family from a pack perspective. I was pack leader. DS, being male, was ranked slightly higher than DW. DD, female and young, was nearly invisible to him until DS left for college. With him gone, DD filled a void in his life, becoming primary petter, filler of bowl, etc. Lucky had conflicted loyalties between the kids when DS came home for winter break. Lucky’s role in the pack was clear. He was guard, sentry, and hike leader. He would protect us from bicyclists that dared venture onto our steet. He could see a bike from a 1/4 mile, but he managed to miss the cow moose and her babies living on our deck for a few days.</p>
<p>Lucky died a few weeks ago, we think after having a stroke or a seizure. We miss him badly.</p>
<p>One more story, but first a couple of disclaimers. First, I will use a word here that will probably get auto-censured. Please understand that by b*tch I simply mean female dog. Secondly, please excuse my confusion as I tell this story. As I get older and more confused, I seem to conflate the details of reality, news stories, and my overactive imaginaion.</p>
<p>So anyway, a few years ago our family went out for brunch at a local pancake house. It might have been IHOP or IBARK, I really don’t remember. Of course Lucky came too, and he sat at the table with us. Fortunately, we were able to get him the last booster seat. A while later this ***** walked in with her family, demanded a booster seat, and when told that there were none available, walked over to our table and demanded that Lucky give up his booster. He politely growled his refusal, and the ***** went into a rant, screaming "Do you know who I am? I am DOCTOR Amy Bishop, give me that booster seat NOW. Lucky had a slight speech impediment, so I can understand that his response might have sounded like “I’m using it, please go away Dr. *****-up”, but regardless of his intent bedlam ensued, and she punched Lucky in the head.</p>
<p>Radar was my terrier/dachshund mix. He was a grumpy but loving loyal dog. I named him after the character on MASH. He once ate a whole box of chocolates that someone had given me. When I got home, there were mounds of regurgitated candy all over the floor. I didn’t know until later that it could’ve killed him! He would also escape from our house and run down the block to my boyfriend’s house where they would find him on the front doorstep!</p>
<p>What?!!! That B******</p>
<p>Incidentally, our OES, long since passed decided that Thanksgiving would be her opportunity to try out dessert. While we were eating she ate: a pecan pie, part of a pumpkin pie, a few bites of a lemon merangue…and left my pie (a pumpkin not homemade ergo, in our house good). She came out of the kitchen looking innocent, except for the merangue and a pecan on her nose.</p>
<p>She didn’t get sick. We had to share dessert. Who cared?</p>
<p>Disclaimer: My MIL has critized our dogs over the years. They have tended to be a lively, loving bunch…but a touch untrained. I looked my MIL in the eye and said after one of her tirades, “I had a choice: well behaved kids or dogs. I have well behaved kids.”</p>
<p>I’ve had 3 dogs in my life. </p>
<p>When I was 5, I got a black miniature dachshund because the neighborhood kids I played with were all a few months older than I and started to school a year before me. He was really my mom’s dog. He was feisty and liked to run away. My mom was the only person in the family he never bit. If he did something bad, she would say his name. He would growl deep in his throat and go hide under the bed. He died at 14 of a heart attack after successful surgery for kidney stones.</p>
<p>Our second dog was a pound mutt who grew to be much bigger than we expected (> 90 lbs.). He had the same coloring as my dachshund and some of his personality, too. He did not like other dogs and not too many people. He lived to be 15 and we eventually had to have him put to sleep after a stroke.</p>
<p>Our current dog is a beautiful blond princess–a golden retriever–that we got from a local breeder. She is a spoiled little darling who claims the couch to sleep. We have to fight her to get out of the door when we go anywhere because she loves to go “bye bye.” Her favorite treat is to go to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone. She is 10 now and beginning to show her age.</p>
<p>As soon as I figure out what that sound of breaking glass in the kitchen was, I will tell you about my plant diggers…</p>
<p>OP- I’m so sorry about your furry baby :(. </p>
<p>Pets: </p>
<p>** Mia **- Half rottweiler, half German Shepherd. Lived 10 wonderful years until she passed away. She was about 120 lbs and I rode her like a pony when I was little :). She got beaten up by the cat almost every night for about 3 years… before she realized that the cat was about the size of her head. She once ran away when we went to a Tiger’s game and ran up to the local Farmer Jack store. The store loved her and we found her in the lobby eating some food that customers and employees gave her. She was such a ham.</p>
<p>** Smokey **- Badass cat. Seriously. He just had a don’t-screw-with-me attitude. He was an outdoor cat who never left the driveway, but every time we went out there would be about a dozen cats in our driveway hanging out with him. We had a running joke that he was the town’s pimp. He also beat up the dog every night. We lost him a few weeks before Mia. </p>
<p>** IzzyBella **- A rescued pit bull that only lived with us for a few short years before she passed away. She was a rescue and an awesome dog. She used to love to run in the forest and do kangaroo jumps over dead logs and such. It was just hilarious to watch. When my town tried to ban pit bulls, I took her to the town hall and she personally greeted every single person who came in the door. The ban didn’t pass and I think it had to do with putting a real face on an issue ;). </p>
<p>** Cleopatra “Moo moo” **- Another rescued pit bull from the litter after Izzy’s. We call her Moo Moo because she looks like a cow :). She is an absolute sweetheart. She is a trained and certified therapy dog and does the rounds at children’s hospitals. She absolutely love, love, loves other dogs and children. The first time our friend brought over their rescued baby, we weren’t sure how they were going to get along. They got along splendidly. So splendidly that they knocked over our Christmas tree and my keyboard while running around the house. They were banished to the backyard after that…
Fun fact: she was also elected my old high school’s theater mascot. I brought her in there right after we brought her home. She was running around and everyone fell in love with her. My tech director even named her. So someone took a picture of her and it’s still in the old theater… as the mascot :).
Also, she is one of the most spoiled dogs I have ever met. Not only is she allowed to sleep wherever she wants, she has developed a habit of waking people up in the middle of the night so that they will lift up the blanket for her to go under and sleep between our legs. She also army crawls in between people sleeping together and pushes one of them off the pillow so that she can have it. She also knows how to open up her crate from the inside. She is ridiculously smart (which is a pain sometimes).</p>
<p>I love animals :D</p>