<p>PMK: my kids got kind of tweaked when they realized that out of the 40 pics on my phone, 32 were of my one cat. Oops. But gosh he’s so handsome!</p>
<p>Okay, just watched Nightline and came to the realization that I am NOT a crazy pet owner. I certainly cannot imagine having my beloved pet “stuffed” for all eternity. (not that there’s anything wrong with that…)</p>
<p>When my mom makes a list of the order of the people my dad loves and it goes 1) Our dog Skeeter 2) His best friend 3) His only daughter (me) 4) His wife 5) His step-son.</p>
<p>When he tried to sleep in my bed and I have to sleep in a certain position and pull up the covers so he can a) curl up against my legs and b) be a nice little heater.</p>
<p>When you can’t say words with hard consonants around him like schoolbus (so weird) and have to spell out the word ‘walk’ but will tease him with ‘walter’ ‘walker’ ‘walkie talkie’ and ‘wallabee.’</p>
<p>When moving into a new apartment the first thing you think about is how happy the dog is to see his favorite couches again.</p>
<p>When the dog is toted around town in my dad’s car with the window down so he can smell the sea breeze and be social. When my dad drove almost an hour away so our dog could experience the beach for the first time. </p>
<p>When you are pretty sure that sometimes your dad’s attention goes more towards the dog instead of anyone else in the family. </p>
<p>When driving between Florida and Maryland my dad has to dose him with doggy downers to control his anxiety because if not he will pace in the front seat and whine until he gets too tired.</p>
<p>Honestly at most times Skeeter is above anything else.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When the three of us kids were teens still living at home, we had a whip smart Pekinese who surprised us numerous times with his ability to understand spelled words or phrases. When someone referenced the d.o.g., he’d looked up expectantly. When we referenced going to the v.e.t., he’d hide under the bed. He was also able to understand g.o. o.u.t.s.i.d.e. And if one of us asked where’s C.h.a.r.l.i.e.?, he’d suddenly appear and stand in front of you with his tail wagging. It was uncanny. Of course, he also understood lots of spoken words and phrases.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry, but that’s just plain creepy. Imagine having your spouse stuffed and posed in his favorite easy chair if (heaven forbid!) he should pass away…:eek:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wonder if the other cats bully them because they are the favorite pets? Or do they seek out love from the humans because the other cats are mean to them. </p>
<p>I have a 14-year-old pit mix. He ruptured a disk a couple of years ago and needed very expensive surgery. He’s doing pretty well but I don’t know realistically how much time he has left. Just recently he is resistant to eating his breakfast. I bought him some expensive freeze-dried chicken chips because he’s lost interest in plain old canned dog food.</p>
<p>We lost one of our corgis earlier in the month. He wasn’t even three yrs old , but we learned he had Lyme disease that was dormant in his system since before we brought him into our home
Long story short…he was symptom free until about a month before his untimely death</p>
<p>I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your dead corgi. They are such lovable dogs. Thank you for warning the rest of us about the seasonal danger of Lyme.</p>
<p>Family of 3…I know that slanted head “huh” look. My “chorkie” (chihuahua/yorkie) does that when I say something new to her. We all laugh when she does it. It’s so cute. </p>
<p>Justamom…Yes, for doxies…everything evolves around food. Doxies can do ANYTHING to get food. It’s so cute when they sit straight up on their hineys and then look at you for a treatie.</p>
<p>“PMK: my kids got kind of tweaked when they realized that out of the 40 pics on my phone, 32 were of my one cat. Oops. But gosh he’s so handsome!”</p>
<p>guilty as charged. My kids swear that I love our pets more than them because of the large number of pics that I have of the animals.</p>
<p>*Quote:I have one like that. She stays upstairs by herself because the others bully her. She sleeps with me every night, cuddled in the crook of my arm. Such a sweet little girl.
*</p>
<p>I have a cat like that, too. My sweet little Nala. The other ones won’t let her eat, so I have to take her to another room and give her dish there. 
She’s mute, and I think that’s why the other 2 bully her.</p>
<p>sorry you lost your puppy. Always a heartbreak.</p>
<p>M2CK is such a nice person, that I am sure she intended to write “Dear” Corgi! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When you obsessively check every poop that comes out of your guinea pig for any changes when something’s wrong with her digestion. Every time I spot her getting ready to go, I have to drop what I am doing and check if it’s improving. Really, it’s not until you’ve had guinea pigs, and especially had a guinea pig that has been sick, that you realize just how happy a nice, normal poop can make you.</p>
<p>When you spend more on leaving your dog with a host family, so he doesn’t have a to be boarded, than you spend on accomodations for yourself during the trip.</p>
<p>When you would much rather spend money on your pets’ vet care than on fixing a cracked filling in your own tooth.</p>
<p>oh my…yes…I meant to write “dear Corgi” </p>
<p>Yikes…I am soooo sorry. :(</p>
<p>^^^ Don’t worry. A few months ago I was commenting on Sewanee here on CC (a school I love) and my iPhone changed Sewanee to “sewage” and I didn’t even notice!</p>
<p>For the last two years there was a big orange cat wandering my neighborhood with an incredible attitude. I didn’t know who belonged to him, but he seemed to like me. Waited for me to come home from work every day on my porch. I would buy him two cans of Fancy Feast for every day of the week (not my cat), put new cushions on the glider for his comfort and was fully prepared to buy a heated cat pad for under my porch. The most personable cat. You could hold an entire conversation and he would look you in the eye and respond in all the right places. I called him Feisty Cat and loved him madly. Somewhere in October he disappeared and I miss him every day. I can only hope that his family took him away (I believe there was a family). God bless my husband and kids for wandering the neighborhood for weeks looking for him.</p>
<p>We also had an orange neighbor cat that lived a few doors down, & once our cats had passed, he would come sit on our porch. My daughter befriended him and would let him in her room. Eventually he got to know her habits so well that he would appear underneath the spruce in front when it was time for her to be home. The neighbors did know he would come & visit, I expect he did so because they were in a duplex & didn’t have a yard- also a lot of yelling at their house. They moved a few years ago & took their cat with them, I heard later he had run off but he hasn’t made it back yet.</p>
<p>We haven’t gotten another pet yet, our cats lived into their 20’s , and our lab till she was 16, so I know that it would be another big commitment. ( one reason why our oldest cat lived so long despite kidney disease is because I gave her sub-q fluids every day, for four years. She was a very sweet kitty, but she didn’t care for me too much)</p>
<p>When…I take one of the kids old baby blankets and cover his up on his doggie bed at night so he doesn’t get cold. :)</p>
<p>For us, when one of our cats went into heart failure, we had the fluid pumped out of his chest, had the basic tests done and then brought him home to die where he belonged. When he’d lie next to the water bowl with his head hanging in it, I’d rub his ears and touch water to his gums until he drank. My wife put Pediasure down his mouth with an eye dropper. When it got very warm, I carried his basket on to the deck so he could lie in the sun. I bought canned tuna and smoked turkey because those are his favorite treats and I’d rub tuna juice on his mouth to get him to lap up a little.</p>
<p>Our daughter cried and said goodbye to him for the last time as she went back to college. 11 years in her bed.</p>
<p>Then he got better. </p>
<p>I was right: it wasn’t heart disease but a virus that had overwhelmed his system. We kept him alive because we love him and he got better. We took him off the heart medications. He eats. He picks fights with the other cats. He goes outside and eats grass. He eats cat food and uses the little box instead of peeing where he is. When I check his breathing, the biggest issue is he keeps purring.</p>
<p>Speaking of orange tabbies:</p>
<p>[Traveling</a> Cat Secretly Rides Bus 10 Miles For Free in Dorset | Global Animal](<a href=“http://www.globalanimal.org/2012/01/13/15-year-old-tabby-rides-bus-for-free/62808/]Traveling”>Traveling Cat Secretly Rides Bus 10 Miles For Free in Dorset | Global Animal)</p>
<p>Lergnom,</p>
<p>I loved your story. :)</p>
<p>No worries mom2. I figured that is what you meant and the blip kind of made me chuckle. My Iphone is always betraying me with auto correct ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, you become quite a poop connoisseur when you have guinea pigs! Not to mention the joys of digging impacted poop out of your boar’s butt… :eek:</p>
<p>you know you love your pet when you’re willing to pull a stuck rat out of your little doggy’s throat to keep her from choking to death. </p>
<p>(Boy did I scream, though!)</p>