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Pets. Recently, but before we moved, my fiancee and I lost our two guinea pigs to an unknown illness.
Once moved, we decided to purchase 2, and then 3 altogether male bettas (housed in different containers). We've named our fish Mercury who is red and purple, the blue-green one Neptune, and the white one with red and green fins is Ganesh. One thing that we've noticed, and we aren't sure if this is just a betta thing, is that they eat very violently.
Soon, we'll be having Frejia (Frey-ya), our cat, declawed so that we can move her in with us without fear of her tearing into my sewing projects.
On top of that, our room-mate purchased two bettas as well (one male and one female housed in different containers as well). The female will be going home with his girlfriend for whatever reason , I'm just not that nosy. The male bettas' name is Raziel, and I don't think the female betta has been named yet.
He also purchased a chinchilla (sp?) today, which is black with a grey underbelly (called a black velvet, I believe) that he's named Anubis. Words that I never believed I'd string together in my lifetime: Anubis is adorable! He's already become extremely tame, as he's already peeking at us out of the bottom of the cage, taken raisins from and jumped into our room-mate's hand.
That's 7 animals altogether for our two bedroom apartment!
What about the rest of you Jatraqueros? How many pets do you have, what kind, and what are their names? Do they have any odd habits? How old are they? If you've had pets in the past, do you have any funny stories to tell?
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I have two dogs, currently: Lucky and Motzart.
We've had Moe since 1994, and got him as a puppy. Lucky we got in New Mexico in the pound. When we found him, it was 2 days before he would have been put to sleep. He was a mess, hair in knotted clumps, ticks...
Motzart is a shi tzu. A grouchy, fat and lazy one at that. His daily routine is waking up, eating, going outside for 10 minutes, following my Mom around all day, and if she ever leaves, sitting by the door waiting for her return. If he hears 'How Much is that Doggy in the Window' he goes nutz and starts barking on que with the music. If dogs have some mental concept for flipping people off, I'm pretty sure that's what he does most of his day. Lately though, I think he's gotten cancer. He's lost a lot of weight and doesn't eat much and has barely moved all day today. In fact, I looked at him tonight and thought "I love you a lot, but could you do me a favor and put off any plans of dying until Mom or Dad is around?"
Lucky is about the same size as a Shi Tzu but is a mix, so we don't really know what he is. He's a very active dog and spends time following Mom around, or hunting flies. It's quite a sight to see, him stalking, waiting, and pouncing. He will kiss you over and over again. He's really a fun loving dog. Can't catch a frisbee, or won't jump in the pool, but he still runs around and nuzzles up close to you.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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My favorite dog story is about a childhood pet - Bela was my mother's dog, to be specific - when I was about seven and we were an American family living in Venezuela.
It's not that I haven't had loved and entertaining pets of my own - chief among them, Madison, a mongrel so-named because he was found wandering Madison Avenue (yes, downtown Manhattan) with a dirty shoelace tied around his neck. We rescued him to the suburbs, where he lived a long happy life biting mail-carriers and terrorizing purebreds.
But Bela was a vizsla - my mother's second vizsla, that I recall. When you look up "dog" in the dictionary, the picture should be a vizsla. Not as sleek as a greyhound, nor as aristocratic as a keeshond, not as feral as doberman, nor as reminiscent of pathetic photographs as a weimaraner, this Hungarian hunting breed is a burnished golden rust, high energy, quite smart, and possessed of a very keen (pink) nose.
Bela was a bitch - which worked out fine - she was named after the male Hungarian composer, but lived in South America, where 'Bela' sounded quite feminine.
When the time came to return to the States, my parents were very disappointed to learn that Bela would have to be quarantined for some unrighteous amount of time; so they looked about for someone in Venezuela who could give her a home.
Bela went to the plains ranch of friends of ours, where despite being a little runtish, she quickly gained status (we were later told) as leader of the ranch's mixed pack of dogs (which included a powerful Rhodesian Ridgeback), due to her extraordinary scenting prowess.
She would lead, tracking a cony or a jaguarundi, while the pack patiently hung back; then when they got a visual, they would overtake her. It got to be a ritual, the rest of the pack returning triumphant, and Bela draggling back in some minutes later.
But these tales about her role of primacy were our consolation when, a couple of years later, we heard that she had never returned from one of these outings. The cause could have been a crocodile, or just exhaustion.
Her distant loss left us these bittersweet half-memories. I'd been to this ranch and could easily picture Bela loping off into the dry grass, with her gang of dependents meekly following. There's a rustle, and she's gone.
Posts: 431 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I used to love hamsters but they so frequently met with violent ends that I've always thought it would be cruel to let my kids have them. My older siblings were allergic to dogs and cats growing up, and my husband is allergic to cats also.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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TS-I'm so sorry about your shih tzu. I had a party-colored shih tzu named Kejja for eleven years, and she did the same waiting thing with my Mom and I. This past May, she was stolen from my Mother's backyard in Wichita. We think that someone thought that she was a younger shih tzu that could be bred. Kejja, also had cancer at one point, but we caught it in its very earliest stages and the vet was able to recommend an animal hospital nearby that she could have surgery done at. Has your Mom taken Motzart to the vet? It might be worth it to find out if anything can be done, although I know that breed is suseptible to cancer. ((TS's doggie))
(((((Pooka!))))) How aweful! Definitely commendable that you should wish to spare your children those scars, though. I'm not sure I have heard of one hamster that hasn't met an untimely end.
John, I'm sure that Bela was very happy at the ranch. It sure seems like she enjoyed it while she was there.
Posts: 701 | Registered: Jul 1999
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The only pet we have is a cat we found in 1998. I was working at a library and two kittens wandered up-long haired orange tabbies who were partially house trained. Don't know where they came from. We couldn't find an owner, so we adopted them. The female, Ana, was a little ball of fur and the male, Worf(very Klingon in attitude)had shorter hair. Worf decided he wanted to explore the universe and bolted after a few weeks, but we still have Ana...only we discovered that Ana was really male and changed the name to Ziggy(aka Ziggy Stardust). Ziggy is the most faithful cat I've ever seen. He follows us everywhere and even waits at the end of the drive for the kids when its time for the bus. He's always right there, wanting his belly rubbed. I don't know if he thinks he's a tiger or a dog. He never runs when company's over. He comes straight up to the invaders of his domain to check out their worthiness. But he's definitely head of the household and lets us know it everyday!
Posts: 55 | Registered: May 2003
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We had a little mongrel dog that we adopted when I was in high school named LeRoy. (kind of a jab at my Dad's southern roots) LeRoy was strangely furry and kind of androgynous, as far as dogs go, but everyone swore he was a he. I persisted that LeRoy was a she, but no one believed me until she had 3 puppies under our porch one night.
Our best family dog, though, was Elsa, who we had for almost ten years. She was half german shepherd and half chow and her tongue, instead of being the purple tongue of a chow, was pink with purple splotches. She looked a lot like a dingo, and we thought she looked like a miniature lioness so we named her after the lion in Born Free. She was such a sweetie. The one long road trip she'd been on was when we went to Mt. Rushmore when I was 8 or 9, and for years after that, she'd get really excited every time you said "Elsa - you want to go to South Dakota?" We moved to Montana and she loved the wooded five acres in front of our house to run around on. She made it her duty to chase all the deer away from my garden and did such a good job that I was the only one in the neighborhood whose sunflowers lived longer than two months without their heads being eaten off. She often got into trouble, though, for chasing our neighbor's cattle. We were working on training her not to when he shot her doing so one day and left her on our front porch. I can forgive the shooting of a dog that repeatedly harrasses your cattle, but smugly leaving the dead family pet on the porch where the 3 and 5 year old little girls can see it when they come home from church? That's just cruel. I miss Elsa.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Cruel doesn't even begin to cover it. I just don't understand human beings sometimes...I feel terrible that the girls had to see that. Jaxonn
Posts: 55 | Registered: May 2003
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Annie, that's horrible! I'm so sorry! I can't imagine how upset I would be if it had happened to me. Currently, my family has 3 cats and a dog. Daphne the cat, who is a Himalayan and Siamese mix, is the one I'm closest to. She's been here for the majority of my life and has been closely attached to me since my brother left for college about 7 years ago. I love her to death and when I left for college, I was more worried about being away from her than being away from my parents. Helen, the second cat, who is a calico, I picked out on Halloween around 5 years ago. She is the most hateful cat in the world, but for some reason, I love her. She has clawed me many times but she always expects me to be there when she wants to get on my chest and sleep. Maggie is the third and final cat. She's mostly Siamese. We got her when we were trying to find another cat that disappeared, Caroline, who was also mainly Siamese. A woman called about a cat that sounded exactly like Caroline, but it turned out it wasn't her and we ended up with Maggie. Caroline was one of the best cats ever. My dog, Dylan, is a terrier mix. We got him from the pound one day when, after years of begging, my mom decided out of the blue one day when she picked me up from school to ask if I wanted to go get a dog. He is the happiest animal I have ever seen. He's so much fun. The only bad thing about him is that he smells terrible.
I wrote about cats in a weird psychological way the other day, but I won't bog down this thread with it. I'll just link to it here.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Declawing cats is cruel... it is equivalent to taking off the first knuckle of your fingers. It hurts them quite a bit, even though they get anesthesia. (As someone who just had wisdom teeth removed, let me assure you that anesthesia only covers the first day when part of your body is forcibly removed.) Also, while this might not be an issue for house cats, if they ever go outside they will have a much harder time defending themselves. And even an indoor cat might escape.
Posts: 1364 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I've insisted that my Mom take him to the vet on numerous occassions now. I don't want to say that my Mom is lazy, but I don't have any other excuse to fall back on. Perhaps it's just cause I can't comprehend that staying at home all day takes up too much time as is more important than taking him to the vet.
He has lumps covering his body, all throughout his jaw area, under his arm pit. And like I said, he's been losing a lot of weight. His nose today feels like beef jerky: dry, hot and leathery.
Theres been many times when I've come home from work at 3 AM and he was still running around like a puppy. That was 2 months ago. Now he barely even lifts his head when I call his name. The most activity you can get from him is if he needs to go out, or if you put food in his dish, which he just looks at and ignores any how.
::sigh:: Motzart, though he's been a grouch, is a good dog and I'm not ready to give him up. I'm going to write my mom a very stern letter before I leave to work demanding that he be taken to the vet.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I have one dog- my beautiful Kipper(short for Kipling). I've had cats before, but they've all died of various causes, ranging between cars and hereditary feline AIDS. I want to get another cat now, because Kipling is great with cats, but we've got allergies in the family.
Posts: 767 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I have a turtle named Sasha. I thought he was a girl when I bought him, but I guess Sasha is an okay name for a boy. He is quite clever and a good escape artist, but has been sick for a while now so has not been getting into as much trouble as he used to. I am very happy to say that he is feeling much better now; he basically went into "turtle statis" and didn't eat anything for about a month! There wasn't much the vet could do; he just told me to keep him warm and dry and wait it out. Now he is eating and exercising again, and is much happier. I'm not going to hibernate him this winter though; he has not had time to build up reserves and whatnot. He likes the kid quite a bit, as much as a turtle likes anyone I suppose. She doesn't understand why Sasha won't come when she calls, but if she just sits quietly and reads out loud to him, he'll climb up to the top of his cage and just gaze lovingly. It's actually quite sweet.
Posts: 1676 | Registered: Jul 2000
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RRR-sometimes you end up with the pets that you do because they were meant for you. I'm sure Caroline ended up with a nice family, too.
Danzig-sorry, don't know what to tell ya. Had my wisdom teeth removed too, and it didn't hurt me for more than just that day. On top of that-with all of these smaller pets, a clawed kitty loosed in the house to terrorize/eat them is just not an option. Especially since we adopted the cat by accident, and have paid money for the other animals and craft/sewing projects.
LadyDay-what a wonderful story! What kind of turtle do you have? Is it a big one? I was unaware that turtles had to hibernate...hmm...I always wondered if they didn't just swim downstream in the winter .
Posts: 701 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I had a turtle once. One day while cleaning his bowl, I put him in another bowl out it the garage. In the winter. And forgot about him. But he was frozen in the cutest position when I saw him the next day.
I had a healthy, seven-month-old cockatiel that died on Christmas.
I had a dog who ate drywall whenever he got the chance.
I had a dozen lizards who decided, one day, that they were tired of eating crickets and started eating each other.
I had fish that would kill themselves by swimming at top speed into the walls of their aquarium.
The only normal pets I've ever had were cats. Well, except the one with the Atomic Fireball addiction.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I have a pet hedgehog named Sara. That's a photo of her when she was only a few months old. She's much bigger now (about six inches long).
She's nocturnal. She lets us know when she doesn't want to be played with (*bristle*). She absolutely 100% adores her wheel, and runs on it for hours every night (pooping all the while). She eats hedgehog food (dry cat-food looking stuff). She loves nuts, pears, and bits of cooked meat. When she comes across an interesting new smell, she "self-annoints," which means she'll sit down, froth the new taste in her mouth, and lick it on her quills (quite the contortionist!). She's quite curious when she's in the mood, and will wander around poking her head at everything and sniffing her nose at it all. When she's sleepy, she'll find the nearest dark spot and tunnel in.
She's a year old now. Hedgehogs live about 4-6 years.
Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Sasha is a Russian Tortoise, and will grow to be 8-12 inches long. Right now he is about 6.5 inches. He is only 6 years old though, and will likely outlive me, so he still has lots of time for growing. He lives in a four by three reptarium with heat lamps to keep him warm and lots of sand and bed-a-beast for him to dig in. He only eats vegetables, and while he needs regular baths (just soaking, no bubbles for him!) he never drinks water.
I think I have a picture of him around here somewhere...ah, here it is.
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I am the proud owner of a highly independant six month old female calico cat called Echo. She likes to play hunt the feet and ankles around the house. She likes to catch mice and eat them on the doorstep. If you pet her too much she bites your hand off.
The problem with Echo is she looks like a complete angel. She has grey a-little-longer-than a-shorthair hair, beautiful brown green eyes and the best ears in the world. This makes everyone want to pet her and pick her up. Not a good plan, she hates being carried and hates being petted, and is quite willing to wrap her teeth around your hand should you attempt to do either of these things.
She's a little tiger and I love her. Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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*deep breath* five cats, three humans, two ferrets, and a four month old baby (i guess he technically qualifies as human) all in a two bedroom townhouse -- until today. fido is a FAT cat who is loyal only to his master (the man of the household) and actually fetches. gollum is a calico who mothered the other three cats and belongs to the lady of the house. fizzgig is my gray tabby. she's evil and she hates me, but she's incredibly cute. pippin is one of the least attractive cats i've ever seen, and she doesn't like people. as soon as she's fixed, she gets to come live with me. merri is pippin's evil, but much prettier, twin who, if you actually get ahold of her, will turn into an explosive furry ball of claws. legolas and strider are the ferrets who, when they aren't sleeping, are spastic and get into everything. (the baby gate is for them, not the baby.)
and in case the pattern of their names was lost among the descriptions, yes, we are big lotr fans and over all geeks. (i didn't start out that way; i got sucked in)
and because this post isn't long enough, i also have a 14 year old long-haired cat named riffy whose vacation in the country ends today and who won't acknowledge my existence (since i sent him away in february) for weeks. oh well.
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One thing that we've noticed, and we aren't sure if this is just a betta thing, is that they eat very violently. ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
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, I'm just not that nosy. The male bettas' name is Raziel, and I don't think the female betta has been named yet.![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
He's already become extremely tame, as he's already peeking at us out of the bottom of the cage, taken raisins from and jumped into our room-mate's hand.![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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...and mean.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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