[punatic]

We are a rescue cat family.  We love dogs too.  We just don't have any right now.

About 8 months ago we adopted a six-month-old kitten from a friend who rescues cats and kittens.  We named her Honey, but she insists her name is "Meep Meep Merrrrrp," so we call her Meepers.  When we adopted Meepers she had a bald belly and a brand new scar from her spay surgery.  Imagine our surprise when a few months later she started showing!  On January 25  I saw that she had suddenly gone from being very pregnant to her old petit/svelte self again.  So I went on a kiity nest hunt.  No luck.

Over the next two weeks it was pretty obvious Meepers was nursing kits.  I followed her one afternoon into the neighbors yard where she disappeared into a crack in a lava tumulus (hummock).  She had made a nest inside a little lava tube.

A few days later, after a long day of heavy rains, I hear a very loud kitty rucus going on out on the carport.  I go out to see what's up, and there goes little 7 lb Meepers chasing this big tom cat up the driveway, and she's tearing him a new ass as he's leaving.  I mean there are tufts of tomcat fur flying all over the place.  I watched Meepers with amazement as she ran this very large tom off of the property.  Standing in the twilight I look down at my feet and there lies a tiny ball of grey and white fur.  A kitten!  I pick it up and yell to my wife and son, "We have a kitten!"  

Over the next hour Meepers brought us three more kittens.  In order of appearance we have:
Andy - a grey and white tom,
Mili - a calico pussy cat,  
Sadie (aka Boo Boo) an orange and black tortoise shell pussy cat,
and Bear - a really big all black tom

We feel that these are miracle kittens.  They were born against all odds.  They are certainly some of the most loving cats I have ever known.  We've decided to keep all four of them.  So now we are a seven cat family.  We have a good size piece of land that can accomodate seven cats with no problems.  

Thomas - 11+ yrs - the top cat - looks like Sylvester - 18 lbs of love and muscle - came with us from Orlando
Mali - 2 yrs - grey with black stripes and longhair (looks like a mini Maine Coon) - orphaned at two weeks old  - bottle fed
Meepers - 1 yr - a small female version of Thomas (mirror image).
Andy, Mili, Sadie, and Bear - 4 months - the very special kittens.

We had Meepers spayed properly.  No more kittens in her future.

[gymrat]

My dog Ralph is the guy in my avatar photo. I got him at a rescue last December. 5 days before Christmas.  The rescue said he was a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix. Hence the name of my brewery. I recently had a vet tell me he was none of the above. That he is a Belgian Tervuren Shepherd. I had never heard of such a thing so I googled them. In appearance and behavior I think there is a good chance he is.

Regardless of what he is, he is a terrific dog. I had never seen such an obedient dog in the house. In the 5 months I have owned him he has never had an accident in the house, never gotten into the trash, never chewed on anything he isn't supposed to. He even picks up his toys and takes them to his bed at night. It was incredibly easy to teach him to do that.

He is fantastic with my grand children. In fact he is fantastic with any small child he sees. He is different towards kids than he is toward adults. It is so cool to see this 72 pound dog being so gentle with kids. I honestly think he could become a very dangerous dog if he thought someone was harming a small child, even if he didn't know the kid.

He is difficult to walk and just not catching on to the leash thing very well. He always wants to chase trucks, never cars, just trucks. I think he must have had a bad experience with one at some time in his life. But I can live with that.

[1vertical]

This ole gal is Yantee, a white crested pionus amazon ....she is small not rauchus
very intelligent..but does not speak clearly...she mimics. She is 20 years old and
will prolly outlive us.  In this shot she has made her feather into a tool and is using
it to scratch the back of her head...not kidding...

[gymrat]

I have read that Blue Jays in captivity have been observed using paper as a tool to drag seed to them. Birds really are far more intelligent than people realize.

[boulderbrewer]

Ok here are some of the family friends I got lots of photos,

Zig and Zag, Zig someone ate and Zag is loved by his friend who is a horse.



This is hope she was a week away from being 10 years old when she died not bad for a chicken.




This is Hanna, my Love she is going to be 11 this year.

[Mark G]

We have two dogs. Coconut, named right after we returned from our wedding in Hawaii. She's a toy poodle, now 7 years old. She's the smart dog in the house, but also very lazy. She's not too fond of Otis, our 9-month old Chihuahua/Pug mix. He has way too much puppy energy still. Everyone calls him my minion. He follows me everywhere I go. Then we have a bearded dragon, Titan. And a whole bunch of sea monkeys! I'll try to post pics later.

[morticaixavier]

He is difficult to walk and just not catching on to the leash thing very well. He always wants to chase trucks, never cars, just trucks. I think he must have had a bad experience with one at some time in his life. But I can live with that.

gymrat,

You may have already tried this but it helped with our little leash puller, http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/behavior/easywalk/productdescription

Cause the leash attaches as the chest when the dog pulls it just turns him around to face you. It's very gentle and really cuts down on the pulling

[majorvices]

Milo:



Sarah


Milo is the first great dane I have ever owned. He's going on 7 and in pretty good health still. Sarah is a rescue dog and is the smartest dog I have ever owned. Both get along very well. Good dogs.

We also have 3 guinea pigs (it ended up being a buy one get two free by surprise) and a "state fair prize" gold fish who refuses to die.

[beersk]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

My cat's name is Roots, named after the awesome thrash metal album by Sepultura.  He's around 9 years old; got him from the Animal Shelter.  He meows more than I care for, he's a lap cat sometimes, which rocks, and he knows how to piss me off by getting into things and making noise while I sleep.

[gymrat]

He is difficult to walk and just not catching on to the leash thing very well. He always wants to chase trucks, never cars, just trucks. I think he must have had a bad experience with one at some time in his life. But I can live with that.

gymrat,

You may have already tried this but it helped with our little leash puller, http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/behavior/easywalk/productdescription

Cause the leash attaches as the chest when the dog pulls it just turns him around to face you. It's very gentle and really cuts down on the pulling

Thankyou for the suggestion. I have tried the gentle leader head collar, which worked for a while but then didn't, I will look into one of these.

[blatz]

thanks Morticaixavier - I just asked my pet store guy to order me some of those - I had my guys trained pretty well to not pull, but my wife let's them do whatever when I'm travelling, so they constantly get back to bad habits - maybe this will help.

[Slowbrew]

My dog Ralph is the guy in my avatar photo. I got him at a rescue last December. 5 days before Christmas.  The rescue said he was a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix. Hence the name of my brewery. I recently had a vet tell me he was none of the above. That he is a Belgian Tervuren Shepherd. I had never heard of such a thing so I googled them. In appearance and behavior I think there is a good chance he is.

Regardless of what he is, he is a terrific dog. I had never seen such an obedient dog in the house. In the 5 months I have owned him he has never had an accident in the house, never gotten into the trash, never chewed on anything he isn't supposed to. He even picks up his toys and takes them to his bed at night. It was incredibly easy to teach him to do that.

He is fantastic with my grand children. In fact he is fantastic with any small child he sees. He is different towards kids than he is toward adults. It is so cool to see this 72 pound dog being so gentle with kids. I honestly think he could become a very dangerous dog if he thought someone was harming a small child, even if he didn't know the kid.

He is difficult to walk and just not catching on to the leash thing very well. He always wants to chase trucks, never cars, just trucks. I think he must have had a bad experience with one at some time in his life. But I can live with that.

Trust your vet on that one.  I can't say that he is the breed your vet named but I will say there is no Gold Retriever in his look or build.

Our house is petless.  We're never home, my wife has always been uncomfortable around bigger dogs, I never met a small one I liked and neither of us are that fond of cats.  The 4 kids have never asked for one either.  If I ever get my acreage (really big if) I'll get a Samoyed cross.  We had a German Short Hair Hunting Dog(Mom)/Rat Terrier(Dad) cross on the farm while was growing up. Dad always said "where there's a will, theirs a way" about how that cross happened.

Paul

** Edited when I realized I screwed up the breeds on our little Short Haired Ratter

[morticaixavier]

Thankyou for the suggestion. I have tried the gentle leader head collar, which worked for a while but then didn't, I will look into one of these.

Yeah my guy hated the head halter. It stopped him pulling for a while but then we just couldn't get it on him.

[weithman5]

Try a longer rope leash. run it around his belly near the back legs then under itself on top. kind of like a half-hitch around the waist. when he starts to pull it will sinch a little around his quarters and he should stop. then again....

[phillamb168]

Ah, this thread, after a Saturday spent staring at the Golden Retriever puppies at Truffaut ($850 !!$!?!) and then seeing a billboard for a breeder not far from our house on our way to Orleans... My wife says I can get one once we 1. save up at least $2,000 2. fix the holes in the fence 3. dog-proof the house and 4. get back from the US in October.

I would love to adopt an older (3+ y/o) Golden but I have had little luck with finding them here. Also difficult to find ones without displasia in the family tree.

I have never trained a puppy and am afraid that it'll be too difficult, but we're going to do a weekly session with a trainer once we get the dog.

We've thought about other breeds but the golden is the only one my wife wants - this being a pretty big turnaround for someone who was once absolutely terrified of dogs.

I've had two cats and one dog in my life - the first, Adolf, was a white and black manx with a tiny black splotch just below her nose and a little swatch of black sloping down near her left eye. When I was about 8 she had to be put down after a nasty bout with leaukemia. Dog was "Lady" a black lab/spaniel mix. Way too much energy for us, but my brother really loved her. I moved away to college and then I think dad gave her up to a shelter. Second cat was Ernie, who came to us as a kitten shortly after Adolf died. He stuck with me through the hardest times of my life and was a really good friend. Shortly before my wife and I got engaged he stopped eating, and died within three days. The vet said there was too much wrong inside for her to do anything. That was a sad, sad night. I'd like to think that he felt comfortable heading to the great beyond once he saw that I had found someone who could take care of me like he did.