Favourite Pets

[donk]

The never ending thread had a few posts that should be spun off into their own threads, that combine with a conversation I've been having with Tranplanner leads me to this thread.

Please describe your favourite pet of all time and any funny traits / stories about that pet.

I'll start with a few

1) Cats. My favourite cat of all time was Harvey, the one eared manx. Harv, was able to speak and growl out simple sentences. he got stranded in a tree once and the entire neighbourhood swore it was a small child scraming help me. There are so many stories about him i think I could write a book like Opam Wallen's and Pierre Bertons.

20 Dogs. Tuffy the collie. When my parent's got divorced my father kept the Tuffy. About 6 years later he had to travel on business and needed a place for Tuffy to stay for an extended visit. he brought Tuffy over to our hosue and Tuffy did not recognize us. Then as the day progressed something "clicked" and he all of a suden did recognize us and he went nuts.

3) TP asked me to relay this one and it is also as a request of others with respect to donkey stories.

I tried to get a good photo of Allister and myself on the weekend, but he would none of it

Here it is, and I am serious

He thought we were out to get him.

Because of all of the snow and ice here he and the sheep have not been able to keep the yard clear enough to walk around in. They have a few paths in the snow. When he saw my father and I coming out, he figured something was up that he would not like (feet cleaning, delousing, deworming those types of things). He herded the sheep into the sheep house and would not come out, when I tried to take a picture with him he would turn away or stand in a way that made it impossible to safely take a shot.

 

[Mary Poppins]

One of my favorite pets was our family dog Max. He was a labrador/doberman mix and he was the sweetest dog ever. Once when he was a puppy he was in the kitchen and my dad had come home from work with his water jug and taken the cover off. Max found it and put his head in to drinkthe water and couldn't get it off so he was running around banging into the charis and stuff in the kitchen.
After my parents divorced my dad went to live in a trailer park for a while and he couldn't have animals, so Max went to live with my grandparents. He had his own room complete with twin size bed, and if anyone came ot the door he would run and hide in his room until he knew it was ok to come out,

My other favorite pet was my Hereford cow. His name was Rusty. I was in a calf scramble at a fair near my hometown, and I got him from that. I was in 4-H and had to raise him for a year and them auction him off at the same fair the follwing year. He was a lot of fun. We had to log the hours we spent waling them and grooming them. I had him trained pretty well. He would jog around the fields with me and would stop when I did. My mom would tell me not to do that because he would end up running during the auction, but I didn't listen to her, and he scored pretty well in the auction. It was sad the day I had to let him go because I knew where he was going and what was going to happen to him.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Astro, a yellow-collared macaw. Astro took showers with me and it was hilarious seeing him turn and lift his wings to wet his "wingpits (I guess)" and say "ooohh" and "aahhhh" while bathing. He laughed just like me.

Mutt, the dog. My "soul-mate" of all the pets. She lived to be 16. In my first college apartment, all the windows had roll-up shades. Mutt figured out how to grab the bottom of the shades in her mouth, pull down and back, and let go, then sit back and enjoy the big rattle waking me up. Usually at the crack of dawn on Sundays.

Turbo, my kitty who died last year. Whenever I opened a jar of peanut butter, she would jump on the counter by the kitchen sink and "demand" some. I would have to scoop some out on a table knife and hold it for her until she finished licking up every last atom of peanut butter.

 

[nerudite]

Dogs -- the family loved lhasa apsos growing up. It probably isn't a breed I would look for right now, but my parents loved them. Most of the dogs were yippy/high-strung, except for one: Kashira. She was a blonde lhasa who loved camping... she would go on hikes with us, climb boulders, and walk on logs to get over streams. I always thought that she looked so funny, this tiny dog, jumping up onto a fallen log and picky her way across a big stream. Seemed unnatural looking.

Birds -- We had a lot of birds too: love birds, budgies, conures, canaries, finches... my favorite though was my pionus parrot (it was half maxmillian and half dusky). Like ZG's macaw story, my parrot (Ika) loved showers. It's cage was in my room and when I would wake up in the morning he would say "hiiiiiii" in this long breathy way. It was funny. Unfortunately the only other thing it knew how to say was "here kitty kitty"... especially since the bird flew away.

 

[Habanero]

Oh, hands down my favorite pet was our first standard poodle, Aristotle. He was the sweetest, most loving dog around. I always had to explain we had a big poodle- not a littel tiny one, especially in Flordia where small dogs are the norm.

Now, of course, it's my baby wiemie. Such a ball of sugar, and sleeping in his own bed now too. I'll have updated pictures of the 63 lb lap dog soon.

 

[Tranplanner]

Donk - I just can't help laughing everytime I look at that photo. Just the way all the sheep are lined up expectantly looking at the camera. Shame you couldn't get Allistair to pose with you.

My pets...

1) Fluffy - this is the cat I had growing up. She lasted 18 years, and we went through a lot together.

2) Pandora - the current cat (photo posted elsewhere). If pets reflect the personality of their owners then I must be really messed up. She is a ball of laughs though. I'll have to post some of pics I took when she was stoned on catnip...

 

[Downtown]

1. Growing up - Duke, a Lab/Shepard mix - my dad found a litter of puppies in the field across the street, Duke was the runt and we kept him. He was just the sweetest, stupidest dog ever. When he was a puppy he would hide under the arm chair. When he was too big to crawl under the chair, he'd hide his head under it.

2. Adulthood pets - its Parker, our golden/chow mix. I got her before Rob came along. and although i love our second dog, jesse, to pieces, parker will always be *my* dog.

 

[donk]

The picture posted is actually from christmas. the snow is now so high that only 2 strands of wire are showing, all that keeps the animals in the pen is a fear of going through the snow and ice and the wrath of allister.

What they were probably looking at was me and questioning why I had not fed them yet.

 

[BKM]

All three of my dogs are great, but my first, Max, is still my favorite. He is just so funny, a dog with a real personality. He is incredibly confident and just approaches the world with his tail straight up and striding forward. He can be very vocal, and you swear he is talking to you. He is a great cuddler, and he loves to roll in the grass making hilarious snuffling noises. A great dog (except for a little bit of dog aggression that I have to watch very carefully.)

 

[Dan]

Obligatory Bailey/Guinness picture. I'll edit this post later to tell more.

 

[Trail Nazi]

My favorite pet was my dog Olivia. She went to college and grad school with me. She was a retired show dog who preferred being pampered. She was a complete brat just like her owner.

While I was in college, I roomed with two other girls and whenever they would do something mean or nasty I(not even to me), I didn't have to worry about retaliating against them because Olivia would do it for me. One of her favorite things was eat the wooden sorority letters off of one of the girl's book. Tee hee. Well, she would leave it out for Olivia to find, so its fair game. Other than when my roomies were not nice, Olivia was the apple of everyone's eye.

In grad school, if my boyfriend (now husband) would argue with me, Olivia would not let him near me for several hours without showing him all of her perfect white teeth. Then would she would relent to letting him near me, she made sure that she put herself between he and I just in case she needed to show those pearly whites again. What a great dog!

Sadly, exactly one month after my husband and I were wed, she died due to a enlarged heart t that became paper thin. The vet said that I would have never known that her heart had become like that because it was not even detectable. It was one of the worst days in my life because it truly broke my heart and I lost one of my best friends. I have her ashes in my nightstand and I still think of her often (she died over 4 years ago.) None of my other pets, past or present, have lived upto her. Even my husband agrees with me there.

 

[donk]

For your viewing and future photoshopping enjoyment here are a few new photos of me, Allistair and the sheep

 

[Downtown]

Allistair looks like he's smiling in the second picture! what a sweet donkey. (hmm.... did i ever imagine i'd be typing that sentence?)

 

[Tranplanner]

It had to be said...

Nice Ass!

 

[donk]

The reason he appears to be smiling is that I am feeding him peanut butter, oat molasses balls (his winter treat food). I was actually trying to coax him closer by pulling the treats back, and he decided to extend his lips as far as he could.

Now for the funny donkey story of the day.

His favourite summer treat food is oreo cookies. But you have to hide them on different fence posts. Every morning, before he allows teh sheep into tehmain field, he checks every fence post for his cookies, and to see if today is the day for a jail break.

 

[Floridays]

Foster is my Siamese cat. I named him after the beer because 1. it's my favorite and 2. the blue can matches his eyes, or vice-versa. He'll be 16 years old in August and acts like he's 5. I've raised him since "kittenhood" and he has outlasted any other relationship I've had with a man! He is spoiled rotten, of course, and loves Nacho Cheese Doritos (or any cheese product) and gets a "tuna snack" every night when I come home from work. Basically, he is my "foster child."

 

[Habanero]

Hatcher and his trusty sidekick Sadie Madison

Hatcher, the wonder pup, and Sadie, the fecalpheliac.

 

[Habanero]

Hatcher and his trusty sidekick Sadie Madison

Hatcher, the wonder pup, and Sadie Madison , the fecalpheliac.

 

[nerudite]

New pics of the kitties...

Slurpee (named because she was born on 7/11):

Brindy (named after Rod Brindamour back when he was on the Flyers... note the orange and black fur):

 

[Habanero]

Re: New pics of the kitties...

Slurpee (named because she was born on 7/11):

Brindy (named after Rod Brindamour back when he was on the Flyers... note the orange and black fur):
B]

Oh good, not the only one that names animals after hockey players. James says if Hatcher leaves to go to Detroit (vicious rumor) he's going to rename the dog "traitor".

 

[Tranplanner]

Re: Re: New pics of the kitties...

James says if Hatcher leaves to go to Detroit (vicious rumor) he's going to rename the dog "traitor".

And if he goes to the Leafs?

 

[Habanero]

Re: Re: Re: New pics of the kitties...

And if he goes to the Leafs?

dumb@$$.

 

[nerudite]

Re: Re: Re: New pics of the kitties...

And if he goes to the Leafs?

Tiger Woods.... or pick your favorite golfer.

 

[Runner]

Maggie (left) was my little girl, Bandit is on the right. It broke my heart when Maggie got osteo sarcoma a couple of years ago and it took her down in less than 40 days.

Jack (below) is Mrs. Runner's boy. He has an amazing vocabulary.

 

[Miles Ignatius]

My Best Friend

His name is Buddha; a Chow-Retriever mix from our local animal shelter. Got him 5 years ago as a Christmas present for my son (he was 10 @ the time) and guess whose dog he really is?

That's fine with me, because he's the best. I think whoever named him (he had the name before we got him) did so because nothing upsets him.... he's a real laid back guy and seems to possess a inner peace that is rarely see in most canines, particulary pomeranians and other rodent gunzels.