Pets

[MyLifeIsBrians]

I have several animals. We`ve had ducks, hamsters, fish, birds... but currently...I have three cats. The first one is named Bootsie and is the oldest cat at 11 years of age. She came to us one day during the winter and was so small and weak we had to take her in. My dad was against it because our previous cat tore all of screens of the window but we just had to have her. She is a good communicator. In some wierd way she can tell you what she wants and you understand. She can catch bats in mid-air. It`s awesome. My other two cats are boring. They sleep all day and do nothing significant. Really lazy.

I also have a dog. Her official name is Sugar. But I call her Shu-Shu. She`s a lab and greyhound mix. She is so adorable. I`ve had her for 8 years. She takes care of all of our other animals. When we had ducks she watched them and made sure they stayed in our yard and when our cats had kittens she would watch after them when they played on the porch and when our hamster cage fell and our hamster was injured, she let us know and stayed by our hamsters side all night by his cage long till he passed away (I think he broke his leg.) She`s a good dog. She`s not prejudice and she holds no gruges. She barks but she`s not aggressive. She is just a really friendly great dog.

Those are the pets I have at home. At college I have...


Ruffles. The incredibly adorable Bulldog and a tad bit insane. He is the only dog on campus so he gets tons of attention. He loves to laz on the sofa and watch TV. I left him at the dorm one day and when I came home he was acting all wobbly. I went into the kitchen and he had managed to eat all of the roast beef and he drank two cans of beer. Now whenever someone is over and has a can of beer, he goes all crazy because he wants some. (I don`t let him.) He hates going on walks and prefers only the most expensive of dog foods. If I get anything else other than Science Diet he knocks the bowl over and barks till he gets the right kind. I think college life has affected him. He`s crazy.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

He is the only dog on campus so he gets tons of attention.

Where do you go to school? Very cool that they let you have a dog on campus.

[Nostradamus]

Oh, maybe this is obvious, but don't get roosters unless you live on a farm. I was too young to remember, but I have heard stories about my older brother's leghorn roosters, Buck and Cluck. It seems they were very charming but they crapped all over the place, which was in the suburbs, so our parents had to give them to a farmer. My brother was devastated. Those little chicks are cute, but they grow up.

[MyLifeIsBrians]

He is the only dog on campus so he gets tons of attention.

Where do you go to school? Very cool that they let you have a dog on campus.

Lee University in Cleavland, Tenn.

[MyLifeIsBrians]

Oh, maybe this is obvious, but don't get roosters unless you live on a farm. I was too young to remember, but I have heard stories about my older brother's leghorn roosters, Buck and Cluck. It seems they were very charming but they crapped all over the place, which was in the suburbs, so our parents had to give them to a farmer. My brother was devastated. Those little chicks are cute, but they grow up.

Here Here! Same with ducks. They are cute when they are all little and topple over all the time....then they grow up and crap everywhere. They eat like crazy and are just plain annoying. Oh and make sure you have a pond. That helps.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

One school I attended had a faculty master program, which meant that there were three houses on campus where professors lived year round. The faculty master house that was affiliated with my dorm had a professor, his wife, their two sons, and a dog. One of their upstairs windows was right across from my room, so I always had to close the curtains before changing. I didn't want to give a 10 year old that kind of peep show. Anyway, it was really cool to have a dog on campus. Everyone knew it was the prof's dog (not a stray) so whenever we saw the dog wandering around near the house we all stopped to pet it, which was nice since I missed my dog.

My sister had a chick - her second grade class had chicken and duck eggs hatch in the classroom before Easter so the teacher had a drawing to see which lucky kids would each get to take home a little bird. Oh, lucky us, we were graced with a chick which was transformed from a cute fuzzy cheeping baby bird into a big loud bird with brown feathers. Keep in mind, we did not live in a rural area so once it got to be larger than ankle high, we had to figure out what to do with it. I did a little research and found a farm type place out in the sticks about an hour away, so we loaded Peepers into his cage and took him there. I know it's a longstanding joke that parents tell their kids that the family pet was taken to a "farm" but in this case, we really did. I drove that little bird there myself. For all I know, they ate it as soon as we left, but we DID bring it to a farm!

[TomSpeed]

Yummy!!

[lance]

Do you plan to get all the animals at the same time? I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes in general, but I have heard people say that it's easier on the animals if they are raised together. My family tried to do it once. We already had a puppy and about a year later, we brought home a kitten. The puppy was curious and wanted to sniff and make friends but the kitten tried to claw the dog. After a few days, we figured out that they were not going to get along due to the kitten's aggressive behavior. The dog had seniority in the house already, so we gave away the kitten.

Wow.

Thanks all for your insight. Actually I am trending toward raising them together. The outcome should be interesting.

In a previous relationship my girlfriend and I had out cats together. My guys had been raised together they had never been raised with a cat. My girlfriend's cat Lenny had been raised with a dog. Consequently Lenny's tail waved constantly, just like a dog. My cat saw Lenny's tail waiving back and forth and felt that this was wrooong.

So he took his paw and attempted to pin Lenny's tail to the floor.




-LanceMan

[Angela_Catalano]

Well I have 6 cats... Tiger, Trouble, Cable, Garfield, Black Jack, and Rascal. I also have 2 parakeets Sonic and Sierra. All my cats are boys. I did have a cat named pepper who was a girl. She was 19 years old when she died. I have many storys about my cat's. They are something else and never get along.

I used to have alot of parakeets. I had 2 that used to mate and we ended up with 5 babies from it. One of the babies was really special to me. The bird was named Sunshine. When he was younger I guess his mother "Blondie" sat on him wrong. His one leg ended up growing to the side. He couldnt go on perches or anything. He was just such a happy bird, even with his disability. He lived to be about a couple monthes past his 6th birthday. Also had a bird named Mrs.Hooter, who lived to 12. Long for a parakeet.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

I thought of MLIB when I saw this article:

Mo. College Opens Pet-Friendly Dorm Wing

By SCOTT CHARTON, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Since coming to Stephens College, Abbey Road is making friends with her energetic personality, intense eyes and uninhibited kisses — especially when the little dog is thrown a slobber-slick tennis ball.
 
The Jack Russell terrier moved in last week with owner Alexandra Geisler at the college's Prunty Hall, where the first floor debuted as a pet-friendly zone for dogs, cats and rabbits.

"It means everything to me. I am so much happier when Abbey is around," says Geisler, a 20-year-old sophomore from Long Island, N.Y.

While Stephens is not the first to allow pets, most colleges and universities only permit fish or small reptiles, with legally required exceptions for service animals.

Reasons for excluding the pets include noise, smell, allergies and concerns about bites and scratches. And there's a potential for neglect when the appeal of a cute pet is overtaken by the hectic pace of student life.

Animal shelters in college towns frequently take in more abandoned pets when school is out. At Stanford University, a rescue society unaffiliated with the school has been established for stray cats around campus, many of them abandoned.

But Stephens, a women's college founded in 1833, didn't jump into its pet-friendly experiment haphazardly, said Wendy Libby, who became president last year.

"There were lots of discussions, but students asked for this — so after the knee-jerk reaction that we cannot do it, we started talking about practical ways we could allow some pets," Libby said.

Dogs must be 40 pounds or less. All pets must be kept in crates or cages when the student is out of the room. A fenced dog run has been built outside Prunty. And the program will be evaluated constantly, including whether pet noise is below an acceptable level.

They're starting small. Five students are sharing space with pets in the new semester — two dogs, two cats and two rabbits. Stephens also is working with a local animal shelter to link select students with homeless pets.

"My mom was like, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' But it is very well thought out and I'm going to work to make it a success," said Bethany Dean, 19, a junior from Dallas who adopted a female Himalayan cat named Fluffy.

The cat tilted its head in curiosity, then went back to snuggling her owner as Danielle Gibbs, 19, a sophomore from Overland Park, Kan., walked by with her two rabbits, Fleur and Elphie.

"I'm excited to have the rabbits here. I am one of those people, when I'm upset, I tend to hold it back and hold it in, but I can just hold my rabbits and it calms me down," Gibbs said.

The Delta Society, a nonprofit group that promotes welcoming pets to workplaces, says ample research backs up the notion that pets have a soothing presence. Studies have shown visits by gentle dogs and cats to nursing homes reduce loneliness and can even lower blood pressure, said Michelle Cobey, the group's resource coordinator.

Libby said there's no doubt college life can be stressful.

"We acknowledge that, and we are a student-centered institution, and if this helps our Stephens students feel more at home and helps them excel, the program may be expanded."

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that while there is no central database of pet policies on campuses, most schools bar any pets — as do many off-campus landlords.

But at the State University of New York at Canton, the "Pet Wing" of Mohawk Hall has welcomed animals since 1996. It has two dozen pet-friendly rooms for a maximum of 48 pets, and "has been a huge success," said school spokesman Richard Fujita. If owners are around, pets are permitted to roam freely in the wing. Many of the residents are veterinary students, and the chance to bring along their pets has lured them to the school, Fujita said.

On other campuses, the rules are strict. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, birds, gerbils, hamsters and nonpoisonous snakes are the only pets allowed in dorms.

Lisa Marsalek, Case Western's associate housing director, said a rabbit was once evicted.

"It was wandering everywhere," she said, "and you can't have that — you know how you can suddenly have a lot of rabbits."

___

On the Net:

Stephens College: http://www.stephens.edu

Delta Society: http://www.deltasociety.org

[lance]

Candygirl,

Great story. Having pets in my dorm would have reduced stress so much.

Back during the early 80s my immediate sibs and I would make the long trek to Houston to spend the summers with my dad. Needless to say Houson in August is just about as miserable weather as one can contemplate.

The subdivision we were living in was brand new and still being built. We would play baseball at the end of the cul de sac with the other neighborhood kids. At one of the street was a house with a fence that was bowing out badly. Most of us thought this was pretty unusual for such a new subdivison.

We asked the neighborhood kids and they said that's where Buck lives. Whose Buck we asked? They said just go to the fence if you want to meet Buck.

So I went to the fence. A moment later this enormous St Bernard draped his huge paws over the fence and licked me with a tongue as long as my arm. Having made a friend, who was now covered in slobber, Buck dropped back down behind the fence. And that was Buck, he was the friendliest and the absolute largest dog I have ever met.



-LanceMan

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Awww, that is the cutest story Lance! My boyfriend's parents had a big slobbery St. Bernard when he was little and he loved it. He said it was big enough for him to ride on and so sweet.

[emmie]

my mom just called to tell me that one of our cats, Smudge, had to be put down. it was such a shock because he was fine when I was home a week ago. apparently he got blood clots and they spread to most of his body overnight. when my mom called to tell me that he was sick this morning, I didn't think much of it. he's an indoor/outdorr kitty and is always getting himself hurt or sick. but he's such a fighter, that he always comes through. we've had him since I was 11, I even saw him being born! he was more my mom's cat and I feel so bad for her. besides hamsters and fish, he's the first real pet I've lost.

[lance]

my mom just called to tell me that one of our cats, Smudge, had to be put down. it was such a shock because he was fine when I was home a week ago. apparently he got blood clots and they spread to most of his body overnight. when my mom called to tell me that he was sick this morning, I didn't think much of it. he's an indoor/outdorr kitty and is always getting himself hurt or sick. but he's such a fighter, that he always comes through. we've had him since I was 11, I even saw him being born! he was more my mom's cat and I feel so bad for her. besides hamsters and fish, he's the first real pet I've lost.

Ohhh....




I am sorry to hear of your loss. It is so tough because the little guys (and girls) become such a part of your family that you figure they will be around forever.

It may be of some small comfort to know that your cat was well loved and taken care of and lived to respectable age. Not all cats are so fortunate.

When my first cat Panzer (AKA 'Zer, Motormouth) went missing last Thanksgiving I went down to the SPCA every other day. That was incredibly hard seeing all those cats who know wanted or could afford. The looks in some of their eyes when they knew there time was growing short was just incredibly painful. I don't think that is a job I could do.

-LanceMan

[sarahr_81]

i have a cat asia and a dog named brooklyn, our dog is a golden retriever.