Can't believe ebay even considered it as an option in the first place, sheesh! Glad they've been 'persuaded' to ditch that idea. Kudos to everyone who complained.
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Her lips said no but her eyes said, read my lips
I'm planning on my next project right after the hilidays. I am building a new entertainment center for the living room with a book case that will also house a 90 gallon mini reef. Inverts and fish only. I do not have the money to invest in the lighting for hard corals. Any other Saltwater nuts here?
My husband and I have four toy poodles and a very spoiled parrot. The dogs have a privacy fenced yard, with a dog door leading out to it. Our swimming pool even had a sloped "beach entry" so that they can wade and swim and get out of the pool by themselves. They sleep in our bed and have everything a dog could want. They have never been spanked or had their noses rubbed in poop. We have used positive reinforcement only to train them. One of the dogs will be eighteen years old in January and has gone deaf. I have had him since seventh grade. He has trouble getting around so I wake up in the middle of the night every night to carry him downstairs and outside to pee. Another one of the dogs is ten years old and has diabetes. We have to give him special meals three times a day and give him an insulin injection every morning. I have taken him to the vet twice today for them to check his blood glucose levels, and he has to go back twice on Thursday, because his dosage isn't quite right. We take him in every month for glucose monitoring. Then there is another one who is four years old and healthy, and a one year old that we adopted after Hurricane Katrina. She was not a "Katrina dog" but we found that by adopting an animal in our area, we could help ease the overall burden of unwanted pets and leave more room for Katrina victims. The last thing we needed was another dog, but we knew that we were better equipped to take on one more than just about anyone. The group that we adopted her from, Coastal Poodle Rescue, has a lot of older dogs, and a lot of diabetic ones, which leads me to believe that people gave them up for these reasons. That, to me is unacceptable.
We had a dog that we had to put to sleep in 2002, that had bladder stones, epilepsy, was blind, had only three teeth left, a skin condition, and suffered a stroke. We kept her going as long as we could, even though she had to wear diapers.
Our parrot is two years old and we researched extensively before we got him. We feed him fresh fruit and vegetables twice a day, as well as a pelleted diet and he spends a certain amount of time with me out of his cage each day or he would not be happy. He talks constantly and is forever repeating me. He is a lot of work, but it is worth it. He is more needy than any of the dogs, almost like a child.
So yes, I agree, do not get a pet unless you are prepared to love it and take care of all of its needs, whatever they may be.
We're considering a dog at the moment. I can't agree more with the whole "pets are not for xmas" thing. It seems like it's a phenomenal amount of work! We're reading books on puppy school, dog psychology and researching breeders at the moment.
Not something we'd consider rushing into and still not something we're 100% sure we'll do unless we're absolutely certain that we can fit the dog into our lifestyles for the next 15-20 years.
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Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
We've gone thru golfish (won at a carnival - let's not even go there!), ferrets, rabbits, hamsters... we have 2 dogs, 2 cats and 10 hermit crabs now.
You definately need to be aware of an animal's needs before you give it a home. We were at the mall this summer and there was kiosk selling hermit crabs in cute painted shells. Jacob begged me to buy a couple with his bday money. They were so neat I figued what the hey.
The girl running the kiosk told us to keep gravel in the tank and feed them pelleted food. I asked about when they needed to change shells and she told us we wouldn't need to worry about that for about 6 months. So we left the mall with 2 hermit crabs in painted shells housed in a critter keeper with a thin layer of gravel and a jar of food pellets that would "last for a year".
We got home and I started searching the internet for info. Turns out that hermies should not be kept in gravel - it can get into their shells and irritate/injure them. They need to have sand/forest bedding in the tank and it should be deep enough for them to bury themselves. Turns out that hermit crabs like to hide.
Also turns out that the painted shells are bad for them. The paint can chip off and it will make them sick if they eat it. Shells? A supply of shells should be available for them to change into. Hermies have been known to kill each other over shells.
I could go on and on... you get the picture, I'm sure. After finding out how to care for these little critters we ended up spending probably about another $100-$150. The girl at the kiosk had no idea what she was talking about - not that I'm blaming her. Poor training, to be sure
We still have our hermies, in fact we now have 10 of them, 3 different species all together as one big happy family. The novelty has worn off and they're not as much fun as they were but we still love 'em and take care of them.
My FIL used to get pets and then when they became bothersome they would get dumped by the side of the road in the country. :realmad:
Well, they probably had a better chance out there than with him!
We currently have a 90 lb chow-husky, a cat, and a fish. A few months ago the hamster died. Lost "Hedgie" and my best set of salad tongs in the same day
Oh, and we occasionally have a bat, but they come uninvited. Someone told me to get a pellet gun and shoot them. I said "then I would have holes in my walls and a ticked off bat!"
3 rescued/adopted cats, here. Hardwood floors, so they are easy to clean. Maybe one should borrow the neighbor's cat, if one is unsure that one is up to the responsibility.
I'm planning on my next project right after the hilidays. I am building a new entertainment center for the living room with a book case that will also house a 90 gallon mini reef. Inverts and fish only. I do not have the money to invest in the lighting for hard corals. Any other Saltwater nuts here?
Never had a saltwater fish tank but, if I get another, saltwater for sure!
More color, great to look at!
__________________ Tankman
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"Minds are like parachutes.
They only work when they are open."
James Dewar Sr.
I have a rat terrier dog. I got him when he was four months old. The original owner was a friend of the family and told me the dog was housebroken. They wanted to get rid of him because he chewed up alot of their stuff when they were at work. I told them I would keep him for a weekend to see if he would work out and to know what I was in for. He didnt seem to be that much trouble those two days so I told them I would keep him. Well after that is when all the headaches started. He was not housetrained or forgot about it after those couple of days and was attempting to pee and poop in the house all the time. i tried the positive re-enforcement route but to no avail. Sadly the only thing he would respond to was scolding and spanking otherwise he thought you were playing a game with him. He had alot of bad habits that needed correcting it seemed. I thought I would never get him trained and was about to give up a few times. It took alot of time working with him (about 6 months ) to get him to do mostly what I wanted and we are still working on stuff for nearly a years worth of time. So you cant just get a pet and expect it to be a perfect little angel from the start. You have to teach it what you expect it to know and have alot of pateince. My dog isnt perfect yet but he is getting there and he has grown on me now that I know he can be taught what to do and not do. A pet is only as smart as their master teaches them but some maybe smarter than their master because their master doesnt have a clue.
I don't believe in giving or recieving pets as gifts unless the person who is going to be living with them is a vital part of the choice! Don't know how it would be done, but it should be mandatory to be responsible for the life span of the pet. I always warn people who are considering their first Siamese of their strong personalities, love of high places, and, of course, their voices. Any pet choice should be an informed one!
As a child I was owned by horses, cats, dogs, birds, turtles and grief only knows what else. In the Navy I had 2 salt water aquariums, but I had to give them away when I got out and moved back to Texas...there was really no good way to take the fish on that kind of trip (my daddy was helping so it took us a week to get home.) They went to a fanatic (he already had 2 LARGE aquariums.)
As an adult I have been owned by cats. My preference is for Siamese, but I have also had various american shorthairs. I hate box cleaning, but consider the companionship worth the work. What I really hate is cleaning up after Dulcie ate fern which she knows is going to come right back up (not from needing to get rid of hair balls either...they get, and love, olive oil.)
Right now my daughter and SIL live with me so we also have 3 very spoiled Labs who feel put upon when we don't put down special beds for them and who expect preferential treatment. The cats get along with the dogs, although it took some work on our parts to get it going at first.
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"An idiot with a computer is a faster, better idiot"
Rich Julius
My FIL used to get pets and then when they became bothersome they would get dumped by the side of the road in the country. Wendy
Unfortunately, don't bet on it! "Barn" cats don't have long lives...snakes etc. Dogs can be a danger to livestock and my husband had to shoot some...injured somehow, one that chased cows, and one that tried to attack my MIL. It always made him sick, but we captured and took in those we could, but too many had gone feral and were impossible to capture.
Right now we have a large "crop" of feral hogs that I wouldn't mind killing as they are tearing up the land and grass. Big, mean suckers too!
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"An idiot with a computer is a faster, better idiot"
Rich Julius
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Maybe one should borrow the neighbor's cat, if one is unsure that one is up to the responsibility.
