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I don't take any of our three dogs for walks; they are all leashed trained, but the old Rott Jess forgets she is the second her leash is on her. My excuse in the summer was that it was still 100* come 8pm. My excuse in the winter is that it gets dark at 6pm. Spyder the German Shepherd is a rescue who was abused and starved, and she is so loving clingy it makes me insane. If she can't see you, she assumes you've abandoned her, which has led to no shortages of her running amok and smashing into walls to find you if she wakes from a nap and you're not there. She also wants you to stand and pet her while she eats her dinner but then doesn't want you to touch her, then wants you to pet her only here and here when she eats. Loki is another rescue, a chi-mix, who forgets she is housebroken every time she comes in the house. I bought way too many bettas at the last Petsmart sale and have two of them in small Kritter Keepers until I can get another wrought iron stand to set up a divided 10 gallon for them. I only clean the litterboxes once a day and they could probably use it once more. Our blue tongue skink Jackie is in a 40 breeder tank. It is too small for her and has been for a bit. Tomorrow I plan to break down her tank, and do a ton of rearrangement: her new cage will be the custom-built for a green iguana cage I got from a vet, that houses our ball and het albino ball python. They will go from this huge cage to another 40 breeder, and the snakes in THAT 40 breeder will go into Jackie's old cage. And perhaps the worst, some of my snakes live together. Alien, Ripley, and Mouse are a trio of balls we got about ten years ago and they have been together since then. If we separate them out, they don't eat. So their tank has several basking/night light spots and hiding places. I also have a group of year-old Kenyan sand boa babies (4 total) in a 20 long. And then there are the other balls, the albino male Drac, the het albino female Vanna Hellsing, and the spider female Crackle who live in the huge custom cage built to house an adult male iggie. Forgive me, PI, for I sinned and caved and told my mom to get the snake she really wanted at the Tucson herp show, a great looking albino female ball named Luna. I thought my mom knew what Luna's diet was previously, but apparently she didn't ask, or asked and forgot. Luna doesn't want rats or mice, live or prekilled, and hasn't eaten save for one mouse when we first got her. Though in separate cages and rooms, I've noticed her and Drac going gaga crazy active at night, but I know she can't be in breeding mode this time of year.
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Dec 3, 2012 06:37
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 07:25 |
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Mostly because we have a large backyard and the dogs are always leaping over the ponywall that parts their 'side' from the tortoise side. Since they never bother the tortoises they have free range over both areas. When I did take Spyder out on walks, she tended to freeze up and would constantly try to walk behind me, leading to a great amount of trips. She used to be a stray in addition to being in an abusive previous home, so I don't know if going out reminds her of that time, but she doesn't seem to miss going out. Loki liked walks, but she far prefers being in the cat pack (when she is supervised inside). Holy crap I've never seen a dog act like a cat so much; she plays with their toys, she chases them, they chase her, she is leaping up and off the couches and eventually exhausts herself. Oh, and she bosses Spyder around so they are always running around the yard. And none of the dogs will wear dog booties; Spyder and Jess freak out when we clip their nails, and tear off any booties we put on; hot cement burns the gently caress out of feet and I don't want to have them suffer in the heat.
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Dec 3, 2012 09:09
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I ended up not moving the blue-tongue skink to a larger tank. She is still in the 40 breeder and I'm debating about setting up some kind of outdoor enclosure for her. But it's too cold right now and most of the year outside it is too hot. Goddamnit Jackie, why do you have to be so cool? I feed the mice a seed mix because they will eat each other before they eat lab block. I have bleached out my water-change Python so often that the metal ring around my drain is stained black. One of our Kenyan sand boas got loose and I haven't bothered to tear up more than one room looking for him. Past experience says we will find him soon, but the more we move poo poo, the more likely we are to box him in somewhere. I thought the cats would be on the hunt for him but none of them seem to notice poo poo unless there is chicken or a loose mouse involved.
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Dec 5, 2012 03:40
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We had to put our ten year old Rott Jessie down today, because she had developed some severe hip problems, and the vet had warned us her time was coming to a close. When she couldn't get up easily anymore, that was it; we have a pool, and it was a steady fear that she'd somehow fall in and drown. My mom took her to the vet alone, and when she kept asking me about going with her, I was --- close to snapping gently caress off. The last three dogs we had to put down, I took them in alone, I went to the Humane Society vet in that depressing room with all ages and kinds of people crying hysterically, and no one went with me. I still remember taking our MinPin Snuffin in, and seeing a middle-aged lady who reminded me of my mom, but dressed super fancy, passing over the cat carrier, and just losing it, crying hard and almost running me over when she ran out. She literally ran out of the office with the tech calling after her, did she want the carrier back? I don't know if her cat was being put down, or surrendered, but I remember seeing that lady run off, and seeing a man in a business suit, looking like he was on his way to a CEO meeting, petting his dog's head, the dog more gray and skeletal than anything, and the man weeping steadily while the vet tech said it would only be a few more minutes before they could get him into a private room for the euthanasia. I hate that room. I hate that depressing room with the bright posters on the wall and the Animals Are Friends For Life photos and the steady line of people coming in to see the vet for non-death reasons, and they trying to ignore the waiting room full of crying people because their animals are well and healthy and are never going to die, and they are never going to sit in these plastic lovely chairs and fill out a page of paperwork about their pet being put down or surrendered. So my mom went alone, and I don't feel sad that Jess is gone, because she was in pain, and then I feel bad because I don't really miss her; in the later stages she wasn't herself, and she was more my mom's dog than mine, and so many times I'd look at her and couldn't remember if she was Jess or Echo, the Rott I grew up with, because they looked so drat similar. I felt more depressed when my new green betta, that I had had for a loving day, died, than when my mom had Jess put down. And we had Jess for almost six years.
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Dec 30, 2012 08:09
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'My' Bengal Goldie hates the other Bengal Keke. Hates her. Goldie is a third of Keke's size and weight but she apparently has the kickass of a loving wolfhound because she will chase her all over the house, resulting in a screaming and growling Keke. Sometimes I use the water spray on them, lately I've stopped caring to. Keke, stand your ground or shut up! It would help if Keke was socialized, but she is a kitten from a Bengal breeder, had no human interaction for six months of her life, was in a restraint for a broken pelvis, and throws fits if you pick her up. When we had to give her medication for ear mites when we first got her, she screamed the house down and I still have scars from her claws. So my cute and affectionate and cuddly Bengal (who was a queen breeder from that mill, the owner sends his rejects to a local rescue) likes chasing and biting the evil and untouchable Keke who will not shut up if you're in the kitchen, and constantly is on top of tanks and the counter where she shouldn't be. And I let her. Because Keke, you suck sometimes.
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Jan 29, 2013 03:50
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Confession: we had to return our Bengal Keke to the rescue. We had her for two years, and I guess you could say it was a long-term foster situation, but my mom fell in love with her. A total antisocial cat who was food aggressive, who you couldn't touch or pick up, who had had no socialization with ANY people the first six months of her life that weren't vet techs or people poking her with needles. In a word, she was feral. You couldn't even pet her. And I tell you, inspecting her for ear mites, treating her for ear mites...my coworkers thought I was doing drugs or sharpening razors on my arms. So a problem cat. And she got along great with the other cats...somewhat. She became a bully for a while, even against larger cats, and finally seemed to settle in. And that's when we made the mistake and my mom brought home the last rescue, another Bengal. Apparently two Bengals don't like living together, even in a large house. The new Bengal, Goldie, is half of Keke's size and weight...and somehow took over her status on the totem pole. She is the opposite of food aggressive, but the second she saw Keke, would tear around the house chasing her. The other cats watched. Funny in a way, because when other cats get into scuffles, one of the older ones will usually step in and stop the fight. Either Keke got on the poo poo list of every cat with her previous actions or they were all too terrified of this four pound Bengal to step in. We tried every product on the market, separated the two, kept Goldie locked in half the house, then a quarter of the house...nothing. Keke was super stressed, got aggressive, even attacked us. We worked with the rescue for months, and they finally said it was down to returning Keke, or returning the other cats that were picking on her...in short, Keke needed to be an only cat for someone who didn't mind a cat they couldn't touch. So she went back on Saturday. Bye, Keke. We tried. We did. But you just aren't a cat most people can have. A highly active, prone to jumping up on things, cat you can't touch. Oh. And making GBS threads on the floor right in front of your owner when owner doesn't give you something you want.
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Feb 11, 2013 13:26
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The rescue persuaded my mom to try and help out this foster kitten Bubbles, a one-eyed superrunt of a cat. She's seven months old and looks like she's a starved three. Vet checks out fine, she's just tiny. I call her The Little Rat. She won't let us pick her up, but sometimes we can pet her, and clean her nose off or face off, since she's a messy eater. And gently caress does she love to play. I seriously want to get her nametag to read Bubbles the Little Rat.
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Feb 20, 2013 04:23
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My mom and I are foster failures; we adopted one of the eight kittens we fostered. His name is T-Dawg (the others were Rick, The Gov, Daryl, Michonne, Walker, Maggie, and Hershel), and he is a huge ragdoll baby. He whines to be carried, and I always haul him around. He gets called everything from Crybaby to Poopbutt to T-Doggles. And I sin a lot against the feeder mice. If there's a mouse who bites me, it automatically goes in the feeder cage. Every time. Unless the mouse is hugely pregnant. Otherwise, feeding time! I will wake a snake up to loving eat you!
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Jan 2, 2014 13:18
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 07:25 |
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On the topic of foster kittens, we have had two kittens for about two months now. They came from a house where the owner bred his cats back together about...four generations. Owner died, state takes these fur-matted messes, and we end up with the youngest ones. They are cute, loving, want nothing more than to play....and brought in some kind of parasite that spread to all our other cats, resulting in multiple vet trips, forcing two different kinds of medicine for different lengths of time in EVERY CAT, and can't forget that every cat had to have a certain amount depending on their weight, cats throwing up the medication, cats refusing to come near us, etc. For a week. Two weeks later we are told to take a stool sample in. A week later we're told the sample is clean! .....oh but one foster has a runny nose. More medicines! No medicine works. The rescue says she might have allergies, which means more tests. Either way neither can go to an adoption event. The vet tech is off for the weekend. We have to keep the fosters another month, give or take, and they are already out of the cute kitten phase. It isn't their fault, but PI, I am so over these kittens and want them gone before they spread whatever infection they have to the rest of the cats again! Three of our cats still won't let me near them, almost a month after the last meds. Did I mention I had to kennel one of ours to prevent her from slashing my face when doing meds? Or having to nearly sit on others to make them take up to 8ml of chalky medicine? To those who want to foster: we did bond with one of our first kittens, and adopted him. The others we never clicked with in that way. But before you foster, for the love of the cats, loving read every contract involved! The rescue we work with assured us we'd have the kittens at most a month, they would cover vet bills, all we supply is food, love, and room. But they neglected to say what vet we have to use (it's 35 miles away one way), they neglected to mention ringworm, which all kittens seem to have, how to treat ringworm and the sniffles, they neglected to mention how they would not let us borrow kitten condos, or how to set up for shots and spay and neuter (depending on where the kittens came from depends on where they get the free fixing, and some places only give the rescue one day a week, between 8am and noon, to do all the free work), or any of the pitfalls where your animals contact a kitten whose FIV record may or may not be accurate. Fostering is very rewarding, when you see a kitten click with his or her new family, but the months of teaching a 6 week old kitten how to behave, and keep healthy, when you have anywhere from 4 to 8 or them, or in this case 2 older ones, can drive you mad.
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Apr 12, 2014 17:18
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