Pets!!

Dakini

I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but I've never kept pets (except for a few baby turtles, when I was a kid, who had a habit of developing "soft shell", and dying), because it seems like such a huge responsibility. It's a life! That's huge! What if they get sick and die? I can't deal with it. Maybe I'm just a wimp, or something. Loved the baby hamster photos, though. They look like little mice.

Mountains

All is impermanence. Your loved ones and friends (human) will all get sick and die as well. Your children (human) can get sick and die as well. We have to deal with it, since it's part of life. The fact that they might get sick, and that they undoubtedly *will* die doesn't do anything other than make me love and cherish them all the more while they're with me. Depriving one's self of the joy of living with a dog or cat just because they don't happen to have lifespans as long as ours is something I can't imagine. Mankind created the dog as well as the domestic cat, so I feel in some ways it's our responsibility to take care of them. We made new species out of other species, so I think we owe it to them. There is no greater joy to me than the greeting I get every time I come home to a house full of dogs and cats.

Love-N-Peace

Hahaha LOL. I'll update on the living things in my house:
4 humans, Clive, Fiona, Will, Joe
1 dog, Molly
2 rabbits, Nibbles, Thumper II
1 budgie, Fudge
6 fish, Tetley, Bronzeater II, Bronzo, Bronze Jr., Doris and Perry
1 orchid, 3 cacti, 3 plants.

Dakini

Mountains, I wasn't talking about when the pets reach the end of their lifespan. I meant, what happens if they get seriously ill when they're in their prime, and die? Or get run over in the street? All kinds of heartbreaking things do happen. I feel like this precious life would be in my hands, and I'd feel crushed if anything happened to end this bright little life before its time.

Love-N-Peace

My heart breaks to even think of something bad happening to Molly It's all part of life though, and if a pet is well cared for I think keeping one teaches children responsibility, love, compassion.

Dakini

Yes, you're right, Luv, on both counts.

Mountains

Well, you know bad things happen to people too. People die in all kinds of horrible ways each and every day. You never know when your child, your spouse, your parents, or anybody is going to be hit by a bus or plunge over a cliff or come down with beriberi or be hit by a meteorite. That's no reason to be a hermit and not have friends or family is it? The joy of having animals in my life FAR outweighs the tiny risk of something bad happening to them. I get years and years of joy and happiness every single day of their lives. I take excellent care of them (my dog's health insurance is better than mine), and I protect them as if they were my children - which they really are. If it weren't for them, I'd have been in the rubber room ages ago. They understand me

Jeffrey

My kitty blackberry enjoying a drink! We love her even though she is killing every creature in the neighborhood seemingly!!

Love-N-Peace

I love Blackberry *Who's a little murderer, who's a little murderer, yes you are, oh yes*

Mountains

She's just a cat being a cat. Sadly, domestic cats do take a fearsome toll on songbird populations, but nothing like the toll taken by destruction of their habitat and climate change. If you can prevent her from killing birds by letting her outside at night when birds are roosting, that would be better for everybody, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Cats do a good job of keeping rodent populations in check (which they can do at night much better).

Love-N-Peace

Try putting a bell on her collar

Love-N-Peace

It's been a while so I'm dredging up some old threads :P
Molly is still alive! Nibbles is not, but Thumper is. My only other living pets are the fish. Although all of my fish from 2010 are dead I'm very happy to say Doris and Perry's grandchildren are still in my possession, and one of them is pregnant

TheEccentric

Prepare to be blessed by my amazing chickens

I had to upload every one of these, they're flawless :bowdown:

Love-N-Peace

Haha I see you're very fond of chickens

Jeffrey

Welcome back Love-N-Peace!

karasti

Pets! We love our pets.
Our house consists of me, husband, teenage son, middle school son and preschooler son. A boxer named Laila, a Russian Tortoise named Rasputin (Sputin for short), and 2 ferrets, named Oy (from Stephen King's Dark Tower series) and Slinky. We used to have a number of reptiles but over the years they have died off and they are rather high maintenance so we have discontinued that hobby for right now. Also, the constant light needs got to be too much on our electric in the winter. But we have had bearded dragons, a veiled chameleon, leopard gecko, crested gecko, and we had a hedgehog. Reptiles really are ideal pets if you have the space for them and succeed in keeping them alive, but I always felt a bit bad about having them for some reason. They just tend to be so exotic that I feel bad that they are not in the wild, even though the ones we had were domestically bred. Not to mention, we live in northern MN and it's just not the sort of climate reptiles prefer, lol.

Jeffrey

@karasti (a side comment to the OP) I am just reading the Dark Tower series. I read the Gunslinger and the Drawing of the Three. Very good story teller and the adjectives and ambience are very nice..

On topic... I have had 7 cats and 7 dogs in my life. I am not the owner of any of them, but I like to play and pet them.

ZendoLord84

My gf and I have a dog, two rabbits, two birds and three goldfishes.
I like animals and plants.

how

This rescue cat's only job seems to be the creation of fur so light that I find it sticking to the ceiling.. Twice the size of most cats, she is adored by the other pussy's of the hood who often visit just to sit near her.

vinlyn

My buddy is Teddy, a yellow-sided conure who is 2 years old.

charirama

I have two cats who both dislike being in the car.

Recently we experienced an earthquake along with a tsunami warning. One of the cats disappeared when the house started shaking and we could not find him when we left. The other cat, who finds great pleasure in placing himself in the energy field between my wife and I, reluctantly joined us in the car as we headed for higher ground.

Once we got settled about 15Km out of town where we parked on the side of the road and waited, the cat eventually started purring and nestled down between us on the front seat.

I said to him "Love conquers all for you doesn't it." He just looked at me with a look of contentment and continued purring loudly.

I thought to myself "I can learn from this."

lobster

All our pets are wild. A mouse for the kitchen. A fox for the garden. Bushy the squirrel . . . and birds for the trees.
Everyone has such wonderful companions. Animals are 'people'/characters . . . They really are . . . :clap:

Nirvana

I prefer virtual cats; they're so much easier to maintain. Have you met Henri, the existential French cat?

footiam

Love-N-Peace said:

They come the size of ants or as big as ponies; they come in fur, fluff, scales and feathers; and now they come in NewBuddhist !

Feel free to rattle on about your pets for as long as you want (send pictures if you have any ) They deserve to be known:)
As soon as I get some pictures of my pets up I'll start boring you with my stories! But you first:D!

Goldfish, Hamsters, Cats, Dogs, Chickens, Ponies, Pigs, Budgies! Everyone and everything is welcome to be discussed! The stories how you got them and there personality and everything:D

Joe:)

I don't have a pet but the dog next door has one. Its pet takes it for a walk everyday to shit and bathe it too. I wish I have a pet like that.