Damn, what's with that dog?Originally Posted by Vic2012
Damn, what's with that dog?
LOL! Thanks. Just more confirmation that our Baxter is, at least part, Maine Coon. He was a lost kitten that someone found and we adopted so we don't know his history for his first four months or where he came from. I've been reading up on the breed and he is pretty much bang on for all traits. I didn't know that Maine Coons could have tuxedo colouring, so I wasn't sure. But apparently they can.
Just a little update - we did adopt the momma and two kittens, then just about seven weeks ago we took in three kittens that a friend needed to find homes for. All are doing well, but six cats verges on "crazy cat person" status. The kittens are so cute though.
Here's what we have to put up with several times a day. If I'm standing in the kitchen, he circles my feet. It's not uncommon to wake up because he's in the bedroom in the middle of the night circling the parrot's cage and meowing, and the parrot's saying "Hi Poo".
It's a beauty. Looks a bit Siamese, my favorite cat.
We've lost four cats in three years with a seventeen year old Maine Coon dying a few weeks ago. My wife gets replacements every time, now she wants to get a vile little dog. I'd rather grieve the loss of my big guy and eventually replace him with a big dog, like a golden or a lab cross.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
He's a Cornish Rex, with cerebellar hypoplasia. It's a mild case, but he gets stuck in a loop every once in a while.
Congratulations on all of your newly acquired cats! I could so easily become a crazy cat person. My husband keeps me in check at three. Every time I start to break down and want another he drives me past our vet's house, which is worth about five times what our house is worth, and reminds me how much we have contributed to it. It's a really good cure.
Some musicians have that problem too - doesn't seem to hurt their sales though.
Yeah, I hadn't really thought about vet bills. Oh well, the family does get a ton of enjoyment out of them. We spend a lot of time just doting on them (and we have kids!).Congratulations on all of your newly acquired cats! I could so easily become a crazy cat person. My husband keeps me in check at three. Every time I start to break down and want another he drives me past our vet's house, which is worth about five times what our house is worth, and reminds me how much we have contributed to it. It's a really good cure.
Sorry to hear about the Maine Coon!
If you can afford the premium, you may want to consider Pet Insurance. We have it on all our cats. There are different price levels...ours runs us about $30/mth per cat. But when our cats get sick we NEVER have to question whether we can afford the treatment. Brandy got really sick a couple of years ago and the vet couldn't figure out the problem (we have since changed vets as it turned out to be a bad bladder infection, but she never ran a urine test!). It would have cost us about $1800 for all the tests and treatment. Intead it cost us less than half of that.
Stanley ate a 10 inch ribbon one Christmas. Luckily for us, he just pooped it out a few days later and there was no damage. But if the ribbon had gotten caught in his intestines, it could have meant surgery to remove it.
Vet bills can add up very easily. It doesn't take much to come up with $100/mth for insurance premium (for all three), but if we have to fork out thousands of dollars for surgery to remove a ribbon from a cat who is too stupid to realize that he shouldn't eat them...or for any other reason...that would be far more difficult.
Not everyone sees the value, or can afford it, but I like having the insurance coverage. It gives me piece of mind if anything happens to them.
When I was a child the family cat took it into his head to snack on a pyjama cord. (He didn't eat the whole thing; he must have bitten it off at a certain point.) We were unaware of the fact until he later passed it, with no observable nasty after-effects.
As for my own cat, who I adopted and kept for eight years until he died, at one point I did the sums and figured out that he cost me a couple of thousand dollars over the time I had him. A good third of that was vet bills when he got sick at the end. That's not bad value, considering what I got in return in terms of entertainment and companionship. I considered it money well spent.
Just found this thread (I hardly ever visit this corner of PE). Sorry for your loss and congrats on your new family, JKL! And condolences to all who have lost your little buddies! I've had to put a cat and a dog down and it's a tough thing to go through, no doubt! It can be difficult to do that because we tend to be in denial about their suffering. They don't complain and they're still happy to see us, so we figure they're not that bad off. My wife's dog, Ginger (who she's had since she was a puppy) was 16 years old when we had to put her down. By that time, I had to hold her up when she was eating, because she couldn't even stand for very long on her own. A week prior, she was lying under a wooden chair while we were away and couldn't get up. She figured the chair was the obstacle and tried to chew her way out of it. We waited too long, obviously.
We went for about 6 months without a pet, then my wife decided she wanted a cat, which surprised me, because she was never really a cat person. Her kids had cats when they were growing up, but she never bonded with them. So we got a cat from the Anti Cruelty shelter (which I picked because she couldn't make a decision) and we're both madly in love with him! Cats are supposed to be so independent, but this one doesn't have an independent bone in his body. Wherever we are, that's where he is, cuddling, wrestling or nagging us to invent new games for him to play. Unfortunately, he hates my guitars and whenever I take one of them out, he lets me know it; non-stop meowing until he finally walks away. I explained to him that he's stuck with a dad who plays guitar for a living, but he could care less. Oh well! We've had him for about 3 years now and he definitely enhances our lives!
Extreme Fundamentalist Christians don't believe that animals have souls. I don't understand how anyone who's ever lived with one can believe that.
I'm sorry to hear about your dog. It's very tough when they get old and we don't want to admit that it's time to let them go. You obviously did the best that you could for her.
I've never understood why people think that. I grew up with a cat and we have three cats now. They are all extremely loving and affectionate. Two of them don't like to be picked-up or held, but are happy to jump up and sit on your lap or on the couch beside you...they just have to know that their exit plan can be executed whenever it's needed. They are in the same room as us constantly. If not sitting on us, then they are near us. And they all sleep in our bed (we need a bigger bed!). I suspect that most people who feel that cats are not affectionate, are themselves not very affectionate towards the cats. You get what you give. I've never known a cat who isn't affectionate after a good a chin rub.
And my kitties often lie outside the door of my practice space to listen while I play guitar. They seem to like it.
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