Animals we share our lives with

[ksr]

Princess the Yorkie, Lizzie the Leopard Gecko, and Jake the Gerbil in a Ball. [Not pictured (photo won't upload) is Princess' arch-rival, Guinevere the Duck - who knocks on the door with her bill when she wants to be fed.]

What a great group of pets! I love the description of the duck, that's really sweet.

 

[W2R]

I don't have any pets now, but we had four macaws for decades before the "Big D" (divorce). My ex has them.

Here are two of our beloved macaws.

 

[Tesaje]

All these pets make smile.

My 2 cats are in my avatar. Jerry is the 17 year old grey male and Nissa is the 11 year old female. They are in an antique doll bed that was made by my 4x great grandfather. Nissa made the bed her own but sometimes Jerry takes it over so she knows he's top cat.

Jerry is ill with chronic kidney disease & now an abdominal tumor. I thought he'd be gone by now but he's still hanging in.

 

[Khan]

 

[travelover]

Here is our greyhound Girlfriend all tucked in for the night. Amazingly, some people have accused us of spoiling her.

 

[Tesaje]

Here is our greyhound Girlfriend all tucked in for the night. Amazingly, some people have accused us of spoiling her.

Spoiled? Nah.

I'm amazed she puts up with that. When I had dogs, they hated covers.

 

[Orchidflower]

What beautiful animals...and what a treat to see them! Thanks all!!! I have no animal now and really miss it...or else I wouldn't be spending time looking at Petfinders.com and lusting for one. Some day in the future...

 

[bltkmt]

Don't post much, but have been lurking for quite awhile. But ask me about my dog, and I will gush! He is Carson, our 3yr old Tibetan. Full of personality and love!

 

[JonnyM]

Our three Irish Wolfhounds with She Who Must Be Obeyed

 

[Purron]

Our three Irish Wolfhounds with She Who Must Be Obeyed

I never knew much about Irish Wolfhounds until I started volunteering at the animal shelter. I frequently volunteer with a woman who has 3 of them just like you do. They must work well in 3's

She also has a cat, rabbit and bird and her wolfhounds are great with all her other pets. But, geez, they are BIG. I'm a kitty person so am a bit blown away by the size of them! But know what? I'd trust her dogs around the tiniest kitten. They are so gentle.

 

[Purron]

The first one is Tootsie (18 years old). The second one is Comet (14 years old)

For some reason or other they seem annoyed today.....

bbbamI - I don't recall seeing pics of your kitties before - if you posted them I missed it somehow. I love their faces. So much personality. Lots of sass and catitude. I can tell you've taken great care of them.

 

[Purron]

View attachment 9152

Love this Khan.

 

[bbbamI]

bbbamI - I don't recall seeing pics of your kitties before - if you posted them I missed it somehow. I love their faces. So much personality. Lots of sass and catitude. I can tell you've taken great care of them.

What?!...you missed my past kitty pics!

Ahhhh...but thanks for the compliments. However, if anyone ever got a 'kitty momma' award, it would be you.

 

[Purron]

What?!...you missed my past kitty pics!

Ahhhh...but thanks for the compliments. However, if anyone ever got a 'kitty momma' award, it would be you.

Thanks. Here's another pic of one of my current fosters who also provides a handy excuse for not always keeping up to date on the board. Major "red eye" on the pic, but still cute. Got that tiny kitten fuzzy head thing going on. She and her siblings are starting to eat on their own but still need bottle feeding about 4x a day. Starting to get the hang of the kitty box, but still have a bit of work to do in that department.

 

[tmm99]

My bebby....

 

[Nords]

Finally sneaked up on our bunny for some fresh shots. He doesn't like things pointed at him, especially redeye-reduction flash. OTOH it's hard to believe that he's over nine years old.

Mellow bunny: rear legs splayed out behind/beside, front paws visible and not tucked in, ears stowed instead of rotating/radiating. I'm still not fast enough on the shot to catch him stretching & yawning.

 

[Orchidflower]

Nords, do you let Mr. or Ms. Bunny just wander around the house? Or does he/she live in a cage in the house?

I had a neighbor who had a bunny. If they didn't serve him really cold and crispy lettuce, he literally spit it out waaaaay across the room. It was always good for a laugh to try and feed him wilted lettuce. He was a character for sure.

 

[mountaintosea]

Not perfect photo but here they are.

 

[mountaintosea]

Sorry but cat won't sit still for photo!

 

[mountaintosea]

Apparently I screwed up.

 

[Nords]

Nords, do you let Mr. or Ms. Bunny just wander around the house? Or does he/she live in a cage in the house?

"Peter Cottontail" (hey, our kid was only eight years old when she named him) is a four-pound dwarf orange rex, about 18" long. We got him from the Hawaii Humane Society, who found him roaming the streets of Waimanalo. He's not very well socialized (probably raised in a hutch without a lot of human/bunny contact) but he responds very well to spouse and was perhaps raised by a woman. We think he was an Easter bunny in 2001 because he was just shy of full growth when we got him in January 2002. Wild bunnies have lifespans of 4-6 years (predators), most captive caged bunnies go 8-10 years (arthritis), and "free range" captive bunnies can go 14 years before cardiac arrest gets them.

He (well, technically a gelding) has the run of a 15'x26' carpeted familyroom, which he's pretty much [-]chewed to pieces[/-] remodeled to his satisfaction. We've given him old cardboard boxes which he's pulled behind a sectional sofa to make his own bunny cave. He also has the run of a 10'x15' tiled diningroom but he can't get a grip on the tile with his toenails & fuzzy feet, so he has trouble accelerating/turning and doesn't like to get caught there by surprise. But bunnies cool themselves by panting like dogs, and the tile is a very cool place to lie on during hot summer days. He also thinks the diningroom drywall/molding is especially yummy.

We occasionally open a pocket door between the diningroom and the (carpeted) 10'x15' study to give him run time in there, but when we're done in the study then he leaves too. Too much tempting yummy wood in there.

He can hypothetically move from the diningroom to the (tiled) kitchen, which he does every few months, but he finds the refrigerator scary and won't go near it. He has to be really really curious (or lonely) to brave the kitchen crossing.

We used to keep him in a cage when we were working/at school, let him run around the familyroom when we were home, and then cage him for the night. That required a lot of chasing & handling, and nobody was happy with either side of that deal. Bunnies give out danger signals by thumping their hind feet, and when he did that at night in his cage (hearing or smelling the neighborhood cats outside the house) he'd wake us all up. About a year after we got him we experimented with leaving his cage door open and giving him a ramp to come & go as he wanted. He gradually moved out of the cage to his hidey-hole behind the familyroom sofa and hasn't gone back to his cage in years.

We have a pet fence across the diningroom arch to the livingroom and we keep the study door closed. Everyone enters the familyroom through the kitchen, and at night we put a pet fence across the kitchen arch to the livingroom too. (He used to chew through those too until we found one that was yucky.) Once or twice a year he'll go through the kitchen to the rest of the house, but we usually figure it out when he comes looking for us.

Oddly enough he never tries to chew through the familyroom screen door to the outside. He must think it's there to keep out the predators.

Most of his diet is protein pellets & timothy hay. He gets broccoli leaves a few times a week, and he likes an occasional chunk of papaya. When I'm done with a green tea bag (no strings or staples) he'll eat the whole thing. Tiny grapes & raisins are popular once or twice a month. But he'll practically moonwalk and do backflips for a pea-sized piece of ripe banana. Fructose is bad for bunny digestion, though, so it has to be minimal.

Bunny front teeth grow for their entire lives, so they have to chew to wear them down. Unfortunately drywall is very yummy, but we give him scrap pieces to work on. Pine molding is choice too. He also loves pieces of aspen or bougainvillea. Luckily he's pretty happy with palm branches and cardboard, and we give him plenty to work with...

Bunnies have a whole communication system, their body language can let you know exactly how they're feeling, and they really have unique personalities. They're great pets. But when he's gone to his great reward then I don't think we'll repeat the experience.

 

[Midpack]

We've had Shelties for over 30 years. P____ (blue merle) on the right passed away more than a year ago (bladder cancer), but M______ (tricolor) puts a smile on our faces every day after 14½ years...

 

[Orchidflower]

Nords, I had no idea bunnies were so "talkative" in their own way. That was funny and interesting as all get-out. Thanks for the downlow on bunnies.
Peter Cottontail sounds as if he has chewed alot of your home. You must live with tape and plaster in your hand to fix that drywall? You have patience of a saint then or just like the bunny enough not to get rid of him.
My kid named our orange tabby "Tiger" at 7....so I get you about the name. But, to a 7 year old boy, Tiger is a realllllly cool name just like Peter Cottontail would be to an 8 year old girl.


These photos of animals are just beyond wonderful to me. I'm an animal lover and so glad so many of you are, cause I don't have one right now and miss it alot. Later....after I move in the future I'm getting something, too. You guys are lucky to have the loving companionship right now I think.

 

[Nords]

Peter Cottontail sounds as if he has chewed alot of your home. You must live with tape and plaster in your hand to fix that drywall? You have patience of a saint then or just like the bunny enough not to get rid of him.

We've lined the familyroom walls with plastic shower liner up to a height of about a foot. We've also trained him to not chew the walls, which I think really means that we've trained him to wait until we're not around. It's more effective to give him scrap wood & drywall to chew.

He's chewed the bottom 6-12" of just about every molding in the diningroom & familyroom, but stained & painted material is yucky so after we repaint it once or twice he gives up. Still... we don't have anything in those rooms that we wouldn't mind losing one bite at a time.

As pets go, he's taught our kid that pets are a huge responsibility and can be demanding/unreasonable. They're generally cheaper than dogs/cats but they're not very trainable. But once they've shown you their preferences (for example, where they like to pee/poop) then they're pretty consistent about it.

Somehow he's managed to worm his way into our hearts.

If anyone's inspired by these posts to be a bunny owner: it's probably better to buy them from a pet store (or a bunny breeder) as soon as they're weaned so that they're more attached to you from a younger age. Buy a pair (not just one) that will bond with each other, and get them accustomed to frequent handling. The most friendly bunnies we've seen have been raised that way.

 

[TromboneAl]

P____ (blue merle) and M______

Are P____ and M____ worried about identity theft or embarrassed about their names?