Let's try something different....

[DaBurglar]

we have had two pups at the same time, so they would always have their best friend nearby, for nearly 40 years of marriage. everything DB says about dogs is true.

these are my opinions and not meant to offend anyone. do not get a dog, unless one has the time, space(for certain sizes), the patience and affection for them. they need attention, caring, medical attention, understanding when they make a mess, they shed and they need exercise. dogs need/want discipline, but not cruelty. know what kind of dog suits your needs, they are not all the same. do not get a dog if one is never home or leave a dog on a rope or chain, they are defenseless. get your dog neutered.

do not buy a dog from a 'dog mill or factory'. there are wonderful dogs at the pound or rescue facilities. they can be terrific for kids, but children need to respect them.


worst of all and every animal lover knows this, be prepared for that terrible day, when they need to be put to 'sleep'. it may very well be the worst day you have ever had. do not make them suffer.

I just wish I could steal edogs tag line, he is so right.

100% spot on, ALL Of it......I'd like to emphasize the last few points you made because they are really important in my estimation:1)   DO NOT get a dog from a Pet Store, a Dog factory or Puppy mill.....you are so right notes1 about this.    Puppy mills are notorious for being squalid, awful areas where the  "mama dog" is simply and constantly forced to breed, churning out litter after litter.....in the vast majority of states, little or nothing is done to actively pursue these illegal and unethical operations, even though there ARE laws and regulations on the books.....it usually takes a whistle blower or some other accidental event before authorities shut one of them down.      Animals cannot advocate for themselves, so it behooves us to look out for them.....2)  You stated "dogs have a high pain threshold, they need humans to know when something is wrong and needs attention" .....   You are SO correct you may not even realize the full extent of it......a dog, a typical adult dog of any breed who is devoted to his human and has been around l a long time (5 or more years), will almost NEVER fully let on just how much he or she is really suffering unless its is an obvious wound or injury (like a broken leg).....for instance if your dog has developed an intestinal issue (perhaps even CANCER), he or she will bravely put on a front in your presence as if all is well because the dog;s devotion and attention is for YOU and YOU exclusively.....a BOMB could blow up nearby and aside from a momentary jolt or glance the dog' attention will revert RIGHT BACK TO YOU!   That is why notes1 words are extremely important, we as the Human master must always be vigilant for even the smallest signs of distress or change in our dog's behavior.....as with ANY disease or affliction, early detection is the KEY for potentially beating it and living longer!*SAD NOTE on a PERSONAL LEVEL*    I shared last year that I lost one of my dear little pugs, MOLLY (the face of my avatar here on VP.COM)....she was attacked while I was away in AC;  My parents were babysitting both Molly and Gustavus my other Pug....Molly was the exuberant runt, so full of unbridled happiness and cheer, whlle Gustavus is actually a pure bred from a champion father, large for his breed but very shy and prone to separation anxiety;  anyway, one evening in July, when the SUN does not set until VERY late, my dad let them both out for their early evening poop patrol......after the usual 10-15 minutes, he called them in, but only GUSTAVUS showed up on the back porch (my house and backyard is fairly large and has some undeveloped wetlands and woods right at the back edge, home to a variety of wild species.     When Molly failed to show up, my Dad stepped out and walked towards the woods at the back of my property.AS he neared an old Barn/shed about 150 feet from the back porch, he called "MOLLY!  GOOD GIRL!"  one more time, and up from a tall patch of grass little Molly struggled to her feet and made a valiant effort to answer my Dad's call and obediently come....she took 2, maybe three steps and then collapsed right back down into the grass.....she had been bitten and torn in both her neck and lower abdomen by what we believe was a COYOTE (who somehow failed to drag her off for reasons we do not know.....maybe she scratched the coyote in the eye as they struggled, otherwise she should have been a sure snack for a large predator!)     My point:  Despite all her injuries and blood loss, at that moment when she heard her call to come, she did all she could to do just that.....nothing else mattered to her!     I rushed home from my dumb ass AC trip and for the next 2-1/2 days we did all we could in a veterinary ICU to try and save brave little MOLLY, but sadly, she was just a 21 pound little pug and could only take so much medical intervention and procedures, and on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 8pm  Molly DaBurg Pug went into cardiac arrest and I said "NO MORE"....in fact if I could do it all over again I would have put her down much sooner, but for a number of reasons I felt (at that specific TIME anyway) I had to TRY and save her!    I still have Gussy and he is my best friend, but on my mantle is Molly's ashes and a picture of her with her favorite toys and her infectious smile......seldom do I allow myself to stare at it more than 5 seconds, otherwise I cry.....ALWAYS.And FYI:  as I said before, I hold no ILL will against the coyote (if it was in fact a coyote).....at that time of year, mother coyotes are giving birth to litters before winter comes, so in all likelihood she saw a snack for her little ones and poor Molly, being the OVERLY exuberant and friendly little dog she was, unwisely thought "HEY!  I can be friends with this creature too!"   finally, notes1 last point  3)  "DO NOT MAKE THEM SUFFER" ......I have had (and still sometimes have) guilty feelings ( and I had a HUGE VET BILL TO PAY too at the time) after Molly was admitted to the hospital with her wounds......my first instinct was of course to euthanize her painlessly with a crapload of sleeping agents/painkillers, but the DAMN vets at the hospital we took her to (which was, incidentally, the ONLY 24/7 Emergency VET Facility within 100 miles of my home) insisted that there was a "fighting chance", or 50/50, that Molly could be saved since she was otherwise in healthy shape.     So I felt I at least had to try and INSISTED that they keep her sedated and doped up with all the painkillers they safely could, regardless of cost, as they tried to save her........I may have violated notes1 point in this regard, but i did not mean to, and the look in Mollys eyes before they sedated her was one of "I WANT TO LIVE!  DON't give up on me yet!"      I dunno, it was all so sad....still is......just do not hold that against me notes1.

[edog743]

Ty for the kind words Da I cannot take credit for the design of the website a friend of mine did it. SS to hear about Molly you did the right thing take solace in that.

[notes1]

doris, we should have included cats as people's best friends.

edog, thanks for offer. I may steal a good idea you have, but not your moniker.

DB/all, there are traveling vets, if you do not have vet locally. they can assist in end of life decisions/actions.

fortunately, we have a major vet school nearby, in the event something happens the vet cannot handle. had one of our pyrenees there for a hip replacement and another in there for 3 weeks, got septic. yes, those bills can be quite high.

DB, I have no doubt you made the best decisions when it came to your pups.

[DaBurglar]

never had a dog although i do love them.i have had cats since i'm 5 years old and i could never live without 1.my "kids" are very sweet and love me for who i am and i couldn't ask for anything more.Thanks for sharing that Doris......I am also a cat lover as well ( I am not one of those persons who must always choose between one or the other.....a cat or a dog)   and while growing up from ages 7 thru 18 before I went off to college I had several cats at home, and  since the town I lived in back then (and still currently live in although in a different spot) had a lot of "woodsy areas and wetlands", out cats were allowed to "keep their gonads" so as to have a fighting chance when we allowed them to remain the vast majority of time outside in the neighborhood.We had this one tomcat, "FELIX", who somehow managed to survive an AMAZING 13 years on his own in the outdoors (I got him when i was 10 years old, and he died when I was 23, a bout a year after I graduated and moved to California)......he would always come home with new scars and battle wounds and bumps, etc. but never anything life threatening or serious enough to take him to a vet (not that he would have allowed us to do so anyway!!)       Here is the thing about FELIEX:  He loved, absolutely LOVED people...all people, family, neighbors, friends, total strangers etc.   If you stood on two legs, he was your pal......HOWEVER, if you stood on four legs, watch out!Felix was a tomcat....after all the initial vaccinations and exams we gave him as a young kitten up to 6 months, when it came time to *snip snip*, the vet gave us two options:   He said, "IF you choose to *SNIP SNIP* then you will obviously have house cat who may or may not venture too far into your woods, but if he encounters other creatures his ability to fight or otherwise deal with them will be compromised to a certain extent;  IF however you choose to leave him be, then unless something really traumatic happens like hit by a car, then felix will grow stronger and wiser and more aware of his surroundings the longer he goes, and retaining his gonads will give him the instinct and drive to deal with most situations he encounters in the environment he is in."Well, by leaving things alone, felix not only survived, he thrived, eventually becoming "king of the neighborhood"!    ALL out neighbors loved him and he loved them!    No body, and I mean NOBODY, had any problems at all with MOLES in their lawns......from 1982 until just before hi death in 1991, the neighborhood had zero lawn moles!   Felix was a total benefactor to the community!    His love for people never waned (and he was rewarded of course.....many times, for weeks on end, we never had to feed him even though we always kept his dish FULL.....he's be well fed by the community, plus I am sure he dined on a few things he himself caught too!    The longer he lived, the stronger he became, growing to be VERY large for a normal domestic TABBY......and his claws....oh my lord, he had absolutely long RAZOR sharp DEADLY CLAWS!!   This had to be one of the main reasons he survived so long in that semi-wilderness wetland environment.......he regularly tangled with racoons, skunks, possum and even LARGER animals, and survived.    Of course he'd come ho,e with bruises, wounds and bumps but never anything fatal or serious enough to lay him up for more than a few days.......he truly was the CHAMPION of the neighborhood!There are too many stories to tell of his exploits and bravery, but here are a brief pair:a)  One time I was playing with a neighbors BEAGLE, tugging on a towel that the beagle was growling playfully and trying to tug away from me, good clean fun!    Well, Felix comes trotting around the corner, see's what I am doing tugging on the towel with the beagle, hears the BEAGLE growling, and before I know it, Felix bolts to the Beagle, swipes it in the ear, lays it open so that the Beagle YELPS and blood is spewing everywhere, so that the poor dog bolts out the garage and heads home.   Felix calmly approaches me, looks up with a calm set of eyes half closed with love and affection, rubs against my leg and purrrsss loudly!   He thought he was protecting me!     Needless to say I ran right over and told the neighbor what happened, and she was a good sport since she loved felix too (he garden in her back yard had been PEST free with Felix on the prowl for 5 summers in a row!)  So I paid a few bucks for three stitches on the beagles ear!b)    Another time, when a summer day had my next door neighbor (my AUNT in fact) entertaining 3 of her nieces (ages 9,7 and 4), when out of nowhere a HUGE German Shepherd stray just trots into out yards ....he stops and looks around, not with a menacing stare but not a happy/curious stare either.....in retrospect he looked HUNGRY.    AS the dog slowly but directly moved toward the three kids playing on a swing set that was no more than 100 feet from where he first entered both our yards, my Aunt saw from her kitchen and immediately SCREAMED for the kids to stay still and bolted from her door....I was sitting in my Wheelchair with Felix right under my foot rest catnapping.  When Felix heard my Aunt scream and the door fly open he bolts upright and surveryed the situation.......for reasons we will never know he immediately ran to the SWING set where the three little girls stood crying and frozen stiff, ahead of the dog (who was only moving at a slow pace to begin with)......when he was directly interposed between the swing set and the German Shepherd, Felix turned sideways and raised his back end as well as his shoulders, this increasing his perceived size, and HISSED the most blood curdling hiss I ever heard a domestic cat make!     The Dog froze in his tracks, totally perplexed and bewildered......you could almost see the abject confusion on his face like  "WTF?!?!   Why is this cat standing between me and these kids?"    The dog at once, turned and walked away.....for a few paces......then, uh oh, it stopped and turned around again.   By now my aunt was there and had the 3 little girls in he grasp and was ushering them back into the home, but Felix SYILL stood his ground, hissing some more......the dog was now (i guess) reevaluating the tactical situation......remember, German Shepherds are NOT dummies, they are very smart, and very brave.    The dog started to aggressively advance on Felix, who now (being NO DUMMY himself) realized "Oh sh*t, the dog has finally figured out that I am no match for him in a all out brawl....what do i do?"     Felix then ran to his left for one of his favorite, large climbing trees, but he stopped at the tree's base again and turned and did his sideways "Stand my GROUND" pose, hissing once again.   The dog, now no more than 20-25 feet from Felix, stopped and assessed the situation again:    You could see his canine brain churning the options.........(1)  I've got this arrogant pussy cat cornered;  if I charge/lunge now, he wont make it up the tree without me getting AT LEAST a mouthfull of his tails or hind quarters, in which case, I GOT HIM!2)  But then what?   If I take him down and proceed to finish him off, he will not go down without a fight......he has claws that are like scalpels, I've watched him before sharpening them on some tree stumps in my own master's yard up the street....I will definitely win the battle, but do I really want to lose an ear or a chunk of my nose, or worse before I put this little pussy.....cat to rest?!??!    nah......The German shepherd backs off another 15 yards or so, which was enough for Felix to now bolt right up the tree to total Safety!!!!!!      What a BATTLE!!!!    Yes indeed, felix's claws were almost lethal, just ask my dad....one time he had a treat for Felix, a piece of American CHEESE....well Felix was so excited to see the cheese that as my dad was stooping down to feed it to him, Felix took a playful swipe at the cheese and accidentally caught a part of my dad's finger.......OWWWWWW!!!!     Just that one little playful swipe  LAID open my dad's index finger and needed 4 stitches to close......just a little playful swipe did that, imagine what a full blown intentional STRIKE might do?!Felix DaBurg Cat was a legend ....until that final sad, AWFUL day in 1991 when we came home one day to see Felix returned home from a long absence (specifically  a lengthy 12 day absence....normally he would be gone for 5 to 6 days TOPS, never more than that.)   Poor Felix was emaciated, matted and smelly,  lying in the garage barely able to move......when he saw us he tried to get up and greet us and purrr but he could not!      He reeked of fuel oil and gasoline!      There is NO DOUBT what ultimately did in our brave Felix:   Since he LOVED people (all people), some neighborhood  sh*thead kids nearby (but not TOO nearby meaning he might have been abducted and then escaped and made his way home)  OBVIOUSLY doused Felix in some type of accelerant and intended to set him on fire!!!!!!      He escaped that fate, being the survivor that he truly was!    But the gas & oil slowly poisoned him as he tried to lick himself clean      poor Felix died a death he did not deserve!I never found out who did it to him, no suspects even.......but seriously, WHO could or would do such a thing to such an exceptional CAT?!?!    it pisses me off just to think on it, but fortunately my love and admiration for Felix and the exceptional life and cat that he was trumps all other feelings or considerations!       TO me he is and always will be the brave fighter, the strong and yet gentle (towards people) tomcat who heroically stood down  a large powerful German Shepherd and saved my Aunt's little nieces!

[DaBurglar]

i am so sorry olds,i know just how you feel.i found my
boy oreo laying on the basement floor unable to move and we carried him
to the car and vet but there was nothing they could do to save him.i too
have tears in my eyes just thinking about him.
.....and........Oreo...what a great name Doris. I too am sorry for your loss of him. I must say, now that I am on this thread and reading these posts it seems like it just happened yesterday for me. Since we lost Walter, we became cat people about 26 years ago. A feral litter was born under our shed. The mother eventually brought them out to us. We adopted them all. The last one lived to be nearly 20. We had two other shelter cats that we lost due to old age 2 years ago. Since then, any that show up looking for homes we have taken to our own vet at our expense and had the works done for them. Our vet has found good homes for all of them and we even visit one of them. We are in between our own house cats now. Still not quite over the loss of our last two. We never go looking for them. They always find us. One huge big old battle scarred Tom Cat who was very wild adopted us many years ago. We named him Butchie. We never had him in the house though but he thought our yard and deck was his and he would even chase the mailman every day growling. After a few days of that, we had to take him to a farmer we know who was looking for a big tom like Butchie to help keep the barn free of rodents. Butchie fit the ticket for him and that became his new home. When I finally got him into the carrier to take him to the farm, I weighed him. I knew what the carrier weighed and Butchie clocked in at just under 26 pounds. Now that is a lot of mice. A pound or so of that was probably from us since we left regular cat food out for him as well but most of that was all muscle, gristle, and scars. He just came to us that way. I would have loved to know hit prior cat life history.
Awesome stories and experiences, Olds  & Doris ......I appreciate very much hearing/reading things like this.   From the bottom of my own heart, THANKS!    These types of stories NEVER EVER get old or tiresome, and I never ever want to stop reading them.......again, thank you.

[DaBurglar]

"There is one best place to bury a dog. "If you bury him in this spot, he will come to you when you call - come to you over the grim, dim frontier of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. "And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel, they shall not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he belongs there. "People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing. "The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master." --- Ben Hur Lampman ---

thanks for sharing....I had never ever heard of this poem until just now,,,,,,,,its really quite a nice expression of all the different things we are talking about here!      Well done......

[DaBurglar]

doris, we should have included cats as people's best friends.

edog, thanks for offer. I may steal a good idea you have, but not your moniker.

DB/all, there are traveling vets, if you do not have vet locally. they can assist in end of life decisions/actions.

fortunately, we have a major vet school nearby, in the event something happens the vet cannot handle. had one of our pyrenees there for a hip replacement and another in there for 3 weeks, got septic. yes, those bills can be quite high.

DB, I have no doubt you made the best decisions when it came to your pups. Notes1, I honestly was unaware of "traveling vets"....this sounds quite promising and helpful!       I am going to look it up obviously on my own but if there is any more specific info you have that you can share I would be very appreciative, and thanks for the supportive words regarding the difficult decisions I had to make regarding Molly's final care.......You really get caught between two  divergent forces.....save the pet and get soaked with Vet bills, or let her go but always "WONDER  what if"......!?!?!        It is not fair.....I do not have time at the moment, but later on when the emotions of this thread die down I will delve further into the absolute BS that the Veterinary hospital pulled on my when treating and billing my Molly right up to the moment she went into cardiac arrest and were asking me, on the phone, if they wanted to "Crack her chest and begin open heart massage!!!"     

[olds442jetaway]

Great stories all.....I find it ironic that as I age and my people memory begins to fade, I can recall in great detail every little thing about every pet I ever had and every adventure we embarked upon. I wonder if this has been studied. I'm sure most of us have a near photographic memory of our pet loved ones. The same can't be said for people who have come and gone into our lives. I do have one exception in that regard. I have a photographic memory of every date I ever had, every girl I ever dated, first and last names as well as nick names memorized. I also have a photographic memory for the odometer readings of every car I ever had and I have had many as well as the cubic inch displacement of the engines of each. As I sit hear typing though, I find even those memories and of the girls starting to fade a bit, yet every pet memory is engraved in my granite brain or what is left of it anyways.

[doris13]

olds,i can see my very first cat in my mind and that was when i was 5 and i'm not going to say how many years ago that was.he lived to be 20 and ate lettuce out of my grandfather's garden.i still remember what my very first bf looked like too,lol.gee,when did i get so old?

[olds442jetaway]

If we wake up Doris and think like we were 18 , then that is what we are. No matter what our body tells us.