Dogs> Man's best friend

[usmc1]

You've always suspected it. Dogs are man's best friend. Now you know why.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The later you are, the more excited dogs are to see you.
Dogs will forgive you for playing with other dogs.
If a dog is gorgeous, other dogs don't hate it.
Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name.
A dog's disposition stays the same all month long.
Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor.
A dog's parents never visit.
Dogs do not hate their bodies.
Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across.
Dogs like to do their snooping outside rather than in your wallet or desk.
Dogs seldom outlive you.
Dogs can't talk.
Dogs enjoy petting in public.
You never have to wait for a doghey're ready to go 24-hours a day.
Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk.
Dogs like to go hunting.
Another man will seldom steal your dog.
If you bring another dog home, your dog will happily play with both of you.
A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died would you get another dog?"

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>If you pretend to be blind, your dog can stay in your hotel room for free.
If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away.
A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert.
A dog won't hold out on you to get a new car.
If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad, they just think it's interesting.
On a car trip, your dog never insists on running the heater.
Dogs don't let magazine articles guide their lives.
Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
Dogs are not allowed in Bloomingdale's or Neiman-Marcus.
If a dog leaves, it won't take half your stuff.

[OZJames]

Lovely Leo Pup - 13 year old standard Schnauzer

[Boreas]

Dog is also woman's best friend. :laugh:

I believe that if you want to feel loved and adored, come home at a different time than usual. Your dog will trip over herself to adore you! "you're home!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!" :D

Tanner, our fierce and loyal protector, who loves everyone except the bad guys:

[baregreg]

Hi Boreas

Your Tanner looks much like my Golden Lab Retriever I was lucky enough to be buddies with for 16 years.

She (KC) was 8 weeks old when we first met. She died March 8th 2004.

I sure miss her. :cry: Damn good friend.

[usmc1]

Frisco, pound rescued feral dog. Half Golden - half Pyrenees, all challenge. It's taken a couple of years, but he no longer tries to eat the kitties, and mostly minds, but still stops and thinks about the here! command.

We got him the Saturday morning of the day he was to be destroyed. No one would take him, he was a real handful. Listened only to himself, and followed his nose where ever it pointed. I really did not want another dog, but, I just could not walk off from him.

Sort of like living with a wolf at times. But, we're getting there. However, at one level, I think he'll always be more trained than tame. I can say this, entry to the place, is through him.

This dog, has helped me perfect my already enormous reservoir of patience. cough, cough.

[Boreas]

baregreg, I am glad to hear you had your KC for sixteen years. Our Tanner is 8 years old and is a sweetie. She is a lab/shepherd cross. She is smart and a people pleaser. Good qualities in a dog. She joined us in July 2000 when she needed a home and when our home was petless due to the deaths of our two 18 year old cats the week before. (old age. the second guy died of a stroke. we figured it was grief over the loss of his buddie)

usmc1. Frisco looks like a very handsome guy. We have some Great Pyrenees around here, and they are lovely dogs. Of course, Goldens are great too. It sounds like you and Frisco are a match made in heaven. I suspect your personalities are more alike than you'd care to admit. :sneaky: And of course, you are both exceedingly handsome. ;)

[Stu2630]

Our Great Dane is now 11-years-old. That's some going for a dog of her breed! Although she seems fit and lively for her age, I know I'm going to lose her fairly soon because she has a massive cyst on her chest and the vet won't excise it because he doesn't think her liver will cope with the anaesthetic. It'll break my heart when she goes because she is a complete sweetie - she has never even growled at anyone in her life and she is a doting pet who follows me around like a lamb. We even have a bedtime ritual where I have to give her a warm drink and then cover her up and tuck her into her bed with a kiss immediately after doing this for our youngest daughter. She won't settle without this.

Stu

[smoothm]

We had two dogs that lived to ripe old ages. One was a gorden setter who had to be put down at 13 and one a dashound who died at 14. Both are still missed not only by my wife and I but our family as well.

Stu, the dashound was 13 when we had 2 cysts removed, a hernia repaired, and had her teeth cleaned. She was under a long time, and came out ok. If the cysts are truly cysts, it shouldn't be a problem anyway. Good luck with your dog.

[Stu2630]

smoothm

Thanks for that. You may not know this but Great Danes have very short lifespans: generally they live to around 7 or 8! My Dane is 11, which makes her equivalent to a centenarian in human terms. The vet did consider removing the cyst, but he did a blood test first and it showed that her liver wasn't efficient enough to cope with the anaesthetic and so it would be likely to poison her after the operation. It is distressing to see it as it's the size of a small pineapple now, although she seems to live with it OK at the moment and enjoys a good quality of life in spite of it.

Stu

[Croydon]

I would LOVE to have a dog but I don't live in an apt with a lot of space and I am sure it is not w/in my budget to own a dog.

My old roommate, against my wishes, got a cat. I am very scared of cats and was horrified when she got one. I have to stay, towards the end of our lease, I warmed up to the cat. I still would never get one though, they are just too scary.

[Boreas]

Croydon, I had a roommate who was afraid of and allergic to cats. When she suggested that we share an apartment, I warned her that I came with two cats. She told me she had been getting more comfortable with cats, and was willing to live with them. She did get comfortable with them, and her allergies settled down. It seemed like there was a clear link between her fear and her allergies. When she was more anxious, she had more allergic symptoms. When she was more relaxed, she had fewer. We shared an apartment for about three years.

I hope you are able to overcome your fear of cats. They really do make good companions. Really.

I share my home with these two creatures (and the dog of course)

[usmc1]

I would LOVE to have a dog but I don't live in an apt with a lot of space and I am sure it is not w/in my budget to own a dog.

My old roommate, against my wishes, got a cat. I am very scared of cats and was horrified when she got one. I have to stay, towards the end of our lease, I warmed up to the cat. I still would never get one though, they are just too scary.

Interesting.

We had neighbors from India in while living in California. They were terrified of cats. I mean, Freddie's Gotcha! terrified. Climbing up on the roof of their car at the sight of a cat terrified.

One day we heard shrieking and a hullabaloo as Bulbul was paralyzed with fear, clasping one of her babies to her bosom, shrieking for my wife (we have cats and were therefore qualified as Sahibs in regards to maneaters) to come to her assistance.

The cause of all this consternation was an itsy-bitsy, scringy, tiny, wee wisp of a barely weaned,striped tabby, kitty-baby that had been dumped and was sitting mewing in their driveway.

Mrs usmc1, soon to be First Lady, rescued the kitty and brought it in and sat it on the floor of the den so the other cats could sniff it and hiss it and knock it about a bit. We put up signs, and went door-to-door, but were stuck with it.

The thing of it was, that this little cat chose me to be her "particular" person. Within half an hour of coming in the house, she jumped up in my lap, scurried up my chest, nestled under my chin with head and forepaws on my shoulder and settled in.

Tucker is my personal cat, and dogs me wherever I am. I didn't choose her, she chose me, and that's the deal we have. Sleeps at my feet in the summer and under my chin in the winter. She's my familiar, and is at my feet as I type this.

Go rescue a cat, You'll be a better man for it. And the thing about fear, is this. We all have fears, the trick is to feel it, move through it, and come out on the other side having survived it. That is exhilarating and leads to remarkable self-awareness and self-confidence and a keener sense of being alive..

[Croydon]

Interesting.

We had neighbors from India in while living in California. They were terrified of cats. I mean, Freddie's Gotcha! terrified. Climbing up on the roof of their car at the sight of a cat terrified.

One day we heard shrieking and a hullabaloo as Bulbul was paralyzed with fear, clasping one of her babies to her bosom, shrieking for my wife (we have cats and were therefore qualified as Sahibs in regards to maneaters) to come to her assistance.

The cause of all this consternation was an itsy-bitsy, scringy, tiny, wee wisp of a barely weaned,striped tabby, kitty-baby that had been dumped and was sitting mewing in their driveway.

Mrs usmc1, soon to be First Lady, rescued the kitty and brought it in and sat it on the floor of the den so the other cats could sniff it and hiss it and knock it about a bit. We put up signs, and went door-to-door, but were stuck with it.

The thing of it was, that this little cat chose me to be her "particular" person. Within half an hour of coming in the house, she jumped up in my lap, scurried up my chest, nestled under my chin with head and forepaws on my shoulder and settled in.

Tucker is my personal cat, and dogs me wherever I am. I didn't choose her, she chose me, and that's the deal we have. Sleeps at my feet in the summer and under my chin in the winter. She's my familiar, and is at my feet as I type this.

Go rescue a cat, You'll be a better man for it. And the thing about fear, is this. We all have fears, the trick is to feel it, move through it, and come out on the other side having survived it. That is exhilarating and leads to remarkable self-awareness and self-confidence and a keener sense of being alive..

I realize my fear of cats is really silly but it is a fear nonetheless. What scares me about cats is the unpredictability. They jump, bounce, and have claws. I have a fear that a cat, out of the blue, will jump on me and attack me with his/her claws.

When my ex-roommate bought that cat home, I stayed in my room the 1st weekend unless the cat was in her room. For several months, I didn't watch tv in the living room because the cat was there. When I would arrive home, I would quickly walk to my room. The fact that the cat was always jumping on the couch, kitchen counter, and on the tv did not help ease my fear.

Later on, I did get used to the cat and would be able to function around it for few minutes but the minute she jumped on something, I was out of there.

[Naturist Mark]

I realize my fear of cats is really silly but it is a fear nonetheless. What scares me about cats is the unpredictability. They jump, bounce, and have claws. I have a fear that a cat, out of the blue, will jump on me and attack me with his/her claws.



http://www.softpaws.com/

[Boreas]

When we were in Jamaica, the resort we were at had tons of cats around. The people who ran the resort really did not know what to do about them, since they had this habit of multiplying. They could not afford to sterilize them all, and they did not want to euthanise them. It was interesting seeing the reactions of some of the Jamaican staff. Some just ignored the cats. Others seemed terrified. I think there was some sort of superstition involved. We tried to ask but never got an answer. The closest we got to an answer was a shiver up the spine, a shake of the head and muttering as the person walked away. We quite enjoyed the cats since they made us feel more at home. Seafood night was interesting. We had to watch our plates, since the restaurant was an outdoor affair! shocked

[MJ_KC]

My chihuahua is kind of uncertain when it comes to cats. She acts like she would like to be friends with the neighbors 3 black cats, but seems to think that getting too close isn't a good idea. She looks at me like she can hardly believe it when one of them walks over to me to be petted.

[nmnudem]

I've had dogs all my life, there's no doubt that they are man's best friend. My mutts have always provided companionship and love no matter what is going on in my life.

[Boreas]

My chihuahua is kind of uncertain when it comes to cats. She acts like she would like to be friends with the neighbors 3 black cats, but seems to think that getting too close isn't a good idea. She looks at me like she can hardly believe it when one of them walks over to me to be petted.

Our dog lives with two lively cats, and gets along with them. She still falls for the neighbour cats who stick their fingers in their ears and go :p. Makes her crazy everytime! Then of course, when we are walking and she sees a cat, she feels the need to chase the cat! :rolleyes:

[Home Nudist]

http://www.softpaws.com/
I wonder how long those things stay on. The ad says they're applied with adhesive: $18.95 for a 4 to 6 month supply.

Having had a cat (no longer with me), I know that their nails grow and slough off, like a thin layer of skin or a thimble. You find them around the house. I used to trim the points off her nails, mostly as a health procedure. I've read that untrimmed, they can become ingrown and cause problems, necessitating a trip to the vet.

She was very good about it (a good natured cat, anyway) and never fussed or tried to attack. I used to talk to her while trimming. I think she actually enjoyed the attention. She'd only pull away if she got impatient, but never really struggled.

No two animals are the same. I've known people who were afraid of THEIR OWN cat!

I'm guessing "Soft Paws" is only for indoor cats, as they wouldn't be able to defend themselves out of doors, a point to consider.