Pets and animals thread.

[*Chernaudi]

This is a thread about pets and animals that we own or are interested in.

 

Personally, I own two kittens, one named Jade and the other named Snowball.  Both are mostly white (Snowball is all white) and are long haired.  We have several cats around here, but those are the two that I claim ownership of.

 

As far as other animals, I've been interested in Camels and Barn Owls.  I haven't seen a camel in person, nor have I seen a barn owl.  I'll at least seen one hopefully within the next week or two, though, since we have a bird sanctuary in town.

 

So talk away about your pets and favorite animals

[Guest Jupiter]

This is a thread about pets and animals that we own or are interested in.

Personally, I own two kittens, one named Jade and the other named Snowball. Both are mostly white (Snowball is all white) and are long haired. We have several cats around here, but those are the two that I claim ownership of.

As far as other animals, I've been interested in Camels and Barn Owls. I haven't seen a camel in person, nor have I seen a barn owl. I'll at least seen one hopefully within the next week or two, though, since we have a bird sanctuary in town.

So talk away about your pets and favorite animals

Me and my family just have our Cockatiel who was a hand fed, domesticated, 2 month old bird when we bought her from a pet store. She was just weened of liquid bird seed. She's a very loving bird who loves to play.

I would love to have a Barn Owl, a hawk, or a cockatoo. Having one that is tame would be fun.

What I don't understand is Why are pet stores allowed to sell Alligators and Pythons? Why do people buy dangerous pets that could kill them or their children? ( a good example are toddlers)

Full grown alligators could hold you, me or someone down under water until they die, or hold us down on dry land until we bleed out and die. These animals thrive on instinct and impulse. Pythons strangle little kids as well as adults( also in our sleep). Sometimes in their sleep. So where are the laws at, about buying a predator that wants to eat its owner? Why not buy a pet that will love you and form a bond? There are no relationships between pythons or alligators in having an owner. People tend to dump full grown alligators into lakes and rivers where I live ( Alligators that they bought and raised from a local pet store when they were still little). Those are two pets I believe should be out lawed, illegal to have because they are very capable of killing people. I don't care how cool they look or how cool the fantasy is of having one. I am aware that people have rights. But I don't think we should own something that wants to kill us or see's us as prey.

 

I know someone would argue that a dog could kill its owner. But dogs can be tamed, trained, and domesticated. Alligators and Pythons are too hard for most people to control. In fact its almost impossible to control a pet that dangerous or limit them from being a danger to other people.

 

I ask this because I am always hearing a story about someone being attacked by an alligator they raised, or a python killing a child here in my state. There should be a law saying they can't have them. I just think, what if that was one of my kids that happened to?

[Bio-Boosted Dude]

I adore elephants. I may or may not post more pictures of elephants.

 

I've got a cat too.

[*Chernaudi]

My grandma likes elephants, though cats, barn owls and camels are my own thing mainly.

[*Jess♥]

I want to point out, you don't own the animal.  no human owns any animal. it is a free creature of the earth. we can keep it captive and control it to a certain degree, or we can give it a home and care for it, but they are free because they have a mind of their own.

 

I have a feline companion. She used to be the family pet when our family lived together. she moved with my mother when the household split up.  Recently I took her into my care because I believe she was unhappy and not very healthy. 
Now she is much better, she has lost weight and is now a healthy weight. she had a growth on her face that is now fading away. she is perkier and more confident. I decided to take her collar off because she never asked for it to be put around her neck. It seemed unfair to force that on her.

[river_chaos]

My family owns three dogs; the oldest being a German Shepherd mix, mine being a Mini-Aussie/Shi Tzu mix puppy, and my dad's girlfriend's puppy being Siberian Husky/wolf mix puppy.  I wouldn't mind having a cat or rabbit around, but the dogs we have are entertaining enough.  They also go after the gofers that eat up our poor garden plants. 

 

With us living out in the country and the men of the house having to work night shift a lot, we decided to get dogs as an extra security measure.  Originally it was supposed to be only one dog, but then a coworker brought up a little puppy up to work for adoption and once dad's GF sent me a picture of the little guy, my response was "I WANT HIM!  HE'S SO ADORABLE!" Then another coworker told dad's GF that her wolf-mix puppies were ready for homes, and later that week we got a huge puppy that'll later turn into a scary beast that our pot head neighbors will not want to go near. 

 

It's been a few years since we've had a dog around, and it's nice to have some company when everyone's off to work.

[*Chernaudi]

Most of our cats are what could maybe be called barn cats, in that a lot of them like to spend time outside (at least in the summer) and one of our cats seems to be very fond of some of the farm/outdoor machinery we have at our house (he'll sleep on tractors and such).  A legitimate barn cat comes to our house for food sometimes, but we don't take him in because we're sure he's our neighbor's cat, and he seems deathly afraid of getting his ass kicked by some of our female cats that spend a lot of time indoors.

 

We have 5 kittens.  One is 6 months old, my kittens, Jade and Snowball, are about 2 months old or so, and we have two more that are only a few weeks old.  We have to be careful of the 6 month old, since she tries to run outside and she's too small to be let outside on her own.  Jade and Snowball rarely leave the living room for any length of time, though they do like human interaction, though Jade doesn't like to be held.

 

Strangely, a couple of our cats swapped babies when one of them gave birth.  Jade and Snowball were taken care of by another cat, while Jade and Snowballs mother took care of the other cat's newborns.  Anyone know of that happening before?

[*Jess♥]

can somebody please explain to me how you OWN a living creature with free will?

[*Chernaudi]

Aside from our kittens (which are too little to go outside and be safe), our cats are allowed to explore at their will. All they need to do is go up by the door, and that seems to be the universally accepted signal that they want to go outside. Seemingly, some of them never want to come back in once they're let out, because they really like to spend time outside, at least when it's warm.

Some of them also catch and kill mice and moles and the like.

And it should be noted that all the cats we have were either strays or were born from strays we adopted. Better to bring them into our home than let them run wild and risk getting injured, sick, or killed. We ended up with our cat that likes sleeping on tractors and such that way. He was walking around the parking lot where my mom and one of her friends worked. Her friend brought him in and my brother brought him home. He had an injured leg that has since healed, and he enjoyed being around people, though not other cats initially. But he was only a kitten when he was found, and he's mostly well behaved.

That's what I like about cats. Unless you're giving them attention or food, they don't give a crap about what's going on, and they're really independent animals, and there's such a variety of cats as far as shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities.

BTW, as far as who the cat's main caretaker in our family goes, we have a rule: you name it, it's pretty much "yours". Once you name it, you basically adopt it.

[*Jess♥]

that didn't answer my question.

but if it did, in a roundabout way you are acknowledging that you do not OWN them.

 

In case you didn't pick up on it, I find it incredibly offensive when a person says they OWN another living creature.

 

they used to do that with other humans back in the 1800s.

[Aether]

I must agree with Yuki no one owns anything really only their spirit and you could say that that is borrowed! really anyone with a cat should know they don't own it...

 

a cat graces you with its presence! a cat is being generous to let itself even live with you....

 

anyway I think Chernaudi was trying to say she is the carer of those particular cats in her house ...

 

cats are wild and have become somewhat domesticated but be under no illusion that they cant take care of themselves. the only ones who can not are the ones who have learnt that behaviour which really is no good for them at all - such as 'house cats'

 

 we have a black cat that is 12 years old now, she is a half Siamese, very cheeky and is called Chi Chi...

 

I love cats!

 

 

Edited July 13, 2014 by Aether

[*Jess♥]

She looks amazing! a black siamese, wow!

[*Chernaudi]

We've always wondered if some of our cats are part Siamese.  Most of them have long slender bodies.  My mother and father have a cat that my father took in called Mr. Kitty.  He was a huge cat before he was neutered.  Now, he's immense, like a scaled down black mountain lion or puma.

 

Here, now, though, we don't really have any large-sized house cats, though we used to have quite a few.

 

Baby Jade and baby Snowball can't be much different personality-wise, though they're brother and sister.  Snowball is pretty laid back and though he likes interaction, he mostly lays, eats, drinks and nurses.  Jade was going spaz earlier, she was chasing her biological mother around and fighting her (I assume they were playing), and she started to run around the living room, then she went to sleep in the floor.

 

That brings me to a question last night--have cats been known to adopt another cats and basically swap litters?  Because a couple of my mom's cats that live me did that.

 

And our cats, when they're old enough, they're allowed to go outside at their leisure.  In the summer, that's quite often, but in winter, they only go outside to go to the bathroom and come back in.  I can't really call our cats feral, but they still do catch mice and try and catch birds and animals outside, which I do believe is a natural instinct.

 

We should also remember that it seems that Guyver writer and artist Yoshiki Takaya is a cat lover it seems.

[Guest Jupiter]

that didn't answer my question.

but if it did, in a roundabout way you are acknowledging that you do not OWN them.

 

In case you didn't pick up on it, I find it incredibly offensive when a person says they OWN another living creature.

 

they used to do that with other humans back in the 1800s.

 

I also do not believe in owning something that is among the living.  We adopted our pet cockatiel in our family as a pet, nothing more.

 

But I do agree with you, Yuki. Humans do not own life itself. That is up to whatever religious deity created them, that being God, Odin, or Zeus.

[*Chernaudi]

I got home from work and played with Jade and Snowball, who are starting to explore the house beyond the living room.  Also, Shelby, our 7 month old kitten, will talk to people when you speak to her.  We've had several cats over the years what would do that.  One of my favorite of my mom's cats was a large black cat named Salem, and he'd talk to anyone, he'd meow at them and try and have a conversation.  Ted (white and black cat that my brother rescued from a store where my mom worked at after he showed up there as a stray) will also talk.

 

Oh, and here's some examples of why barn owls don't make particularly good pets--they are for sure wild animals.  I like barn owls, but that doesn't mean that they're good to have as pets in areas were it's legal to have one:

 

 

 

And it's not a good idea to approach an owl box uninvited, either:

 

[harry capstan]

 

This is Kat.  Sometimes I call her Scrutchy.  I don't know why.

[*Chernaudi]

I had a bed guest last night.  Shelby, one of our cats (7 month old kitten) decided to sleep in my bed before I turned in, and once I got in, she wanted to be petted and she had one of the loudest purrs I ever heard from a cat her size.  She also climbed all over me until she decided to go back to sleep, and she was still there when I woke up a little while ago.  She's definently going to be like her mother in the affection department, though I wish that Jade and Snowball were a bit more like that, though they're only like 3 months old.

[Guest Jupiter]

This is Kat.  Sometimes I call her Scrutchy.  I don't know why.

 

She looks like a  really pretty cat .

[*Chernaudi]

I wish that we had an all-black cat.  But we haven't had one in years, aside from the neighbor's barn cat that we feed when he comes around here.  We mostly have mostly white or black/white tuxedo and "moo" cats.  My parents adopted a large black cat a few years ago and also raised a grey long-haired cat from a kitten.

[*Chernaudi]

Shelby slept with me again last night, and I think that I learned from mom how to hold Jade and Snowball so they'll at least tolerate it.  Especially Jade, since she's a bit spazz, while Snowball doesn't give a crap about being held as long as he gets attention. 

 

Mom also thinks that Jade might be a big cat when she's an adult.  Shelby is like Groucho (her mother, who we named because of her facial coloring gives her a white mustache), slender and almost Siamese like.  Jade is large (she's nearly as big a Shelby is, and Shelby's at least twice Jade's age), and she's also fuzzy and kinda long-haired.  Jade also has large paws for a cat her age/size, which is often a sign that a cat will be big.  Snowball is small, and he's def. long-haired.

 

That's the update on my kittens, which are healthy and still exploring the house, though Jade is the most playful of the kittens and she'll play fight with about anyone.

[*Chernaudi]

I finally saw some barn owls on Friday, and here's a photo of one that's currently a guest of honor in the visitor's center and is sorta the sanctuary's mascot.  I hope that you guys will like her

[*Chernaudi]

More barn owls:

 

https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10527346_10152600067349872_1249690393505830518_n.jpg?oh=fea6c9781f94c8c1b39e343bface163b&oe=54347FC5

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10405374_10152600068664872_3048745303426904907_n.jpg?oh=e131e3ce7a2706bbe52cc529d9386d2e&oe=5451FBB6&__gda__=1413652435_27548ae89b67a582470be6cea53daae9

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10580046_10152600069614872_498229323565999613_n.jpg

 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10454246_10152600070839872_5821134643066927505_o.jpg

[harry capstan]

 

I wouldn't call them pets, but a colony of wasps has taken up residence in my garage. I didn't get too close, but the nest is a work of art.