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Post by Peach on Jul 1, 2009 9:52:44 GMT -5
Messyang - What a wonderful dog you have! It is well-documented that dogs can sometimes sense what is happening within our bodies. Congratulations on your appointment to have your cats spay/neutered. Mouse - I totally understand your determination to keep your pets until they die. What you said was my line for 20+ years. I can't tell you the number of times I said to people: "Once an animal comes into my life, they have a home forever. It is not fair to keep bouncing them from home to home." But, life happens. Circumstances change. Things happen that are out of our control. We get older. Our bodies get injured/diseased, start to slow down, ache, hurt, deteriorate, etc. Sometimes, no matter what our good intentions are, there comes a time when reality smacks us in the face and we are forced to make decisions we never ever thought we would make. It is not done to make our life "easier". It is done out of love for our cherished pet(s). Sometimes love means you have to let go and put your loved ones interest before your own. I am glad you have realized your pet limit. Your cats are lucky to have you. Some FYI for all: Kittens can be spay/neutered once they weigh at least two pounds. Many vets still insist on waiting until a kitten is six months old. That is not the current protocol. Female cats can start reproducing at 5-6 months of age. With male cats it is important to get them neutered before they learn to spray to mark territory (the inside of your house). Again, get them neutered at two pounds before this behavior develops. Check on-line and with local vets for organizations in your area who might assist with the cost or offer discounts. An excellent resource is: www.neighborhoodcats.org/ Although this group is based in NYC, one of its founders is a nationally known expert on how to live with stray and feral cats in your life. I worked with him once. The focus is on TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return), which is a proven program for protecting cats, assisting caregivers through training and financial assistance, and lobbying local governments to adopt an ordinance to provide legal protection for caregivers. Some groups provide free cat/kitten food. In my home, we limit our pets access to certain areas. The parrots are in large enclosures. The cats reside in our four-season room, which is outfitted with cat furniture, toys, litter boxes (deep and with covers to limit litter on the floor) and a feeding area. Of course, they are allowed into other areas everyday but with supervision. When we are out of the house, they are quite happy in their own territories. Any room can serve this purpose. Of course, as we all know, our pets have distinct personalities and preferences. Two of our cats are a little timid and sometimes bullied by the others. We solve that by allowing these two to roam free in the house. They each have their own preferred areas with litter boxes and don't bother each other. The important thing is that we are in control in a quiet, benevolent way, of the house - remember, pets are like human children. They need supervision and gentle discipline.
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Post by mouse on Jul 1, 2009 10:47:39 GMT -5
Peach, just for the record, I did mention in my post that sometimes, due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, people have to get rid of their pets (illness, age, what have you). My point was not that people must keep their pets absolutely to the detriment of their own lives, but that they have a responsibility to make sure their pet receives proper care even after they have to make the difficult decision to let them go. A lot of people seem to think that pets are a commodity that can be tossed out like an old mattress, that they can fend for themselves. This is patently not true. A domestic animal is entirely dependent on its owner for its well-being. As such, we have a responsibility that cannot simply be shrugged off or discarded if the pet becomes "inconvenient." I hear too many stories of cats and dogs being "set free" when they stoppd being cute or developed behavioural problems that are likely the fault of their owners anyway. Ahem. Sorry, that got a little ranty there. The point being, I understand that sometimes we have to get rid of our pets. In my case, I hold myself to the standard that, as long as I have the health and the finances to take care of my cats properly, then that's what I'll do. ~Mouse
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Post by Peach on Jul 1, 2009 11:10:09 GMT -5
Dear Mouse - You and I are very much alike - I'm just a bit older, I think You are me 20-30 years ago - at least in regard to our attitude on caring for our animals. I meant no criticism - only to clarify that a decision to rehome is not a frivolous act. I too abhor people who treat their trusting pets as items to be tossed out at a whim. I am particularly galled at people who move or evacuate their houses but leave their pets behind. One would not leave human children behind. Our pets are our children in every sense of the word.
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Post by sleepymom on Jul 1, 2009 11:54:31 GMT -5
For what it`s worth, we adopted a kitten recently, a tiny little 1 pounder. Our Animal Control, as well as the local shelters, have the policy that they spay/nueter all animals adopted. Our baby was spayed before we picked her up, and she`s doing just fine
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Post by slothzilla on Jul 1, 2009 16:53:40 GMT -5
I bring my dog to work with me, and he certainly contributes to the squalor in my office (I try not to let it get too bad in my office, but it does need a good cleaning).
Today my boss popped his head in my office and gave me a weird look. I looked behind where I was sitting, and unbeknownst to me my dog had shredded a roll of toilet paper so that little scraps of paper were everywhere, and turned his bowl of dog food over, so that was all over the floor too!
And its been a couple of weeks since I vacuumed my office, so its covered in dog hair....need to clean it up before the three day weekend.
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Post by Morningstar on Jul 1, 2009 23:12:06 GMT -5
Thanks for raising this topic AnnieOakie, it is a very pertinent one. I have five rabbits who I love dearly, but always in the back of my mind is that I might have to give them up if my circumstances change. I am currently searching for a job right now and live in rental housing. If I need to move across country in order to take up a job, it will be very expensive and challenging to move them and all their caging and other equipment, let alone myself. Would I also be able to find affordable suitable housing that will also allow the rabbits? Another aspect is that I'm involved in the purebred rabbit fancy and these rabbits are occasional show and breeding animals as well as pets. I keep just five rabbits at the moment as that is what I can reasonably manage re. cage cleaning, feeding, grooming and individual attention, while retaining enough of a nucleus to continue a breeding programme. Most rabbit breeders would have a minimum of 20 rabbits (not counting kits in the nest) and breed each doe 2 (or more) times a year. I don't know how they do it, keeping up with the care and cleanliness of so many rabbits, some while holding down fulltime work and caring for families. In my first couple of years of keeping rabbits, I succumbed to the "rabbit breeder's norm" and unspoken lore and expectations of the show rabbit world, acquiring a few rabbits, breeding several litters and running on kits. My numbers grew and peaked at 20 - I could just keep up in summer, but the following winter I could barely cope alongside having a full time job, short daylight hours and foul weather (all the rabbits were housed outside). In the end, fate intervened - A couple of rabbits I'd bought from another breeder had pasteurellosis (an incurable, highly contagious bacterial infection) and it spread rapidly among my rabbits. At first I tried to control the spread by quarantining and treating sick animals with antibiotics. It didn't work - sick animals got sicker and it still spread. In the end, I had all the sick rabbits put down and two were left. Today I still have those two rabbits, plus two others I have bought since and a doe retained from a litter I bred last year. I ask myself everyday whether I am doing right by my rabbits. Should I give them up now because of a slight possibility in the near future that I might have to do so anyway? Am I being selfish holding onto them (and their breeding potential) for myself, when the available pool of good breeding stock in my breed of rabbit is limited in this country, and another breeder could make better use of them? Am I truly giving my rabbits a good life, or would they be better off in someone else's care? Am I really cut out to be a good/responsible/ethical breeder, breeding quality rabbits that meet breed standards and/or make good pets? My answer, for now, is to take one day at a time and not burden myself with high expectations. They receive good basic care - their cages are clean, they are well fed and healthy; I breed an occasional litter (no more often than once a year per doe) only when I have time enough to devote to their care, suitable weather and an outlet for the kits I don't keep. If the worst happens and I have to give them up, it is easier to find homes for a few (rather than a multitude of) animals.
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kiz
New Member
Joined: June 2009
Posts: 86
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Post by kiz on Jul 2, 2009 6:35:40 GMT -5
I have three cats. When I got my first cat, Melly, I was pretty messy, but was certainly not living in squalor at that time. My second cat, Hannah, came many years later. I'd gone into and out of mild squalor, but I got her at one of my cleaner phases. At the time I just could not forsee the slump I would let myself get into. I was messy, but not out of control, there was nothing in my lifestyle to suggest I could not really cope with cats. At the time they came into my house I could, indeed, cope. My last cat, Calista, came at a time when I could not really cope with another cat but she was really only supposed to stay for a few weeks before she was picked up, but she never was. I'm kind of glad of that. There is no question the cats add to the mess, dirt, and squalor in many ways, but, if I was honest, I'd be still sunk in the rancid mess I live in now, cats or no cats. The cats may add to it but I cannot blame them for the worst of the mess. The mess, right now, is too bad to point fingers at even 3 cats and say they have much of a negative impact. I've sunk to this level of filth before with no cats. In some ways it's a Catch-22. The cats add to the mess but help with the depression, but the depression adds to the mess. I can say that there is no way on God's green Earth right now I would get another cat. That would be madness. If my house was as filthy as it is now I sure would not have got Melly! But you know, I am damned glad I did!
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Post by rubyred on Jul 2, 2009 7:39:18 GMT -5
We bought a guinea pig 18 months ago not knowing she was pregnant with three. The one baby boy was given away at weaning, another baby recently died, so now we are left with 2 guinea pigs. Oh, my goodness, they are the messiest animals ever. They're like tiny cows - eat, poop, repeat. Cute, though! We had a terrible time dealing with the odor and flies - we had hundreds at one point. We tried different cages and locations in the house, and we have finally worked it out so that the cage is clean and odor-free most of the time.
Then there's the turtle. What a horror that was at first. It's my son's and he takes excellent care of it, but there is another animal that is much messier than you might expect. He lives in water, and pooped in the aquarium all the time, it was horrendous; it smelled worse than an outhouse, and yes, I have been in one of those out in the country. We finally decided to feed him in a bucket of water and let him sit for a couple of hours after that. He poops in there and we empty the bucket down the toilet and rinse it out, cleaning with bleach once/week. His aquarium stays nice and clean now!
Then there's our lab. We got him as a house-broken one year old but he did ruin a few things with his chewing. We got some new furniture and he's not allowed on it because of the shedding. We still let him on the couch in the family room and love him and everything. When we're out of the house, he's gated out of the living room and kitchen so he can't get on the furniture or in the trash. Very few accidents in the house and since he liked to have them in my son's room, his door is closed when we're gone. We could do a better job on the poop in the yard, but we're improving.
No cat! I know we would have a huge litter box problem and besides, it would kill the guinea pigs.
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Post by flylady on Jul 5, 2009 22:56:47 GMT -5
Great topic, I have 3 cats and 3 dogs, they are all outside pets, but they have a back veranda to sleep on, my house would be a billion times worse if they were allowed in, I did try, but they just did there business anywhere they liked, and I never found it in time! The cats would jump on the counters and knock things down e.t.c, all my pets have been desexed (neutered in the USA?) and they spend most of the day sleeping on the back porch (yes all 6 of them in a big ball ), my cats do there business in my garden and bury it and my dogs just poop right near the gate Not in the ample grass area they have ! In the future, when I only have one pet, I will have it indoors, but seeing as my youngest two are just pups it won't be for at least 15 years! It's just too hard with the two little kids as well. It my council area, we can have unlimited pets ( yes unlimited!) providing they are cared for. I will NEVER get any more pets at all, until all 6 of mine die of old age.
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