Pets

[Silenxia]

Just a reference picture really. I wanted to find a nice shade of blue for a character, but so far...no real luck. It's hard to trust Google because you can't be sure if the picture is accurate or not.

That aside, I have a question.

Okay, this Tuesday, my guinea pig, Petrie passed away. It was unexpected and...well I didn't understand. He was up and moving around, playing in his towl while I cleaned out his cage. But now he's gone and is buried in our backyard. My parents said I could have a puppy or kitten and I chose a puppy.

Well I decided to adopt a puppy since that will be cheaper than a pet store or breeder pup (we're kind of tight on money currently), so I was checking out that Petfinder website and...I noticed something beneath the results. Each dog had what age group they were (Baby, Young, adult, senior) then the gender. What had me puzzled was the thing that had small, medium, and large. I guess that would mean how big the dog is...but the searches were puppies...

Does that label kind of predict how big the puppy might be upon full grown? I know you can check a pup's paws to see how big they will be, although Jackson had some big paws (he's a dachshund so he's not huge, just fat). But I was wondering about that.

There is one puppy that I found that I am planning to meet tomorrow (hopefully). She is about three months old now (born in February) and is a Miniature Pinscher-Yorkie mix (confirmed) Her name is Penelope. I like big dogs, but I think for now a small dog would be easier to manage for now.

[Anira]

They pretty much know how big they'll be based on what breed the dogs are.

[Silenxia]

Oh many of the dogs are mix breeds. My friend has a dog who is part Aussie and part retriever, but she is very small and my friend said that the vet said that she wouldn't get any bigger than she already was (and for a small dog she sure is strong).

[MistyoC]

Just a reference picture really. I wanted to find a nice shade of blue for a character, but so far...no real luck. It's hard to trust Google because you can't be sure if the picture is accurate or not.

That aside, I have a question.

Okay, this Tuesday, my guinea pig, Petrie passed away. It was unexpected and...well I didn't understand. He was up and moving around, playing in his towl while I cleaned out his cage. But now he's gone and is buried in our backyard. My parents said I could have a puppy or kitten and I chose a puppy.

Well I decided to adopt a puppy since that will be cheaper than a pet store or breeder pup (we're kind of tight on money currently), so I was checking out that Petfinder website and...I noticed something beneath the results. Each dog had what age group they were (Baby, Young, adult, senior) then the gender. What had me puzzled was the thing that had small, medium, and large. I guess that would mean how big the dog is...but the searches were puppies...

Does that label kind of predict how big the puppy might be upon full grown? I know you can check a pup's paws to see how big they will be, although Jackson had some big paws (he's a dachshund so he's not huge, just fat). But I was wondering about that.

There is one puppy that I found that I am planning to meet tomorrow (hopefully). She is about three months old now (born in February) and is a Miniature Pinscher-Yorkie mix (confirmed) Her name is Penelope. I like big dogs, but I think for now a small dog would be easier to manage for now.

I never trust an adoption agency on how big a puppy will be nor what breed it is. lol I have found that many say what they think you want to hear. When I was a kid, we went to adopt a puppy and said we wanted a big dog. (Our first dog was 80+ lbs) They showed us a fawn coloured pup and said she was part Great Dane. As she matured to a whopping 18 inches tall, I think it more likely that she ate a great danish. I later got a true Great Dane and Brunnhilde could walk under her without rubbing her back on her belly.

[raresilverdragon]

Has anyone ever adopted a some type of wild cat? If so what breed did you get and what do you feed it on regular days? (I've been really curious in taking care of one for a long time, so naturally I'm curious [but lazy to research XP]).

[MistyoC]

Has anyone ever adopted a some type of wild cat? If so what breed did you get and what do you feed it on regular days? (I've been really curious in taking care of one for a long time, so naturally I'm curious [but lazy to research XP]).

If you're too lazy to research their care, I would say that a wild cat is not the animal for you.

[TNHawke]

I second what Misty said.

But do you mean a feral domestic cat? I've befriended, tamed, and raised a number of them into sweet pets. Some never completely tame down, and sometimes pass those very wild traits to their kittens.

Or do you mean something exotic like servals, bobcats, cougars and tigers? I don't recommend keeping any of them as pets. If you just HAVE to have something like that, go with a bengal cat- one that is several generations away from the original hybrid.

[Eloranondra]

Just wanted to share this story:)

So this past year my neighbors abandoned their unfixed male cat and unfixed female that already had a litter of kittens outside. The male is this gorgeous big orange tom that we called Chit Chat because he's come around a few times and talks a lot. When we realized that there were kittens we started putting out food for them. The first night we saw this long haired orange one, a short haired orange one and a greyish black one. About a week later we found out that the long haired orange one and another calico? I think she is (white with orange and patches of stripes and such) were living under our porch. For the next two weeks I spent a couple hours at night playing with them with peacock feathers and feeding them but they wouldn't let me touch them. About two weeks of this the orange one disappeared :(:( and I sat outside on the porch swing and the calico literally crawled into my lap (I had never touched her before!!) ever since then she's been my indoor kitty and her name's Veil. She weighed six pounds and was four months old I recall when we got her. About half a week later my mother came in the house to tell me that the short haired orange one was just sitting on the other side of our fence just meowing at her. I hadn't seen him at all since that first night. So I walk outside and up to the fence and he's just sitting there looking up at me talking to me. So I bend down calmly and reach for him expecting him to move but I just felt like I should try anyways. He didn't move when I picked him up by the scruff (firmly because I didn't want him getting away and never get him back again) he didn't even struggle! Until I began to bring him to my chest to hold him that is. He put out his paws like nooo! And tried to push me away. Hr didn't claw me at all though but he looked scared to death as I carried him in the house! His name is Jasper, he weighed six pound too when we got him. Chit Chat began coming over ever night after that will one or two of the remaining kittens. There were three more, I was so relieved when he came over with the long haired orange one that had stopped living under our porch. That one I named Tender Foot for her timidness. The greyish black one I called Coal and the last one was a small striped kitten that I called TigerTwo( he looked identical to my old cat that i had when I was eight named Tiger but unfortunately Tiger was unhealthy and before I knew it he disappeared. It crushed my mother as it was the only animal she'd ever lost like that.) Anyways every night I would try to come outside for a little bit but whichever kittens he brought would just run away (by the way we did try to get a live trap for them but the only ones in our town are at the pet shelter and they never called us back) He consistently brought Tender Foot around who I had tried and failed catching twice and was especially wary of me. I came outside and Chit Chat let me pick him up. We pondered about taking him and fixing him but he was obviously taking care of these kittens and I didn't think we would be able to catch all of them. So I set him back down and petted him which made Tender comfortable enough to eat close enough to me for me to catch. (this is were you might call animal abuse but please understand the situation with an open mind) I grabbed her quickly by the scruff and she began scratching me horribly all the way up my arm. I started to lose grip and knew I would never be able to catch her again after this so I slammed her to the ground enough to knock the wind out of her in order to get my hands wrapped around her waist. I have scars on my arms of where she got me and she bit through my thumb nail as I got into my house and literally threw her into the guest room. My mother came in to check on her a couple hours later trying to give her enough time to calm down and she was bit at the back of her nail (I was bit almost at the tip.) finally my dad was gently petting her later that night after she had completely exhausted herself and went into shock. That was when I finally noticed the enormous abscess on her neck. I felt so bad for picking her up by the scruff! She weighed four pounds and the vet flat out said that she wouldn't have made it much longer outside. She was immediately fixed and the abscess was removed (the vets thought we might breed her as she is an orange female cat! So they were freaking out about getting us to fix her cause they didn't want us contributing to more strays. After rescuing and paying for the other kittens and know paying for the abscess we just told them that they could fix her if they wanted to but they would have to do it for free. Trust me we were not going to breed her! We have a full house now!) anyways the poor thing was emotionally scared and wouldn't come out of her shell, biting my father a couple weeks after the surgery. We brought her to my sister's house who has two small dogs and another cat in the hope that a complete change of scenery would help her. Her new name is Mew and she is thriving! She loves all of my sister's animals even though she is a bit of a bully especially when it comes to food and thinks people are for petting her only! She is the most beautiful long haired orange cat with the most bossy personality and I cry to think of what would have happened if I hadn't gotten her that night. Chit Chat stopped coming to our house after that and we only see vague glimpses of what might be the other two kittens grown up. They never came back to eat the food we put out again. Our house now has four cats and sadly down to one dog (the older dog got lung cancer and was just put down last month, I'm in shock that I can't say we have two dogs anymore)

[Eloranondra]

Well I guess the story will never be over. My mother was outside when an orange cat began rubbing around my mother's legs. She freaked thinking Jasper was outside until she picked him up and realized he weighed practically nothing. He is clearly one of Chit Chat's, very! friendly to humans he just wants pets and food!! He's really good with my dog Eva too! She's licked him up and down already. He's hissing at all of our cats though:( We won't by any means keep him, four cats is enough but he's going to make some family a phenomenal pet! I think he's probably the only survivor in his litter, if only Chit Chat would come around I'd catch him and we would fix him.
I named him Rogue.

[MistyoC]

So I went to count guppy babies this morning. I was hoping to see all 7 because I'd let the 3 older ones out of the divider, but hadn't gotten the 4 younger ones in it yet. I counted 9, there may be more. lol It would seem the parents are letting them live. It's kind of odd that they're just starting this now. My daughter got me the first guppies for Christmas 2013. Those had 3 babies and died. I hadn't seen any more babies until a few weeks ago (I'd figured the parents were eating them.) Now, population explosion! If they keep this up, I'm going to have to start finding homes for some. (And get some outside males to cut down on inbreeding.) We're up to 11 in a 29 gallon tank and my other tanks aren't heated.