When the kids say I WANT AN ANIMAL

Star*

call 911........call 911
Use this guide to see JUST how much money they have not to mention patience and time -

I'm giving a copy of this to Dude - I'm about at the end of my potty training limits with the 2 "foster" puppies.

http://www.aspca.org/
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Star you're timing is wonderful. :)

easy child is again saying she wants a puppy. I'm still mad at her over the Buster deal even though he wound up in a loving home spoiled properly. She has no time for a puppy. Not with school and work and Darrin and an infant.

A friend at work has a goldie who had an enormous litter. Mom is strained. easy child's friend said she'd give a few away soon as she had them on solid food to give Mom a break. Asked easy child if she'd like one......and easy child has gone all gaga for them.

I can't seem to talk her out of it. Maybe sending her this will help.

easy child would be a wonderful home for a dog..........in the future, not now.

thanks. :)
 

slsh

member since 1999
LOL, Star. Perfect timing - as I was buying hay and treats for the pigs last night, to the tune of $50, I realized that we were clueless when we got these little sweethearts how expensive they would be. And these are just 2 guinea pigs... throw in the dog and the 3 cats... (and 4 kids).... zoo expenditures sure do add up over the years! ;)

difficult child says he's going to be getting a mouse. Sigh. He can't even afford to feed himself, what on *earth* is he going to do with a mouse???

Biting my tongue.

Hemorrhaging. :rofl:
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Check with your local humane societies for a PET SOUP KITCHEN.

I printed this off for our director at the ASPCA and she LOVED it. I told her I get the idea is to get as many adopted as possible - but people adopt and then -

***** about potty training - okay folks it eats - it's gonna poop and it's gonna poop anywhere you allow it to be. It takes months to get a puppy trained properly -

Skip on things like - heartguard and flea treatment - then ***** about the cost. OR complain about fleas. You have a mammal? You will have fleas and you can't treat just once.....the eggs WILL hatch in about 3 weeks and you'll be treating again. Best way to avoid this is with Frontline.

They skip on annual check ups - for booster vaccines, and fecal checks for harmful parasites. Did you know your dog may NEVER leave your yard and get hookworms from squirrel poop? Hookworms kill and you can't see them in poop and the dog won't necessarily do the itchy butt drag thing to let you know. They just get sick, and die.

Play time - originally yes - OH JOY a puppy.....we play.....we make time. Then the puppy gets fleas, worms, and poops all over the place and you forget how cute it was when you could cuddle it like a newborn. So you figure well, he's 11 months old, he's a year old, he's 4 years old - and now he's HYPER because all dogs should have at the VERY LEAST 30 minutes of play every day to get rid of the hyperness. But now you don't like him like you did when he was a puppy.

And then there are emergency visits. Who plans for this? THere is dog insurance if you can find a good one. Can you pay for those premiums? Life happens - accidents happen.

ANd hair - omg it sheds - and all of a sudden your kids are embarrassed when friends come because your furniture has hair on it. I had hair on my butt one morning and my boss said "YOu have dog hair on your pants." I said "Yup......I have dogs!" but how about washing that dog once a month? Then it goes outside to potty - or finally STAYS outside because it is a better way to potty train (huge groan) = you know just leave him outside. And then you have to wonder - if you do NOT have a fenced in yard.....and he's chained up all day long - and barks, annoys the neighbors and isn't being played with - WHY did you get it in the first place.

Not to mention all the poop stains that are now in your carpet until you scrub the carpets with expensive anti-dog odor shampoo and then there is no guarantee they won't return deposit. Know what I mean???

Or my favorite - leave it in a cage all day long and then wonder why when you get home after being gone 10 hours it's a hyper, barking, pp, pooping, shedding, drooling mess on your work clothes.

And eventually a return drop off in the middle of the day or night to your local ANIMAL shelter or a pathetic ad on Craigslist begging someone to take this dog - while you write an ad that says : We just dont' have time to take care of her any more or....My son "developed" allergies (gosh after 2 years huh?) and my all time favorite - putting a picture of your dog with the ad and writing - TO GOOD HOME ONLY- Great dog...can't be around, cats, other dogs or small children NOT TO A FIGHTING HOME

. Why don't you write what you really mean......I got this dog as a puppy - I taught him nothing, I spent no time with him, he poops, he digs, he chases cats, he has no manners, he's not potty trained, he jumps the fence and looks for females because I never spent the money to get him neutered, he won't chase a ball or a frisbee, but runs like crazy when he gets out and now my wife said we have to get rid of him because he's not getting along with her NEW puppy.

Yeah - wait until you have your own home, and time to invest with a baby fur child BEFORE you bring another disposable dog home. Makes me wonder when people continually do this - do you think it's going to be different with THIS puppy - I mean WHAT are you going to do different?

Blargh.......off my soap box.

DOGS ARE NOT A DISPOSABLE COMMODITY -

DOGS ARE A LIFETIME OF COMMITTMENT (8-=15 years for most breeds)

and while we're talking about BREEDS......

READ UP about the breed that you get. BEFORE you try to make a Great Dane an outdoor guard dog or expect a Jack Russell Terrier to be laid back like a SHih-tzu. And to all the back yard breeders that are breeding the most hideous crosses I've ever seen? KNOCK IT THE HECK OFF......there is a reason people took the time to make a pure breed dog a pure breed. If you aren't breeding to improve the breed - GET YOUR DOG FIXED.

Maybe - you should tell your children the back end first -Not every dog will be as lucky to go to a phenominal home if you rehome it. MOST DOGS THAT ARE NOT TRAINED and NOT TAKEN TIME WITH are USUALLY put to death by a needle that stops their breathing. Some aren't that lucky and there are still gas chambers where a heard of dogs are ushered into a small hideous dark box, they flip a switch, gas comes on, you hear them cry, scratch, they're alone, scared and they KNOW what is happening to them at a shelter and their bodies are put into a huge walk in freezer, then once a week they are either creamated or taken to a rendering plant then boiled to make cheap pet food - INCLUDING some dog foods. Of course most kids will tell you - I'd NEVER do that to my dog.

Okay - really off my soap box now. I won't apologize for telling the truth. It happens too much every day because people turn a blind eye to what will happen IF they don't take proper time and care with a pet that could end up being your best friend in the whole world.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
BRAVO!!!!!

And the kids wonder why I refuse to let them have another pet. We have more than enough. They (all three - including husband) begged for the third cat (as a kitten). I told them we'd all have to empty cat pans, feed them, play with them. I got an enthusiastic "WE WILL!"

2 1/2 years later... If I don't do the cat pans or nagnagnagnagnag about it, the cats poop on the floor, pee on the kids' stuff on the floor, and the kids get upset. I asked one of them to top off the dry food last night when I went to bed - Got up this morning, and the autofeeder was EMPTY. If it had been topped off, it would have lasted a week.

The dog's fun when THEY are in the mood. They wonder why the dog and cats prefer me and husband - because we make time to play. Every blisterin' day. More than once. We feed them. We brush them. We clean up after them.

No more pets.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
This is something that really frosts me. I was involved in both breeding an rescuing German Shepherd dogs and Maine Coon cats for many years.

I dispersed the cattery and quit fostering both dogs and cats when husband first became seriously ill.

I simply couldn't handle it any more.

That was years back. I do still have one middle-aged shepherd, but he will be the last one. The breed is just too high-maintenance for me between a bad back and the bipolar (I am disabled as well) and my days of lifting 90lb dogs are permanently past.

AND, this breed needs constant training and stimulation to be happy and healthy. Otherwise they become quite neurotic. Many of them are prone to severe intestinal problems of various types (want to rip out a floor or two?), and of course, they get the hip and other arthritic issues.

My guy has good hips, which is something of a miracle at his age, but he has horrible spinal arthritis to make up for it.

The cats? Well, they eat a lot. They go through a lot of litter and require a lot of maintenance including grooming.

I do have a cat as well. He's a shorthair with Siamese markings even though he's really just a rescued stray cat.

Coat is low maintenance but he's very iffy about hitting the litterpan.

And, feeding properly costs a fortune: easily 70 per month for the dog and 17 per month for the cat.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
A brief aside on cats and litter - for the sake of the environment and your sanity, try teaching the cat to use the toilet. There are drawbacks - you have to always leave the seat down and the lid up. You may have difficulty training the two-legs in the family at the same time.

Plus to do this, you need to buy the toilet seat litter tray and while training is happening, people needing to use the toilet have to remove it and then put it back. It depends on the cat, but I gather they learn fairly quickly where to go and what to do. The toilet seat litter tray has several stages. The first one is a tray that fits over the toilet deat and is shallow and filled with litter. Once the cat knows it's there, it's just like any other litter tray.
Once the cat is using it, you then switch to the next stage - a tray with a small hole in the centre where it can drop through to the foaming waters below. Still mostly litter, so the cat can scratch to bury it.
Slowly you move to a larger hole and less litter around it, until you have nothing left, and the cat is happily poising its rear over the hole.
Ideal for apartment living. Marvellous for cat ladies who can't keep up with the litter trays. I know cat ladies. I avoid visiting them because it takes me days to get the smell out of my clothes.

Another drawback - training the cat to flush afterwards. Doesn't happen, unless you're a pet trainer to the stars.

It also doesn't work for dogs. Unless you're a pet trainer to the stars. Because dogs generally don't care much where they poop & wee, but cats do. That's why they will avoid a used litter tray.

We minded sis-in-law's cat for a few weeks once and found out what she would do if her tray wasn't changed often enough - she used the bathtub. It's tragic, listening to a cat trying to scratch away at the porcelain to cover up what she's done...

Then after she went home we had a pet rabbit. He was VERY housetrained, we didn't even have to use litter. We had a plastic box which we would tip out onto the garden when it got full. The biggest problem with him was, he would chew things. Like electric cords... and husband's shoes. And he never checked the bathtub first before he jumped in. That's how we discovered that rabbits can swim. And their claws can scratch you when they're trying to get a grip on the porcelain...

These days it's budgies. And tropical fish (which reproduce themselves every so often). And outside, chickens (which are slowly dying off from old age). We live too close to wilderness to be able to have carnivorous pets.

Marg
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I sincerely think we need to toilet train the cats... Maybe this can be my project for the summer...
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
I took the time with one cat to train her to use the toilet - then the seat broke and we got one of those cushy seats and the cat would NOT step on it for anything. It's really not hard to train them to use it - just really need to give up one of your household toilets for about 4 months. BECAUSE you have to keep moving the litter pan closer and closer and up and up and if you move stuff - cats get weird about it.

So after the cushy toilet seat - she started to relieve herself in the tub - and I gotta tell ya - NOTHING makes you more angry than to get in the shower in the morning and step in cat ****. Once the water is on it is EVERYWHERE.

She now spends her days living out in the den (happier than in the house) and enjoys being able to come and go as she pleases through the cat door. (she refuses to call it the dog door) - the only draw back now is that she has gotten SO fat she can no longer squeeze through the gate and should she get locked out? Must wait by the back door to be let in.

-she is NOT amused.
 
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