Meet the pets!

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I often come across threads here in the Community Center where you have mentioned your pets, so I thought it would be nice to have a dedicated thread to talk about our pets/animals, along with any photos you might want to share! If you are like me, I regularly come across cute or funny photos of pets so feel free to share those too (just remember to include the credit/source of the photo if you haven't taken it). 🙂

* I'm sorry about the photo above...I couldn't resist! hehe

I would like to introduce my cat, Johnny:

This a photo of Johnny enjoying the sun! We got him as a kitten and despite appearances he is a very good tree climber, when he is not lounging around...it's a hard life being a cat! 

What about you?

[Huma0]

@Karen-and-Brian0, your dogs are adorable. If I got a dog (I won't because my cats would terrorise it!) I would get a King Charles Spaniel.

Who knew Pippa Middleton would be such a popular name for pets. I find that hilarious!

[Karen-and-Brian0]

@Huma0 Totally hilarious I agree! I wish I'd thought of the wine angle when I was thinking of names, that's brilliant. The other 2 are named Bentley Cholmondeley-Hampster and Peche Incubator-Jones - both names inspired a bit by Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year sketch. Fitting. Peche is Bentley's mother - we got him as a puppy, and then when the breeder was retiring her at age 3, we jumped at the chance to bring her into the family too. Having 3 dogs is bordering on *crazy dog lady* territory, I know! - but we just couldn't say no to Pippa, & adopting her has turned out to be one of the best things we've ever done. 🙂

[Huma0]

@Karen-and-Brian0 I don't think it's fair to give children silly/crazy names, but pets? Well, that's quite a different matter. Your dogs' names are brilliant!

[Huma0]

Oh, and I definitely worry about people thinking I'm that crazy middle aged cat lady now that I have three...but they are worth it.

[Lizzie]

Aww I love your little dogs @Karen-and-Brian0 in their antlers and pippa is looking fabulous! 🙂 If you hadn't said I would have thought they were all related. 

You're home look amazing by the way. 🙂

[Robin4]

@Lizzie @Kirstie

I have spoken so much about them over the past 2 years but I can assure you, they are not my pets. I just can't get rid of my resident possums. As fast as I move one out others come in to replace it. I have relocated at least a dozen over the past 18 months...

I even struggle to keep them out of the kitchen when I am cooking. They are territorial which brings me to a story I told a year or so ago but possibly is worth repeating with the new contributors we have.

Three priests were have a conversation about possums....as you do.... the first priest, a Methodist said....

"I caught a possum, and knowing that they 'home' I took it ten Kilometres away and three nights later there it was back in my yard again"!

The second priest was of the Anglican faith and he said.....

"Funny you should mention that, I also caught a possum and being aware that they have their own territory I took it twenty Kilometres away and wouldn't you know it, a week later it was back again"!

The third priest was Roman Catholic and he listen to his two compatriots and hung his head for a second and then said......

"Well......I caught a possum, I baptised it and I confirmed it into the faith......and I haven't seen it since".

These bloody possums are not my pets.....I am on the lookout for a good Roman Catholic priest with his holy water at the moment!!....boom. boom!!

Cheers....Rob

[Helga0]

Haha, @Robin4, that possum looks funny! I remember your first possum story, but from the photos on google, I had not realised how big they are. 

I guess if you go outside for a last drink or smoke and such a fellow climbs up the wall, hpu start talking to it and it becomes a pet. 

It seems to big and sure of its rights to chase it with a broom. 😉

[Robin4]

@Helga0....Helga I can assure you I don't care how literate it may be or how much it might want a 'chat'....It can recite 'The Lords Prayer' if it feels so inclined! It leaves far too many deposits behind for me to ever consider it a friend. Hey, lovely thing about the forum Helga, you still remember the possum in the cupboard story....I love that!!

But I do have a follow up to that! I was in the same workshop one night at my work desk working on some piece of electronic equipment trying to get it to work. All of a sudden this steady stream of possum piddle came dropping down from one of the ceiling downlights directly onto the bit of equipment I was working on....YUCK! 

I love nature and I love all of Gods creations......except possums!

Cheers.....Rob

[Huma0]

I got Pinot and Grigio when they were only 10 weeks old (they are now five and a half). This is them a few weeks later:

Pinot has always been very clever, adverturous and playful.She still gets very excited whenever I am making a bed (which is often) and can be a terrible flirt, especially with my male guests.

Grigio was very timid when he first arrived.He has now grown into an enormous cat and is very greedy (will even steal toast from the toaster), but is so affectionate and loving. Despite his size, he likes to sit in the smallest box he can find.

Merlot showed up in my garden about a year and a half ago. He was in a terrible state, starving, bleeding from fights, fur dirty, matted and flea-ridden. I took him to the vet's where it transpired he had been hit by a car and was on death's door. The vet said he was completely ferral.

In the 2.5 weeks it took for him to recover from his operations, I tried to find a home for him without any luck, and so he stayed with us. He is now very fluffy, healthy and happy, wants to be stroked all the time and has the loudest purr I have ever heard.

My cats make me laugh every day and I love them to bits. Luckily, most of my guests seem to love them too.

[Helga0]

@Huma0, they look cute! The story of your cat reminds me of one of my friends: they found a tiny sick and dirty grey cat on the street, when they parked the car to attend a funeral. After the service, it was waiting for them. They brought it to a shelter, as it had a chip. The shelter huntted down the owner, who had given it to someone else, who could not be found. So they got the cat a few weeks later, in an even worse state. They transported it on a bike all accross France and it recovered. Washed and healthy, it's now a beautiful white angora cat. They got a vacuum robot to make the fight against all the white hair everywhere a bit easier. The cat loves the robot and lays on it, when it drives around. It looks very big now, but still weighs very little, it's all hair.

Your cat looks totally different between the hurt fellow and the pasha in your bed.

[Huma0]

Hi @Helga0, that's so funny. I love the idea of this little cat lying on the vacuum robot while it whizzes around. It would be great to see a video of that! I was actually thinking about getting one of those robots just the other day, but I can't imagine my cats chilling out on it. I only have to pick up the vacuum cleaner and they're out of the room before I even plug it in! They really hate it...

[Helga0]

Hi @Huma0, 

the robots are often quite silent, or it's another frequency. But they can't support much weight. I imagine a robot whining desperately, shrill and shriller, grounded under the weight of a normal cat 😉

[Lizzie]

Aww cute photos @Huma0, I love the photo of them next to the iron, it shows how tiny they were! Great names as well, I use to have a goldfish called Merlot! hehe

@Helga0, I love the story of your friend's cat...I am picturing the Tour de France...with cats! 🙂

[Huma0]

@Lizzie and there I was thinking I was being original with the wine theme!

I wish I'd taken more photos of Pinot and Grigio when we first got them. They were so tiny. They had already grown quite a bit by the time these were taken.

I especially wish I'd taken photos of the ridiculous places they used to squeeze themselves into. Both of them got inside a birdcage, through a door that is only a few centimetres high. Pinot managed to get into a dolls house through the front door, then down the hallway, through another door and then sat watching me through the window of the dolls' living room. This is a 1:12 dolls house made for dolls no more than six inches tall! She also managed to get under the floorboards somehow. That day she was one very dusty kitten!

[Robin4]

@Huma0 @Lizzie

Another hot week in store....it's going to be 38c+ every day till next monday....phew!!

Huma, Betts and I have just been down to feed those Crocodiles......

Stay warm why we try to stay cool..

Cheers....Rob