Pets and Other Animal Friends II

[doodler]

Single puppy litters are the bane of breeders everywhere. If it is a single pup en utero, there are no restrictions on how big the fetus can get and as often as not, a c-section is necessary regardless of breed. Single surviving pups need special socialization right from the get-go. They don't get used to other pups climbing on them and disturbing them when they are nursing or sleeping. They do not learn that they won't starve to death if another pup takes their nipple away. They don't learn about rough and tumble play because adults treat babies a lot more gently than other pups do. I roll Esther around, push her all over the place, take hold of a leg or tail or muzzle and don't let go, etc, so she learns she is not being harmed when restrained or treated a little roughly. In a couple weeks, I'll put her in with Emy's pups, closely supervised, of course, because they'll teach her a lot faster and better than I can.

[Castro]

Here's another cat-person's elegy:

SHADOW'S SONG (on the death of a cat)

        I'm not gone...not really.
        I haven't gone away...I've only gotten bigger.
        My eyes, so bright, now shine among the stars.
        My voice sings with the wind in winter, as I leap
        And dance among the tree tops.
        I stalk the blown leaves in autumn, and brush the
        Flowers gently in the spring.
        I come to you in dreaming, on feet grown dreamtime soft,
        And lay my cheek against yours, and whisper:
        "Peace be with you."
        Someday we will play again together, you and I, among the stars.
        'Til then, fear not to love, for your love gave my life meaning.
        And I return that love to you...a hundredfold...a thousandfold...
        Forever.

        Copyright © 1996 by Audrey E. Nickel

[Castro]

We all must take comfort where we can, with gratitude.  Still, because I'm pretty much an unbeliever, I find most in such things as Gene Weingarten's famous "Something About Harry":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092602860_pf.html

And in a poem by John Galsworthy:

Do They Know?

Do they know, as we do, that their time must come?
Yes, they know, at rare moments.
No other way can I interpret those pauses of his latter life, when, propped on his forefeet, he would sit for long minutes quite motionless-his head drooped, utterly withdrawn; then turn those eyes of his and look at me.
That look said more plainly than all words could: "Yes, I know that I must go."
If we have spirits that persist-they have.
If we know, after our departure, who we were-they do.
No one, I think, who really longs for truth, can ever glibly say which it will be for dog and man-persistence or extinction of our consciousness.
There is but one thing certain-the childishness of fretting over that eternal question.
Whichever it be, it must be right, the only possible thing.
He felt that too, I know; but then, like his master, he was what is called a pessimist.
My companion tells me that, since he left us, he has once come back.
It was Old Year's Night, and she was sad, when he came to her in visible shape of his black body, passing round the dining table from the window end, to his proper place beneath the table, at her feet.
She saw him quite clearly; she heard the padding tap-tap of his paws and very toe-nails; she felt his warmth brushing hard against the front of her skirt.
She thought then that he would settle down upon her feet, but something disturbed him, and he stood pausing, pressed against her, then moved out toward where I generally sit, but was not sitting that night.
She saw him stand there, as if considering; then at some sound or laugh, she became self-conscious, and slowly, very slowly, he was no longer there.
Had he some message, some counsel to give, something he would say, that last night of the last year of all those he had watched over us?
Will he come back again?
No stone stands over where he lies. It is on our hearts that his life is engraved.

[doodler]

I wish y'all would stop making me cry.

[doodler]

Esther, checking in (26 days)

[killersmom]

Esther, checking in (26 days)

OH, darn she is such a cutie!!

Sherry, on our walk today, we saw a black and white labradoodle. Maybe 9 months old. I stopped to ask her owner to make sure she was a doodle (I was pretty sure from all the pics you have posted), and the lady said I was the first to identify her correctly. She was all legs and still not very coordinated. She was a cutie though.

I have a question. When Toots and I go for a walk, all the little dogs we encounter know her as a dog (she is 4 lbs), but most of the big dogs are very leery of her, almost as if they don't recognize her as a dog. They sniff and then kind of back up. She does nothing but just stand there to let them sniff, no aggressiveness on her part.  Is this normal?  She grew up with larger dogs, 40 - 55 lbs.

Just curious.

[doodler]

I'd have to see the behavior of all the dogs to try to figure it out. What is she wearing? How old is she and is she on any medications? Does she smoke? (Or do you... a lot of dogs are really turned off by the smell of cigarettes, so much smarter than people!) And sometimes, big dogs are just unsure about little TINY dogs... 10 pounders are one thing, but 3-4 pounds and they're supposed to be cats! Maybe the bigger dogs are just standing back, saying to themselves "If it walks like a dog, if it smells like a dog...."

[killersmom]

She usually wears a blue shirt, but they have done the same thing when she is not wearing it. She is 9 yo and on no medication. I don't smoke and never have (nasty habit). The last two statements are what I am figuring.  The fact that she is so little that she could not be a dog, and the looks they give are just that, she just isn't the right size to be a dog.
It almost always seems as if they are afraid of her. Maybe they are thinking 'cat' and think she's getting ready to strike when she moves. It is pretty funny to see.

[Tigs]

I wish y'all would stop making me cry.

Me too!  Mines still pretty raw!

[doodler]

Side by side photos to show you the difference 3 weeks can make in a pup's size.
On the left is one of my 7 weeks old pups with a reindeer toy and on the right, Esther at 4 weeks with the same toy.

[doodler]

Just for laughs...

[doodler]

More laughs...
well, maybe the CAT 's not laughing

[doodler]

When Pete the Penguin stepped down from the post,
Clarence the Cat took over Neighborhood Watch

[doodler]

And finally...

[conny]

aylen, 1 year old