A cat named Callie, she's about 9 or 10 now and stays indoors tho not declawed. She doesn't like being picked up. When she is picked up she lets out a meeaaaw that sounds irritated and like she's insulted.

""WTF! Why do you think you can pick me up just because you're bigger than me??"

She loves to sit/lay by me tho.

Midnight is a neighbor's cat that comes over every day usually and sometimes hangs around all day. She's a beautiful black medium hair. I feed her but she eats very little.

She loves to bump and rub her nise on my hand, sleep on the picnic table and sit on top of the wooden swing frame.

One day my mom picked me up at work, she was only parked for about 2 minutes. We take off and go to the bank. She goes inside while I wait in the truck. As she walks out I hear a somewhat familiar meow and my mom says she saw black tail disappearing around the corner of the bank. She usually parks facing the street, but today parked right up to the building.

I jump out and start calling for Midnight (that's what we call her) and ure enough a black cat comes around the corner meowing like crazy, sounding scared and slinking between the bushes and the building.

It IS Midnight! I was suprised she let me grab her, but she did, walkig back to the truck she starts wriggling, but I manage to toss her in, jump in and shut the doors.

Back home it takes her about 10 minutes to come out from under the back seat and into the yard.

She must have been sleeping in the hub of the spare tire and went for a hell of a ride! And if we hadn't heard and seen her we would still be wondering whatever happened to her.

I had a dog named Ben, a Brittany Spaniel. Buried him under a tree in the back yard on Sept. 11, 2010. He made it to 15, when one day he woke up and his hind legs were
like spaghetti. He gad been getting stoved up about 2 or 3 times a year for about 2 years prior and the vet would give him a steroid shot.

Our last day together, I carried him into whatever room I was in, if I left him, he would try his best to crawl after me and whine.

Carried him outside every 4-5 hours where he would piss and crapped once laying down, even crippled with artheritis he didn't mess in rhe house.

We shared a chicken wing and went to bed. The next morning, the last rhing he knew and saw as he was being put to sleep, was me rubbing his head.

I feel just a little guilty, but I loved him more than any other dog I previously had and more than the cats. I used to think I'd never want another dog again. Never say never, but its still not something I'm really hankering for.

I've buried too many animals and some of those creatures are still in my heart. We get attached. Sounds like you and Ben really had a strong attachment. It's great to share that with an animal - sad that we outlive them.

There's a great moment in Michael Powell's Stairway to Heaven where a pilot who went down with his plane arrives in what he believes might be Heaven - a beautiful English countryside with a flowing river as I recall. He seems a bit befuddled at first but once he sees a dog romping he says something like, "Well, that's alright then." That always chokes me up.

Your story about Midnight reminds me of a barn cat that we adopted. Her name was Shadow and she was fierce and very stand offish. She was a good "ratter" who was unhappy living in her previous owner's new situation - a small apartment and we had three acres plus lots of BLM forest land adjoining our property. But she disappeared from our lives for two very long stretches - weeks that stretched into months - and each time when she came back she had undergone a dramatic personality change. She always retained her independence and never became a lap cat for us humans, but the last time after she returned she fell in love with one of our dogs - a huge white German Shepherd - and we would see them cuddled together licking and grooming each other. She was quite the cat, always full of surprises.

My cat ran away, and broke my heart. However, I still have my dog. Sort of. My mom took him in, and he got cancer, and lost an eye, but now... he's a pirate. A goddamn pirate dog!

Aw! He's a cute dog!

No. I had to put up with dogs all the while I was growing up and hated it. They were always damaging things around the house, they cost money to feed, and they gave the neighbors another means with which to harass me and my parents. I have never been able to figure out why people want pets.

Another thing I can't stand is people who walk their dogs and let them pee and shit all over other peoples' lawns. I've had many big arguments with people I've caught doing this in my yard, and they always end up threatening to either beat me up or call the cops, when they are the ones doing something illegal. I've been chased by vicious dogs numerous times when I'm out riding my bike, and have had fights with people over that too. They let them loose, knowing they are vicious, so it's their fault as far as I'm concerned. Now I carry pepper spray and a big metal pipe when I go out on my bike, so you all know what's going to be done the next time that happens. And I'll do the same thing if any people start chasing me as well.

Perhaps you're more of a cat person. Ever thought about getting a kitty? They sure are cute.

Cats are very different than dogs for sure. I don't dislike either and have no desire to harm them, I just think I'm not a pet person. I have so many hobbies that I devote so much of my time to that a pet just wouldn't be practical for me.

I see what you're saying though. Cats are much more low maintenance than dogs. Dogs really need the attention of their owners. Cats are more aloof and independant.

While I'm definitely more of a cat person than a dog person, I have to admit cats can be assholes.

That reminds me I forgot to ask a question.

tho I've looked after stray or roaming cats before, Callie is the first that is actually mine and indoors. Do all cats insist on sticking their ass end in your face

or is it just her?

They all do.... Especially if they haven't been fixed and are in heat.

Hey, Box, we got a pirate dog too - a German Shepherd we just adopted from the Humane Society. She had a bad infection that prompted them to remove one eye. Doesn't seem bothered by it at all. We also have two geese with blind eyes and one with more or less a peg leg so we got a whole pirate crew. All three of those geese were domestic ones that we rescued from the Rogue River and like the dog they came to us with their injuries.

Here's the whole crew:
German Shepherd named Edith (she came with that moniker and we ultimately decided not to change it).

Two cats (also from Humane Society) - Toulouse Jackson and Lucy Goosey (who has undergone a name change to Tabby - according to my son who likes the Mr. Putter and Tabby books).

Nine Geese: Je 'taime (the queen empress of the flock), Jolly Rogue (missing one eye and his bill had to be rebuilt), Pirate Princess Lily Pudding (she of the "peg" leg), Bugsy (the other one-eyed goose), Lu & Zu (two Brown Chinese - Lu & I have a very close bond), Bon Ouef (offsping of Je 'taime & Bugsy), Lolly & Polly (offspring of Jolly & Lily).

three chickens: no names. I used to name all our chickens, but I recently lost the last one I was really bonded with to a nightime Raccoon raid).

Up to just a few years ago I had 4 cats. 2 were strays that showed up on my property. One was just a kiten, she showed up last. The other 2 were brother and sister manx cats. All but the last stray to show up passed away.

This is the 1 cat I still have, she's really small, I think she was the runt of the litter and ran away to find a better place, but got stuck with me.




And if temporary boarders count, my niece who is living with me for ahwile while her parents are out of state for work, came with her two dogs.

Nice kitty smerd! (and I'm talking about the CAT)

Hey now.

I don't own a dog right now, but I have been regularly walking a dog for an old lady in my building for almost a year. That's long enough that I feel pretty attached to him... if anything bad happened to him I woujld probably cry. He's just a little guy, part cairn terrier and part Lhasa apso, but he has character... he's cool. Too cool for his own good actually. Sometimes he arbitraily decides to remind me that he has his own free will, and does what he wants, so he just digs his heels in and won't let me pull him forward with his leash, even when we are crossing a street that goes up and down an extremely steep hill. Cars are barely under control at all on that hill, he has no concept of how crazy and dangerous it is to just randomly stop in the middle of that street.

But, he's cool, I like him.

That's really neat you do that for your neighbor, Tommix. If I didn't hate people so much I might do things like that for my neighbors.

If I didn't hate people so much...

But you're a peeple, so you don't count.

Of course. ;)

Just getting back to this board, after a few days of family stuff. Anyway, why, thank you Smerd. I have a lot of days when I hate just about everyone, but the lady who owns that dog has always been nice to me. Plus, I am just a dog person, any excuse to have a dog in my life is a good thing.