The Watering Hole

didn't want to hijack the thread...


sorry to hear about your cat. I definitely know the feeling.

but, about that "I may never get another pet" thing...

We lost a totally awesome cat a few years ago, he was about 16. it was rough, but we had the neighbor's cat living here (!) so that helped. was pretty sure that would be the last cat.

anyway, one day I'm going down to get the trash cans and I see this grey thing in the grass. turns out, it's a kitten that was in someone's trash (I guess... no idea - I try not to think about why) and the trash guys probably dropped it off on my grass!

so, we have another cat. heh. sometimes you don't get to decide. ;)

here she is hanging out in my Kemper.

LOL to the pic, and  :( to the rest.  I'm not a cat person, in fact, highly alergic to them, but I loves me some dogs.  I'll telling you all right here and now, my golden is getting old, and when he dies, it's going to kill me and might drive my wife to the nut house.  She absolutely LOVES that boy.  And, when we had the last one die I was SO glad that Mrs. DTR wasn't home when she got hit.  Yeah, she slipped her collar and ran up to the highway and jumped out of the ditch right in front of a car.  The guy was actually crying, and the cop was too.  I better stop here.  

Anyway, huge bummer.  But get back on that horse man!  Just get a dog this time.  They are MUCH more fun.  :-)

like their cat, the neighbor's golden mostly lived here too. he died last november :(

I'll miss him hanging out on the porch... but I sure won't miss his shit in the yard  ;D

their other dog hangs out here now... sigh. heh.

Great pic Sheep!  So THAT'S what a Kemper looks like, eh?  :D

(Actually I can't figure out what the heck that is, washer, dryer, hamper, something else!)

Yeah, once I have consistent income and live in a place that can have pets I'm sure I'll get myself a couple of furball friends.  :)

We have two dogs.  I love animals, but hate owning them.  We just don't live a lifestyle that's good for having pets.  Too much traveling.

Anyway my wife was jonesing for a dog.  She had spent literally years breaking me down.  I have allergies and so do my kids. We had tried animals BC (before children) and that never worked.  We had two cats (I hate cats) and those damn things were so annoying we took them back within a month.  Then she got a fucking chihuahua......that dog loved me and HATED my wife.  Which is funny because I hated the dog and she loved.  She got prego and the dog was very aggressive toward her.  She knew she'd kill it if it ever bit her kids.  So out it went.

Then we got another dog for our girl child when she was like 3 or 4.  Bad idea.  The kid almost killed the dog.

So the kids got to be around 10 and 5.  Wife worked me hard for a dog.  I always said know citing the past endeavors and how they have all ended up futile.  Finally she did as only Mrs. FB could do.  She said fuck it and bought a dog.  A Maltese named Lola.  

I HATE that fucking dog.  And she LOOOOOOOOVES me.  Just like a woman ain't it?  That dog is the lickingest damned dog on the planet.  Wants to sit on my shoulder like she's a fucking parrot and lick lick lick lick lick.  

As usual.....the dog developed some personality issues.  Abandonment issues.  We just ain't fucking home.  So what does my wife do?  Starts saying we need a fucking dog for the dog!

So we got Winston.  A Malta-Zue.  1/2 Maltese and 1/2 Shitzue.  I fucking LOOOOOOVE that dog.  Best dog we ever had.  He sits in your lap and doesn't bug the fuck out of you.  Doesn't bark much at all.  None of that yip yip shit.  And he's a fucking BOSS.  The god damned Lola will start with her yip yip shit and he fucking pounces on her and lets her know she needs to shut the fuck up.  He's a year younger than her and is at least 3 times as big as she is.  

Here's that bitch Lola when she was a noob:

Here is my man Winston taking a nap.

Great stories and great thread, I enjoyed reading every bit of it, hope others chime in, kinda nice to talk about it with others who have experience dealing with putting a long time friend down.

Lovin' the pics too, lol! Kat in the Kemper FTW!  :D

I also found my cat sorta discarded here at work way back when, she was about dead and just a couple weeks old. We brought her in, nursed her back to health and decided to keep her as a company cat, having her spayed, de-clawed, etc. After just a few months she kinda took to me and made my desk hers, lol, hanging out beside me most days while working. Anyways, the new VP came along a couple years later and said we had to get rid of her per our new lease ("no pets/animals"). I took her home because nobody else would and turning her loose was obviously a death sentence in this buisness district. It was a tough decision - I have asthma, at work in my office seemed ok becasue it was 8 hours a day and that was it...at home was gonna be much more time. I decided to make my downstairs area (two large rooms, hallway, bathroom and a window overlooking the backyard) the 'cats den'. I put her food/water, shitbox, etc, there, helping keep some distance so I could breathe, lol. She dug it. Spent most of the time perched on the window trying to talk with the animals that passed in front of it (sub ground), she'd litterally be eye to eye with passing rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc. This is where she pretty much spent the rest of her life, only cruising upstairs for a while to visit but preffering to head back down most of the time.

So anyways, that's that. I came home from work last month to find her shaking really bad, eyes looking different, and she was sorta dragging herself across the room, one leg not working - broke my heart. I mean I knew it was coming, she was slowly losing weight over the last couple of years, vet said it was normal aging stuff (some gain gobs of weight as they age, some lose it all). I ran her to the vet that day and he said it was time, she was just entering the 'painful, slow death', said "her systems are shutting down, she's 14, about average lifespan." It killed me but you gotta let go I guess. I stayed in the room and held her while they gave her the shot. I tell ya, I did that for her comfort but I'm never gonna go through that again! She's now burried in the backyard she used to look out over.

RIP 1999 - Jan 2013

Here is the sweetest dog that has ever lived.   Fletch (named after Chevy Chase movie character)

And here is the coolest one.  Tripper  named after Bill Murray movie character

great photos!

Craig: it's a washing machine... "water saving", no agitator, spins at about a billion rpm, gets clothes mostly clean. :/

+1 for the coolest dogs in the world, JRTs. but you have to be a particularly even tempered person to live with one! lol. ours passed away a few years ago - he was THE MAN. pint sized gunny highway from heartbreak ridge!

here he (Thomas) is out kicking some ground squirrel asses:

yes, I know more than one person who couldn't handle them.  Our vet told us that's why so many end up at the dog pound.  He said they are so cute everybody wants them but if you don't break them by the time they are 3-4 months old and show them who is the boss, that they run your household.  

Tripper is actually one of the best dogs we have ever had.  Yes, he's high energy, and yes, he is strong willed, but he does mind and he is very smart.  And hands down the most fun dog we've had.  Just LOVES to play.  Lots of funny stories about the other thing our vet told us... they want to be the dominant male in the household.   Crazy things like every single time I get up at night to get a drink or whatever, he immediately gets in my spot in the bed.  Just tons of things like that he does to take my place.  If I'm not home in the evening, he won't sit on Amy's lap, he'll sit in my spot on the couch.  As soon as I walk in, he'll make me MAKE him move, then he'll jump up in her lap.  But til I get there, he's taking the "man spot."  LOL  

The other story I like to tell... that dog is 22 lbs of muscle!  he's a stud for his size!  Amy can't hardly walk him because he will yank her arm out of socket.  Anyway, she calls me one day balling.... "you almost got Tripper killed!"   His chain was going bad and he got loose.  She told me to fix it and when I saw it couldn't be fixed I figured it would hold him a couple days til we could get a new one.  He gets loose, drags a 30 foot steel cord and the hook that goes in the ground up the street to the neighbors who have a chow.  She said "when I found him he was fighting with the chow and he's cover with blood and the chow almost killed him."  She runs up, drags him away, brings him home and (I'm sure after babying him for a while) gives him a bath.  When I get home I completely inspect the dog.  There is not a scratch on him anywhere. NOT ONE.  The blood that was all over him was from the 80 lb. chow.   ;)  Apparently Tripper got a few good ones in.  That little mutt is QUICK and strong as an ox for his size.  

Re: your pic, you now why they cut their tales the way they do, don't you?  

yeah, in theory. I never would have grabbed it and pulled him out of anything though... would've had a bloody stump to show for it! ;)

Thomas got loose twice. once he ran across the road into the neighbor's yard - no big deal, didn't get hit by a car, all's well. second time, he took off after a horse. he hated that horse. unfortunately, the horse kicked him in the head. he lost an eye and almost died... but! in the end, he stayed and the horse left (was not our horse - just here to eat grass). so, as he told it, he won the fight. :)

plus, minus the eye, he just looked even more badass. looks were deceiving, though. he was even more badass than that.

best dog ever. really miss him.

Man when I was 3 I got a Spitz and named him Willy.  I wish I had a picture of him but I don't.  Anyway, that dog was pound for pound the baddest little dog on the planet.  

With kids you could pull his hair and his tail, ride him like a horse if you were a LITTLE kid and he was cool as could be.  But you get another dog near our yard and jack it was on.  

Our neighbor had a Blue Tick Hound that was easily 3 times his size.  When it got full grow it could jump the 6 foot fence and get into our yard.  They had spent a couple of years chasing each other up and down the fence barking at each other like some shit was about to go down.  Then it happened.  That dog made it over and my dog beat the shit out of that dog.  Just mauled his ass.  Dog never jumped the fence again.  Didn't even run up and down the fence with him.  He learned his role.

Back then we had a aluminum sided house and ever so many years you need to paint that shit and get it looking good.  We told the painters that whatever they did do NOT leave that gate open cause if our dog saw another dog he was going to be fucking or fighting.  A kid down the road had a huge Boxer that would get out from time to time.  Sure enough he got out and the painters left the gate open.  Needless to say I just knew this would be the end of our little Spitz.  My dog was 30 pounds wet.  He looked bigger than he was but it was all hair!  That boxer was easily a 100 lb dog.  It was crazy.  The boxer got stomped.  My dog actually ripped his fucking eyeball out!!!  That was just the most bad ass thing I ever saw a dog do.  

I had that dog till I was 18.  15 years!!!  That's a helluva long time for a dog.  

He had gotten into something once when he got out and it cut his ear and he got a terrible infection before we found him.  Lost his hearing and that when he started to go down hill.  Did the whole shaking thing and you just knew shit wasn't right with the old boy.  That went on for a couple of days and then he went one night in his sleep.  Just tore everyone up.  Even the people in the neighborhood got upset.  We was such a good dog.  You knew you could leave your kids with him and he'd herd them to a safe place if he saw a stranger.  He never bit a kid ever.  The consummate protector of his domain.  Never be another one like him.

Some really cool pics up there!  Evidentally if you own a dog that's not a Jack Russel you don't know how to focus your camera worth a fuck, but fun pics all the same.  ;)

My last business partner had a Jack and, since I lived there for over two years while the dog was still alive, he was a good companion (he definitely ran the house regardless of what my business partner thought).  Here's the tribute I made to him when it was his time:

More awesome pics and stories!  :) I see a trend...maybe I will consider another pet someday, a dog I'm thinking, if anything.