Much as I love skritching a puppy or a kitty, when our dogs go to their reward, we’ll be a no-animal family. In fact, when I move aboard the boat with hubby, the dogs will live with the Perfect Child[sup]TM[/sup] and we will live without. Our retirement plans include a lot of sailing, and we don’t need the hassle and expense of boarding pets for weeks at a time or longer when we want to cruise.
Perhaps when our boating days are done, I may get a terrier again, but once Pixel and Bernie are gone, that’s it.
I like animals. Fortunately, my neighbours have a variety. Taz is a Pomeranian, and a love-pig. He just gets so excited when people pet him. His roomie, Sunshine, is another small dog, but I don’t know what kind. Sunny is quite calm, but she does like to have people pet her. Sebastian is a big yellow lab. Still pretty much a puppy, but big. My new neighbour has what looks like a lab puppy named Molly. I haven’t had a chance to pet Molly because she’s still being trained and she’s quite wiggly. She’s big enough that it’s all my neighbour can do to stay on her feet when Molly pulls at the leash. Holstein is a cat that looks like a Gateway box. She’s often waiting for people to come out to pet her. I feel bad when I have to walk away, because she enjoys being petted so much. Napoleon is a rotweiller, but I don’t see him very often. He’s too calm. There are other dogs in the complex, but for whatever reason we never seem to run into each other. My best *fiend had a chocolate lab who was very friendly. Sadly, his ex-g/f absconded across the country with it. Animals (and kids) seem to like me for some reason. Another friend has a cat named Velcro (or Vel). Vel doesn’t like anyone except my friend, but she’ll play with me as long as I don’t touch her. (I think my friend’s ex-husband abused the cat, so that’s why she doesn’t like anyone.)
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Perhaps when our boating days are done, I may get a terrier again
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How about a schipperke? (sp.?) I hear they like water.
I’m trying to keep my pet habit in check by limiting it to 2 cats, 2 snakes, and 2 aquariums. It’s made a bit more sane-sounding when you consider both snakes spend 10 months out of the year in my classroom, so my home isn’t too much of a zoo.
I’d love to have a dog–a big dog, I’m not a little dog kinda gal–but the condo we live in doesn’t have enough yard space for a dog that size. I’d also love to own a horse in the next year or so; I’ve been taking riding lessons for the past 4 months to get literally back in the saddle again and refine my riding skills for when I do purchase my first horse.
Animals completely fascinate me–all of them. I was the weird kid that would sit and stare at ant hills, or go study/play in the creek–my favorite playground! Even on my honeymoon in Jamaica, I relished just staring into the clear water and studying the various species of fish that swirled about beneath me. It’s because of this fascination that I will likely go back to school for a degree, and then possibly a masters, in either biology or zoology.
So…uh…yah. I like animals. 
I love all domesticated mammals.
I hate cats. They are not animals. They are satan spawn. I’m not a big fan up the little “yapper” or “rat” dogs either. Unless they are being fed to a really large snake.