Tails of woe - the mini-rants thread about animals

At @digs suggestion (and posts of others) in the February mini-rants thread, this is a thread for those with animal woes. I know not all pets have tails and not all sad animal stories about are pets. This can be a place to put them all. Then anyone who is not in a good place to read those kind of stories can avoid this thread.

I think the thread would be more appropriate in MPSIMS. Not all animal woes are rants. And (I think) it would be seen by a wider audience.

I’d’a concur.

The purpose of this thread is to act as an adjunct to the monthly mini-rants thread. That’s where people have been posting their frustrated, anxious or sad stories. They seek out the mini-rants thread in the Pit. If they find this thread here, maybe they will use it instead.

It may not work. But we might as well give it a try.

It is muddy. I have three dogs, two of which insist on being outside as much as possible. However, they also want to come inside regularly to warm up or see what I’m doing. Every time they come in, towels need to be deployed to mop up their dirty feets mess. Over and over and over, day after day after day. Summer can NOT come fast enough and I hope the damned dog towels hold up under all this use. Dang. Dirty little bastards!

I have a minor (relatively speaking) grumble about my bird. I can almost understand her perching on the edges of food/water dishes (we’re considering changing the actual perches), but MUST she poop in her water?

My neighbors and their dogs. Where do I start. First of all, I don’t know how they can stand it, but any time I, or anyone, walks past their house both their dogs go bananas and bark their brains out. I hate being so hoity-toity about it - it’s not like my Bobby is perfect - but I don’t think they’ve bothered with training at all. They’re nice dogs - friendly, playful - I’ve met them, but damn it, they need to shut up.

And then there’s their hound dog. A big female blood hound named Kimber - bigger than Bob, probably 150 pounds. Here’s the thing. I’ve got Bob on a half-assed schedule … pee and poop in the morning - a little playtime in the back yard in the afternoon - pee and poop in the evening. Almost every single time I bring Bob out that hound dog is tied up on their deck, no matter how cold it is, no matter how much it’s raining or snowing. It’s not like I bring Bob out at the exact same time every day, so it’s just weird that that dog seems be outside all the fucking time. Okay, it’s usually more during the day then early in the morning or late at night, but still. It’s like they just shove her outside and forget about her.

Another thing … Bob has twice now run over to sniff around Kimber. He’s usually very good about not leaving the yard and most of the time he just ignores her. Yesterday he went over and they sniffed around each other and I went over to retrieve him and the lady that lives there was out having a smoke. She was cool, no drama, we had a brief friendly conversation, but she also informed me that Kimber was in heat. Again, I hate to be Joe Nosey Dick but why don’t they get her fixed? I suppose they’re probably breeding her - that seems to be her use. They have another elderly dog who’s friendly and I can’t remember if it’s a male or a female so that may be why they’re separated with the blood hound getting the short end of the stick.

So there’s all that. So I’m just sitting here shaking my head wondering if I should do or say something or just mind my own friggin’ business.

I’m also wondering if a neutered male (my Bobby) would still react to a bitch in heat.

I feed three neighborhood cats. They have two shelters on the porch. Earlier when I went out to feed them, one ran out of a shelter with a freshly dead squirrel in her mouth. I tried to shoo her off the porch with it but she ran back inside the shelter. Damnit.

I can’t have a dead animal on the porch so I’m going to have to get it out of the shelter tomorrow. Ewwww. Or just throw the inside part of the shelter away. (They are made from cardboard boxes inside plastic tubs.) And now I’m wondering if this is the first time a kill has been inside. Many times I’ve reached in and fluffed or added straw. Ewwww!

I suspect the cat is going to eat the squirrel; and may well herself remove any portion of it that she doesn’t eat. Cats don’t generally want to sleep in carrion any more than humans do.

Well, you were right. I looked on the porch a bit ago and saw the gutted carcass by the doormat. There was no blood so I guess she ate it in the shelter. I scooped it up with a piece of cardboard and dumped it in the monkey grass around the oak tree (to join other skeletal remains). The perpetrator was out there but didn’t see what I did, so hopefully I won’t find any other pieces on the doormat tomorrow. Once one of them left me a squirrel, I kept throwing in under the oak tree and the cat kept bringing back pieces all day.

We had a parakeet for many years when I was a kid. I do remember her pooping in her water all the time. After all, she didn’t have a toilet.

We lost both of our dogs over a year ago, and I really miss them. So my first reaction to a friend asking if we could dog-sit was excitement.

But my wife said no. She works with Covid patients, this other family hasn’t been anything close to quarantining, none of us have been vaccinated, and they didn’t mention it’d be almost two weeks (though “Who knows when we’ll get back” haha).

Sigh, can’t wait til I can pet-sit and cuddle with friends’ cats and dogs.

ps, thanks for the thread, aurora_maire

Since this is a rant thread, I’ll participate by noting that I just bought 3 rugs for my home. Rugs that I couldn’t own for the past decade-plus because of two cats that I rescued. Since the last of those two passed away a few months ago:

  • I can own rugs.
  • I can leave bedroom doors open.
  • I don’t need the Costco pack of wee wee pads and multiple sets of cleaning supplies ready at all times.
  • I can leave the house for an overnight stay without coming home to “the mystery of the poo” and “where’s the pee?”
  • I can theoretically go on a real vacation and ask my neighbor to feed my cats without them walking in the first day to a big ol’ dump on the couch.

Clem, Momo, you were very sweet kitties, but damn!

We still remember our first daytrip to Chicago after our dogs died.

Actually, it was Schaumberg, and after we got done with the holy trinity of IKEA, Barnes&Noble and the Container Store, we were anxious to hit the road… feeling like we needed to get home by 4 pm.

“What are we doing? We don’t have to let dogs out or take them for a walk! So… isn’t there a Kinokuniya bookstore near here somewhere?”

Fuck Cancer.

We had two dachshunds we got from rescue together back in 2006. We lost Shanni in August 2018. She had a seizure disorder that medication eventually couldn’t control. Then, we lost Luc four days away from an exact year from when we lost Shanni. Brain tumor this time. We were going to hold out on getting a new dog, because it was so hard losing them (especially Luc…the rescue lady said he was a cuddle bug & she didn’t lie). But we broke down a month later and adopted Max. He was 10 1/2, but he had a lot of energy and was young at heart. Then, we started seeing blood in his poop, and that led to diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. It’s in an inoperable location and doesn’t respond to chemo.

Man, it’s hard. So far the medications are dealing with his symptoms, and he is still outgoing and chases squirrels and barks at crows, but we know we’re living on borrowed time (or rather he is).