Metatalktail Hour: PETS! March 16, 2019 5:43 PM   Subscribe

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, Weeping_angel wants to hear about your pets -- past, present, and future. Funny stories, cute stories, where you found them, everything! Pet tax payments gratefully accepted.

As always, this is a conversation starter, not limiter, so tell us everything that's up with you! And if you have suggestions for future metatalktail topics (keeping in mind I declared topic bankruptcy at the beginning of the month because my suggestion file was a hot mess, so CLEAN SUGGESTION SLATE) send them my way!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 5:43 PM (88 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

My little Dodger is just... my everything. He’s a shelter dog (only way to go!) and we have decided we’ll be heading back to the shelter this summer to get him a sibling. I can’t wait! We wouldn’t wait, except we have a planned road trip with another couple and their dog in June and we figured we don’t need to add a new dog to that.
posted by obfuscation at 5:54 PM on March 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


My lovely cat, Phoebe was a very shy, cautious shelter cat who chose me a little over two years ago. Her personality has blossomed, she is full of antics and mischief, and she is such a huge part of my life! She was at the shelter for a year and I am so grateful that she waited for me! Pets are just the best. EVERY pet is the best pet!
posted by bookmammal at 6:23 PM on March 16, 2019 [8 favorites]


I got a pug puppy for my 7th birthday (from a pet store; my parents had no idea and it was 1977, so) and promptly named her Muffin. She was a hot mess from the beginning; her esophagus was too narrow so she snorted and snored a lot EVEN FOR A PUG. She also had epilepsy which we controlled with medication. She was THE BEST. I loved her so very much. One of the many shitty things my father did to me throughout my life was refuse to let me come to the vet the day we had her euthanized. I was 19 then, I'm 48 now, and I'll never forgive him for that.

My first pet of my very own was a tortoiseshell cat who I found at the Humane Society in the town I went to college. I got her when I was 20, mostly because she was amazing and I had always wanted a cat but couldn't ever have one cos my dad is allergic to them, so it was also kind of a fuck you to him. Because of her, he couldn't visit my apartment. Fine by me. Anyway, Abby was a sweetheart but she HATED it when my roommate whistled (and she could whistle, man, it was amazing). Amy would be sitting on the floor, whistling away, and Abby would come out of nowhere and bop her in the face a couple times before running off to hide. Amy and I still laugh about that.

When I moved in with my then-boyfriend, we got Katie. She was such a sweet thing. Abby started beating up on her when she entered her teencat years so she kind of had low self-esteem but she was a hoot.

We've had a lot of cats. We like having two or three at a time, and we've lost a few to disease, cancer, outdoor tragedies (we don't let our cats go outside anymore), and one died way too early because he was affected by the melamine in Iams cat food which caused his kidneys to fail. We've had Abby and Katie, and then Mikey, Woody, Ralphie, Chloe, Remy, and Finley. Chloe, Remy, and Finley are with us now. All of our cats have been rescues, from shelters or rescue orgs or foundlings.

In 2011, my daughter (who was then 11) broke her foot and had to have surgery and a three day hospital stay. When she got home, she started in AGAIN about wanting a dog. And, because I felt so bad for her, we got a dog. There was a rescue org nearby that had the cutest terrier up for adoption - think Benji but even cuter. We went to the adoption event to discover that the dog we wanted was already spoken for. But then we saw Emery. We took him home for a trial weekend and three hours in, I called the rescue org and said he would be staying permanently with us.

He's been a joy. We won the dog lottery with him, we really did. He's super smart, super attached to us, loves his cat brother and sisters, and he's just an all around Good Boy. I honestly don't think we'll ever get another dog after him. He's just perfect and I love him so much.
posted by cooker girl at 6:30 PM on March 16, 2019 [14 favorites]


I still miss my silly bee eater. I don't miss how she'd eat everything flying around in the garden she could get her giant mouth on, thus necessitating multiple trips to the doggie ER- but I miss her.

This has been... A WEEK. I fucked up earlier- and had to rejigger my seedling set up. See too much heat in a greenhouse is enough to scorch your seeds. Thing is, after all this rain, SF has taken a turn for the hot. It's been 75 degrees out and sunny for days. Which is bizarre! But I'll take advantage of it while I can. I got a lot of work done while it started, picking the last mature Bok Choy and planting the first beans. Be a while before those sprout, but the soil temperature was warm enough so why not try for some early pole beans. They're my favorite purple pole beans too- hope they take! I had a bit of fun going in depth on the subject of my very old lemon tree, The comments are great, this one guy who follows my blog is an expert on tree varieties and his comments are super informative. He's only about 60 miles away from me too, so we share information when we can. He's diagnosis is that my tree *is* a meyer lemon, but years of cold summers have thickened the pith. Weird! After all the effort I put into the garden earlier this week the wind decided to screw me a bit. This is pretty typical San Francisco- its on me to use heavier pots really. Though Ironically later I reused the plastic pot that got knocked over- I just put rocks in the base before i poured in the soil. There's a blurry pic of a bumble bee in there somewhere, that native bee book was really great in showing me how important those fat little buddies are for the garden, I'm glad to see them coming out. Then, finally, it was time to get the soil for the new raised beds. That was a lot of lifting. 12 bags is... a lot. I keep joking that with heavy bags of soil- who needs cross-fit. Of course when going to the garden center during a sale one can make... questionable purchases. I took a chance on very early tomatoes. A sungold and a San Francisco Fog. I still want other varieties, but those are the proven producers in this part of the world so for the price they were at I figured I could roll the dice and see if they take early. I mean, its been 75 degrees for almost a week... Then it was just a matter of putting in the cauliflower sets and the seed potatoes. I have even more work to do next week as the seedlings come up, and of course it will be raining again soon, so I'll have to take in all the seedlings so they don't get drowned. It's a good thing I'm responding well to the androgens I guess, I really look like captain caveman right now, but I am exhausted.

But no matter how tired I am, I'm happy. Spring may not be here on paper, but it's here in spirit. After all- the ladybugs are fucking! No seriously. Best picture I've ever taken.
Happy Solstice!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:31 PM on March 16, 2019 [13 favorites]


Yay!

Here is my Annie, who is my whole heart. Annie was found as a young stray between December snowstorms, and it's a mystery where she was before that. I'm told that at intake, she'd be all kisses and bellyrubs for the women working at the shelter, but only the women. She remains guarded and fully suspicious toward men in general until they've had a full and proper introduction involving cookies.

Most of our neighbors know her before they know me. At our last house, we had a window that looked directly into the law office across the alley, and one day while we were walking near home, a woman rushed over and said, "That's that little white dog! She used to sit and watch me all day while I was working!"

The best thing about Annie is that she gives hugs on demand. Like, proper hugs with her paws on your shoulders and leaning in sweetly. It's heavenly and it instantly dissolves a rough day.

She's smart! She knows dozens of words and phrases, including "Brisket," "Pizza," "Chicken," "Park!" "Wanna look out the window?" "Go on back" (when she's in the car, to get her into the back seat), "Annie, give hug." Also, "I'm sorry, it's OK!" after I've put away the vacuum.

You can hum "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" and she will dance, but only to that song.

If you are storing leftover brisket in the fridge, she will lead you to the kitchen to remind you that there is brisket in the fridge, and why would you just let it sit there in the fridge giving delight to no one, especially her, so we should eat it now now now.

She reminds me before bed that she gets a Greenie (aka "Nightnight"). If you promise her a Nightnight but try to give her a milkbone instead, she will clench her jaw and turn up her nose until you produce the correct treat.

She's calm and quiet, only barking when someone's at the door. She's a perfect little couch potato and will cuddle with you for hours, all day even.
posted by mochapickle at 6:35 PM on March 16, 2019 [21 favorites]


I mean, honestly.
posted by mochapickle at 6:54 PM on March 16, 2019 [12 favorites]


My Stella is a ditch kitten, literally! Daughter found Stella and her sister, Banana in a ditch full of water. Daughter and her husband brought the kitten for us to foster..ha! One look at the little ball of floof with sky blue eyes and that was all she wrote. That was 9 years ago.

Timmy came to us via a 3 day trip in a semi trailer loaded with pallets of peat moss from Nova Scotia. When the truck was unloaded, a tiny orange tiger kitten was under the last pallet. His right rear leg had been damaged, probably when the pallets were being loaded. He had been in the dark, no food or water for the whole trip. Truck driver thought that the mother cat may have moved the kitten into the truck during the loading process. My partner caught the little guy, and called me to bring the carrier. The leg was badly infected. I took him to our vet, explained how we got him, and they determined that if the infection had gone into the joint, kitty might lose the leg. If it hadn't, antibiotics should take care of the infection. This little cat was so trusting and calm. We left him over night at the vet. I picked him up the next day, with medicine and instructions on treating the wound . We bedded him in a basket, in the bathroom. Our other cats were interested, but not terribly enthusiastic about the tiny guy. Cut to the chase, the leg healed well, only lasting effect is a tiny limp when he's tired. Timmy (Tiny Tim!) Came to us exactly 3 weeks after we got Stella, and they bonded right off the bat!

https://m.imgur.com/GnYXFFu


(My first time posting a pic...hope it works!)
Our cat count is 8 at this time. Timmy, Stella, Olivia, Teddy, Skip, Emmett, Minifer and Swirlycat. Sigh.
posted by LaBellaStella at 7:00 PM on March 16, 2019 [12 favorites]


This is Peter, who really needs a haircut.
posted by moonmilk at 7:13 PM on March 16, 2019 [13 favorites]


I'm typing this with my upper body all twisted awkwardly to the side and the laptop hanging off the edge of the chair because as usual my lap has been occupied.

We've only ever had rescue animals (dogs only, these last years, but I would like to add a cat back into the mix) and they have been wonderful, I wouldn't do it any other way. Every so often I get a glimpse of something bad in their past (like moving my arm too fast and he cowers, expecting to be hit) and it breaks my heart.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:16 PM on March 16, 2019 [9 favorites]


Our girls are both rescues. I'm allergic to everything with 4 feet, so I needed a maltipoo. We picked up Mitzi 6 years ago who was basically a rat with a terrible ear infection. She is now the sweetest most perfect little bull you'd ever hope to meet.

When my MIL died in October, her Havanese/poodle (havapoo?) came to us. These are our girls now and they're perfect.

As for the garden, I'm about half way through the Bermuda grass. It's exhausting, but very satisfying. Tomorrow, I'll plant 6 different heirloom tomatoes that I got yesterday at Tomatomania . We have a location closer to us than the link but their web presence is mostly Facebook based. Anyway, 280 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and I'm in heaven.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:27 PM on March 16, 2019 [7 favorites]


Yin and yang cats. Kitty brothers born 12 years ago almost exactly, three days before my grandson, and hidden under my bed, by the momma cat. This was when I came over via Hwy 6, for my grandson's birth. Keepers all.
posted by Oyéah at 7:29 PM on March 16, 2019 [6 favorites]


Got Millionaire at the humane society. We were there for a cat called Perry, who was adopted as we were walking in. Her shelter name was Mao, which the shelter worker accidentally pronounced "Meow". So her nicknames are Millie and Meow.

Here she is showing off her trick - a high five. It's funny, when I was teaching her to high five, I started by rewarding her moving her paw. She started by raising her left paw. She got better and better at that, raising it higher and more reliably. Then suddenly one day, she raised her right paw and made a high five. She has never once used her left paw to high five, but she still tries to get the treat by raising it partially off the floor. Then she switches and completes the trick with her right paw. Very strange!

Her other, much more significant trick, is that she comes when she is called.
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:33 PM on March 16, 2019 [10 favorites]


I have talked about the very floofy grey and unfortunately murderous grey cat that is constantly forcing her fat butt in my lap all the time, regardless if she's covered in snow or not. and oh god there she is, she's coming for me help....

Ok, cat has been snuggled!

I have a new seasonal hummingbird that has shown up, and it is unmistakably the Rufous for how red it is and how loud it is when flying. It's wings whistle like some kind of knife missile cutting the air, really intense. And it's scared off the Anna's and black throats! But that's now three confirmed species managing to share my little feeder.

The spring cleaning I was talking about last week or whenever is still in full effect. In the last few days I've managed to do whole bunch of things:

Started a compost pile using whatever crap I had on hand. A few metal fence stakes, hammered with a dang hatchet. Some alder saplings cut into fence strakes. Zip ties. Chicken wire.

Hung my hammock with porch swing bolts and didn't blow anything up. I should have done this ages ago and I'm sleeping so great that it's good like ice cream. It's rock solid and silent. Also, the cat is able to jump right in from my desk and isn't wary of it at all now that she knows she can curl up right next to me in a little pocket of sleeping bag.

Hung up all the clothes. Cleaned all of the desks and shelves. Rebuilt kitchen and cooking station. Rolled up and put away weird camping pad layered bedroll thing on the cold floor.

Which isn't the worst bed I've had, as I've been using a thermal reflective tarp, cargo blanket, like three camping pads and three sleeping bags. I stayed quite warm in a double down and hollow fiber bag combo all winter long. Mainly I want my floor back and magic free yoga hammock sleeping.

But even better than all of that I just finished making room for and setting up a recording studio. If I set everything up I can have about 300 knobs and buttons in front of me and so many wires. Some of which are, gasp, neatly coiled and hanging from pegs and all well organized.

My speakers are even on dampening pads on breezeblocks with some nice desktop staging and back wall and omfg they sound amazing. I picked this up for 5 bucks on sight, recognizing good vintage bookshelfs and monitors when I see them.

And the frogs are back and singing, the songbirds are coming back and things are getting noisy around here, and I'm getting ready to go recording a lot more, and there's only tiny patches of snow left.
posted by loquacious at 7:50 PM on March 16, 2019 [7 favorites]


Here are some of my favorite pictures of the Winston

My best friend and furchild is a 30lb brindle Boston. He is hilarious, stubborn, active, and beautiful. Yesterday was his 4th birthday. He got grilled sockeye salmon, roasted sweet potato, 3 stuffed duck toys, and then a bonus trip to daycare today. He thinks he’s a 100lb pit bull; he loves people but lives for other dogs. He likes to hike and swim and play keep-away and tug and chew on All The Things. He travels most everywhere with me and occasionally comes to work, where he likes to ride on the firetruck and snuffle about in the kitchen.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 8:01 PM on March 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


My all-time favorite pet was a 1/2-Black Lab, 1/2-Border Collie named Lollypup (because Lab+Collie=Lollie) that my wife and I adopted at 6 weeks, the runt of a litter of 5 pups. She was the most affectionate but only partially obedient dog I ever spent time with. At 44 pounds fully-grown, her desire to get up on her hind legs and put her front legs on your shoulders to lick your face was very welcome to us, but quite intimidating to short people. She went through a lot in her 14 years (pretty good for a dog her size), and was the calmest member of the household during the '94 Northridge Earthquake. So much more I can say, but not right now...
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:02 PM on March 16, 2019 [7 favorites]


This is Leela (and here with Nano McGee 2 years ago), she is my FOURTH one-eyed kitty, that's how we know which ones to adopt. Here are Jack and Oscar, my first and third one-eyed cats (Jack is gray, Oscar has stripes). And this is Sherman, our 2nd one-eyed cat, who also had a stump tail and diabetes. (A lifetime of Cubs fandom has made me a sucker for a hard-luck story.)

Jack I got as a kitten and he lived 16 years and I cannot even talk about him very much because he was my best buddy and I will cry. Sherman and Oscar were both adopted as adults (Sherman as a "mature adult") so they weren't with me quite as long -- Sherman about 6 years, and Oscar close to 9. Oscar thought Jack was his mom/God, so when Jack died of old age Oscar didn't really have the heart to go on, even though we got him new buddy Leela. We got Leela as a kitten when Nano McGee was a 6-month-old baby and they COMPLETELY believed they were the same category of creature and continue to do so. Leela believed she should sleep in the crib, sit in the high chair, and play with the baby toys, and Nano obviously agreed! Whenever I nursed Nano, Leela would climb on top of Nano and lean against me and purr like crazy, because obviously it was BABY/KITTEN SNUGGLING TIME and she was not going to miss out! If she didn't show up, Nano would make noises until Leela came to sit on her while she nursed. (SO FUN AND DEFINITELY NOT INCREDIBLY ANNOYING FOR ME AS THE MILK BAR.)

Leela this winter discovered the glory of sleeping on top of the water heater (and is 2 1/2 so starting to take adult-cat long long naps) so we don't see her as much right now unless we go down to do laundry, where she glares at us from her silent and warm perch, but when it finally warms up she'll be back up in our business 24/7.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:03 PM on March 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


Riker is a sweet stretchy chonkers, a beautiful and loving orange tabby. He has a purr like a fucking mack truck, and you can rub his tummy or skritch his cheeks for days, he won't turn on you.

He is best friends with my kiddo and they are very cute together (when she's not terrorizing him, that is). I have temporarily put a link to a Google Photos album of the two of them at the bottom of my profile, if you're interested.
posted by duffell at 8:17 PM on March 16, 2019 [8 favorites]


Fair warning, this is about how my very good pal Harry got put to sleep last year. He had a good and long life and this isn't a sad story as it goes but, yknow, the dog dies at the end.

A few months ago my mom called me crying and said that it was time. She made an appointment for first thing the next Saturday morning. I was away at school the last time we had to put a dog down, and nobody told me till months later and I had always been sad about that, and sad thinking how scared of the vet that dog had always been. Plus Harry liked me the most (sorrynotsorry, rest of my family), so I wanted to make it as easy as possible on him and my parents.

I definitely wanted to be there, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to hold it together in the moment. Harry was an easy-going dude who was happy when his people were happy, and I didn't want him to die freaked out because the humans were all bawling. I researched about pet euthanasia and what people were most glad they did for their pets. I found out our vet would do at-home euthanasia, so I called them Friday morning and they said they could come to us instead. My mom was too upset to deal with that kind of stuff, so I just made sure she was okay with it and made the plans.

I left work early that Friday, planning to stop at Burger King for a sack of burgers for the dogs and spend a few hours with them to get a walk or a trip to the park in before my parents got home. Instead I hit THE WORST traffic and terrible storms, and ended up getting home later than if I'd left work regular time, which was after they'd normally go to sleep. I was so late and so upset about not seeing Harry (the vet was coming at 8am the next day) that I called my dad from the road and tried to explain the burger plan without sobbing hysterically. My dad is the best and though he also had shitty weather and traffic, he acquired a sack of burgers and the dogs got a stone cold BURGER TORNADO for dinner.

I couldn't really sleep, but everybody was up by about 5am. Harry wasn't breathing very well sometimes, and he was so skinny and shaky on his legs, and I laid down and cuddled with him for a while. My dad and I took the dogs out for a walk and he had a last splash in the creek. Harry was so sick he could barely make it back up the hill, but when he saw the vet's truck turn in, he CHARGED down the driveway like Omaha Beach, barking his head off to protect us, and reader, I almost lost my shit right there. (The second the vet rolled down the window, of course, he was slobbering all over her hand to say hi; we're lucky we never met any ax murderers.)

My dad had laid out a blanket in Harry's favorite spot in the yard to wallow and monitor the squirrels. The vet and the tech were SO kind and explained everything that was going to happen, and me and my parents and our other dog sat with him, and I pet him and scratched his ears and made myself sound happy and excited telling him what a good dog, what a handsome guy, and his tail was thumping so I think I sold it pretty good, and that was it.

Driving Harry home from the shelter in 2005, when he was barely eight weeks old, I told him he didn't have to worry anymore and he'd have a good life with us, and I miss him but I'm proud that I made sure he got an epic last meal and then could just drift off getting his ears scratched in his yard hanging out with his people.

Meanwhile, our other dog is in her glory as the sole beneficiary of my parents' attention. And I had to stop writing this in the middle because my cat Zoe made her special chirp to tell me it was time to surrender my lap for cuddle time. Animal friends are the best.
posted by jameaterblues at 8:26 PM on March 16, 2019 [18 favorites]


Luce is my Canine Soul Mate. She is about to turn 11, but is still a big pupper. When I got her she was a little mostly black puppy from the shelter, but as time went on she changed entirely and into some-kind-of-German-Shepherd-mix?

When I (and only I) tickle her right cheek, her lip will curl up on that side into a really vicious looking snarl. She's not mad, it's just a reflex. I sing "Oh no here's the mean dog! Meeeeeean dog!" and then she'll sneeze all over my hand. Herr Duck is the only one who knows how to flip her ears inside out, giving her Devil Dog Ears.

Last year we took her to the Basilica for the Blessing of the Animals. Luce was fine with all the hub-bub until the church bells started ringing. She howls at church bells. maybe it's the Devil Dog Ears?

What's that sound?
OH NO ITS CHURCH BELLS aWWWWWOOOOOOO
Calm down, Lucy, it's okay.
NO ITS NOT THERE ARE CHURCH BELLS aWOOOOOOOOO

When I say "Good Night Lucy!" she will trot up the stairs to her pile of pillows on the floor. Bedtime is her favorite time of day. If she is tired but I have not said "Good Night Lucy!" yet, she'll stand at the foot of the stairs and sigh dramatically. She's doing it right now. I'd better get on it.
posted by Gray Duck at 8:42 PM on March 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


Not trying to bring the mood down, but same as I'm not likely to have kids I know I'll never have pets again unless it's a microwave family situation (pardon the expression). I love cats to bits and can hold forth on the quirks of ones I've known or play with yours for hours, but it's just too hard losing them. They're like your own personal David Bowies who live in your house - you love everything about them right up to the end (we did once inherit an older cat with heterochromatic eyes which may have influenced this comparison).

One stray we rescued was always understandably a little stand-offish with the other two (who were related and had lived with us for years). She didn't fight or hiss, but wouldn't eat at the same time, would sleep separately upstairs on Mum's bed, etc. Two things I remember best about her were when she was a bit out of character. The time she sat in a large flowerpot in the conservatory, squinting in the sun (we got a photo) and the time she and one of the others inexplicably curled up together on top of the fridge. That cosiness never happened again and I so wish I'd been a bit less heavy-footed running out of the room to find the camera that time (yep, pre-smartphones/cameraphones in one's pocket).
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 8:45 PM on March 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


One of my cats (I currently have two, littermates who seem to be identical twins) was outside on a harness and tether today and managed to get himself stuck under the porch -- he kept trying to crawl out on the far side of a support beam, but the tether wasn't long enough to let him, so he was mewing. I crouched down and tried to get him to come over to the near side of the beam, but he wouldn't, and he once again strained as much as he could to come out where he wanted to. I was able to hold him while unsnapping the harness, which took some serious squirming, and then free him from the neck loop by pushing his head down and back, and I was just filled with love that this little creature trusted me enough to manhandle him while he was obviously distressed. When he got free he ran off a little but only a little, and he waited for me to catch up and pet him and then put him back in the harness.

I brush both cats' teeth every night and I have that same feeling; I am a big clumsy human and they just so trustingly let me hold their little heads and rub a toothbrush on their teeth. It's heartbreakingly wonderful.

They are rescues, though apparently they spent most of their kittenhoods in foster care and I adopted them after they spent only two or three days in the shelter, so they're surprisingly non-flinchy. My last cat, whom I adored, was adopted directly from a woman who had to give her up because her fiance was allergic, but that cat was super-flinchy, especially around men, and so I hold major ill will, still, for that fiance, because I don't think "allergic" was the main issue with him.

I love dogs, and wish I could get one, but I can't do my life without cats.
posted by lazuli at 9:37 PM on March 16, 2019 [9 favorites]


My doggo just turned 11 but I only got him when he was eight. He had a major operation at the end of January then lots of complications and it took until now for him to have a run on the beach and sniff dog butt. Here he is feeling sorry for himself a couple of weeks ago. This will probably be his last summer though, I don't want him to go through a long decline and stop having fun, this was his second big operation in 18 months.
posted by Rumple at 9:46 PM on March 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


I’m in California and today while hiking I met a dog.
posted by bondcliff at 9:48 PM on March 16, 2019 [13 favorites]


I have so many animal stories (but sadly no pics) and none of my own in recent memory. But there are things. My grandfather fed birds and squirrels to keep them away from the garden so like a Disney princess it was not uncommon to sit on the porch and have wild critters come in and sit on you going "where's my walnut?" I still sometimes do this when I can, having a squirrel that came by every day and climbed my window screen waiting for me go come out and let them sit on my leg and eat a nut. Did the same back in college at the food court courting a sparrow to come and sit on my hand. Should you wish to try, the magic phrase is "C'mon" (Come on).

Our family cat chose my bed as the place to have her kittens. Woke me up, I slept on the couch for a while. I totally stole a cat once... I went home for a visit and there was this 'stray' that hung around and came inside and slept with me every night so I tossed him in the car and took him halfway across the country. Weeks later the neighbors came around looking for their cat. Oops, not oops. Shortly after I acquired a cat from my dyke friend who was appropriately named 'Lick Pussy', best cat ever. She managed having to live in the same house with the actual fucking wolf... (Rowan) who was a good boy, but so not dog. Lick eventually left me for a roommate, she liked him better.

Every time I walk out the door I check my kitty corner upstairs neighbor's porch because they have this jet black beautiful cat that I pondered stealing (only because when I first saw him I thought he was a stray). If he's out, I play cat and mouse with him and hide and peek out. That's the cat that got out on Halloween and summoned me to ring the doorbell so he could go home. Now he has a little friend who's also a jet black cat to the point that I thought at first that he was sick and had gotten skinny... lol, nope there are two cats that look exactly the same and I get to play peek-a-boo with both of them.

I should get a kitty I think, but worry too much about having to travel or some such at the drop of a hat.

There were also a few dogs in the mix, but dogs. The bestest was a roommate with the sheep dog that was super smart. Awesome frisbee dog, girl magnet, and a herder so I could just say "Go get the cat" and she'd run out the door and track down and chase back my cat.

The wolf was sorta scary but rather decent. He would come up the stairs and stand outside my door because he knew that he wasn't allowed in without permission and he wanted me to open the window so he could go out onto the roof. Oh but locking eyes with wolf is so not doggo.

Oh, and finally, I give good cat massage because back in my day we dissected cats in high school so ummm I know the insides and kept a cat brain in a jar of formaldehyde for many years. Bonus: in an old Star Trek graphical comic thingy Spock brought along a "Cat's brain computer" which was yeah, the organic floating cat brain used as a computer core. Eww.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:10 PM on March 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


Our cat Roxy taught me to play fetch. One day she brought a toy and dropped it next to me as I was sitting on the couch. She stared at me until I caught on to throw it. Now she brings the toy and drops it by my feet and then grabs my ankle/shin to let me know it's there. Over & over. She is wild about this game. Playing it right now, in fact. She likes to carry things around and hide them to find later.

She is a rescue--along with her sister, who doesn't play fetch--from a friend who took in 6 kittens and the mother. I agreed to take Clementine. When she emailed to say I could pick up Clem, she also said, "There are only 2 left. I am sure they will be fine at the Humane Society." It worked and we took Roxy, too. Which was a good decision. Even though they are sisters, they are very different. Roxy is quite small--only ~5#, while Clem is over 10#. Personalities differ, too. Roxy is still a bit skittish, while Clem likes laps and brushing. They are pals.
posted by Nosey Mrs. Rat at 11:26 PM on March 16, 2019 [6 favorites]


Here are Django and Perdita who have appeared in Mefi pet threads many many times before and are still, at 10 and 12, VERY GOOD GUYS. Best guys. And it was here last year where I told y'all about Django's cancer. The vet said probably six to eight months max then, in early July.

Well. Since July Django (and Perdita and Okra the cat!) has traveled across the entire US in a truck and tiny camper, meeting bison, horses, deer, geese and visiting a whole bunch of fun places on the way, including Wendy's, which was a big hit. He went to the beach for the very first time (and basically has been daily since that first time in October) lived in a truck at a state park for several months, going for five or six long walks a day and then we finally moved into a house. His tumor is now considerably bigger than a grapefruit - and man is it embarrassingly placed: from a distance it looks like he has the World's Largest Ball. People do a double take, even more so when I worry that it is about to pop or it gets scraped and I wrap it up in a Tumor Cozy, aka a washcloth or linen dishtowel and rubber band (although I keep meaning to knit one.) But he's surprisingly healthy otherwise: his heart is good, his digestion is extremely fine oh god is it ever, and he is lying on his bed behind me now farting away like a champion. He can't go on very long walks anymore and he falls down a lot, but it doesn't bother him one bit. He just gets up and keeps on snurfling along though the grass or sand, looking for disgusting tasty treats. He is on several very expensive pain meds; I have a ramp to get him in and out of the truck and here we are in Oregon.

Fair warning - this next paragraph is gross. Today we went on a walk along the Skipanon river and Django had a field day eating goose shit. I tried to stop him but it was about impossible - there was a LOT of goose shit and he weighs around 70 pounds and is stubborn and determined. Also if you pull on his harness too hard he falls over and trust me when I tell you there is no guilt like knocking cancer dog over guilt. I got mad for a minute and then I thought, you know, what the hell. Let cancer dog eat goose shit. What's going to happen? He's already dying. So he ate as much as he wanted - he is also extremely partial to elk shit and dead crabs, just fyi - and it was fine. He was happy and I tried to stay out of range of his breath. Of course he is and always has been allergic to normal things a normal dog would eat, like milkbones (all grains) and chicken and he's having an allergy attack in his ears right now, but I'm pretty sure that is from the treat at the gas station that I didn't have the heart to turn down. I can't really say no to him anymore. And he seems to be thriving on it.

Meanwhile, Perdita is the best other dog in the world. She is Django's partner and they are absolutely bonded as one unit. They are like an old married couple trundling along; they have small spats and then make up, do everything together, watch after each other and become ridiculously jealous of each other. Django is mostly oblivious to everything while Perdita is sensitive and worries. She likes Oregon too, although I am writing a country song called Miss Perdidy and her Elk Chasin' Ways. When the inevitable happens with Django, it is going to be very bad for all of us but worst for Perdita and I am worried. But for now, everything is the same as it always has been for them and I'm grateful for that.

And then there is Okra the cat, also 10 years old, Queen of the Universe and completely annoying. Yet, I love her, even though this morning at 6:30 she attacked my feet, which is bad enough when you don't have a probably broken toe but right now was very bad indeed. I lost my temper, so 3 hours later she knocked my water glass into the bed. That is pretty much par for the course with Okra. Everything is fine as long as we all do her bidding and, because we are not stupid, we all generally do. Every morning she marches along through the kitchen and the dogs, well trained by the cat, back anxiously away from their food so she can have a taste. I would not trade her in for anything.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:48 PM on March 16, 2019 [8 favorites]


SadlyI have no public links to my current furball photos. They were both adopted on the same day-litter mates: Rory and Amelia. Rory is my giant cuddle addict and Amelia is my delicate diva.Both adopted from the ASPCA. There were 3 other litter mates (and I often feel guilty I couldn't adopt them as well). But when I picked them both up they both purred. They are awesome caretakers, particularly Rory. Both love me more than I have any right to be loved. Rory is an awesome cat nurse.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:21 AM on March 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


my SO had cats in her house growing up, I did not have any furry pets until my twenties. I only had fish, which were beautiful - but I always wanted a dog or a cat. Now, we have 2 furry troublemakers, Beast and Ichi. Both rescues and now around 13 years old. Beast seems to be a Nebelung and is both very clever, and fearless which is just the *worst* combination. He will demand to be in the middle of everything and will be very vocal when he does not get his way. Right now he is recovering from surgery to repair a punctured bladder that was caused by a blocked urinary tract. That caused us 2 weeks of worry and caused him to be hilariously shaved in various places (surgery location and IVs, etc). Now he's doing ok and sleeping between us on the sofa as I type this because Sunday breakfast means there's butter on the table! Ichi is some sort of mix, and she is just adorable. She is a little bit nervous and skittery sometimes with loud noises ("OMG it's the Catpocalyse!!!!") and still plays like a kitten with her toys and LOVES boxes. Beast can be a bit of a jerk to her sometimes, but she, luckily, is both heavier and larger than he is and so can give it back when her patience runs out. If we're on the sofa she will crawl into your lap and sleep for hours (her 7 kg causing major leg numbness...) and at night she will steal my SO's pillow and just take it over. We love them both.

My parents on the other hand have a gang of unruly dogs at their house. One lab mix and two golden retrievers. They have the run of the place (a large, large country house with acres for them to run in). They are always so happy to see us when we visit. They are all good boys.
posted by alchemist at 1:25 AM on March 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


rednikki and I have been pet-sitting our way around the world. So far:

Kiri from Cape Cod, MA, USA

Marvin from Boston MA, USA

Bonnie and Teddy from Melton Mowbray, England

Caliban and Pandora from York, England

Jamie from Aberdeen, Scotland (yes, it's the same cat in both pics. He looks tough, but he's a total cuddlebug)

Katie from Southampton, England

Miles from suburban London, England

Jelly and Mikado from Rennes, France (Brittany)

Lizzie and Sidney from Long Buckby, England

(Mr. Spencer from Remerschen, Luxembourg sadly passed away before we got there, but we still took care of the charming house in the vineyard within walking distance of Germany and France)

Moose from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Tomorrow we go meet our next temp cat in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 3:19 AM on March 17, 2019 [12 favorites]


One day, I said let’s get a cat. The foster mom from the Cat Protection League had three dozen kittens in her house. We were overwhelmed and were on the brink of walking out when mister felt a tiny tap on his tushie. Sitting on the coffee table was a tortoise shell, as a tiny as a teacup and bold as brass. I scooped her and held her up to mister’s face for inspection. She reached up and cradled his big face in her little hands.

Mila is a weird and loving nutter of a cat. She only will play fetch with mister and it has to be an aluminium foil ball only slightly larger than a marble. Every night she brings to my bedside a manky chipmunk squishy toy. I think she thinks I’m a hungry kitten who cannot feed herself. She thinks mister’s feet are couches and leans and sleeps on them. We love her so.
posted by lemon_icing at 3:35 AM on March 17, 2019 [9 favorites]


Not to abuse the edit window...

Kiri has very delicate facial features and loved to go on walks outside with her kitty harness and leash.

Marvin loves to play, and he has thumbs.

Bonnie and Teddy are super easy-going and affable. Their mum is a dog behaviorist.

Pandora is 16 years old. Her companion passed away and her humans got her a new companion, a young energetic boy cat named Caliban who wants to play all the time, which stresses poor Pandora right out.

Jamie is a super-adorable 15-year-old cuddler who looks like he's sneering all the time because he only has teeth on one side of his mouth. I really miss Jamie.

Katie is a sweetheart whose favorite toy is the piece of carpet from the bottom of her crate. She'll play with it until she's completely worn out. When it's misty or raining and she gets damp she smells faintly of smoked sausage.

Miles is the sole survivor of a group of three ragdolls. He has to take pills in the mornings and evenings, which he hates, but he does appreciate having humans around especially when they make nice warm spots in the sofa.

Jelly is super cuddly, but she's also a bit of a troublemaker - she'll sneak up on Mikado and swat his tail, startling him something fierce. Mikado doesn't like or trust men in general, but by the end of our stay he'd hop up on my lap for ear scritches. His momma was astonished.

We didn't spend a lot of time with Lizzie and Sidney. Lizzie annexed my suitcase for a bed, and when I'd walk by the bedroom she'd chirp to invite me in to pet her. Sidney loved getting brushed, and he got so blissed out one time that he drooled on rednikki's leg.

Moose recently lost her companion, and what she really wanted was for a human to lie on the bed with her while she napped. She wasn't reallinto being petted, although she liked some ear scritches and gentle belly stroking. She loved giving head butts. One time rednikki leaned over the bed for a headbutt and Moose was so enthusiastic we thought rednikki would end up with a bruise! Moose seemed pretty bored, so we spent about $60 au on toys only to determine the only thing she liked to play with was a plastic bag tied to a shoelace.

We've decided that when we settle down again after our world travels we'll probably adopt an older cat and fill its golden years with affection.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 3:52 AM on March 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Dr Buzzard is the best bird ever! He's got so much personality. He's very independent, he mostly just chills out doing his own thing, until you have some interesting looking food or he wants a headscratch, and then he'll just march up and get what he wants. He's pretty quiet, except for his daily singing sessions. And, every once in a while, he'll be mumbling away to himself, and I'll hear him say the tiniest little "hello". I've had him for 16 years, and though he's getting old, he seems to be doing fine. He does nap more these days, but then so do I.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:43 AM on March 17, 2019 [7 favorites]


Teddy is a jackshund - jack russell / daschund mix. On our daily walk I spot more squirrels than I can count. He is oblivious to their existence. He is a rescue dog - the local animal shelter had him at Petsmart a couple of years ago.
posted by COD at 6:34 AM on March 17, 2019 [5 favorites]


Beans was found by friends of friends on their stoop in Bed Stuy the day she was born. They kept her alive for about a week before realizing they'd bit off more than they could chew, and we arrogantly decided we could bottle feed a tiny kitten ourselves. We've had her ever since. She lived her first 8 years in a series of cramped NYC apartments, but now she's spending her dotage in a real actual house with a warm, sunny yard, and she's never been happier.
posted by saladin at 6:41 AM on March 17, 2019 [11 favorites]


Totoro, the Feline Overlord has been my cat since 2008. I'd just moved to Nashville after college, was renting a stupid-huge apartment (because Nashville in 2008 was cheap), was lonely as hell and missed the cats I'd grown up with. So, went to the Humane Society, cuddled every cat who would consent to cuddles, and Totoro came home with me. Word from the shelter was that he was 4 then, so he's 15 or so now.

He moved out to California with me in 2010, and to Cambridge with Dr Bored for Science and I when we moved in 2015. He's a glorious blob of a cat, total lap fungus. He's always been amazingly mellow - I can carry him like a baby (in fact, I've carried him in one arm and a friend's two month old baby in the other, and neither baby nor cat objected one bit!).

I've always been around cats; my parents had a sibling pair when I was a kid (Tigger and Piglet; tigger was a stripy tabby, piglet had about 3" of tail and was built like a hairy cinderblock). They passed away at about 20 years old when I was 13. Couple years later, we went and adopted a new pair: Toby and Mao. Toby was the social one, and Mao was a very odd cat (hated me until she went senile, but lived to 20 or 21). Currently, my brothers and I want to convince my parents that they need a cat (or cats) again.

On an unrelated topic: I've been making myself horribly bored for science this past week. Needed to label ~8600 video frames for an experiment I'm planning, and it's one of those problems that machine learning can't solve well enough to be a replacement for an expert human. So, the expert human got to be bored.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 6:51 AM on March 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


I love all of your pets!!
Here's a silly little video with all of my herd in it.

Figlet is 13, very demanding and manipulative when it comes to ensuring a steady supply of treats, but is so damn handsome and an expert-level cuddler. His majestic chest curls are even softer and fluffier than they look.

Lindy is 10 or so, blind, and very much a terrierist. If I have a lap, she insists on being in it. She's very sweet and funny, and very protective of me.

Taco is 3 or 4, and a terrible dog. He's Extra at everything. Loving, hating, everything is done at 110% of the necessary effort. Instead of just walking across the living room, he goes out of his way to jump on/over the furniture, just for the fun of it. He is very fun and loves to play.

Arizona is also 10ish, and is a sassy little ball of catfluff. Very vocal when her kibble bowl is empty. She's also very skittish, and spends most of her day napping in some hiding place or another.

Other Metatalktail things....
Last night I saw Karim Nagi perfom his Detour Guide show, and it was AMAZING. if you are in the Chicagoland area, you should absolutely check it out. It's a one-man play, a tour through the Arab world exploring the diaspora, stereotypes, etc through music and dance. I was blown away. He is a hell of a musician and dancer. I'll probably do a. FPP on him at some point, but in the meantime, here is a video of the opening number of the show. It was also the first time I've heard of the Silk Road Rising organization, which is an arts organization focussed on Asian and Middle Eastern Americans. They have a wonderful little shoebox theater space, and really have an interesting season, and I'm going to be shilling them to my friends and family forever I think.

Other than that, I had 1 v successful Tinder date last weekend and Friday had a follow up date that was Wordshore-Blockchain-successful (which is literally what popped into my mind to describe it on the drive back home from said date, hahahaha .... Sorry-not-sorry Wordshore). Other than him, I've got a few other proverbial irons in the fire and the whole thing so far has been super fun, and I was in the best mood all week. It's very much "How Fig got Her Groove Back" , and I am here for it.
posted by Fig at 6:55 AM on March 17, 2019 [17 favorites]


saladin, we bottle fed our Finley and I'm convinced that that is why she is so incredibly attached to us. I've had cats for 20+ years and mostly we get big lovebugs but Finely is a lovey girl unto herself.
posted by cooker girl at 7:04 AM on March 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Shakedown the dog was a reservation dog in northern Quebec when she was rescued by an organization up there getting dogs who had heartworm. The Org had been there twice before and were unable to catch her. Each time she'd had a litter and they managed to catch the puppies but not her. Third time's a charm and it was just in time as her heartworm was close to killing her.

Some heavy duty needles followed by 2 months of confinement with me and we've been together ever since -- coming up on 6 years.

She's also got a metal fragment lodged between her heart and her lung, which the vet thinks is a small bullet -- probably shot as a puppy on the reservation for population control.

One day a couple years after I got her, a car stopped on the street and the dude got out, took a picture of me and Shakes, got back in his car and drove away. Two years pass and I run into a woman in the dog park who says her husband took my photo when they were scouting the neighborhood looking for a house. They were moving here from Montreal and had two dogs who looked just like mine. Turns out they were two of her puppies and we see them occasionally on walks now. The woman knew some of the other puppies as well and one has now moved to Polynesia!

I've had dogs most of my life and Shakedown's my favorite. Best creature I've ever met. We're a perfect match.
posted by dobbs at 7:20 AM on March 17, 2019 [8 favorites]


I've told the story here before of Professor Pumpkin Pants the Great Pumpkin Cat. She's my son's emotional support cat, and there's an entire album of her on our family page, and she's a #CatsOfTwitter at @PumpkinPantsESA. The story of how she came to us and her name were recent threads on that Twitter account too.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:31 AM on March 17, 2019 [4 favorites]


Found it! Pumpkin Cat's story.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:37 AM on March 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


I don’t have any pets, but I constantly check out the dogs at the shelter website and contemplate whether I’m up for that level of responsibility. When I was a kid, we had a little fox terrier and then a great big German shepherd/ lab mix.

I’m on a long-distance bus to Chicago. Pros of the bus: cheap, no airport hassle, don’t have to drive or park, free wi-fi. Cons: someone on this bus reeks of smoke so much that it gave me an asthma attack, and I don’t have my inhaler. What even is the mechanism for getting an asthma attack because someone smells like cigarettes? Is it some sort of psychosomatic thing where my lungs get prissy in anticipation of smoke? Anyway, it’s mostly better now, which is good, because I don’t think there’s any medical help available on this random stretch of deserted interstate.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:40 AM on March 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


So as recently discussed, I got two new kittens. One of them, Wimsey, is on a three-times-a-day eye medicine regimen, and therefore still fears and distrusts us, although I suspect she'll get over it. Harriet is incredibly cuddly and friendly and spends at least part of each night sleeping on or against me. If she detects that I am awake, she'll come over and get some scritches and cuddle.

This morning, I woke up, and there was no kitten! Went to the bathroom, still no kitten. (Harriet is devoted to her potty lovin'.) I started to get worried. We're accustomed to shaking down the house for kittens because of Wimsey's med schedule, so we went through the routine, and... no kitten. This was extremely worrisome.

Finally, after talking my wife out of crawling into the gap in the basement ceiling (a good thought, but it's not at all accessible to kittens in the first place,) she spotted her in the basement. Apparently she came down to watch me do woodwork yesterday and got stuck down there all night. So I am immensely relieved and also determined to remember to close that door firmly.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:38 AM on March 17, 2019 [10 favorites]


Cooker girl omg
posted by saladin at 8:47 AM on March 17, 2019 [5 favorites]


My last comment was kind of a drive by by my standards, but it's just because I was just that busy and engaged, and that's great.

I meant to mention this about Avery, the very floofy grey cat, and it's that she's now not at all confused by my hammock and figured out how to get up on either the desk or my desk chair and jump right in the first night it was up. She's even learned how to sway and swing with the hammock when standing or sitting on me while I'm in it and doesn't do that hilariously uncatlike off balance cat with unsure footing thing.

Snuggling and napping with a cat? Awesome. Snoozing in a hammock? Also awesome.

Snuggling and napping with a purring cat curled up next to you as tiny spoon in a hammock, all cocooned in two nice, toasty warm sleeping bags like comforters? Omg so good it's probably illegal on some planets.

In other news I was talking to some of the resident Anna and black chin hummingbirds, because I was curious and had a question about the rufous, and apparently, yeah, at some point all of the other hummingbirds made the rufous put whistle tips on their wings and wear shockingly bright safety orange colors as a warning to everyone because they're such aggressive bullies and bossy assholes.

My feeder is right outside my door, and I was just playing peek-a-boo with a rufous and after the third round of this and the rufous rocketing off like a knife missile, the next time it came back and I popped my head out it just flew right up in my face and cussed me out for about 5 seconds about 4 inches from my nose before flouncing off again. The wings were so loud my ears are still kind of ringing. I'm pretty sure it intentionally pissed in my general direction, because it totally waggled it's butt at me and peed right there in front of my nose.

I love how bold and acrobatic they are, to be honest, and the wild almost mechanical noise of their wings, but I sure wish they'd play nicer and share with the smaller Annas and blackchins I've been feeding all winter.

And this is how people end up with 20 humming bird feeders, isn't it? Oh dear. Come on, you little maniacs, you can feed four at a time on that feeder, and I have plenty of sugar. It's not going to run out, and it takes you a week to empty it anyway.

And the last 3-4 days have been an endless, 24/7 chorus of frogs, and it's been glorious. I love hearing them just for the sounds alone, but it's also really lovely hearing them right here around the property because it's a good sign about the health of the land and that any glycophosphate levels from local forestry parcels are low enough to make eating the berries and other foraging safe enough to eat regularly or as a staple.

And there's also a bit of feeling like "these are our frogs, and they're happy! listen to them!", but not in the sense of ownership of the frogs but belonging to/with them. Like it makes me really happy to know that they're happy here and safe because we have no plans to go cutting down anything, nor draining the pods, nor selling or dividing the place or changing a damn thing if we can help it.

And even better, I'm trying to learn stewardship and forestry skills to see if I can help things along to help keep it healthy. There's a bunch of land trusts around here that do that sort of thing.

Oh, and the birds are going absolutely bonkers. My birding skills and chops are pretty low, but there has to be 20-30 species of small forest birds around here before I even start counting the raptors and corvids.

And the weather is getting good enough the heater is off, I can leave the door and window open and listen to them and it's just all so beautiful it's overwhelming.

And my re-arranged tiny house is now much more functional. I had one of my co-DJ friends over last night for a skills session, showing him how to mix basic electro breakbeats so he can take some of those root skills into the drum and bass and jungle side of things.

I also haven't eaten anything packaged or processed in about a week and I feel fucking fantastic, which is good because I have a bad habit of living off of granola bars and other sugary crap. For Pete's sake, I will eat Datrex Blue emergency rations as a snack or meal replacement just because I can't be bothered.

I've been a pretty good cook for a while but I don't know why I didn't figure out I don't even need butter or even oil to saute a pan of vegetables if I use a bit of water. Or how it makes it's own delicious sort of broth and even veggie gravy or sauce. This is kind of a silly little game changer for me because I don't have a sink in my tiny house, and using water makes cleanup super easy. It's also super low fat and healthy, which is good because I came out of winter way bigger than I should have and I need to get back in shape for hiking and summer and stuff, 'cause I've got plans for that.
posted by loquacious at 11:29 AM on March 17, 2019 [5 favorites]




Yay!!! This is Gatsby. He was a rescue. When I adopted him, I was looking for a 25-30 lb dog. He was 6 months old and 35lbs when I got him; the guess was that he was going to be 45-50. He’s now 65 lbs and the best dog ever.
posted by Weeping_angel at 12:35 PM on March 17, 2019 [7 favorites]


We have had as many as nine cats at a time but our current one and only just visited the vet for the first time since we've had her (13 years!) last week. Behold, the one and only, the fabulous Ms Kitty, who was so good at the vet's but also, very anxious to, "Plz be let out of crate NOW NOW NOWWWW, MEOW."
posted by Lynsey at 12:44 PM on March 17, 2019 [5 favorites]


ALL of these pets are VERY, VERY good boys and girls! Treats and snuggles for everyone. This thread is exactly what I needed today.🐾❤️🐾
posted by bookmammal at 12:55 PM on March 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


The floofy, murderous furbeast loaf cat I mentioned above.

She's actually really sweet and very well behaved, but is also just a right proper barn cat on the murdering small furry things axis - which, now that I think about it she hasn't done that much of lately. This is the same cat I've talked about that brought me a live and snowy sparrow (and cat) for Christmas a while ago by depositing it on my chest, and was confused and frustrated with me when I let it go.

I swear I didn't stage the moss in the pic, she actually climbed up there, pushed some stuff out of the way and just flopped down like that. And of course I have random bits of moss on my tiny house kitchen windowsill, don't you?

Note how thick her fur is. She's not quite a long hair, but velvety soft with a medium-short and very dense two layer coat maybe a little like a Siamese or Himalayan, but tabby-colored and way softer/finer than a tabby. Like all of the floofiness of a really silky long hair but none of the hassle or fur on all the things, she doesn't actually shed much, and when she does it's a nice uniform foggy stealth gray. She only really has one tiny white patch on her chest.

A good friend of mine exclaimed "Oh my god you're so flooooofy!" in sheer joy when she first met the cat and the word has stuck with me and is the perfect description, because it fits, because her fur is too dense to be merely fluffy.

She's one of those deceptively large loafcats and will expand in size, weight and volume as soon as they're laying or standing on you because she's like a 15+ pounder and soft as butter, really. She's not a muscular feeling largeish cat, and if I were honest I would say she's rather flabby even by cat standards. So we get along just fine, there. Occasionally I get a free biscuit-making massage if I'm laying down and it's pretty good sometimes because she's freakin' heavy!

But that's the other remarkable thing about this cat. I've seen her spend days, maybe weeks moving never faster than a casual, relaxed saunter. I've never seen her get the zoomies or crazies. She'll be idly walking across the yard as she always does and then suddenly bolt after a flying insect from a stand still to lightning fast fur rocket over a 100 feet full tilt chase and 15 feet up a tree, catch it, eat it, then immediately resume a lazy saunter for the next month. For a tub o' cat she's buff, and I feel that, too.

She also doesn't talk much at all and isn't into small talk or making noise, which I find very compatible. If she talks its mainly "Hello. I missed you." or "Let me in/out." or "Ok, feed me." and of course, "Pet me." She occasionally chirps at birds but mostly not and if given the chance will go for them, and I wish she wouldn't. I've never seen her intentionally knock something off a shelf or be bratty, which is also nice.

The weirdest thing she seems to like to do is gently pull at buttons on your clothes. She seems to want to collect and pull off buttons and thinks they're nice in a way that doesn't seem to be because she wants to actually chew on them or eat them, because she'll gently try to use her paws or very sharp claws and get into the thread holding the button on. She doesn't do anything else weird like lick plastic bags or chew on cords or string, either. She's managed to pull off half a dozen buttons, sometimes while I'm wearing them by hooking a claw into the thread and cutting or untying it.

And my favorite thing to do is scoop her up and give her a gentle squeeze while she's purring because she goes "MMmrrrrrt!" in sort of indignation and surprise in the most adorable way and she seems to like it too.
posted by loquacious at 3:21 PM on March 17, 2019 [9 favorites]


I just a god a job at a pet supply store for some extra dough and had to fix the hair trap in the dog wash because, this being the first nice weekend in months, it got slammed with everyone coming back from muddy-ass dog parks. As I'm on my back trying to get the wrench around the nut a husky walks in and just straight-up pees on me. Just got my shirt but got it pretty damn good.

We were all laughing but the owner was (understandably) mortified. Whatever though, that's life. I don't live to far away and just said my lunch breaks going to be longer than usual so I can go shower and change and we all had a good laugh.

Pets!
posted by East14thTaco at 6:33 PM on March 17, 2019 [9 favorites]


Ever since we adopted my dog, I’ve had a theory that she was abandoned when she got too old to breed. On Friday night, I had a breakthrough in my online research and I think I finally found the breeder she came from. Fortunately, I also found out that this person no longer breeds dogs. If I’m right about this, she’s an AKC registered purebred cocker spaniel. I then bought her the AKC BFF gift pack as a gag gift. Of course, she’s a dog, so she won’t get the joke, but she’ll still enjoy the new toys and personalized fuzzy blanket.
posted by Ruki at 8:05 PM on March 17, 2019 [7 favorites]


I travel too much (and live alone) to have a long term pet, but I've fostered three dogs and four cats in the past six months and that's been nice. It's ranged from as little as a night to two months, so if you're in a similar state of not being able to make a multiyear commitment, check with your local shelter. Often, the ones that they send out for fostering are the ones that aren't going to get adopted until they get some time outside of the shelter environment. It's really rewarding taking an animal in desperate need of some one on one TLC (physically or mentally) and getting them to the state someone will adopt them. Well, rewarding, and hard letting go at the right time.
posted by Candleman at 11:55 PM on March 17, 2019 [8 favorites]


From another thread:

Right after college, I had a cheap room in an apartment with six other women. I had a twin bed (stolen from the basement of a Smith College dorm) which fit perfectly into a nook. There was a window at the head of the bed that I left open so my cat, Alex B. Toklas, could go in and out. He had to walk across my pillow but when I was asleep I never noticed.

One Saturday I sat down at my desk and my bare feet touched something decidedly... furry... under the desk. It was a dead squirrel. I shrieked and jumped a thousand feet in the air.

Apparently, Alex had dragged a squirrel across my pillow while I slept and stashed it under my desk. I don't know if it was alive or dead when he pulled it across my pillow. Did it touch my face? Did he kill it in my room? How long had it been dead?

I don't mind squirrels from a distance but a surprise dead pillow-squirrel is unsettling.
posted by bendy at 12:20 AM on March 18, 2019 [11 favorites]


Photos of me and my beautiful Great Pyrenees in San Francisco. Favorite photo of her, taken by a friend.
She is now deceased of course. Big dogs have such short lives.

Her co-family was a couple of retired dancers in San Francisco. That's the setup for this story about Neshka. I remember walking her down the street in Bernal Heights and suddenly she starts tugging on the leash. This is not unusual and was often because of some other dog in the distance or some choice pee-location she wanted to sniff.

But she is tugging really hard and going wild. I look up and a car is going by. The man driving swerves the car over, illegally stopping in front of someone's driveway. He starts getting out of the car and I can no longer restrain Neshka so I let her go. She jumps on the man who gives her a huge hug and the two of them, Neshka on her hind legs, are there just having a huge hug and lickfest. "Oh God! Its Neshka! How I love this dog!" the man says.

Anyways, thats the kind of dog Neshka was. She brought a lot of love to the world. The man, by the way, was Alonzo King, who briefly introduced himself and then ran off to retrieve his car.
posted by vacapinta at 5:36 AM on March 18, 2019 [8 favorites]


I ended up with Battleship the Cat after years of my significant other asking if we could have a pet. For years, I maintained that our lifestyle (we both work very long hours, live in small apartments and I like to go skiing/hiking on weekends) was unfair to any animal other than fish. SO ended up rethinking his career, and slowing down a bit, and started volunteering at cat shelters. I started getting dragged to "cat adoption" events and we got signed up to foster cats. I then also started complaining to some friends about being made to go to all these cat adoption events.

lo and behold, while complaining about yet another cat adoption event that took up an entire Saturday, a friend stopped me, and said.... "if you guys are serious, I have a cat for you. She is the floofiest, friendliest cat I've ever seen. She's also taken over my v. allergic buddies truck" (cat was sleeping in an open top jeep). 12hrs later I found myself in a pet shop buying litter, assorted food, and getting some basic cat advice. Less than 24 hours later, Battleship was delivered to us, slightly the worse for wear, a little beat up, but indeed the floofiest friendliest cat we'd ever met. In fact, so aggressively friendly he bowled over my SO upon meeting him by ramming into the backs of his knees.

Within 48 hours, and a $600 vet bill; we find out that "She" is a "He", and he's a starving, declawed, neutered 8-9yr old Maine Coon Mix that was about 3-4 lb underweight. He got a shaving to get the worst of the matted fur off of him, and a mostly clean bill of health.

It's been 3 years. We recently moved and switched vets, and they couldn't believe he was over 10; so maybe he was just in that bad shape the first time around, and he's actually younger.

He's dumb as bricks, not graceful, and very much a ground dwelling cat (he's fallen off the couch a few times). He's not very food motivated, but he loves all strangers, and he loves head-bonking everyone until they pay attention to him. He snores audibly, and louder than most humans, and sometimes we find him in a closet purring extremely loudly to himself. He also purrs aggressively at you until you pay attention to him. He's a little chonky now; SO was arguing that it's all fur, but the vet backed me up and said to cut back on the snacks, so now he doesn't get treats as often.

So even though I was wary of getting a cat, and thinking my life was incompatible with a cat, turns out a lazy, older cat was exactly what my life needed. Battleship is great.
posted by larthegreat at 6:05 AM on March 18, 2019 [11 favorites]


While I was still in college I also had another cat named Gertrude Stein. One day Alex B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein both had to go to the vet. I had no car and this was before Lyft or taxis in this little town.

I put them both in my giant army surplus backpack and got on my bicycle.

The vet visit was minor and everyone was OK. I put them back in the backpack and started the ride home. On the way home I wiped out on some gravel. I got a bit of road rash and ended up with a couple of scars.

The backpack was silent. There was no movement. I was terrified to open it.

I got home and finally opened the pack. Everyone was fine.

Gertrude Stein ran away not long after. I hope she found a safer owner.
posted by bendy at 6:08 AM on March 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


Oh, vacapinta, what a gorgeous dog! The first dog I can remember in my family was a Great Pyrenees; she used to herd all the neighborhood kids onto our lawn. And I love Alonzo King so that's even better.
posted by lazuli at 6:11 AM on March 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is Chiko, a six-toothed Chihuahua mix who came to us as a foster. This dog has quite the history. He lived for seven years with a woman who gave him up because she couldn't afford his dental care. (She wrote in the surrender papers about how they would watch TV together and that she would miss him "enormously." It was heart-breaking to read.) She had adopted him from a woman who had him for a year but was in a bad domestic situation. After those first two owners, he got adopted from a shelter by a family who gave him up after a few months.

And then he came to us. The best part about Chiko was how unfazed he was by all this; he didn't realize a dog is only supposed to have one home. As tumultuous as it may have been, he didn't dwell on it all. He didn't dwell on anything. Because dog.

We live in Montreal. When we first got him, he didn't seem to understand anything we said to him. We'd ask him if he wanted to go outside and he was uninterested. Then my partner asked him if we wanted to go outside in French and he want bananas. Now we were speaking his language.

Chihuahuas evidently frequently bond strongly to one person and in this case it was me. He liked my partner too, but that dog couldn't get enough of me. Except if I turned on the exhaust fan in the kitchen. That thing was terrifying. But otherwise I've never had someone like me so much!

After we had him for several months, we found a woman a few miles away who was looking for a Very Good Boy. When adoption day came we dropped him off and cried like babies as we parted ways. As we left him behind at this strange apartment, he peered out at us curiously from the crack in the closing door. A few days later the woman texted us with photos of him. He was lying down with her looking contented -- maybe watching TV?
posted by veggieboy at 6:48 AM on March 18, 2019 [11 favorites]


I do not have have any pets, but yesterday, I went over to a friend's place for brunch and met her aggressively friendly cat. And I say aggressively friendly because he eventually got upset that we were chatting with each other, and in between taking my 8 billionth piece of turkey bacon, I look down, and he has his claws out on my foot and is trying to bite my big toe and is looking up at me with this expression of LOOK IF THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES.

As punishment, he was put into the basement, where his food and litterbox are, through a wee little lockable cat door. And you can bet that for a solid 30 minutes at the cat door, glaring at us and plaintively miaowing whenever we looked his way.

I love cats.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:45 AM on March 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


My family got cats when I was 16, and I liked them a lot but never really bonded with them before I moved out a couple years later. Then over the next decade I had a string of roommates with cats and I got along with most of them OK but I just wasn't that into them as a concept, you know? They did their thing, I did mine, I cleaned up their hair and smelled their poop and it was just kinda whatever.

Then this past November, I got a new roommate who brought along a chubby 10-year-old cat named Desmond.

I am deeply, deeply in love with this fat smelly bastard. He comes and sits on my lap/chest and falls asleep when I'm TRYING to kill ALIENS on my LAPTOP and I let him do it because oh my god he is so gentle and sweet and adorable and his teensy mews go straight to my heart. I don't know what I'm gonna do when he moves out. I'm thinking about getting a kitten before then, just so Dez can teach it how to be a Very Good Cat and carry on his legacy.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:55 AM on March 18, 2019 [8 favorites]


rednikki and I have been pet-sitting our way around the world.

Is this via some service or something? I would like to perform this service.

I am an auntie to many cats but do not have one of my own. P/Zesto was my very good kitteh from a ways back but I've been a traveling fool for a decade and my current fuzzeh SO is allergic. So, no cats. But! My neighbors up the road have three amazing cats who I shower with affection and am the designated pet sitter when they are away: Taz (my friend is a social worker and made a promise to a woman she worked with that if the woman went into a nursing home, the cat would be taken care of, and he was), Malcolm who was a teeny kitteh but now is a big boy with soulful eyes, and Norma, nineteen and still chuggin.

My sister's cat situation over time has been complex. She's always had one or two cats including Boo Radley who we wrote a song for when he died. When my father died in 2011, he had three cats and a dog. Decker the dog went to his ex-wife (a weird decision, but one that made a lot of sense for the dog if not for the humans) and Casey went to my mom (who had her own cats) and Hank and Sergeant Charlie Preston (brothers) went to my sister who temporarily had four cats (Boo and Trixie rounded out the group).

Jump ahead to 2017 (it's been a decade, I tell you what). Kate's down to two cats, just Hank and Charlie. Casey has died after a nice long life with my mom. Then my Mom dies (I don't mean to be flip or morbid about this, but this is mostly a pet thread) and her cat Miss Woo goes to Kate. There's the obligatory adjustment phase where my sister gets panicky because she worries the cats will never get along, exacerbated by grief. Now it's 2019. All the cats get along. My sister's place is a cat paradise. All the fountains. All the toys. All the snacks. I think every now and again I might get a pet again, but for now, my life is already pretty rich with wonderful animals.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 9:19 AM on March 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


I have a little cat who cannot quite figure out how to work her body yet. She's frequently quick and agile, so it's not an actual problem, but she goes through some changes trying to find a good nap position or, I don't know, just trying to figure out how to move sometimes. Results can be a little funny. She has an amazing tail though; very lemur-like and super soft and floofy. I do love a rescue cat; they're awesome. /hashtag adoptdontshop (Here she is the day I brought her home/the day she was spayed.) She lives with me and this supermodel.
posted by heyho at 9:39 AM on March 18, 2019 [8 favorites]


A week ago I was leaving the hairdresser, and the woman ringing me up asked if I had any plans for the night.
"Just trying to stay dry! How about you?"
"Well, my cat wants to sit on the couch and watch Netflix, so I will probably do that with her."
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:43 AM on March 18, 2019 [13 favorites]


While I was still in college I also had another cat named Gertrude Stein. One day Alex B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein both had to go to the vet. I had no car and this was before Lyft or taxis in this little town.

Hah! I thought I was the only one who used those names for pets. In my case it was three different pairs of pet rats, all girls.
posted by loquacious at 9:47 AM on March 18, 2019


"Well, my cat wants to sit on the couch and watch Netflix, so I will probably do that with her."

Heh; I think I've told this story before, but this reminds me of something my cat did to someone else. Zach was an especially good mouser, so a couple of my friends borrowed him if they saw mice in their apartments and were facing a couple days' wait for an exterminator. One such "borrower" was my friend R, who was not a cat person; but in him that manifested as "I am afraid to assert myself lest I get scratched."

One afternoon during Zach's stay with him, he suddenly called me out of the blue "just to say hi". R never calls anyone "just to say hi," so after a few minutes of catching up I asked him what was really going on. "....well..." he said meekly, "I was going to just take a ten minute nap after work today, but about five minutes after I lay down, Zach came in here and jumped up on top of me and lay down too. And....it's been an hour and he isn't moving, so I'm kind of stuck, and there are no books within reach so I've just been calling people to catch up while I wait for him to leave." I cracked up, reminded him that he outweighed Zach by a factor of at least ten and told him to just shoo Zach away if he had to get going.

Another favorite tale: I had a (male) roommate who liked to sleep in the buff, and he left his bedroom door open; we were a pretty nude-friendly household so we thought nothing of walking into each others' bedrooms with questions, and Zach liked to wander throughout the house as well.

One morning I was getting an early start to the day in the bathroom while my roommate dozed; and suddenly I heard him shriek. I ran out of the bathroom towards his room, and barely had time to register that Zach was running out as I was running in. "What happened? Are you okay?" I called out.

I walked into his room to find him sitting upright on his bed, naked, with legs crossed and hands shoved protectively over his crotch. He looked up at me and all he said was, ".....Let's just say that Zach found a toy."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:12 AM on March 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


Oh, and I don't think I've ever told the story of how I got Zach: I got Zach because an ex-boyfriend was trying to sell a motorcycle.

....That really is the entire story.

No, really. The only other detail I have is: that boyfriend and I had had an initial conversation about "maybe we could adopt a cat sometime", and two days later he had an appointment to show someone a motorcycle he was trying to sell. He left to show her the bike....and came back an hour later, still with the bike, but also with a cat. "Uh....what happened here?"

"Oh, she didn't want the bike, but then she mentioned she had a cat her old roommate left behind that she was trying to find a home for so I just said 'I'll take it'. Because we talked about maybe getting a cat."

So...he failed to sell a motorcycle, and ended up with a cat. See, that really is the entire story.

That relationship blew up about 3 months later; we were having a lot of problems (the conversation about "what to name this cat" was a volatile 2-hour argument). I basically kicked him out, and kept Zach. And Zach stayed with me another 16 years.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:38 AM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


We have two cats and two guinea pigs.

Finnegan is my sweet little buddy. He is a lovebug, my almost-constant companion. He is the cat I've always wanted, and I already dread the day he passes away. My heart will be shattered.

His sister Molly is a sassypants. He is small, but has an enormous personality. She likes scritches and prefers to be the center of attention. She likes everyone, but my husband is her favorite.

We've had a succession of guinea pigs -- our current little critters, Sebastian and Max, are best buddies, and delightful little critters. They enjoy cuddles, cross-species friendship, and even allow us to dress them in outfits.
posted by sarcasticah at 11:23 AM on March 18, 2019 [6 favorites]


we have been so fortunate this past 9 years to live with two of the sweetest, most affectionate cats I have ever know. they are also both very beautiful.

Herbert is a goofy bubba of a kitty, he loves tummy rubs and all the food. he sleeps in my arms like a teddy bear at night.

Bellatrix is smart, agile and a very good communicator. she loves tummy rubs and butt scratchies and likes to zoom around like she's seen a ghost.

this is an awesome post!
posted by supermedusa at 12:24 PM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


sarcasticah, I used to nanny for a family with several cats and a guinea pig. The mother would warn her daughter to close the door to the room where the guinea pig, Skittles, lived because the cats were a threat. She always said the same thing: "Close that door or it's curtains for Skittles."
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:34 PM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


The piggies have a nice sturdy lid on their cage, so they are safe from kitties. Our previous cat, Smoke, was so good with the pigs that we didn't even need to have a lid on the cage. Molly, especially, is a leeeetle too curious about them for us to risk that now.

(Finnegan actually got into the cage once! My husband had been pig-cuddling, and had put one pig back in the cage, and went to get a drink or something before picking up the other pig, and had absently left the cage lid open. I didn't realize it was open, and left the room to go to the bathroom. I heard my husband yelp when he went back into the living room -- he walked in to find Finn sitting in the cage, happily watching his little piggy friends, who were unconcernedly munching on hay. They weren't freaked out at all, and Finn wasn't in there to hurt them -- he saw that the cage was open and decided to hop in for a visit!
posted by sarcasticah at 12:40 PM on March 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


This picture may look like a bunny running away from a dog opening wide for a snack, but in reality the dog was just waking up from a nap and yawning. They are good friends.

The bunny is a Jersey Wooly we got for my daughter about eight years ago. He has a very cat-like temperament in that he will hop up on your lap and start nudging your hand if he wants attention, and he will go off and chill under the coffee table if he does not. You can let him out a lot since he doesn't chew on furniture (but yes hide all the wires/cables/shoelaces).

He's pretty chill but can take off quickly (see last second of video).
posted by mikepop at 1:13 PM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


I don't think the "future" part was serious but I'm going to pretend it was so I can contribute. It's been three months now of carefully looking for a young puppy of a breed mix suitable for our lifestyle, and it's proving quite difficult both time-wise and emotionally. (While I would also love to adopt an older puppy or adult, which would be considerably easier to find, it's not an option at this time for Reasons).

For now we are sticking to rescues/SPCA, which around here have very limited availability and very high competition for puppies. All of the reputable breeders in our area that I've found so far have very long waitlists and we would prefer to have a mixed-breed anyway. The craigslist option is starting to look tempting but "free to a good home" isn't a thing around here and I don't want to unknowingly give money to a backyard breeder or puppy mill. Even a genuine oops litter I'm cautious about given that the going rate here even for mutt puppies with zero vet care is in the mid to high hundreds (sometimes higher!! it's insane), which doesn't exactly encourage responsible pet ownership. I would also strongly prefer to give the money to a rescue organization rather than a less than responsible pet owner. So, frustrating, but trying to be patient.

Venting aside, we have an ongoing application that is looking tentatively promising and I am very very excited to be so close to getting my first dog ever, after almost 3 decades of wanting one but not being in a good enough life place for it. :)
posted by randomnity at 1:20 PM on March 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


Today is Murphy's eleventh birthday. His rival sibling (from another species) is jealous at all the extra birthday attention he's not been getting.
posted by misteraitch at 2:34 PM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


I had the best dog in the world and the worst cat in the world when growing up. Yet somehow this made me a cat person and I've had cats ever since. Maybe I like a challenge.

The dog was so smart, I don't even recall that we deliberately trained it. (For sure, my parents never trained subsequent dogs at all and they were terrors.) I think it trained itself. Walked perfectly on a leash. Could sit and fetch and roll over and lie down on command. Didn't jump or bite or bark at people. Loved children. Good with other dogs and cats. We even had a bird and pet rats later and he was gentle with them too.

The cat on the other hand would lie in wait behind doors or furniture and attack your ankles. Didn't like being touched. Would just bite you randomly. My brother got scratched in the forehead for sitting down on the same sofa once. I think it had a personality disorder.

My current cat, on the other hand, is lovely.
posted by lollusc at 2:40 PM on March 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


When I moved to my current job, I adopted two siblings, Victoria and Disraeli. The former (who was all-time Best Cat) was appropriately named, but the latter lacked statesmanlike qualities. Vicki had Opinions about all sorts of things and some very specific vocalizations to go along with them--she had one meow that meant not "I want you to feed me" but, rather, "This is the official announcement that I am going downstairs to my food bowl." She also liked to give hugs. Her brother, meanwhile, would camp out in my office and stare at me until I noticed his presence.

After both of their deaths, I decided I wanted to adopt a pair of adults. Instead of adopting a pair of adults, I wound up with a litter of three kittens, which just goes to show that best-laid plans do not have anything to do with cats. In any event, I now share a house with Allan Armadale, Ozias Midwinter, and Lydia Gwilt. Allan, who is very dominant and very dumb, has one talent, which is turning on water faucets. His brother Ozias, who seems to be concerned that I will float to the ceiling if he isn't on my lap at all times, has the most bizarre meow I've ever heard--a long trill ending in a high-pitched squeal. ("Why does your cat crow like a rooster?" inquired my father, in some bemusement.) And Lydia likes being cradled in one arm like a baby, which is very cute but not compatible with typing (which is, of course, part of the point).
posted by thomas j wise at 2:27 AM on March 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


The ridiculous cats continue to be ridiculous. Pepper follows me upstairs when I go to bed and then winds around my legs/jumps on the bed and chirp-meows until I get in it, at which point she alternates between demanding I scratch her head or scratch her at the base of the tail. Repeatedly. She then biscuits the bed and goes to sleep. The headscratch/butt scratch demands apparently restart when t'hb comes to bed and she will walk over me to demand them. Jess gets on the bed at some point after the initial round of this and then wedges herself into my armpit. Once we're both in bed, she sleeps between us like a tiny, furry sword of virtue.

My first and much loved kitty was a female tuxedo so I am unsurprised that I am now owned by more female tuxies. The cats in between technically belonged to my siblings and were a pair of tabby brothers - we had one till he was 11 and the other, my elderly old man cat, until he was 17.
posted by halcyonday at 4:34 AM on March 19, 2019 [4 favorites]


I keep a private insta, so no cat tax here. Sorry! I have enjoyed looking at all the super good friends here.

Both my cats are enormous: one, an 18.5 lb. Maine Coon mix with a tail like an ostrich feather and the sweetest, dumbest personality of all time - his foster name was Fabio "because he was such a lover" per his Petfinder profile. He has what I like to call pantaloons in the back and all black paws. As a teen he had short fur but his tail was precocious. You could see that his tummy was all spots, and he liked to sleep upside down with stretchy paws on the cool metal topped kitchen table in the substandard air conditioning of a Louisiana fall.

Our newer beast I have described elsewhere on this site as a wrinkly leather bag with claws. He's a Sphynx and we love him very much. What a creature! He takes regular meds for a skin ailment, an autoimmune problem, which has led me to reflect on the depths of human awfulness, we have bred these poor mutant nudes for our own amusement and to their detriment. Sorry buddy. He's a loving, demanding, loud, dirty, disgusting mess of a creature with a strong resemblance to Dobby the House Elf and blackheads in his tail.

They sleep curled in a ball of fur/no fur and together shower our household in cat litter and good feeling. My young child mauls them and they tolerate it, they walk on all counters and just last night the nude licked whipped cream off my cake plate while I wasn't looking, he has acculturated me to having him in my lap after dinner. I wanted a second slice of cake so I pretended a quick wipe with a tissue was sufficient...
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:04 AM on March 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


This is Sally. We got her when she was seven or eight from a nearby shelter. She's now ten. This is the first dog, and the first pet, I've ever had, and I honestly wasn't prepared for how fiercely I love her. She's a good girl, despite having zero chill around any food of any kind.
posted by Ragged Richard at 9:07 AM on March 19, 2019 [6 favorites]


OMG I love everyone's furbabies.

I'm pretty much a dog person. Until we got Simon in 2006. Pre Simon, I hated cats and thought they were utterly useless. Then I saw Simon in the window, to be adopted. I never, ever thought I could love a cat, but Simon was just a big ol brown mackerel tabby that was utterly unflappable and cool. He had a pink triangle for a nose, and was in my lap the second I sat down. He would crawl up on my shoulder and look behind me. He'd stay there as long as I'd let him. He had green eyes that had tiny slits for pupils in the sun. I loved that cat as hard as I could for 12 years. We lost him a year ago, and I still miss him terribly. I never, ever thought I would remotely entertain getting another big ol brown tabby. As soon as we settle this summer I might - just might start looking for one.
posted by yoga at 3:00 PM on March 19, 2019 [3 favorites]


Ooh! Show n tell! Cookie is a fluffy calico who tells us everything. She was a former feral, and she's still very Unsure about people coming into the house. She's five as of last August.

Josie is the baby, and he was found at my husband's workplace in the parking lot, scrounging for food. He runs when I break out the trash bags, so I have Suspicions that he was thrown away. He will be two this year next month. He is the most catlike of all our cats, as he adores boxes and goes nuts over grass.

Jazz is the old lady of the house, being ten as of last September. She's a bottle baby, since I got her at barely three weeks and expects mama to be a PROPER CAT and sleep with her all the time. I am not a proper cat and that distresses her muchly.
posted by tlwright at 4:45 PM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


I like cats, and refuse to have a favourite of the many over the last half-century. Guess the current favourite would be the neighbour's cat, Milo, who prefers me to his owner.

+ + + + +

It is the day.

At 9:58pm UT today, the sun will appear to cross the (celestial) equator from south to north, signalling the (to some: vernal) equinox (terminology may vary). In the northern hemisphere, daylight will (sort of)(it's complicated) exceed night time, with the reverse in the southern. Where will the sun be? The date changes from year to year; this year it coincides with a full moon which may appear large. The day is also Ostara on the Wheel of the Year, resulting in gatherings at Avebury, Beltony, Castlerigg, Stonehenge, and other circles, monuments and ancient buildings, and through other cultures, whatever the weather.

Wishing a splendid astronomical spring (nh) / autumn (sh) to all MeFites.
posted by Wordshore at 4:46 AM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]


This is Triceratops. I love her the most.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:16 AM on March 20, 2019 [5 favorites]


I’m on the bus again! An interesting bus-related question is whether it’s preferable to listen to screaming toddlers or to Baby Shark on repeat. (Note: I am not complaining. Toddlers exist, and they’re not responsible for their terrible taste in music. But I think this ear worm may be lodged in my head for the rest of my life.)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:01 AM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


I don't have any online pics but I have a new gray tabby with white feet named Waffles and he is already the sweetest cat I've ever owned. Gentle, extremely cuddly, and hilariously playful. He had a little trouble learning to be an indoor kitty but has mostly adjusted. Though he's sweet enough I am considering trying a leash and walks.

When I first got him he didn't seem to know how to play or chase things but now he's already destroyed one toy and this week taught himself to fish qtips out of the trash. It's like he's learning to cat as I watch.
posted by emjaybee at 6:45 AM on March 21, 2019 [6 favorites]


In case anyone is looking for some recommendations... My cats are crazy for these little wool balls . They're soft, so when you step on them in the middle of the night it doesn't hurt, and there's also no scent when you first get them, which is nice. But if your cat likes to fetch, or you want your cat to like to fetch, I recommend them. They're my idea of a perfect cat toy: simple and durable, and actually fun for both of us.

Further, I've tried them all, and this is my pick for the best-designed cat brush, and this is the best-ever way to pick up the hair all over your house. In combination, that brush and the lint-roller alternative are a total game changer for me.
posted by heyho at 3:52 PM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've posted my dog in pet posts before, but this is the first time since we lost him to cancer at the end of January. He had so many struggles--he was super reactive at first, and a resource guarder, and had at least two and maybe even three types of cancer--all in less than 10 years (and we only had him for 7 of those). But he tried so hard to be a good boy and made so much progress: he made dog friends, lived through his first cancer, never really figured out sharing. He loved to swim more than anything, and loved snacks. I miss him everyday.
posted by snaw at 5:07 AM on March 22, 2019 [8 favorites]


Hello,

I would just like to report that I made a super-asinine jokey comment in another thread. Then I flagged my own (REALLY STUPID) pun as fantastic.
posted by duffell at 12:41 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


anyway

good day
posted by duffell at 12:41 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


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