Sleepy!

[sherarara]

I haven't slept well this entire week. I have to spend another long day at the office tomorrow, neck deep in giving a makeup final, followed by a rather intense meeting that I'd rather not attend. Alack.

Well, at least Dalek is sleeping. Not just sleeping, actually, but stretched out and snoring!

Comments

[raynedanser]

Ok. I know WHAT a Dalek is, but in this case... Who is it? :D

[sherarara]

Oh, sorry!

He is mah kitteh: http://pics.livejournal.com/sherarara/gallery/00020f95

His name was Derek when we adopted him from my boyfriend's coworker's uncle (if you can parse that relationship!!), but I've got two friends with that name, so it had to be changed. Dalek was a convenient appellation :)

[raynedanser]

Oh he's so pretty! Erm. Handsome. *g* These are my critters. Such fun!

[sherarara]

Eh, he doesn't mind be called pretty. ;)

Oh, man, your dog Cassie is BEAUTIFUL! Is she a pit? (I'm really terrible at identifying breeds that aren't immediately recognizable from cartoons!)

[raynedanser]

Yeah, she was. Well, we think. She was a rescue. As far as we and the vet could ever tell, she was supposed to be half pitt and half english mastiff.

[sherarara]

Oh, sorry about my tense fail :( But my statement stands; she's just gorgeous.

My Doberman Max (oh, the creativity and originality of ten year olds!) was a rescue, too. No one would take the poor dear because of his breed. Seriously, he was the sweetest, most gentle dog I've ever met.

[raynedanser]

Oh, sorry about my tense fail :( But my statement stands; she's just gorgeous.

Quite all right. It was fairly recent and we still slip frequently, too.

Cassie's problems were just owner stupidity. The woman that owned her mother couldn't be bothered with puppies and forced them all to be placed at four weeks. (argh) Then one of the SIL's (the nutty one I recently ranted about) had her and just is dog-clueless, so we took her at 9 months and had a LOT of behavioral garbage to fix.

I love Dobie's. The parents of one of my high school girlfriends had 2 while we were growing up. Now they have Rotties. :D

[sherarara]

Ugh. I hate stupid pet owners! The people who Max ran away from (he was a stray at the pound), must have beat him with various things in order to "toughen him up" or something. We got him when he was about a year or two old, and for the rest of his life, he was absolutely terrified of hoses, tools (especially rakes), newspapers, and various other items :(

My boyfriend's dad had a ZOMGGIANT rott until about a year ago. I was so scared of that beast! They kept telling me that he was a nice and wonderful dog, but I was afraid of dogs until we got Max, and Huxley brought out the terrified twos in me all over again.

[raynedanser]

Stupid pet owners (where out of malice or stupidity) are a HUGE pet peeve of mine (erm, no pun intended). The SIL meant well, she just doesn't have a clue and when she would ask me for advice, she'd disregard it if it wasn't convenient enough. In other words, LAZY. (I'm no expert, but during my first year of college, I worked at a boarding kennel and my second year, at a vet's office, plus we've had dogs for almost 20 years now)

The neighbors that have the Rotts adore my son and the first time he saw the dogs at Halloween a few years ago, they couldn't believe he just walked in, got on the floor and fearlessly played with them like he would ANY friendly dog. When they mentioned it, I told them I had taught him to respect all dogs, not to fear any, regardless of breed.

[sherarara]

Sorry, I didn't mean your SIL, but rather the breeder, though I freely admit that I am extraordinarily biased against the practice of dog breeding. My boyfriend is a kennel tech at a local vet, and he gets to see the hazards of stupid pet owners all the time, so I sometimes let my fingers get away from my brain and just post whatever splashes out.

Awwww, I bet that was adorable!! I was afraid of all dogs after I got knocked over when I was a toddler (or so my parents tell me). I don't think my negative reaction to Huxley was because of his breed (since, well, we had a Doberman), but rather just because of his size.

I feel pretty bad about being afraid of any dog, really. Makes me a bad!vegan :(

[raynedanser]

No, it's ok. The SIL is definitely stupid, too. Cassie's litter was an accident, which is even more... pissworthy? lol I try not to be too biased against breeders. There's a lot that are careful and into it for the sake of the breed rather than the glory and the money, but there's so many MORE out there that are unscrupilous, too.

[sherarara]

Well, most of the reasons that I abhor animal breeding tie into my reasons for being a vegan. My biggest reason is that buying = not adopting, which then causes even more animals to be killed at shelters. I'm also against the very principal of it, since breeders are looking to select for certain traits, which is often done by inbreeding, which in turn leaves you with breed specific diseases. My dog Rex, for instance, was a big collie and had hip dysplasia. I'm just pissed off by the breeding standards, I guess. How does a docked tail or ears help a Doberman?

Bleh.

Sorry. The topic gets me all riled up. I know I'm a bit overzealous about it!

[raynedanser]

No, perfectly understandable. Don't apologize. ;-)

There are rare cases for tail docking - like the mastiffs, etc - but only because they're so strong and have such a high pain tolerance that it isn't uncommon for them to beat their tails against walls, etc until it's a bloody, painful pulp (I've seen it done), but otherwise? With the smaller dogs like Dobies? It's all cosmetic, especially the ears and pisses me off no end (that's right up there with declawing cattens).

[sherarara]

Oh, ok :) I think I'm overly apologetic right now because of yesterday's comm wank.

Declawing teh kittehz is sad. It makes me really sad when they've got all four paws clipped and can't even scratch their ears :(

[sherarara]

Also, this kitty pic is fantastic XD

[raynedanser]

Misty is new to us. I went on a Flickr photography group meetup that was pretty remote and she followed us everywhere. It was bitter cold that day (7 with the windchill) and given the time of year, I brought her home with me. ;-) That was her hiding place until she felt a little more confident.