What pets do you have? Feel free to post pics!

[Chris]

Portraits taken at the school. I'll still need to scan class photo to show all the guide dogs in the class.

[Poppylicious]

They are lovely pictures, Chris!  Yay! for graduating! 

[boswife]

this is so beautiful to see.  It is one of lifes most beautiful things to see is a guide( or other service) dog working and being a well trained team. Its so nice to see this happening for you...

[MaryJoe]

Really, really great pictures, Chris!  You 2 are going to be best friends and a good team.

[cassandra]

lovely Chris!

Take care Cas

[galvo]

Good on ya, Chris! Whitley looks a beauty.

[jbeany]

Well, I was planning a calm day at home, sick with a stuffy head.  I was half-reading, half-dozing on my bed when my two little furry demons began making an amount of noise that usually ends with them having a knock-down sibling brawl.  They were thumping up and down the hall, and all over the house.  I sat up enough to holler at them, and then realized that one of the squeaky noises I was hearing was clearly not a cat.  Oooops.

Okay, I haven't seen any mice sign yet in this old house, but I've only been here when the weather was nice, so I figured the kids had found themselves a little shrew.  The squeak didn't have quite the same pitch as the field and house mice my last cat used to play with in my old trailer.  Those made a particularly odd little squeak when they were dumb enough for her to grab them and dump them in the bathtub for her entertainment.  Shrews are so vicious though, they stand their ground and try to fight back, hollering like viking berserkers.  That's what this sounded like.  So I grabbed the broom from the kitchen and went to the living room where the commotion was at.

Nope, not a shrew.  Not unless they have started breeding them with wings and feathers.  Well crap!  How did that get in here?

I grabbed both cats and locked them in the bathroom, which was quite the production.  Two hyper, half-grown cats, trying to slide out of my arms and then past the bathroom door.  It always amazes me how their bones can turn to liquid when they want to slide away.  The only thing that aided me was the bird, which had gone on the attack when I got there, and had actually gotten a hold on Dora's whiskers and was swinging from them as she shook her head and backed away.  Like I said, Viking berserker.

The poor bird wasn't flying well by the time I got there.  I don't know if it was when they found it.  There were some substantial feathers on the carpet.  When I went back to get it after successfully corralling the cats, the bird tried to escape into the cold air sink in the floor by squeezing through the wood grating.  It got stuck, and I simply picked up the grating and carried it to the door.  It half fluttered away and lodged in the neighbor's rose bush.    I hope it can still fly, but hopefully the thorns from the bush should protect it until it gets its poor head back on straight.

I think it must have come down the old chimney, and then got stuck inside the furnace pipes.  I turned the furnace on this morning for a bit to get the damp from the rain out of the house.  The heat flow must have forced it to move upstairs away from the furnace.  It probably saw the light through the cold air grates and squeezed out into the living room or office - the only two rooms with wide set openings on the cold air returns.   Guess I better add chimney cap to my list of repairs.   

[Chris]

Thanks, if I could I would post video of her from my phone. I can only do that on Facebook tho and not on YouTube

[jbeany]

I was reading.  I heard thumping in the kitchen but didn't get up.  This is what I found when I went out to get a glass of water.

Now, if I can just train them to pour it in their dish.

[Clara]

My husband had a dog when I started dating him.  I am now the Momma ;) I love her to pieces.  She is now going on fourteen years old and has athritis and stomach ulcer issues along with some blindness and deafness now.  I also love cats but my husband says "Dogs rule, cats drool".  :( no cats.

[Chris]

jbeany, just put a dish in there or by the door.....
 
Clara, apparently he hasn't had the usual dog who drools.....
 
I took Whitley on a sailboat today. She was raised to go on kyack's from her puppy raiser, then we watchewd the Blue Angels practice and looked at a couple naval vessels that came to Chicago.

[Clara]

Oh no, she drools.  He just wipes it off for her...lol.  He has spoiled her rotten.  He just doesn't like the independant nature of the cat who only does what they want to do when they want to do it.  I like cats better.  I can't help to love the dog too

[Chris]

Gotta raise a cat from a kitten like a dog I guess. Our male cat acts more like a dog and loves attention, sometimes to much...lol Licks up water as loud as a dog too...lol

[jbeany]

Cats can be just as affectionate as dogs - they just want to cuddle on their own schedule, not yours! 

[RichardMEL]

kitkatz - what a beautiful cat ou had. As others have said you can just tell he was loving in his own special way... he will be missed.. some gorgeous pictures there....

and as one door, painfully (but lovingly) closes, another opens with poppy (and bloke's) new kitten so the cycle of love and support continues....

Chris your dog looks very sweet and a great bond is obviously forming and that's really wonderful.

[kitkatz]

I am waiting for the universe to bring me another cat.

[Rerun]

I am waiting for the universe to bring me another cat.

It won't be long.     

[CebuShan]

I am waiting for the universe to bring me another cat.

It won't be long.     

If you are like me, there's an invisible sign on the road saying, "Strays. stop here!   

[Sweet Blood]

a beautiful black cat named Tabitha

[Clara]

I had a kitten that chose me.  His name was Pouncer.  I will try to find a pic of him.  He would nap with me anytime I laid down.  He greeted me everytime I came home.  He used to steal my hairbands and carry them around meowing.  He would wake me up in the middle of the night to bring me a hairband.  The turkey would climb into the bathroom cabinet and reach up into the drawer from inside to get them out.

I loved him to pieces.  When he was about four years old, he began having unstoppable seizures.  After a week in the vet hospital, we thought the meds would control them.  It didn't.  I ended up putting him down on Halloween.  One of the hardest things I have ever done.

[MaryD]

a beautiful black cat named Tabitha

Ed the Magnificent, Prince of Darkness and Emperor of All He Surveys would like to meet Tabitha

[RichardMEL]

I had a kitten that chose me.  His name was Pouncer.  I will try to find a pic of him.  He would nap with me anytime I laid down.  He greeted me everytime I came home.  He used to steal my hairbands and carry them around meowing.  He would wake me up in the middle of the night to bring me a hairband.  The turkey would climb into the bathroom cabinet and reach up into the drawer from inside to get them out.

I loved him to pieces.  When he was about four years old, he began having unstoppable seizures.  After a week in the vet hospital, we thought the meds would control them.  It didn't.  I ended up putting him down on Halloween.  One of the hardest things I have ever done.

*hugs* I'm so sorry my little ladyis curled up on the bed right next to me and I will give her a big cuddle with thoughts of your Pouncer. What a sweet adorable kitty he obviously was with such a strong attachment to you (and your hairbands-because of course they smell of you!)

[Sweet Blood]

a beautiful black cat named Tabitha

Ed the Magnificent, Prince of Darkness and Emperor of All He Surveys would like to meet Tabitha

Tabitha would like to meet him to.

[Bill Peckham]

I had to say good bye to Cairny last month, they think it was his kidneys. He stopped eating and then drinking. It was all pretty terrible. That's him in my  avatar photoshopped with the 'gator, not sure if I'll change it - it is still a good idea to think about what will happen after you achieve your goal.


I still miss Cairny everyday but I have to have a dog and I like Australian Shepherds so much that ... well meet Banjo. He was seven weeks old yesterday. He has already been to work on Thursday and Friday. Productivity has taken a hit.

[jbeany]

Productivity has taken a hit.

I bet!  He's darling.  So sorry about Cairny.  I love my two new fur-babies, but I still miss my Fuzz-butt.  Dora and Murphy have filled the empty space in my house, but no matter how much I love them, they can't fill that hole in my heart that held my girl for 12 years.

I'm also missing the space in my bed.  Fizzie was a mere 7-1/2 pounds, full grown with a middle-aged pot belly.  The twins are already 8-1/2 and 9-1/2 pounds at 7 months.  I saw their slender, delicate Russian Blue mother, and was assuming their father was a black and white street cat, since they certainly didn't get their mom's coloring.  I'm starting to wonder if their grandfather was Maine Coon, though.