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UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 19 2009 09:03 am

I'm doing the responsible thing by listening to Bob Barker...my 6-month old kittycat is getting spayed today. Unfortunately, the mass of sugar I had to have to stay up, plus the slight worry over those waivers that I had to sign saying, "there's like a .001% chance, but your cat may DIE DIE DIE!", are keeping me from sleeping.

So, I figured I'll ask some questions of the general board.

1) Do you have any pets, and if yes, how old?

2) How do you feel about your pets? Can you not live without your little snuzziebuggums? Do you wish you could drop that yapping thing out of a plane?

3) Do you feel that people who dress their pets up and/or take them everywhere they go need to be beaten with a barbed wire baseball bat for 10 minutes straight? (yes, this is a leading question, but I consider you all hostile witnesses, so it's allowed).

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

1. I had a dog when I was younger. From when I was born to when I was 14. I plan to get another one when I buy a house.

2. I loved my pet like a family member. She was a wonderful, but I never talked to her like she was a fuzzy doll. I never once wished her dead. She was protective of our family, but when we weren't threatened she was very open and kind to other people.

3. Yes. Pretty much. Beat them.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 02:28 pm

1. I have three male cats. I have one that is ten, one that is six, and one that is less than a year old.

2. Earlier this year I spent $2000 trying to save my other cat that had liver failure. Unfortunately they were not successful and she had to be put down which devestated me. On top of that my six year old cat just needed $1000 dental surgery for a severe tooth infection. So yeah, I definitely love my cats like family and would never allow any harm to come to them as long as I have a say in it.

3. Definitely. As much as people want to treat their pets like little human beings its ridiculous to think they enjoy wearing cute little outfits. Anytime I have ever seen a pet wearing clothes it either looks pissed or depressed.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 06:11 pm

1) I have three cats, all of them were strays or were living in bad homes (and we stole them). I think I've explained all that before so I won't go through it again. I used to have a really nice rat but he died a long time ago.

2) I like them except when the puke or poop on the floor.

3) Yes, have you seen how sad those pets look?

Posted: Apr 19 2009 07:05 pm

I've had two cats but one succomed to feline lukemia. The remaining cat is about seven years old now.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 19 2009 07:15 pm

Well, my cat is sucessfully spayed. And on more drugs than (insert celebrity here) at Mardi Gras, so it's kind of funny watching her amble around her cat carrier.

The reason I bothered to ask "Do you like your pet", by the way, is because some people are stuck with a pet they don't want to have. It belongs to a relative or something. Myself, I like my cat.

I honestly don't think I would drop a thousand bucks on trying to save a cat, regardless of how much I liked it. To me, it's still just an animal.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 07:50 pm

UsaSatsui wrote:

I honestly don't think I would drop a thousand bucks on trying to save a cat, regardless of how much I liked it. To me, it's still just an animal.

I hate thinking about if any of my pets ever got really sick because I just don't have the money to take care of them. I don't even take my cats to the vet regularly.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 08:15 pm

I wish I still had a pet. The last two puppies I owned died of Parvo. They say that it can stay around for years so I'm not even going to try and get a new dog soon. I did have a cat named Leopold. I had him for about five years then one day I was driving home and I found him on the side of the road about a mile from our house, dead. I drove back to get his body so he could at least be buried here. I miss my pets.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 19 2009 08:18 pm

I take my pets to the vet when they're sick. And while I'd probably spend a couple hundred on making a pet better, I wouldn't be willing to drop the kind of money Jack did. I just don't have it.

Actually, when I had a rabbit, I would take it to the vet for nail trimmings. I was always afraid of screwing that one up, or of breaking a leg or something while trying to hold it still.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 08:19 pm

Sounds reasonable. I'd pay the money to rescue my pets if I had the money. I'm too sentimental to let them suffer. Even though they're just animals I feel like I'm letting them down when I can't afford to properly help them.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:18 pm

I've had my babies for over thirteen years now:

Tornat (named for an Eskimo bird-god)

And Emmitt (named for Emmitt Smith).

I love my birdies Very Happy

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:27 pm

They're really cute. How young can you get birds like that? I heard that birds like that can sometimes outlive their owners. Or am I thinking about Cockatiels?

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:32 pm

No, those ARE cockatiels Very Happy

. The pics make them look kind of big, but they are small enough to sit on your finger. They live to be about 30, usually, so they're about middle aged (I got them when they were about a year old.) I think you can take them away from their moms as early as three months, but its not ideal for them, and makes the mom sad too. Usually six to seven months is the rule.

The guys you were thinking of that outlive people are cockatoos, who routeenly live to be 80-120 years old Very Happy

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:34 pm

Ah, I see. The only bird I've ever raised was a pet chicken named Char. We released into our yard and became wild. Chickens can be good pets too surprisngly. It wouldn't perch on my hand like a chubby bird-of-prey.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

I know that a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but this is how I feel with regards to pets.

If you get a pet, you are taking the life of a living being under your control. For as long as it is within ones means, the pet's health and happiness should be considered a top priority. It shouldn't matter if the cost is $10 or $50,000 to fix a pet, if life expectancy and quality would be improved by a procedure, it should be done if the money is available.

The alternative is for pet owners not to be pet owners in the first place. Animals are living beings and when a person owns them, they should be treated like living beings, not like objects.

Since this example is sure to arise, if a pet has a terminal illness, then I wouldn't think the owner should perform numerous surgeries to keep it alive just a few months longer. However, if a pet broke its leg or something like that and needed surgery to fix it, yeah... pony up the cash if you have it, don't kill the animal because it just got expensive.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:46 pm

Actually GP, I agree completely.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:47 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

I know that a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but this is how I feel with regards to pets.

If you get a pet, you are taking the life of a living being under your control. For as long as it is within ones means, the pet's health and happiness should be considered a top priority. It shouldn't matter if the cost is $10 or $50,000 to fix a pet, if life expectancy and quality would be improved by a procedure, it should be done if the money is available.

The alternative is for pet owners not to be pet owners in the first place. Animals are living beings and when a person owns them, they should be treated like living beings, not like objects.

Since this example is sure to arise, if a pet has a terminal illness, then I wouldn't think the owner should perform numerous surgeries to keep it alive just a few months longer. However, if a pet broke its leg or something like that and needed surgery to fix it, yeah... pony up the cash if you have it, don't kill the animal because it just got expensive.

i agree with this. which is why i dont have a pet these days.

Posted: Apr 19 2009 11:52 pm

I agree as well. When I was younger I wish I had the money to save my dog. I really miss him.

2011 SNES Champ Joined: Dec 04 2006 Posts: 1929

My sister has a rabbit and a guinea pig. They start to smell a lot if you don't clean their cages for a while, but I'm not the one who has to do it so I don't mind.

Both are females, the rabbit is about 2 years old and the guinea pig is about 1 year old.

I'd like to have a dog, but we don't have enough space, and I don't want to make it feel cramped. People around here would probably bitch about it anyway. They complained about us having a rabbit, even though it's almost always inside, and most of them have cats that go shit everywhere.

Well, it's still better than when they tried to steal people's tires.

Posted: Apr 20 2009 12:14 am

1. I had one dog. However, I wasn't allowed to play with her; she was kept in a cage in the backyard, and I was never allowed to let her out. Eventually she just died of old age, and my stepdad threw her body in a ditch. Proper funeral, eh? Sad

2. I really wish I had another pet.

3. Take them everywhere? Of course not; pets provide a kind of companionship that should be cherished. Clothes, though? Ehhh...I don't know...

Posted: Apr 20 2009 12:23 am

UsaSatsui wrote:

I'm doing the responsible thing by listening to Bob Barker...my 6-month old kittycat is getting spayed today. Unfortunately, the mass of sugar I had to have to stay up, plus the slight worry over those waivers that I had to sign saying, "there's like a .001% chance, but your cat may DIE DIE DIE!", are keeping me from sleeping.

So, I figured I'll ask some questions of the general board.

1) Do you have any pets, and if yes, how old?

2) How do you feel about your pets? Can you not live without your little snuzziebuggums? Do you wish you could drop that yapping thing out of a plane?

3) Do you feel that people who dress their pets up and/or take them everywhere they go need to be beaten with a barbed wire baseball bat for 10 minutes straight? (yes, this is a leading question, but I consider you all hostile witnesses, so it's allowed).

1. Yes, I have three pets currently. A baby shark, a bearded dragon, and a cat. The cat is Middle Aged, I got here a while ago, and I don't remember when she was born. The Bearded Dragon has the same story as the cat, but the lizard is male, I'd say a few years old. The baby shark is a few months.

2. All of them are laid back, but I could live without them, but I wouldn't if I had a choice. I would never drop them out of a plane.

3. Heh, not beat them with a barbed wire baseball bat for 10 minutes, I'd shove it right up there ass.

Posted: Apr 20 2009 01:14 am

1) My cats Gypsy (8 years), Scooter (maybe 10 or 11), Houdini and Cal (siblings at less than a year old), Skipper and Blaze (around 2-3 years I think) and Ming the dog (at least a decade old). However, I'd say I've owned more than 20 cats across my lifetime.

2) Gypsy is the cat that trusts me the most (kind of antisocial and hides out in my room from the others), Houdini and Cal are the darlings since we raised them from 8 days old, Skipper's a pain to get a hold of and Blaze doesn't trust me due to trying to chase her for some people interested in either her or her sister (they took the sister because I managed to catch her). Ming is indifferent to me.

3) I hate this practice, even, if not especially if it's some little girl treating the family cat like a babydoll. The people who get little dogs like chihuahuas to serve as nothing more than animate brooches for their Gucci bags make me retch.

Posted: Apr 20 2009 09:58 am

GPFontaine wrote:

Since this example is sure to arise, if a pet has a terminal illness, then I wouldn't think the owner should perform numerous surgeries to keep it alive just a few months longer. However, if a pet broke its leg or something like that and needed surgery to fix it, yeah... pony up the cash if you have it, don't kill the animal because it just got expensive.

I completely agree here. I am in debt for the vet bills I mentioned earlier. I didn't have the money to pay them directly, so I had to use my credit card which I will probably be paying off the remainder of the year. I love my every one of my pets, and when you truly love someone you will do anything for them regardless of cost. I would have been more than willing to sell off my favorite possessions if I needed to in order to save them.

Posted: Apr 20 2009 02:39 pm

haha Jack, I love how you say all this and your official title is 'cold hearted bastard' Razz

I have one dog, a chihuahua/shih tzu/yorkie named Nazzy. He's good at math, but lazy and has gross teeth *rim shot*. I've also had a pet squirrel, who died of rodent disease, and various fish, most of whom last around 5 years.

Nazzy can get pretty annoying, as you could imagine, but he's r eally sweet, and it's always great to come home to him running at you. He's more my sister's dog than anything, and I'm almost kinda sad to say I wouldn't be too broke up if he passed away.

Nazzy used to have a hoody, which was pretty badass, but he grew out of it.

I personally don't think I'll ever own another dog, as I really can't deal with death that well, and can't stand seeing other deal with it.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 20 2009 03:43 pm

Quote:

Since this example is sure to arise, if a pet has a terminal illness, then I wouldn't think the owner should perform numerous surgeries to keep it alive just a few months longer. However, if a pet broke its leg or something like that and needed surgery to fix it, yeah... pony up the cash if you have it, don't kill the animal because it just got expensive.

If you have the money to get the animal healthy, then yes, do it. I would not go into serious debt, however, to save an animal, and if an animal were going to be a serious financial burden on me, I would get rid of it no matter how much I loved it.

I believe people place far too much value on the life of a pet, as cold as that sounds. Yes, I love my cat, but there's a limit. I've known some people who have gotten into serious trouble because they placed their cat as a higher priority than themselves or over other people. I've been in situations myself where I had to choose between my cats and something important myself (I chose the cats. It just made it even harder when I was forced to give them up 3 months later anyways. Today I would not make the same decision, though it wouldn't be any easier).