Post your pet :)

[StN]

Thank you for sharing your friend with us Kryten.

[Brave Warrior]

[Kryten]

From the "what the fuck have I done" department, Tonka (10) is currently at the vet being assessed for a possible stroke. This fucking week.

[Ab]

hang in there mate

[chiQ]

Sending warm fuzzies at you, dude. Hoping for the best.

[chiquelet]

Beautiful eulogy, Kryten.

Best of luck for Tonka, I hope it works out ok.

[chiQ]

OMG!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l_s-MiNosU

There's nothing quite like a recently vacated, warm armchair for uniting arch enemies in uneasy snuggliness.

[chiquelet]

Yay, a bunny+cat video! Everybody loves some interspecies...tolerance, ha ha.

[Kryten]

Tonka is home. No firm diagnosis yet, but the steroids have gotten him back on his feet and moving around almost normally. He's much happier, eating well etc. Not sure how long it'll last, but it's nice to have him home again

[crocos]

Bye George.

Started out as a psychopathic douche of a cat, but settled down and turned into a genuinely affectionate and nice cat, but then he started eating less & less but drinking crazy amounts of water, the vet couldn't figure out what was wrong, and then over the last week he stopped even drinking. On Tuesday we let him go.

I'll miss you ya crazy critter.

[StN]

[chiQ]

Sorry dude

[Ab]

Ah fuck. Sorry to hear that mate.

[mpx]

Sorry for your loss . You will always remember the good (and the scratchy) times!

[Ab]

Hobbes the ginger ninja is 16 now and has entered the "eating less & less but drinking crazy amounts of water" stage. Counting the days.

[chiQ]

Yeah, Lily the neurotic Siamese is on renal diet, and recently had another psychotic break. Once more and she's for the great sheepskin the sky

[Kryten]

It's time. Tonka has taken a very sharp downward turn in the last two weeks and increasing the steroid dose hasn't helped. He's the first dog we're having put to sleep that is from one of Nic's breedings and she can't bring herself to come along. He was our second Best In Show winner and the first we'd bred ourselves.

This time around I've taken the time to explain to my two oldest boys (6 & 5) what's happening and why. I've never been more proud of them both when they made their own decision to come out to the dog runs with me to say goodbye.

[ChaosWulf]

Sorry to hear that, Kryten. Strength to you and your family.

[[BT]Monza]

[StN]

Originally Posted by StN

Thank you for sharing your friend with us Kryten.

I don't like having two of these on one page.

[Ab]

Ah fuck, this page sucks.

Sorry to hear your news Kryten... and yeah, big up your boys.

[Kryten]

Sorry peeps and thanks for the kindness. It's more than a little cathartic to have a place to put your thoughts down. By way of recompense, here's something that might help.

Tonka was always a "fun" dog to race, for values of "fun == who knows what would happen".

One race weekend I had him in the single dog freight class (so it was him on his own, pulling me, the wheeled racing rig and about 10kg of ballast to make the rig + ballast = 35kg). This was a class designed for larger freighting dogs like our Mals but because people are people, plenty of other mushers entered with much lighter, faster dogs like Siberian Huskies. Tonka and I manage to blitz the entire field by several minutes in both races (3 minutes over a 4km course is a LOT) and he was unstoppable (I was also pretty fit and ran most of the course). We passed a heap of other mushers at full noise, he never looked at another dog once and we just left them behind in our dust. Beating the Huskies was a big deal and I was terribly proud of him.

The following weekend he'd have a complete change. Racing down a forest trail through plantation pines, for NO GOOD REASON NO NOT A RABBIT NOTHING AT ALL he would make a 90 degree turn directly into the forest, no trail to be seen. Doing so was annoying because we stopped on the trail in the middle of a race, but more importantly he actually managed to break welds on the racing rig because it wasn't designed to take that sort of lateral force being applied at 20kph. It's a good thing I was friends with an armorer in the NZ Army who needed weird things for his apprentices to work on.

At one point we had a treadmill that we tried the dogs on for a bit of extra fitness. Occasionally, and I promise I am not making this up, Tonka would FORGET that he was on a treadmill and needing to walk/run to keep himself in place and he would stop running, slide off the back and end up in a heap on the floor, shake himself a little bit and then jump back on.



Maybe (I'm writing this with a smile on my face) the brain tumour was there all along

[chiQ]

I'm so sorry, dude. Best wishes

On that note, I euthanased Lily this morning:

[ChaosWulf]

RIP Lily, you were awesome.
*hugs* chiQ.

[Kryten]

Someone post something awesome so we can get off this page, please.

[chiquelet]

What an awful page...

Crocos, Kryten, chiQ, I'm so sorry for your losses. George had the spunkiest of faces, and I always enjoyed reading the stories and seeing the photos of Lily and Tonka.

[Ab]

Haere ra Lily, you were mental.

[chiQ]

She was. She was a very sweet cat though. She had this knitted, wool mouse toy, that she obsessed over, and it was the only thing that could provoke a growl from her. If you tried to take it off her she'd get quite over-the-top. She actually stole it from her brother, Misha, who was also nuts about it. She was almost the same about a red feather boa toy we bought her. She just went batshit whenever we pulled it out, and when we weren't playing with her both toys had to be put away, or she'd just sit there and chew them. The mouse has been repaired so many times it's mainly darns. Only the stuffing remains in any great amount. She also played fetch like a boss. Well, she used to. Not even mousie got a game out of her this week.

The Thursday night was the first time for a fortnight that she slept with me, which made it even harder. She used to sleep with me every night, even when it was really hot.

I'm pretty sure she had a brain lesion or tumour or something along those lines. A few years ago she abuptly went from being a timid, but playful and affectionate cat to having real psychological issues. She over-groomed, pulling her fur out, and became even more timid. A year ago her pupils blew out. She could no longer contract them to slits (from blue to black eyes overnight), which made bright light uncomfortable for her, and she started to experience either anxiety attacks or hallucinations soon after. A cat who never twitched her tail suddenly would go for days randomly lashing it, screaming into corners, and refusing to touch the floor. I managed to get it under control with drugs, but she more recently stopped being happy in herself. In a cat that lives in a wonderfully warm apartment, with her every whim indulged, her own skeepskins laid out in all her favourite places, and no end of affection that is not right, so I put her down.

[Spoon1]

All I can say to this page is - fuck.

[Golden Teapot]

Rosie aka Porkus Warkus having a snack on a parsnip.

[Saladin]

Not my pet, but this cheeky bugger belongs to one of my neighbours (presumably). (S)hes figured out the cat door and now visits regularly to scratch on my cats' post, sit in laps, and sometimes sleep on my bed.



I probably shouldn't encourage them, but it's a lot harder to spray kittens with water like I do with the adult cats that come through the door.

[Kryten]

Blondie was put down earlier tonight. She'd had a kidney problem for 6 months, but this latest relapse she wasn't going to recover from. She was just over 8 years old, and Nic's baby who we'd imported from the USA.

Neo (now 12!) is now on his own. And not showing any sign of slowing down, bless 'im.

[ChaosWulf]

Argh!
RIP Blondie.

Really REALLY hope your year gets better soon, Kryten!

[mpx]

Kryten, sorry to hear of your losses Your photos show how happy your dogs were though, so they couldn't have asked for better owners!

In an attempt to cheer this page up a bit, here is a naughty little bastard. Since our fire has been going he's decided that we are his new owners. He's a local stray that is extremely affectionate (I think neighbours left without taking him) and he's made himself nice and comfy in our house. So I guess we now have three cats.

I walked in on him having a snooze just as I was getting ready for bed, he saw me, was too comfy and was like, "Fuck it, do what you want, it's worth it."

(sorry for instagram photo)

[mpx]

Our new rescue "puppy" Kiara.

She's a pup at heart still, but old in age. After all the paperwork was done we picked her up this afternoon, she is such an amazing sweetheart. So gentle and loving, her temperament test was one of the lowest ever!

She spent a few hours sniffing the house out, and the yard, then poopin' in the yard. Then she met one of our cats, who promptly gave her a stern, "Yeah, this place? Mine." look and that was that, now they're bros.

She was surrendered as the couple who owned her retired into a house boat and she couldn't live there, it was too much to see her in a shelter pen. She is currently snuggled up like a burrito in the lounge sleeping her big afternoon off on her new bed and blanket. She will live the rest of her days happy and comfortable.

[Spoon1]

Nice one dude, really good to take an older dog.

[chiQ]

That's great! Well done

[mpx]

I wont lie, we originally went to the shelter to get a smaller dog - but once I saw her and learned her backstory I just said, "You, you're coming with me." Had to do actual work and make a gate for the property inspection (which took me from about 12pm to 8pm because I am a terrible male) and waited on her temperament test, then finally we were approved. It was such a great feeling!

I haven't had a big dog before (only dogs I've had were when I was living at home and they were Schnauzers). When I woke up today and called out, "Kiara, kiaaaara" and hear the tiptapping of her nails and then seeing her and her wagging tail, I almost didn't want to go to work!

She is so well behaved, too. I had her on the leash to let her do her business outside, but she was sticking to me like glue without any pull on the lead, so I took her to the back yard which is fairly enclosed and took the lead off her collar and she still just stood next to me! She stood there until I said, "Go on, then!" And she took off smelling all the new smells, doing her business and every now and then coming back to me for reassurance. She is ridiculously obedient, I feel like I've cheated because she is so well behaved already!

When I left this morning I said, "Go to your bed" and she ... went to her bed. I gave her an extra treat for that - I am like a doting father.

We are going to Animates tonight (with her of course, since you can take pets into Animates!) to get her all the good stuff she deserves.

I have to say I am EXTREMELY impressed with Henderson animal shelter. Everything is so clean (within reason, there are animals there after all), the dogs are so healthy and the caretakers really care for the animals. The difference between them and the SPCA was night and day.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just so happy for both myself and for Kiara - she is so comfortable with us and knowing she is going to have this life just makes me so happy for her.

[CCS]

Originally Posted by mpx

Had to do actual work and make a gate for the property inspection (which took me from about 12pm to 8pm because I am a terrible male)

At least you did it yourself! I would've had one made for me.

[chiQ]

Well, I guess in this case she's her own reward to you, mpx