Pet Parents (2 Viewers)

[0rion]

Me and my dog are close but he's still my dog. I have 3 kids so I know the difference. Kids are a pain and my dog isn't

 

[saintmdterps]

Well I mean we did make them that way. Cats don’t want gifts anyway, they just want our lives

I did almost buy one of the advent calendars as a bit of a novelty gift, but didn’t end up pulling the trigger.

My cat has 3 catnip-filled fish toys. I think they cost about $2 for the package. Whenever she belts one into some inaccessible (to her) corner, she comes to me an meows until I follow her and retrieve it

 

[Nisey55]

My cat has 3 catnip-filled fish toys. I think they cost about $2 for the package. Whenever she belts one into some inaccessible (to her) corner, she comes to me an meows until I follow her and retrieve it

Our passed on to a better life cat used to just lay on the floor and myself, being the obedient owner, would play catch with her and retrieve the toy each time she batted it under the furniture. It was the totality of her exercise for the week. It was a little Saints football, she snubbed any other toy.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here

Sad article
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Luís Costa published his first volume of poetry, Two Dying Lovers Holding a Cat, in November. “It is not about cats,” he said. “It’s about two lovers who cease to be lovers. There’s just a lot of symbolism about cats.”

The next month, his cat, Pierogi (“dumpling” in Polish), fell ill. “He had his own Advent calendar. That’s when I noticed he’d lost his appetite,” says Costa. Pierogi had cancer, which had spread to his bowels and his liver. He died just before Christmas.

“A couple of weeks ago, while I was hoovering the house, I pushed the table aside and there was a whisker. He was a tuxedo cat, so he had white whiskers. The contrast with the floor was quite striking. That was very hard.”

Everyone who has lost a pet will have a friend or acquaintance who said the wrong thing. When my puppy died of canine parvovirus, my friend kept referring to her as “it”.

I’m not saying I have never forgiven her, but that was in 2003 and I don’t seem to have forgotten it. Other greatest hits include: “You still on about that?” and: “When are you getting another one?”

“As if you’re just replacing one furry body with another,” says Susan, who volunteers for Paws to Listen, the grief support service of the charity Cats Protection. She lost Tabitha recently.

“A very judgmental cat, certainly, but she was our difficult little madam,” she says. “And now she’s gone and it’s horrible. Her presence filled the house, so when she died … well, it’s just a house now. It isn’t a home.”

Hearing such recollections, and recalling my own loss, it’s clear that pet grief is objectively, indisputably real. Many of us don’t need to be told what it feels like, but wonder why this great open secret – that losing an animal is enormously hard – is so often minimised.

Diane James is the head of pet loss support at the charity Blue Cross. Its bereavement service, for all animals, has been running for 30 years. It takes 20,000 calls a year and advises similar organisations in the US and Canada.

“Some people are aghast to hear that it might be harder for someone to lose an animal than a person,” James says. But it depends on the person or the pet………

The surprising shame of pet loss: ‘You are supposed to think humans are more important than animals’

Pets provide solace, support and sometimes unconditional love. Yet, when they die, much of our grief remains unspoken

www.theguardian.com

 

[Semper]

My dog died May 6, 2018 in my arms. My other does a year later. Even now I feel the hurt and the loss. I still sit by his grave every now and then and as recently as a month ago I just sat there and cried.

I have a new puppy that’s two years old now and I don’t look forward to that day. But what choice is there? I know there love is mine for a very short time but everything they give back make it worth it.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Cruises for dogs
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Four-legged friends are finally being welcomed at sea on a new dog-friendly cruise that sets sail next year.

Pet parents can em-bark on a canine cruise sailing aboard Florida-based Margaritaville at Sea’s Islander ship in Tampa.….

Guests will need to apply and be approved by the Cruise Tails team and there is space for 250 dogs, who will need to be up-to-date with vaccinations and will have to be signed off as healthy by a vet.

If approved, each family will get their own pet butler.

Your dog can enjoy grooming and massage areas as well as a private relief station on each room balcony. There will also be dog shows and training sessions, human guest speakers, costume contests and parades……

First dog-friendly cruise to set sail from Florida in 2025

Your pooch can be pampered on a dedicated pet-friendly cruise from Florida

www.independent.co.uk