Post your pet!

[rshetts]

May I present Bolt, our 14 week old white Swiss shepherd puppy! I’ve raised him from pretty much day one, and he’s turning out pretty well. He’s a real sweetheart actually. Well, except today when he started to destroy the sofabed. But then he rolls onto his back and looks up at you with those big, dark eyes, and your heart melts.

He’s still at the stage where his ears have raced ahead and are waiting for the rest of him to catch up.

Sweet, you have a Vulcan doggie!

[RichVR]

I had a dog with ears like that. We named him Radar.

[KevinC]

I have some really bad news. Terrible news, really. It appears that sometime while I was away at work, my beloved dog must have sneaked out of the house and got himself into some serious trouble. I’m really not sure what to do, so I’m hoping someone here can provide some guidance or advice.

From the evidence I found on my carpet this evening, I can only conclude that my dog most likely ate a Hawaiian. I don’t mean a Papa John’s specialty pizza, I mean an actual Hawaiian. I came home to find this on the floor:

The crime

The thing is, as far as I’m aware I do not own, have never owned, nor have I even considered owning a purple plastic lei. Or a lei of any color, for that matter. Yet here is the evidence of the crime, sitting on my carpet. He’s an indoor dog, so perhaps he climbed out a window and performed the dastardly deed while I was at the office.

In dismay, I sternly called for Labowski, 100 pounds of black lab trouble. He knew if he did the crime, he was gonna have to do the time.

Awaiting punishment

That is, if he could be convicted. He played innocent, of course, giving me his “Who, me? Look at how innocent I am, how could you think I could do something so bad? I’m hurt, how could you think that!”

It wasn’t me

He thought he got away with it. But although he could protest his innocence to me, he wasn’t able to fool his stomach later in the evening. Of course, once he started feeling really sick he just couldn’t help shoving his face right into mine. “Heeeeeelp meeee”.

Uuuugh I’m dying

Seriously, though, that damn dog. I have no idea where he found a lei. I’m putting my house up for sale, so I just had the carpets cleaned and everything. Most of the things are even moved out of the house, so there’s no clutter around at all! I’m seriously baffled. If anyone can find trouble, though, it’s this dog.

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Welp, it’s not getting better than that post tonight. G’night everyone!

[mjgreeny75]

Our cat Mikkel is fully into the Christmas spirit!

[Jason_Levine]

Kevin, that garland your dog dragged home looks like it might be the kind of thing used as a wedding decoration. Any neighbors get married recently?

[RichVR]

Kevin, that garland your dog dragged home looks like it might be the kind of thing used as a wedding decoration. Any neighbors get married recently?

Or did your dog get married? Check for a ring.

[KevinC]

Or did your dog get married? Check for a ring.

Now that could be, the ladies certainly do love him. Not so much his owner, but definitely him.

[ddtibbs]

Pets under Christmas trees!

Mr. Frodo Underfoot is letting us know his displeasure about wearing his Christmas sweater.

[rshetts]

This is Chewie doing his best Alfred Hitchcock impression.

[Jeremy_Johnsen]

Nothing makes me laugh like a guilty dog. It’s amazing that you can tell exactly how they’re feeling by that look on their face.

[Giles_Habibula]

This is Chewie doing his best Alfred Hitchcock impression.

Brilliant!

[TimElhajj]

This is Emma in the recovery room at a local vet. Big scare last night! Emma got attacked by some other dog, probably a pit bull. I only got the story second hand, but I got a frantic phone call from my wife to come pick her and Emma up. Yikes!

First, everyone is all right. So there’s that.

We got Emma home and I found a pretty big puncture wound inside her leg, near her chest. Our vet said to take her to the hospital. The hospital vet found another, bigger wound on the opposite side of the place where we found the puncture. Right now Emma has bald patches and staples in both places. And a cone of shame. And plenty of drugs that are keeping her pretty mellow.

So here is what happened.

My wife said they were down by the lake in a public park and a dude came into the park with two dogs off leash. One was a retriever and the other a pit bull. Mayhem ensued! The retriever saw Emma and started barking, and my wife started speaking at the retriever with her loud command voice to keep her at bay. And then this pit bull just came racing across the park and latched onto Emma! Wife kicked and screamed, but couldn’t do anything to get them apart. The owner had to come over and throw himself on his dog to break it up. Emma got the worst of it.

By the time I show up with the car, the owner and his dogs are gone. I know people on that block and reached out to a woman who said her dog was attacked by a pit bull 3x in the same park and that each time the owner had to throw himself on the dog to break it up. My wife has a different description of the owner/pit pull than this lady, but my wife also said she could be wrong. It was close to dark and she was furious/scared.

Holy shit!

I am glad it wasn’t worse, but the vet bill was expensive. I don’t even know what you are supposed to do if a pit bull comes racing across the park and attacks your dog. I guess you have to throw yourself on it like the owner did? Or maybe we should carry mace? Mace just seems like a recipe for disaster. I wouldn’t not want to be within 500 yards of myself if I am amped up and have to spray a medium size dog moving fast with mace.

Have any of you guys had to deal with any of this? What do people do?

Interesting fact. If your dog gets bitten by another dog, no public agency will do much of anything for you. The cops were like call animal control. Animal control doesn’t even track it if it’s dog vs. dog. Meanwhile, this pit bull (if it’s the same one) is just fucking up all the dogs in the neighborhood. And his owner is getting a lot of practice flopping on his dog for the break up. I can’t help but feel that if I were a little more dog savvy I would have the answer to some of these questions, but I have no idea. It was awful hearing the tone of my wife’s voice on that call. Sheesh!

[Nixxter]

I’m not sure what the answer is Tim (let others weigh in on that) but really glad Emma and your wife are going to mend up. Pretty brutal to go through that (for you too, emotionally!).

Hopefully somebody can figure out how to put a stop to this recurring situation before someone else (humans and their companions!) gets maimed.

[TimElhajj]

Thanks Nixxter! I appreciate your kind words.

Not sure if it’s the drugs or the event in the park, but Emma is being super clingy with me. We got her one of those inflatable cones of shame (cone of shames?), but before she’d walk right into the back of your leg and catch you on the back of the knee with the hard edge of her cone, lol.

It’s like that thing you’d do in grade school to makes someone tumble backwards, but fortunately she never got me that good.

She just wants to nuzzle her head. It’s so friggin’ cute!

[Lamalo]

Here’s a soothing picture of a relaxed kitty.

[JonRowe]

Spinelli… the female cat of our brother sister pair loves to cuddle.

And… makes… faces…

[rshetts]

My dog was once attacked by a neighbors pitbull who jumped a fence to get to him. I hosed the dogs down and when the bull started to come at me I continued to spray him and them smacked him with a garden rake that was luckily near by. By this time the neighbor came out and called his dog off. He then yelled at me and told me it was my fault for having my dog outside at the same time as his. I told him to go screw himself, called the police and then took my dog to the vets. Since this was a private property issue and at the time pitbulls were illegal in my town, the police did get involved. The situation resolved itself of any re-occurances when the police contacted the land lord ( the house was a rental ) who kicked the guy for having dogs in violation of his lease. I know that doesnt help you much but you may want to start carrying something like this: http://www.amazon.com/SprayShield-Animal-Deterrent-Spray-Belt/dp/B0002XKIV6

Sorry to hear your dog was attacked and I hope you find the asshole owner.

[TimElhajj]

Thanks for the info, rshetts. I’m sorry your dog got attacked, but it’s cool you were able to battle the attacking dog off. That’s some super manly hose and rake wielding!

I like the spray stuff you linked, but wonder if citronella will stop this dog. I saw a horn in the related items that I liked too. I think we’re just going to avoid that park in the future. It’s a shame because it’s a nice park by the water.

Those are some serene cat pics guys!

[Kelan]

I just read about your dog, Tim. Hope she is feeling better.

That is seriously fucked up that this guy still takes his dogs there without a leash knowing that his dog (if the same one) has already assaulted other dogs at the park there previously.

I had a bad run in with a pit bull back in college. I got a job at an asphalt company doing driveways one summer and the first day on the job they let me wander into their yard where they had a pit bull on a chain as their guard dog. The damn thing ran at me and lunged at me immediately. Fortunately I am pretty damn quick and nimble and avoided its attacks and got out of the chain range unharmed, or so I thought. I was in the back seat of one of the guy’s cars and noticed a trickle of blood coming down from my bicep. I still have a fucking scar from that dog and who knows what it would have done if it got a hold of my arm. Back then I was pretty mellow, but today I probably would have went back and beat it senseless most likely (not a solution, I know). On another note, the guys in the front seat were all smoking a joint on the way to the job and all I could think of as a 19 year old in the back seat on my first day of a summer job was “What the fuck kind of job did my dad just get me in to?”