1st Year Anniversary Party!

Question

Some of you may have seen We're coming up on our anniversary, how should we mark the auspicious event? Now it's time to start this rolling!

So, here's what we're going to do... If you have any funny or heartwarming pet stories, photographs, anecdotes, or events to share then this is the place. As Tim mentioned in the linked post, our friends at Stack Exchange will have some swag for participants and the rules are really simple:

• Must be about your own pets (past or present)
• Please no down votes as we want this to be positive
• Post as often as you like, each answer should be self-contained
• Winner will be selected Oct 8th based on total up votes (down votes will be discarded)
• In the event of a tie, oldest post will win (for being a keener)

Main prize, of course, is everlasting Pet's glory for having the best story for our anniversary. May even be special swag, but we'll need to check with our Community Manager friends first.

Answer 1

As many of you know, I have a cat. He came from my mom's backyard in the middle of winter and is the most loving cat I have ever met.

Periodically, I get sick, or my back goes out, and I end up stuck in bed. When this happens, Norbert takes very good care of me. He gives me cuddles so I know I am loved, and even makes sure I am fed.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on - I would go for a nap and wake up with cat kibbles in my bed. Finally, after a few days of being stuck in bed, I caught Norbert in the act, chasing kibbles from his bowl in the kitchen, through the living room, and into my bedroom, where he would pick them up in his mouth, and tuck them near my face. Then he sat there, looking at me and nudging them toward me, as if to say "you're not eating, human, please let me help!"

Needless to say, I am not the biggest fan of cat kibble, so as soon as he decided I was either full, or had been taken care of, he would chow down on the kibbles and cuddle up to me.

He might have a heart murmur and a weird tail and a love for playing fetch when it should be time to sleep, but he certainly takes good care of me!

Answer 2

Something I like to do when I'm bored is go fishing for cats.

I've found that boxes make great cat-fishing holes.

It's important to bag your cat once you've caught it.

If you want to keep your newly caught cat, you should have an aquarium large enough to hold it.

Sometimes you can make a business out of cat-fishing. And then you will need to prepare your cats for shipping.

Just make sure you have the appropriate sized box for your cat.

Answer 3

My favorite picture of Ginger:

Answer 4

In 1993 I adopted my first cats, a pair of 10-week-old littermates named Erik and Baldur. They both brought many many years of joy to my life.

When they were about 13, Erik developed sudden medical problems and required emergency surgery. He came home from the vet's with a feeding tube and an assortment of medicines that needed to be given at different intervals. Bottom line: he'd need something every four hours, 'round the clock.

I work full-time, and given the schedule and the locations, going home mid-day to administer food and meds wasn't going to work.

But! We had just moved into new office space and parts of it were not complete. Specifically, we had a shower that was still missing some of its plumbing, so not usable as a shower. My manager arranged for me to be able to use that room for a week, stashing Erik in there and just going in when I needed to do stuff to him. This was neither a secret nor widely-known; people who saw me walk into the building would have seen the carrier, but it's not like there was an announcement. (Though a couple people who knew about it made visits to the room too.) I put a sign on the door saying "please don't open; find me if this is a problem" and signed it.

My (previously small, start-up) company was, at the time, in its first year of having been acquired by a large company. Large companies are not always as casual as the small companies they buy. We had, fairly recently, had a manager from the mothership transfer to us, perhaps to help steer us in the right direction in the larger world.

I only heard about this incident some weeks after it happened: this manager and one of our software developers were walking down the hall past this room when Erik meowed. The manager stopped, looked at the door, and said "you have a cat in there". The developer looked at the sign, said "must be Monica's", and continued walking, having given this fact all the attention he felt it deserved. Apparently the look on the manager's face was special.

At the time the manager had no reason to know who I was. Later that changed, but I infer that he'd forgotten all about the cat in the office. Or, if he hadn't, he had declined to bring it up. :-)

Erik was with me for 18.5 years in the end. After that episode he had assorted and serious medical problems that required regular treatment, but he didn't give up. He was the sweetest cat I've ever known.

Answer 5

Ruby; Photo by Mary Cvetan June 29, 2014

Answer 6

Because I read with my butt, that's why

This is Orlando. He was brought into the shelter with about 20 other cats who were all living together under less-than-wonderful conditions. Now he only competes with one other cat and two humans, but he still specializes in being on top of things.

Answer 7

About 8 years ago we rescued an older Pekinese from a local shelter. Buddie was a special dog that is for sure. He loved to go for rides and would talk to us. My wife and I would be having a conversation and Buddie would sit there looking at us and when there was a pause Buddie would chime in his opinion. It was one of his more endearing traits.

A few years ago I accepted a contract with a company that had me gone during the week. But I would return home on Friday evenings and leave again on Monday morning. Buddie had seperation anxiety but because he was usually baby sat during the work day by our retired neighbors he usually tolarated it. But my first week my wife said Buddy paced every night at bed time since i wasnt home.

Then when Friday finally rolled around and I got home I pulled my duffle bag out of the trunk and sat it by the back door. When I opened the door Buddie came charging out. He took a look at me then jumped up on the duffel bag and for the next 2 minutes chewed me out for being gone. My neighbor was looking over the fence doing her best not to erupt in laughter said, "Well I guess he told you!" When he finished he jumped down and started rubbing against my legs to let me know he still loved me.

Answer 8

This is Shani, my 20-year-old cat, also known as Her Fluffiness. I don't have much time left with her: she has cancer, and we're keeping her comfortable and happy (translation: spoiling her rotten and giving her whatever her kitty heart desires) for as long as we can.

She came into my life as a 5 week old kitten small enough to sit in the palm of my hand, fully weaned (I think her mother wasn't being fed properly). Her mother was black with a small patch of white on her chest, and the rest of the litter were your typical mix of tabby and black and white. And of course, the fluffy one.

One of my favorite memories of her is from the time when I was living with my parents and they had a motion activated alarm. Whenever there was nobody at home, she had to be put outside. We got back after a couple of hours, and there's Shani waiting outside the front door, crying frantically. The moment the door opened, she bolted for the litter box. A whole yard and garden outside but she just had to go in the litter box because that's where she does her business.

When I moved from Australia to the USA to get married, there was no decision to make: Shani came with me. Shipping her cost more than my airfare - but she's always been a one-human cat, and I'm the human. She arrived dazed with her fur sticking out at all angles from whatever was sprayed on her, but she adjusted quickly and she's had twelve good years since then, been introduced to snow (which she did not like one bit), and is almost as fond of my husband as she is of me. Almost.

We're both going to miss her so much, but we wouldn't change anything.

Answer 9

In June of this year Ruby got very sick. There was a lot of unknowns at the time, and there are still a few unknowns left. This site (Pets.se) played a key role in helping find her diagnosis, organize her care, and sharing what we learned along the way. The sister sites (biology.se) & (gardening.se) also helped to define the possible causes.

We saw multiple Veterinarians and talked with a huge number of rabbit owners, all of whom help to guide her care and recovery. The Pets Stack Exchange site played a key role in providing a location appropriate for documenting, and sharing as we worked through both diagnosis and recovery.

In a few minutes I am going to be going to bed to read before drifting off to sleep. When I get in bed, Ruby is going to jump up on the bed, give me a kiss on the lips (even if I don't have treat there), and then lay down to snuggle next to me while I read. At some point I will drift off to sleep and she will jump down to sleep on the floor. When I wake in the morning she will be back on the bed, for more cuddles before I head off to bring home the hay.

On this first anniversary of pets.se please know that I thank all of the people who helped make Ruby's recovery both possible and full.

Thank you, and good night.

Answer 10

For a long time Ginger didn't get along with the other cats (and showed her displeasure by not using the litter box). We decided to segregate her in the master bedroom (only let her out when we were home and able to supervise). After a time, the master bedroom became firmly established as "her territory" and we had a bedtime ritual of making sure that we had Ginger in the bedroom with us before we went to sleep.

We voice trained her to "Bedtime Ginger!" and she would come running to the bedroom where she would get lots of individual attention and pettings as we settled down into bed for the night.

Eventually, this became such a strong habit that if we stayed up late watching TV in the living room (downstairs) she would stand on the landing between upstairs and downstairs and YELL at us until we came upstairs. She has a very Siamese voice (even though she doesn't have the colorpoints, just a dilution gene) so it was very loud and angry sounding!

I guess she decided it was time to voice train US for bedtime!

Answer 11

The Tale of Rory Calhoun

Back in the late '90s, shortly after I graduated from College, I pseudo-inherited a budgie from a friend who had acquired a cat that was all too interested in getting to know the budgie in a manner the budgie would prefer to avoid. The budgie, poorly named Chirper, was given free reign in my apartment because, for the most part, I wouldn't acquire any animals that would make that an issue. Chirper, which you may have guessed, isn't really the subject of this story, but is why I was to acquire a young bunny to be called Rory. The pet store in Toronto that I usually purchased my birdseed at had quite of selection of animals available, including rabbits.

Now, I didn't specifically go there to acquire a rabbit, but it was in the back of my mind that it would really be nice to have a pet that I could, well, pet. Chirper was okay, but the closest I got to petting him was the Top Gun style fly-past that he would sometimes pull off as I was watching TV. In any event, my girlfriend and I made our way down to the pet store to purchase some seed for Chirper and, in the store, they had a little sign pointing to "Bunnies" available.

"I want to see the bunnies!" Kat proclaimed, and so off to the bunnies we went. Now, unlike the chain pet stores, this one didn't have a fancy display, they just had a big metal tub of small bunnies that you could look into.

So, I peered into the collection of young rabbits and most of them ignored me, except for this little grey gal who got up on her hind legs to look more closely at me. I laughed and commented, "look at that, standing on her hind legs like a little Rory Calhoun!" It was timely given that we had just watched that episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns makes that remark about a Dalmatian puppy.

At any rate, we left the bunnies and went to get the birdseed. Before we went to pay for it, Kat wanted to see the bunnies again. Again, as I peered over the edge of the tub, the little grey one rose up on her legs towards me. Kat proclaimed that to be fate and, sure enough, I took Rory home with me that day and finally had a pet that I could pet that wouldn't eat my budgie!

As a note, Rory was with me for a little more than 10 years, long after I ended up with cats and guinea pigs as well. Her constant companion, ultimately, was a male guinea pig named Itsy from the first litter of guinea pigs I ever had. That may be a tale for year 2. :)

Answer 12

Hmm now since I guess this is open to everyone, I do kind of have a story to say. Might be a bit long though so please bare with me.

I've personally always loved animals, all of them, but in particular, I've always adored our shelled friends, especially when theyre so cute and little. I've always meant good to animals, but I never falter to realize how I might have kept some animals in bad condition. I was always given the wrong advice, and I never really had a free connection to the Internet, and as you'd predict that led to a poor condition for animals.

We bought a turtle a few years ago, and the turtle costed about 3 dollars and was very small. We were told we can keep it in a very small taperware and that we should feed it the food they provided daily. We weren't told anything about the UV requirements and food variety requirements, the place was actually quite known for fish so we thought we can trust them for turtles, now I know better than trusting them for anything. But what do you know, that little warrior survived about 3 months in this deplorable condition and only died when he wasn't fed for a couple of days. It happened that the family was busy for a couple days and so we told the maid to feed him for these days and she totally forgot. We didn't make a fuss about it but the cause of the death in our mind remained to be the absence of food and not the awful conditions he was in. The death was quite tragic but I personally moved on quick, unaware that his death was more to our fault, but now I do, and the guilt still hurts.

Still unaware of how to care for a turtle(at least I thought I was aware), I one day found a turtle in my village's river, which we don't visit too often. I was completely infatuated by the turtle's cuteness and decided to get it to my little brother. Now this turtle, is extremely hardy, and survived so many awful conditions and gave me all the time I needed for me to realize my mistreatment. At the beginning I had the turtle in an open plastic suitcase, yes, and the question with the photo is still there and ive been desperately trying to remove it due to my shame. I used to think the turtle needs warm water and so I used to place some warm water most other species wouldn't survive in. I didn't even know the species for such a long time, and after so much research, I completely cut the turtle of my brother when I saw how much responsibility it needs.

Now, I'm happy to say my turtle species is the Balkan terrapin, and I've read quite a lot of scholarly articles on this species. The turtle is now in a 122*122*25cm kiddie pool with partial sunlight throughout the day and a custom basking Island. This turtle really fueled my love for animals and made me realize my mistakes. The thing that drives me to help people in need of answers be it here or anywhere is because I don't want anyone to start the way I started.

Big thanks to everyone here and especially Matt S. for helping me so much with my questions, and I will be sure to post some photos of turtle when possible.

Answer 13

I do not own this horse, but I have many great stories about her. The picture below isn't of me riding her, but I have ridden her before. She was an extremely heartwarming horse. She competed in races, and many shows. I mostly enjoyed trotting on her. She was good at escaping out of her stall, and sneaking into the bag of oats just outside of her stall. I believe she sometimes felt like she wouldn't be caught, and whenever we caught her, she would try to act like she was innocent. :) The only sad part is that she passed away over the summer. I will miss her so much, but I will never forget all the fun I had with her. She was truly a remarkable horse that will never be forgotten.