The many pets of Pets SE

Question

I am inspired by this Science Fiction & Fantasy SE post and wonder what kind of pets the regular users have. I for one can't really shut up about my cat(s), and I am sure many users here would love to share photos of their pets with the community. I am also curious what kind of pets people have and I'd especially want to know if anyone has more exotic pets.

While the main purpose of this post is to have fun, it might also have a functionality: we can use it to tag people if questions about exotic pets come up.

Answer 1

While he's passed on... here's Ash, possibly one of the more famous dogs of Stack Exchange

He's an accidental rescue, used to belong to a actress, and had a tragic backstory and a fear of heights.

Answer 2

My pets are for now exclusively aquatic animals, although I am planning to have a cat somewhere in the future. I have aquarium with the volume of around 26 L (6.8 gallons); it hosts a small gang of White Cloud Mountain minnows and a single, small, sinistral snail that I recently determined to be Physella acuta or another closely related to this, who arrived by accident while aquatic plants were being introduced.

A few interesting and remarkable features of the snail is the fact that its shell is sinistral; over 90 % species of snails have dextral shells, and sinistral snails like Physella acuta are in minority compared to this. Another counter-intuitive thing about this snail is the fact that it breathes air via lung (singular), despite being an aquatic snail. Featured photos are not mine and instead are from the Internet; I might replace them with actual photos of my pets somewhere in the future.

^{Placeholder photo of White Cloud Mountain minnow (source: Wikipedia).}

^{Placeholder photo of White Cloud Mountain minnows (source: www.serendipitywave.com).}

^{Placeholder photo of Physella acuta (source: kazenaquatic.com).}

^{Placeholder photo of Physella acuta (source: invertebase.org).}

I used to have a large (peaking at around 20) flock of small red shrimp (most probably Neocaridina davidi) and two giant African shrimp (Atya gabonensis); sadly, all of them went extinct in the context of my aquarium. Small ones were consistently passing away one-by-one; the reason is unknown to me, but I assume it was related to molting problems and semi-rare aggression events from the fish (which, despite their opinion of being "peaceful", turned out to be quite vicious and aggressive at times). A few of them had also jumped out of the aquarium to be found completely dried and lifeless some time afterwards. Both of the giant African shrimp passed away in mid-May, within the span of less than a week between each other; I am fairly sure that they passed away as a result of my horrible mistake, namely overdosing on liquid potassium fertilizer (however, neither the fish nor the snail have been affected by this). I have not yet fully forgiven myself about this.

Answer 3

I am not sure whether my idea is in alignment with the premise of this Q&A, but I want to include a few drawings of pets of Pets SE that I made about a year ago. All of them are made with a black-ink pen and are based on real photos. All the drawings are available in the Litter Box chat room, while the original photos are either available in the Litter Box or are avatars of their owners.

Allison C's Beatrice the Cat:

Henders's Big Blue the Gourami:

Anongoodnurse's Isaac the Dog:

Yvette Colomb's Cleo the Horse:

Journeyman Geek's Ash the Dog:

Trond Hansen's Trine the Cat:

Ankii's Dumbo the Dog:

Stephie's Bruce the Bat:

C. Koca's Sonny the Cat:

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Drawings made with mouse in M$ Paint

Henders's Big Blue the Gourami:

Allison C's Gloria the Axolotl:

Stephie's Xabi the German Shepherd (apologies for low aesthetic quality of this one):

Answer 4

This is a flattering photo of Sonny. He also featured in a video here, where he was coughing. He is all better now, also thanks to Elmy's help.

Charlie was a Maine Coon of my college. I took care of him for three years but he passed away at the age of 14. It made me have mixed feelings for Maine Coons. While they are very friendly, their lifespan is slightly less than other cats. It really hit me hard when we lost him.

My family takes care of many stray cats and dogs in Turkey but I am rarely in Turkey to help them. We lost the dog last year of old age. My family took care of him for ten years and apparently he was approximately five when he joined them. The cat was probably a house cat, preferring dry food over boiled meat. The other cats always go for meat first.

Answer 5

Currently, I have three cats, though over the years I've had countless more.

Artemis (calico) and Havoc (black and white) are bonded littermates adopted from a local rescue; they were part of an owner-surrendered litter from another state. In the region of the United States where I live, we tend to have fairly good spay/neuter success, reducing the number of "unwanted" animals, so it's common for rescues to bring in animals from regions that have lower spay/neuter rates. Artemis, like most calicos, has a ton of sassy attitude, and Havoc is a goofy lovebug.

Beatrice is younger and more feisty, and a local stray rescue. We don't know if she was born stray, escaped, or was dumped, but she was pretty wild when she was rescued and took a lot of effort to get calmed down. She's my first longhaired cat so I've been learning some new things with her.

Before them, I had Dante, a male calico who was with me for 14 and a half years and taught me a lot of what I know about cats now. Losing him was a huge blow in my life, but I never imagined not giving more cats the loving home he'd been able to enjoy.

I'm mostly focused on cats as pets, but over the past year I also added a rescued axolotl and two platies. (I learned very quickly that two platies becomes more platies fast.)

Answer 6

This is my best friend Alfiq! I adopted him about six years ago. Unbeknownst to me, he was on his deathbed when I adopted him and we went through a few stressful months of medication and force feeding and vet visits. This really bonded us I think. He’s now maybe a few brain cells short, but very full of love.

His hobbies include playing with stick toys, yelling at me while I’m working, and sleeping. I’ve been working on harness training him. He’s pretty timid so we don’t leave the yard, but he loves laying the the grass and watching the birds and bugs.

I also have a Betta fish, Paarthurnax, who’s fairly new to me. He’s got an interesting birth defect where one of his pectoral fins is fancy (like a Dumbo should have), and his other is normal. It doesn’t affect him at all, I just love the quirk! I’ve got him in a planted, 10 gallon tank. He’s one of the quickest Bettas I’ve ever had, and won’t hold still for a photo!

Answer 7

May I introduce you to Tommi?

Once upon a time someone thought "Ohhhh, he's so cute!" and brought him home. This someone had not the slightest clue how to train dogs. This someone also had a violent husband or partner, who thought that hitting a dog was the proper way to train him. After 6 months both of these someones thought "He behaves badly and he isn't cute anymore, let's tie him to someone's fence and be rid of him".

That's how he found his way to us and why I answer so many questions about dogs behaving badly. I was forced to learn a lot about dogs body language, anxiety, aggression and training in a short time because of him.

Now he's an old chap, much calmer than before and going blind and I still learn new things to make his life as happy as possible.

Update: after becomming completely blind he struggled more and more with his everyday life, like getting lost in the house, running into obstacles or being unable to find his water bowl. We came to the difficult decision to lay him to rest on 15.05.2022.

Next we have Jessie, our diva and currently my (home) office cat:

She goes out of her way to actually duck away under my hand when I try to pet her most of the time, but she loves to "hunt" the treats I throw for her.

Answer 8

This is Salty (the name comes from the unique coloring for his breed), seen here taking a nap. He is still a puppy. He is a Bernedoodle, currently around 60 pounds. He has another 20-40 pounds to grow before reaching his final weight.

Salty is a loveable and goofy puppy. He loves playing on the beach, going on long walks, and eating (lots and lots of eating).

While Salty can be a troublemaker, he is a great dog. We bought him from a breeder in Missouri and he flew to us.

Answer 9

Meet Xabi.

Going from floppy-eared cuteness in autumn 2020 to a bundle of energy today.

Raider of the wastepaper basket, sneaky sock thief and enthusiastic ball player (nomen est omen, apparently, he was named after him).

He’s a working line German Shepherd and for him it’s a blessing and a curse. Quick learner, eager to please, but very nervous and still convinced that he has a 24/7 job as a guard dog, even when he’s overwhelmed and afraid. It’s getting slowly better.

The true ruler of the household however is not the canine, but the feline (anyone surprised?) pet:

Chester.

Unlike Xabi, his pedigree is a long line of semi-feral farm cats and other strays and he was taken in by a friendly person who rescued first his sick sister and ultimately all kittens and neutered the mom.

He’s an excellent mouser, prefers sleeping in various humans’ beds (except on hubby’s side after being kicked accidentally by the sleeping human) and is particularly picky with cat food - ignoring the “better” ones and insisting on one store’s generic brand. He can tell the days of the week apart, knowing that there’s a good chance that on Saturdays, and on Saturdays only, we bring a treat from the butchers. At seven, he’s getting even more sedate and he’s definitely not young any more, but in good shape so far.

Answer 10

This is my pitbull Juju. We received her from a family friend as a puppy, as they weren't able to care for her. She is currently 4.5 years old. She sticks to her owners like glue, and is always by my or my wife's side. She has really bad allergies that we are trying our best to get under control! But she's an awesome dog.

Bonus puppy picture of her, with our late boston terrier Zachary:

Answer 11

I have a senior cat, Sanka, who will be turning 15 in a couple months.