Pets...what do you have?

[hismikeness]

I love cats... with ketchup.

I'm kidding. I like other people's cats. I don't think I could own one. Every one I've ever met is a bigger and more selfish snob than I. 

[xSilverPhinx]

Rats good. Cats evil. Yup.

Rats should probably fear Sally more than cats.

Jack Russells: bred to hunt vermin...I second this

Not that your rats are vermin, Asmo...their wild cousins are. 

I'm more of a dog person myself. I have a German Shepard who's the best pet anyone can have. Great dogs.  

[Asmodean]

Jack Russells: bred to hunt vermin...I second this

/The Battleaxe

Not that your rats are vermin, Asmo...their wild cousins are. 

Oh... /Sheathe Battleaxe

I'm more of a dog person myself. I have a German Shepard who's the best pet anyone can have. Great dogs. 

I like Irish Wolfhounds. But then, when it comes to liking big, HUGE things and that old saying, I should probably have no penis at all... But then I am the living proof of the wrongness of that very saying, since I match the size of my liked objects to the size of my ego rather than using them to compensate for the lack of size elsewhere

...Uh, what was I talking about?

[Pharaoh Cat]

Anyway I live in what should be a cat free continent.
Keeping an animal for company, feeding it animals killed elsewhere,
clearing away the natives it kills for sport, it seems wrong.

Are you vegetarian, Pudding?

I'm perfectly fine with carnivory.  For me and for Boots.  In fact, I sometimes amuse myself with the notion of feeding Boots live mice.  I wouldn't have any moral objections.  Those little dry nuggets are just cheaper and easier.

Cruelty to livestock is a whole different question, of course.  I don't cook so I don't buy meat at the grocer, but on those occasions when I've cajoled my daughter into cooking us something, I insisted we buy free range.

The one thing I like about Islam and Orthodox Judaism is the insistence, in both halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) doctrine, on the swiftest and most merciful kill.

[Pharaoh Cat]

Our cat was quite smart. He could unlatch a window and push it open.

Ha!  That's cool. 

I enjoy watching Boots teach herself about the world.  For example, my bathroom has two doors, and Boots recently figured out that if she pushes some little object under a closed door and then can't get it, she can run around to the other side, where the other door might be open, and if it's open, she can come into the bathroom and retrieve the object!  I was so proud of her when she figured that out! 

[Pharaoh Cat]

This is Rocky. He was a barn cat that I adopted a five years ago and was the first "real" pet I've ever owned on my own. He's kind of a douchebag, but I love him. He's "alpha-cat" and has a love-hate relationship with my husband - he only ever really gives my husband cuddles, but he also ambushes my husband's ankles from time to time. He pretty much ignores me.

Do you think the ambush is meant to be belligerent or playful?  Boots pounces on my legs from time to time.  I interpret it as play.  She and I play like a couple of cats would.  I chase her and she runs away but keeps coming back so I can chase her again.  Sometimes she lets me grab her and then we wrestle a bit, with her biting my hands and wrists (with restraint, of course) and then I toss her in the air so she lands on my bed - and back she comes for more! 

She doesn't really like to be cuddled.  She tolerates it best when she's lying curled up in a cardboard box, something she often does.  Her way of showing love is following me around.  She also routinely curls up into my stretched out legs if I'm sitting in my recliner or if I'm lying in bed.  I take this as an enormous sign of trust.  After all, when is any animal most vulnerable?  Surely when asleep.  Yet Boots chooses to sleep between my legs.

A funny thing she does is leap onto my shoulder (when I'm standing) and then perch there like I'm a pirate and she's a parrot! 

When people say that cats are planning to take over the world, Rocky is definitely in on this plan.

I think Boots would say the conquest has already been successfully undertaken!  After all, who cleans whose litter box? 

[The Magic Pudding]

Are you vegetarian, Pudding?

No I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm not entirely comfortable with the process by which we get meat.
I've had to throw a bandicoot in the garbage bin after my daughters dog killed it, and cats are worse for wildlife than dogs.

The one thing I like about Islam and Orthodox Judaism is the insistence, in both halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) doctrine, on the swiftest and most merciful kill.

Well I have my doubts about that.  Australian sheep are crammed on ships, transported across the Indian Ocean and equator to the Middle East.  Many die, on the way I've seen film of people buying them at market, tossing them in the boot of a car to take them home where they'll mercifully cut their throat.  Infidels can't be trusted to kill them here and send them refrigerated.  Cattle being sent to Indonesia don't do to well either, the lucky ones get stunned before they have their necks mercifully hacked.

That swiftest and most merciful kill thing, it's like so many other religious values, they may have been best practice in their day, but their day is thousands of years past.  Best practice now would be to kill the things as near possible to where they lived, stunning them makes sense, pointing to Mecca doesn't, a bolt to the head is quicker than a sliced throat.

[Asmodean]

bandicoot

Why do the Aussies get all the cool animal names and we get like... Moose..? Unfair. 

[Ransom]

Well, there's a question for all those who love cat's, (I do own two) so here's one for snakes. I love snakes, there smooth, scaly, have beady little eyes, and can swallow you whole (some of them). My own snake is corn snake, and watching him eat live mice has got to be the coolest thing in the world. So why do you love (or hate) snakes?

[Tank]

bandicoot

Why do the Aussies get all the cool animal names and we get like... Moose..? Unfair. 

Platypus would be another fine example.

[Tank]

I knew we had a pet thread somewhere so I've mearged the Cat and Snake therads in with it.

[The Magic Pudding]

Why do the Aussies get all the cool animal names and we get like... Moose..? Unfair.  

Not only that but the Easter Bilby brings us chocolate replicas of itself at Easter.
Why? because it's tired of dying for our sins I think.

[Asmodean]

bandicoot

Why do the Aussies get all the cool animal names and we get like... Moose..? Unfair. 

Platypus would be another fine example.

And wombat. Do let's not forget the wombat.

[Tank]

bandicoot

Why do the Aussies get all the cool animal names and we get like... Moose..? Unfair. 

Platypus would be another fine example.

And wombat. Do let's not forget the wombat.

No, one should never forget the Wombat 120mm recoilless rifle!

[Asmodean]

No, one should never forget the Wombat 120mm recoilless rifle!

See! Those animals are so cool, they even get recoilless rifles named after them. The coolest thing we have here is like... A bear. And what kind of name is "bear" anyways?! Lacks both sophistication and a nice ring, not to mention that certain something the French call... I don't know what, but they do have a word for it.