Animal Friends.

[UnderTheRainbow]

Is it just me, or does *everybody* have days when they'd rather hang out with their animals?
I mean, some days, I'd rather go to the river or to the park with Kodos than with a friend or three. I'd rather lay around the house with him, than go out for coffee. I guess he seems to understand a bit better, sometimes. He's there ALL the time. IfI seem sad or anything, he'll poke his cold nose in my face until I laugh and tell him what's up. If I just go "Kodos, I need a hug" he comes and sits in front of me and waits for a hug... and if I seem really stressed, he'll keep jumping on me until I finally give in and accept his puppy-kisses.

And even the tarantulas. Sometimes, I'd rather NOT have certain friends over, because I'd rather lay around on the couch listening to music, and let Gracie roam around on my face/head/shoulders/arms. I'd rather not have people over that are scared of them, because I'd rather spend the day cleaning their tanks, and watch them crawl around. Some days, I'd rather put Gracie's tank on the coffee table and sit there giggling at Kodos every time she moves and his ears perk up, and he looks at me like "Mom, what's that? And now what's it doing?!"

Yes yes. My animals are my best friends. Maybe I'm just a lonely housewife, haha, but I can have at least 3 or 4 (human) friends over at any given time, with a few phone calls and 10-15 minutes of waiting time... sometimes, I'd just rather not.

And I get very, very frustrated when people come over and don't respect the animals. Kodos is allowed on one of our couches, and sometimes when we have a house full of people, they'll go "Move this stupid dog"... and sure, my fiance and I could just go "Kodos, down" and he'd move, but if you want a spot on the couch, you've gotta fight him for it, it's HIS couch... and he's about 100lbs. at 8 months - good luck. I wouldn't kick my kid off the couch so someone else could sit down, why would you expect me to do it to the dog? He lives there, you don't. He has full rights over the couch, and if he decides to stretch out and refuse to move, you'll just have to find a way to move him.
And they still laugh because we have pictures of him on our walls. Pfff. He's cuter than them, anyway.

[toman]

Dogs are way better than people. It's a rare person I'd rather hang out with than a good dog... Other animals are cool to though, but dogs are best!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y86/Felonious-Monk/DC400011.jpg

[tooter_mcgee]

I love my kitties :) I have two: Jezebelle (5yrs) and Sabrina (2yrs). I love watching them, they're so quirky and each totally has their own personlity. Jezebelle is the quieter one but she loves chewing on cardboard, she sleeps on the same dining room chair everytime she naps, and she has the most unique 'meow' i've ever heard come from a kitty. She sounds exactly like a person with a hoarse voice saying the word 'meow' really softly. Sabrina spends roughly a quarter of her day acting like the crazy young kitty she is, the rest of the time she either eats (alot though she's not fat) or acts like a total lover to anyone who'll pay attention. Cats have always been my favorite :)

~Di~

[orchid]

Dogs are way better than people. It's a rare person I'd rather hang out with than a good dog...

I wholeheartedly agree.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d192/kbird7/mixofstuff071.jpg

[UnderTheRainbow]

Looks like we have quite a few seriously badass doggies, here. (Judging from the other animal pics thread, too.)
Kodos is 8 months now, and he's over 2ft. tall at the shoulders and probably around 100-110lbs. People are always like "How can you pay so much attention to a stupid dog?" - they don't seem to understand the simple fact, my dog is cooler than them. Most of them never want to do anything, but they have no problem sitting around going "I'm bored, what should we do?" as if anything that I suggest is going to be "good enough" to get them off their asses. Not Kodos - I start putting my shoes on, or say "Should we go do something?" and he gets all hyper - even if we just go in the yard and play fetch/tug-of-war for half an hour.
What I hate the most (and I'm sure you guys at least slightly understand) is peoples' attitude towards him. He's bullmastiff, boxer, rottie, and lab. He looks like a rottie-coloured bullmastiff. We like going for walks in public places, because it gives him a chance to socialize and it gives me a chance to teach him how (he's not allowed to approach other dogs/people unless I say it's okay, he knows not to pick things up from the sidewalk, etc.) But a lot of people like to make super-rude comments, saying that I "shouldn't have them out in public" ("them" being Kodos and his littermate, Thor... our friend Jason's dog) because of how they look, Thor looks like a purebred rottie. Or people going "A girl your size shouldn't even have those two, you don't know what you've gotten yourself into" ... pff, just 'cause they're both bigger than me doesn't mean I can't handle them, I can handle them better than Jason and Adam, haha. Or when people actually *do* like them, and then find out they're just puppies... then go "Wow, he's gonna be a killer." I don't think so. Say that about my dogs again, and I'm gonna be a killer.
People think badly enough of them as it is, and there's still the simple fact - my dogs are cooler than 90% of humans. :p

[redthewitch75]

Well, I used to be a dog person, until I got the dog I have now. He's a Bassett Hound, and well...I just can't connect with him. He just doesn't have any of the quirks as my other Bassett Hound did. So, we have him and three cats and now three kittens. But my cats...boy, I love them. Sylvia likes to sit on top of our heads while we sleep, tho since she's had the kittens, she's been preoccupied. She's cool about letting us get close to the kitties too, since she is kind of a squirrely cat, I figured she'd do her damndest to find some secret kittie hide-a-way when she had them. But, instead she chose the built-in cupboard where my sons' clothes are. Kerouac (the Daddy cat) has always been such a sweet, if aloof, cat from the begining, and loves to nap. Our third cat is, well I just call her Hide-a-Cat, because she spends 99.9% of her time under our bed. She's got seven toes on each of her front paws. She's a definite loner, a typical "I'll come to you on MY time" cat. I just wish our dog was cooler, poor thing. He just doesn't fit, so I think he is going to go live with my ex, that way the kids can still see him.
Now, the dog I really love love love is my boyfriend's sister's. His name is Tut and he is a Husky and Wolf mix. He is HUGE. She would let me have him, but I just can't, the house is too small and there isn't enough room outside for him to romp and play like he needs to. But, man...he is THE coolest. So beautiful too.

[UnderTheRainbow]

My friends had a wolf... it's a guy that my stepdad works with and his family. He always goes to this one coffee shop, and when the wolf was still alive, the girls would go "Jimmy, where's John? Where's John??" And he'd run downtown to the coffee shop and find John, haha. Good thing we live in a small town... but he *was* actually pretty dumb, and he ended up getting hit by a car last year. Cute, awesome dog, but pretty freakin dumb. It was funny seeing a WOLF go crazy the second someone picked up a frisbee or tennis ball.
I think I can get attached to just about any dog, haha. I didn't like our friend Jason's dog, Thor (Kodos's littermate) for a while, because he's SO hyper and isn't very well trained (it's taking him longer to get to the 'learning' stage, Kodos started catching on really well at about 8 weeks)... needless to say, I still love him. I tell people - "The guys (Adam and Jason) don't know it yet, but these two are MY dogs." Haha.
I've only really made "friends" with one cat. We had this female cat, and she was ... kinda insane, pretty annoying, and really stupid. But she had kittens one year, and we kept one. He's THE most amazing cat ever - Merlyn the wonder kitten. He's a total kids' cat, even though he's around 20lbs. and part (mostly) feral. He lives with my parents still, and he has a kittie door in the front screen door so he can wander as he pleases. He's a total stoner (I never forced him, I just couldn't keep him out of my face, haha) and if he was allowed, he'd eat CONSTANTLY if he could, haha.
We realized he was seriously THE "hippie" cat when the stupid female cat had another litter of kittens. As normal, all of the male cats in the neighbourhood were out to murder the little ones, but Merlyn kept 'em safe. He'd lay in the yard while the kittens frollicked all around him, or all over him. He even killed a crow and tore it open for them, haha... 2 week old kittens snacking on bits of crow meat. Now THAT was cool. Talk about a good older brother! :p

But then, here's a girl that can get attached to TARANTULAS...and other spiders. Maybe I'm just overly-friendly towards things that aren't humans, 'cause humans haven't been too friendly towards me. :o

[UnderTheRainbow]

Figured I'd post these... last pics I've posted of Kodos were when he was 4 months. He's 8 months now, and MUCH bigger... but still hasn't hit his major growth period (9-12 months). I can't wait.

Kodos (left) and his brother/littermate (our friend's dog) Thor (right).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/DeathRowDisco/P1010052.jpg

"You wanna come in MY living room?!"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/DeathRowDisco/P1010001.jpg

Taking a break from Springtime yard clean-up...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/DeathRowDisco/P1010041.jpg

Mmm... Slurpee!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/DeathRowDisco/P1010044.jpg

[toman]

Silly kids, dogs don't like slurpees! (or ice cream, yoghurt, spaghetti, mushrooms, or any of the other people foods my dog loves...) :D

[LIBRA]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM, SLURPEES :p



And damn cute dog too!!!

[UnderTheRainbow]

Haha, he was absolutely LOVING that thing. He liked his dad's more than mine, so I think next time, the silly male will just have to remember to get one of those extra-super-giant ones.
I'm GLAD Kodos likes mushrooms, 'cause I can not stand the things (unless they're the magical kind, of course, haha) so I make him lay right beside me whenever we eat something with mushrooms.
He got half of a steak yesterday... the way I "cook" my steak - half raw, still dripping blood, with sweet barbecue sauce and tons of cayenne pepper (it was the part I didn't eat, which was a lot more than I actually *did* eat, haha)... he jumped over 6ft. high without a running start or anything, just to grab the steak. Pretty damn cool dog.
He's over 3ft. tall sitting OR standing, and we'd guess between 95-105lbs. (he's definitely heavier than me, and I'm around 100). Still just a little pup. :p