Health Organization for Pudendal Education

I thought I would ask what kind of pets do our members have.

I have a 16 year old JackRussel Dog, he is called Sam and is adorable. He once had great colouring of black and tan but now due to old age is a lot grey around his muzzle. He eats pasta and some meat...but loves leftovers from my food plate except when its curry....!!!!
He is very loyal and follows me everywhere....even to the bathroom....
Bless him I love him so much and will miss him dearly when he is not around!

I did have an aquarium of tropical fish which I loved as they are very relaxing and healing, however they are not tactile.

I would love to hear of others and their relationship with their pets.

Oh, Amanda. You know how to get me talking!

We have an almost three year old miniature Australian shepherd. His name is Tobey and he enriches our life in so many ways. We swear he is incredibly intuitive. He knows when I'm hurting, and lies down at my feet or gently lays against me. He's too smart for his own good; thus, he gets in trouble frequently.

I'm pretty mobile it seems, compared to others with this condition, and I have great fun taking him on long walks or to the dog park. Tobey knows how to experience joy in life, and lives life with the goal of enjoying each day. If only humans could all adopt his attitude!

We have a lizard named Cupcake. He is a Uromastix Lizard, which is the best pet ever for busy moms. They are from the sahara desert region, and can go days without food or water, so they thrive on neglect. I remember to attend to him every week or so, and for 4 years he has been getting bigger and fatter and friendlier.
I am really more of a snake fan, but my Grandma is so phobic she will not come to my house even if I had a little snake in a cage shut in the laundry room.
No fuzzy pets for us - my son is extremely allergic to dogs & cats. Yay about the dogs, they are so much work it's like having another child. Bummer about the cats, I would like to have one.

We have a 5 year old English Bulldog named Sophie and a 6 month old Pug named Bella. Sophie was a pet store rescue (she had alot of medical problems and was deemed "unfit for sale" and I was lucky enough to get her before they destroyed her. We were not intending on getting another dog, but we went to the SPCA one day to donate some old blankets and towels and there was the pug puppy. My husband fell in love instantly. I could not say no to him as he has done so much for me. But I am glad she is part of our family now - although I will NEVER let my husband go to donate anything at the SPCA again, lol! As one who is typically confined to bed or couch due to pain, I can honestly say I would be a wreck without my babies! I do think they are psychic as they seem to sense my level of pain and know when it is time to just cuddle up with mom or when they can get away with some puppy antics They give me company and unconditional love, I would be lost without them. We lost our 17 year old beagle to cancer just a few months before PN struck me. Being a volunteer for the beagle rescue is one of the things I miss most about my "former" life. Losing our Opie was one of the hardest things I have ever dealt with. But I keep his picture on my nightstand and on top of the entertainment center and it helps me to remember how much he too blessed my life. We cannot have cats as 2 of my sons are allergic although I love them too !

Great topic! I am enjoying reading about other people's furbabies (and lizard babies )

Grace

Oh, I'm so glad you started this thread, Amanda!
My Fuzz Butts make me so happy and mean the world to me! I have 3 kitties: Gizmo, Kaycee and Nero. For some reason, stray and feral cats seem to congregate in my backyard.
However, there's no revolving door here. Once they come in, there's no going back out. Additionally, I care for a feral cat family. The mom recently had a litter of 5 (Chewie, Mercedes, Maggie, Zeus, and Neytiri) and they're about 10 weeks old now. Over the years, I've socialized and found loving homes for dozens of kitties. I used to have ferrets, too. Lots of them. I used to be an active member of a ferret shelter, and quite honestly, I don't foster well! I end up falling hopeless in love with my fosters and keeping them as part of my family. I had EIGHT ferrets at one time (in addition to my kitties)!!! I was also an active member of a feline shelter for many years, but PN has pretty nixed all the volunteer work I used to do. My Fuzz Butts are the center of my universe. They're all very loving and social, and the attention I lavish on them distracts me from how I'm feeling most of the time. I always talk to them in a cheerful, cooing tone of voice, so it's really hard to feel depressed while addressing them! How can you possibly coo and be depressed??!? You can't! I miss my dogs. I had 2 black labs who passed on about 5 years ago and I still haven't gotten over it. As much as I love my kitties, there really isn't anything like a dog. But the kitties are also intuitive as to when I need a little extra comfort. All three sleep with my husband and me each night and it's just the BEST!
I loved hearing about Cupcake, Hermajesty! How big is he and what do you feed him? Is he friendly? Does he like to be handled?
Amanda - Wow! A 16 year old Jack Russell! Does he still have a lot of energy? He seems very bonded to you.
Pomegranate - Tobey sounds like such a love! I agree with his philosophy about enjoying each day! What's his favorite kind of trouble to get into?
Grace - I'm so very sorry about the loss of your precious Opie. None of my Fuzz Butts are just pets to me. They're family members, so I can fully understand the devastation when they move on. Congratulations on your newest addition to the family! Pugs are one of my favorite breeds. When I'm ready to have another dog, I have fantasies about adopting one and naming him/her "Pork Chop"! Thank goodness you were able to get to Sophie in time! What kind of medical issues did she have? Do Sophie and Bella get along well?
Warm regard,
Karyn

Karyn,
8 Ferrets!!!!! you must know a trick I don't. We tried ferrets, and here is my experience...they supposedly can be litter trained because they naturally will back into a corner to poop...but even i I used a box with a cut-off side for the litter, they would just poop in the corner between the litter box and the floor. Or choose another corner, and the switch back when I moved the box. OK so I tried every trick I could think of, and all the lil critters did was ruin my walls and my floor, and stink up the house. This was in a small laundry room with with a baby gate...let's not even talk about what happened when I let them out to run around the house. So it was keep the poor lil things in a cage all day or find them a new home. So how DO you litter train a ferret?
BTW, I got mine when my daughter was 11 months old, and she was so excited that "ferrets" was her 1st word, although it came out like, "djidjits".
Uromasyx lizards are a breed known to get calm with handling, but I am not much into handling lizards so Cupcake doesn't get handled much & isn't into it. He has extreme personality though, (really!), and likes to come to the edge of the cage and stare at us and cock his head and act generally silly when he has company. With my daughter and her little girlfriends only, if they put their fingers on the glass he will come to the other side and lick the glass where their fingers are (no, he is not trying to eat them, he is a vegetarian). He's I guess a medium sized lizard, I would say 9 inches to a foot if you include the tail, which you may as well because he has a big fat spikey tail which is almost as wide as his body. Yes, I am weird, i find him (and all reptiles & amphibians) highly cute.

Hi Hermajest,
Nope - no tricks. That was pretty much my experience with them, too. I used to have poopie pans in every single corner throughout my house and they would, for the most part, use them but there were plently of times the little SOBs would go in front of them, beside them and even move them to go behind them! They were A LOT OF WORK! As much I miss the comic relief they provided on a daily basis, I will never have ferrets again. I was spending a fortune on paper towels and OdorBan to keep things clean. And no, I didn't cage mine, either. I have an older double oven with a large storage drawer on the bottom and that's where they slept. They would gain access to the drawer through a gap in the back of the stove and had free access to the house at all times. The only area they didn't have access to was my bedroom. We had to put a gate up in the doorway because they would come in at night wanting attention. The way they expressed this was by biting your toes. Unacceptable! That's just way too cute about your daughters first word! Were they good with her? I think Cupcake is a riot! How cute is that, when he licks the glass where their fingers are?!?!? 9 - 12 inches is a pretty good size! Although not cuddly, I also think lizards are freakin' adorable! How long do they live? So, Cupcake eats veggies? Do you feed him crickets, too? My brother had a Gecko named Sahara and he fed him crickets.

Nope, no crickets...Cupcake has no water bowl, they are too desert-y to need one: he gets watered-down lettuce every few days which is where he gets his moisture, and he eats that and "iguana food", which comes in a jar and looks like kibble. This is true - if I get the iguana kibble which includes purple bits, he will pick them out and eat the rest until there are only purple pieces left in the bowl
So he lives 35 years and was supposedly 2 when i got him so now he is 6... I got him because the kids must have a pet, but guess who will be taking care of him for the next 29 years???

Wow! Cupcake really IS a pet that thrives on neglect! That's facinating that he doesn't need a water bowl! And he's a picky eater, to boot?!? Does he shed his skin?
I have to ask, how did you come up with the name CUPCAKE? Like, when he was a little baby, did he look like a sweet little cupcake?

he sheds quite a bit, as he seems to grow at a kind of a constant slow rate even though he is not a juvenile. I guess they just keep growing. We got him when he was 2 so we never knew if he was cute as a cupcake when he was a baby...more like I wanted my kids to share my view of reptiles as super cute. Which my daughter does, because she is a mini-me. My son, however, is an adolescent and just thinks we are nuts.