W.I.S.H.-Wide Monday Mixer!

[rubato]

Before my son, I had my baby substitute which was a miniature schnauzer named Malcolm. He was fantastic and spoiled rotten, but developed diabetes and we had to put him down when my son was 1. He never liked my son and didn't speak to me for the year he was alive after my son was born!

It took me 8 years to get up the nerve to get another dog (I was in mourning). We now have a Welsh Terrier named Archie. He is fantastic! He's the life of the party in any situation. Very well behaved and doesn't shed (very important because I am obsessive with pet hair). I'm not much of a cat person, but he's got a bit of that cat personality. I specifically got the smallest breed possible that had legs long enough to run with me. But, he drives me crazy when we run, so now he just goes on my walks and I run alone. Oh well! He is obsessed with balls and water, so if either is around, I can't get him away from it!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

We are down to one kitty -- we had 2 for 15 years, but Gordon Gecko Guy has gone to the great catnip place in the sky. Gecko ws a short hair orange tabby, very vocal, and not overly sociable.

Our remaining master is Worf Everett Doodles, who also responds to Worf, Worfie, and Worfiedoodles. At 17, he spends most of his time napping. When he is awake, he expects to be held and given the attention he so richly deserves. Worf is a black long hair, has taken to caterwauling since he lost his minion, and cannot stand to be left out of anything.

Maria

 

[FFigawi]

Do you have any pets? Tell us about your pets, past, present or imaginary!

We've got five of them, all dogs.

Taylor, Australian Shepherd. She's 13.5, not quite totally deaf but can't hear much, and is at the top of the pack. She is also the one who wants to play the most with the puppy (details below) and can't understand why the puppy thinks she's too rough. Taylor is named after Elizabeth Taylor.

Athena, Rottweiler. She'll be 13 on Wednesday and finally eligible for the Rottweiler Longevity study at Purdue. They're making a Grey Muzzle Tour this spring of all the living Rotties in their study (only a handful (19?) are over 13 and still alive), and she should get to be one of them. They visited a good friend of mine and her 14-year old male a few weeks ago, and they made the CBS morning show and the front page of their local paper. Athena is named for the Greek Goddess because a Rottie named Fluffy is just wrong.

Holden, Aussie. He's 10 and the lone male dog in the house. Poor guy. He's also the lowest on the totem pole except for the puppy. My wife claims he's named for William Holden, but since you always hear "Holden Caulfield, knock that *&^$ off!" when he's in trouble, I beg to differ.

Davis, yet another Aussie. She's 7 going on 7 months. Totally wild, very high drive, and willing to go, go, go until she falls over from exhaustion. Definitely the most creative of the older four. I feel bad we blamed a lot of the door and cupboard opening on Holden until we realized it was Davis. She's mastered the horizontal door handles no matter which way the door opens, in or out, but thankfully she hasn't figured out how to turn a knob yet. She's named after Betty Davis.

Harlow, Border Collie. She'll be four months on Friday and is named after Jean Harlow. She's our latest crazy red dog, although after Davis you'd think we'd have learned our lesson. She's a typical BC - whip smart, fascinated by movement, and quick as anything. Just like the other four, she'll be doing agility, flyball, obedience, tracking, herding, and maybe even dock diving if we can get her to swim. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time training.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Ooooh, I never miss an opportunity to pull out the Shepherds! Here is our most recent picture of them; I went out to coach last week and DH snapped a picture of them "pining" at the door.

Shepherd on the Left: That's Sasha, who we adopted in November of 2009. I saw her on Petfinder with our favorite German Shepherd rescue and just couldn't let her go. She's almost 6 years old but acts like a puppy. She is really my dog, and follows me around constantly. She's also my pregnancy running buddy - her speed very much matches my pregnant "waddle".

Shepherd on the Right: Is Jack, who is 4 years old and we've had since he was 1.5. He's a typical OCD Shepherd who is very protective and loyal to his family. He even once "defended" the hamster from Sasha after she decided it looked fun to play with/snack on, soon after adopting her. Despite the fact that he likes to think that he's a big scary dog, he really just wants to snuggle everyone. Jack is my marathon running buddy, as he did every single run with me while I was training for the Goofy. It means that he's feeling a bit sluggish now that I'm pregnant and not running nearly as far.

We also have Nadia, the Dwarf Hamster, a 50 gallon tank of freshwater fish, and a 20 gallon tank of saltwater "creatures". In a 1-bedroom downtown apartment. There's a reason that we're moving to a house outside the city this week!

 

[escape]

Hi All!

I have "several" cats. Most of these have mysteriously shown up on my front porch - hungry, thin, and/or abandoned. People around here know that I have a soft heart when it comes to our furry friends. So, it's no wonder that these cats have shown up at my place. Luckily, I've been able to give some away to good homes. Others, I get neutered/spayed, get their shots and give them a good home - as best I can.

I've had more than this but now I'm down to five cats. Yikes! It's way more than I want but it is what it is.

#1 cat - Shamu. Shamu (black & white) is 11 years old and was a shelter cat. He's the head of the cat household and is such a sweetie. He's my little man.

#1 female cat - Pookie. Pookie (solid black) is 5 years old and was an abondened kitten that we found in a neighbor's back yard - right after they moved out. When we took her to the vet, she weighed 3/4 of a pound.

#1 I want it, I want it now cat - Nubbin (blk & wht, 3 yrs old). His original name was Mickey. His sister was Minnie. As kittens, both just "showed up" on my front porch - hungry/thin. Mickey got his tail caught in something - part of it had to be amputated. "Nubbin" became his name after that. He meows a lot until he gets what he wants. Drives me crazy at times. He's very loving, otherwise. Unfortunately, Minnie got hit by a car and didn't survive.

#1 neck warmer - Bear. Two weeks before Minnie left us, she brought me a present - a 1 day old little black kitten. Long story short, Minnie brought in the kitten through a window I had open. A couple of my other cats were kind of swatting at it when I discovered it. I thought maybe it was a mouse at first. Yikes - where did she get this? (it wasn't hers, she had been spayed). I immediately took it to the vet, vet suggested I just let him put it to sleep because it probably would not survive without its momma. However, I wanted to try to find the momma and if I couldn't, I wanted to try to raise it. No luck with finding momma. I ended up having to feed it every few hours for several weeks and miracuously, he lived. This meant I didn't get much sleep during that time. After the feedings, Bear would often sleep on my neck. To this day, he still likes to sleep on my neck. If you see me hunched over, it could be a result of this as he's a little heavier now.

#1 copycat - Lucy (5 yrs, solid gray). Another abandoned cat. Lucy likes to copy my other cats...especially Shamu. If Shamu wants to sleep in a certain spot, then Lucy wants to sleep there. If she sees Bear on my shoulders then she wants up there. I could go on and on. She's a very loving cat and gets along well with the others.

Sorry for the long post. As Bob Barker often said - "Help control the pet population. Please have your pets spayed and neutered!"

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

So my mom will probably post to this too, but I guarantee you that on all but one pet we've shared her opinion will be different.

When I was little we had a cockapoo (cocker spaniel/poodle). Her name was Puella, but we called her Pooh. She was pure evil. She hated me, and when my parents promised I could get my own dog when she died, she kept on living just to spite me. She lived to be 18 (she was 3 years older than me).

However, somewhere along the line my mom realized Pooh was never going to die, so we adopted Mystic. Mystic was the best. dog. EVER. She was a solid black lab/chow/husky/shepherd mix. She had tons of psychological issues, such as a deepseated fear of anything that moved (including her own gas) and thunderstorms. She could cuddle when she wanted to, and her favorite toys were tennis balls and water bottles. Sadly we lost her Christmas before last to liver problems, but she continues to live on in our hearts.

Now we (and I say we, I mean my parents) have 2 dogs. The first is a chow/corgi mix named Sienna. She's short and funny looking, and a real diva. She ALWAYS wants to be in your lap, and will normally climb up no matter what you're doing or already have occupying that space. She's a dark brown brindle, and has depth perception issues. We play patty cake, but it's funny because she tries and tries and just never hits my hand, even though I don't move.

The second dog is Apawlo (yeah, that's how we spell it). He is a boxer/pit mix. He's brindle with white paws and chest. He's so stupid you have to love him. He also has no tail as a result of an abusive first owner, so we call him Nubicus sometimes...I don't know, it's funny to us. He's about 80 pounds of solid muscle, and he thinks he's a lap dog too. He has a tendency to push both dog and person off the couch. His claim to fame is that if I put a treat on his nose, he gets confused and can't figure out where it went. He starts looking around and then acts like it's raining treats when it falls off.

 

[sk8ingmom]

We've had two Alaskan dogs with Cleveland names. Our first was a black Lab / Springer Spaniel mutt from Kodiak, AK, named Cuyahoga. We called her Cuya (K-eye-ya). She died 3 years ago at 13 when we were back in Alaska - she'd lived in 4 states with us. Our second dog is an Alaskan Husky from Houston, AK named Malley Lorain after a ice cream/chocolate shop in our Ohio home town. We taught her sled dog commands and she mushes around our neighborhood pulling us on our bikes!

 

[Maddykins06]

Ariel is our one year old brown Lab.

Our DD named her.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

This has been a fun read today! I am such a critter lover. Love me love my dogs. I'd have 1 cat and 2 dogs always if I could. When Alexander cat had to be put to sleep at age 17 we got another but had to return her since DS became highly allergic to any other. Alexander was a lovely girl cat that weighed 5 pounds maybe when she was wet and just fed.

Currently Kirby dog has our hearts here. He is a black pug that was given to me by a friend when her pug had pups. Kirby just turned 13 on the 23rd. He enjoys our 2 mile strolls in the cooler weather.

 

[ghoulishgirl]

Pets, you ask? If it was legal in California and fuzzy, we had it when I was growing up. So, no ferrets Horses, I showed 4-H from ages 9-20, rabbits, cats, dogs, guniea pigs, hamsters, rats (love them!), chinchillas, goats, sheep, cows. We had a little bit of everything over the years. My sister even showed chickens in 4-H. Now we only have 1 cat. It's kinda weird, but it's hard to go on vacation when you have all those animals.

 

[MouseDogMom]

So my mom will probably post to this too, but I guarantee you that on all but one pet we've shared her opinion will be different.

Since she's already done all the hard work, I'll just edit from here...

When I was little we had a cockapoo (cocker spaniel/poodle). Her name was Puella, but we called her Pooh. She was pure evil. She hated me, and when my parents promised I could get my own dog when she died, she kept on living just to spite me. She lived to be 18 (she was 3 years older than me).

DH gave Pooh to me before we got married. She was our baby long before DD came along, and she never accepted the fact that there was another one in the house.

However, somewhere along the line my mom realized Pooh was never going to die, so we adopted Mystic. Mystic was the best. dog. EVER. She was a solid black lab/chow/husky/shepherd mix. She had tons of psychological issues, such as a deepseated fear of anything that moved (including her own gas) and thunderstorms. She could cuddle when she wanted to, and her favorite toys were tennis balls and water bottles. Sadly we lost her Christmas before last to liver problems, but she continues to live on in our hearts.

She was indeed the best dog ever, and I'm still in mourning.

Now we (and I say we, I mean my parents) have 2 dogs. The first is a chow/corgi mix named Sienna. She's short and funny looking, and a real diva. She ALWAYS wants to be in your lap, and will normally climb up no matter what you're doing or already have occupying that space. She's a dark brown brindle, and has depth perception issues. We play patty cake, but it's funny because she tries and tries and just never hits my hand, even though I don't move.

The second dog is Apawlo (yeah, that's how we spell it). He is a boxer/pit mix. He's brindle with white paws and chest. He's so stupid you have to love him. He also has no tail as a result of an abusive first owner, so we call him Nubicus sometimes...I don't know, it's funny to us. He's about 80 pounds of solid muscle, and he thinks he's a lap dog too. He has a tendency to push both dog and person off the couch. His claim to fame is that if I put a treat on his nose, he gets confused and can't figure out where it went. He starts looking around and then acts like it's raining treats when it falls off.

I'm not so fond of Apawlo (formerly Apollo, but his paws are so big that DH and DD changed the spelling.) I prefer dogs with some brain, and he just doesn't seem to have much of one. But it is funny to watch him look for the treat when it's on his nose.

Jackie

 

[WDWFAN9]

well let's see....we have Sadie our 9 yr old black lab. She is a lady, usually very dignified and kind of prissy. Then we have Holiday (Holly), a loveable 2 yr old golden. She is a doofus, that is the only way to explain it. It is never too cold or wet outside for her. She loves the mud, and is currently attempting to dig to China. I fully expect to look out one morning and just see the tip of her tail wagging like crazy as she keeps digging.

We also have a koi pond - there's Mark Burnett, Angel, the twins (can't tell them apart), Sunshine, Comet, Lucky, Googly, Blackie, Dash, Bumble, Zorro, and a bunch I haven't named. Oh, and Mr Frog who just kind of made himself at home in the pond.

We didn't get pets til the kids were grown - so we have plenty of dog sitters when we need to be gone.

 

[timmac]

Ha, we also had a little dog named Muffin when I was a child. She was a west highland white terrier.

Add me to the list of people who had a dog named Muffin as a kid. She was a cream colored cocker spaniel.

 

[mla1977]

I never had a pet named Muffin, but it seems to be a popular name.

Previous pets include:

Suzie - Black dog. I was really little and she was begging to go out. I opened the door and she ran out into the street. (all the more reason that child safety locks were a good thing that were invented a few years too late)

Marshall - domestic short hair cat. He had about 100 names before I settled on that. I was 3, what do you expect?

Greta - German Shepherd. Dad only kept her for a month. She was way too big for his house.

Minnie and Petey - Angoras? Beautiful all white cats. Don't know why I didn't name the male Mickey though. Mom got rid of them when we moved though.

Gracie Lou - Buff cocker spaniel. Step father's dogs. Mom used to send her into my room to wake me up for school.

Gabriella (Gabby) - gray Persian. Beautiful. Mom named her Gabby 'cuz she cried the whole way home.

 

[chimera]

I have never owned a pet named Muffin.

We lost our 12 yo orange cat, Tigger, to kidney failure last July. He never really forgave us for getting the second dog, or the first...I think the third may have put him over the edge

Now we just have Team Chaos:
Lola...a 2 yo black lab mix
Katie...a 10 yo Chow-Shar Pei mix
Lucy...a 15 yo black and white dog

To borrow a line from the last dog show, dog hair is a condiment at our house.

 

[princessbride6205]

I'm allergic to most animals, so we're not really pet people. DH and I did think about getting a dog, but we had DD instead.

 

[tolemommy]

Mostly a lurker but am trying to post a little more on the WISH board because I love to run & love this post.

I have a pair of 4.5 years old pugs Disney & Parker.

Disney - We've had Disney since she was 10 weeks old. When I went to visit the breeder this one little girl pug puppy was sassy, happy, active, and full of herself. I reached down & picked her up, the breeder quickly said, "honey you may not want that little gal she is the first one to wake up in the morning & instantly wakes up the rest of the litter, she is full of mischief." I grinned and replied she is the pug for me & welcomed little Disney girl to the family. I am happy to report Dis is still full of mischief, sassy, and is every bit the happy Disney Diva.

Parker - My sweet boy. Parker is a rescue pug who had a very hard start in life. Parker needed a special home due to his special needs. I told my sons if no one adopted him by Thanksgiving weekend 2005 I was going to visit him. I went to meet him & his foster mom. Parker was recovering from hip surgery, was very slim, had been beaten & abandoned, & was partially blind due to his abuse. He needed a home w/another dog preferably a pug, so he wasn't home alone, and a nuturing patient owner. Like Disney I scooped Parker up in my arms and whispered, "welcome home sweet boy, you are safe now. Btw your sister is a total Diva." I lovingly tell everyone that Disney is Parker's seeing eye pug.

 

[WDWFAN9]

Here are a couple pics:

Sadie and Holly



A little bit older and a lot more muddier Holly:

 

[corinnak]

Things were nutso for me last week, but I LOVED reading about everyone's pets and all the creative names!

Here in Minnesota, the race season is kicking into high gear - I know in other parts of the country has been underway for some time. So I thought a race related mixer question would be good:

Do you have any funny, interesting or just crucial pre-race rituals or traditions? AND/OR Would you please share your best racing advice?


I know that I have more than my share of ridiculous pre-race rituals! Starting with soft serve ice cream the night before a big race, moving on to pinning my number to my clothes the night before, knowing full well I will be repinning it at least twice! And finally knowing that 3 visits to the restroom before the race IS the magic number and should not be trifled with.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Do you have any funny, interesting or just crucial pre-race rituals or traditions? AND/OR Would you please share your best racing advice?

I wish I did have something I thought was funny, interesting or crucial -- I guess for me it's eating light and gettting to sleep early the night before. My best racing advice is to relax and have fun! Don't worry about anyone else around you, run your own race.

Maria