What made you choose your pets?

[Spinneret]

Energetic

 

[BrianL]

I saw my current kitty cat shortly after my prvious one had passed. I wasn't quite ready, but I had been struck by how cute the little tortie was and that her name was similar to Sylvester's - Silvian. I would see her in the adoption section at the pet store. She was there on behalf of the Humane Society and had lost her tail as a kitten, so she has a little nub. One day, I saw that she had an adoption pending sticker on her window. That's good - she deserves a nice home. A few months later, I saw her again. I thought she had gotten adopted, but the employee told me that was for a different cat. Then she asked if I wanted to meet her. Uh oh. I said yes, and Silvian jumped into my lap immediately. I was filling out the papers that day. This is a photo of her from yesterday, chilling on the bed:

 

[NYCgrrl]

What made me choose my pet? The stars were in perfect alignment.

 

[lynxstch]

I didn't choose mine----they chose me.

 

[Moliphino]

With Leota, my sister sent me the facebook post from the rescue for Leota and her sister. I emailed them, not expecting to hear anything back (I'd been applying to rescues all over New England for quite a while already and usually got no response). But they did respond and I was approved. There was one person approved before me, so I didn't get to choose which of the two puppies I wanted (which was fine, they were both super cute). A week later I drove to NY to pick her up. As it turns out, I didn't get the puppy they told me was mine. I don't know if the other family changed their mind or if they just couldn't tell them apart that well. They had been in a rescue in Alabama and only arrived in NY that morning, so everyone had only seen pictures from the foster home.

With Rosie, I was following the rescue I adopted Leota from. Leota was approaching 2 and loved dogs, so I was keeping an eye out for any puppies I might like. They pulled Rosie's mom from a shelter in Alabama when she was pregnant and I was drawn to her from the start. The 6 puppies were born and they were adorable little floofs. Just before Thanksgiving they posted 6 week old photos and opened adoption applications. I spent the holiday weekend showing everyone in my family the pictures and trying to decide which one I wanted. Rosie's little spectacles and white chin just drew me in. She looked a lot like our family dog that died 1.5 years earlier, we couldn't resist her.

 

[Dug720]

I was chosen by Merida (profile pic) on 2/29/2020. My tuxie boy Mo had died unexpectedly at the beginning of Feb. I was not going to get anything so soon, but on Ash Wednesday I went to Petco to look at their birds (they all looked pitiful) and looked at the cats they had through one agency. There were some cute ones there, but no human from the agency to speak with. When I got home I looked at the ASPCA website (Mo was an ASPCA alum) and this adorable calico named Skylar was one of their featured cats. I did not let myself get my hopes up for her - I figured she'd be gone - but went with my purple sherpa carrier to see who they had. My volunteer immediately said "We have a little girl I would love for you to meet... Her name's Skylar." We went up to the office area and another worker gave me some treats and opened the area where Skylar was up on a file cabinet. I sat down quietly and within 30 seconds she was in my lap eating out of my hands. That was it. She came home with me that day.

(And yes, ordinarily I would have loved Skylar as a name, I had a rather challenging child in a class a few years before whose name was Skylar, and I didn't want to be reminded of her. So new name. Merida doesn't seem to mind.)

 

[dez1978]

The dog/cat distribution system chose them for me lol. The cats we have showed up at my house as strays. Our oldest dog is a pibble named Luna. She was a recuse that I foster failed. We offered to foster her, but she promptly chose my oldest as her human. So she stayed. As older dogs have passed my kids asked when we'd get another dog. My answer was always that our dogs who have passed will send us the right dog when it is time. They will send us a dog that needs us as much as they did when we rescued them. About 3 months ago, I applied to foster a little shihtzu. I love them and I wanted a small portable dog that we could take places with us, or on the boat. Someone else beat me to it. The rescue asked if I'd consider this american bulldog instead. They had no idea at the time how bad of shape his was in. He has some pretty bad allergies and his crappy owners just decided to have him put down instead of treating him. The vet said no, and reached out to the rescue. So now I have an 80 lb chunk who adores my children and is apparently also ours. I wanted a dog to take on the boat but I got an anchor lol.
The pic on the right is the day we got him. The one on the right is 6 weeks later on his way to get neutered and get a tumor removed. He's gained 15 lbs and is almost all healed up. The surgery was a bit of a set back bc he can't be bathed until his stitches are out later today. He's the bestest boi.

 

[Hisgirl]

I chose my recent pup because of his breed. It's a very rare breed, a 100% true american breed from the 19th century and smart as a whip. So easy to train and like having a young child instead of a dog.

People who own them will literally make up breeds when people stop and ask what kind of dog it is. We don't want to see it soar in popularity, get recognized by the akc and ruined like so many other breeds.

I support rescues all the time, but this dog, I wanted as a puppy and they're too hard to find. I met the pups when they were young, and thought I was going to see two , but fell in love with one of the less-cute ones. Every time I looked down, he was there, staring up at me. Solemn like an old soul.

Researching is so important when you choose an animal. If you choose a rescue, you are saving a life, but you also need to do your due diligence and know what the breed's needs will be so you can do a good match with your own life.

 

[firefly_ris]

Both of my dogs had recently passed away, all of our ducks were gone, and we were fostering dogs and cats for a local rescue org.

The last one attacked my youngest daughter and left her with 110 stitches on her face and jugular area. You could see the carotid artery pulsing just under the skin. It was very close to very bad. Immediately thereafter my daughter was now utterly terrified of all animals much less dogs, and we at that point in time only had a pet rabbit in the house -- which she also became afraid of. I didn't want this to become a lifelong issue so after 6 or 7 months of therapy and recovery I decided to seek out a specific breed of dog to work on re-introduction, and came up with the Havanese. Never had a small dog or a dog that required regular hair cuts. It took time with my youngest but it worked; 2 years later I bought her younger brother from the same breeder so now we have 2 Havanese.

During this frame of time we also took on a senior cat who belonged to a friend of my MIL; she was dying of cancer and couldn't take care of her anymore. The lady sadly passed away and we had her cat for a little under 3 years before she got quite ill herself and we had to put her down. So now we are back to the 2 dogs for now.

 

[Rogue1677x]

We were looking and saw the picture of her with the adorable crooked smile she has.

In January she'll be 14, while the body is starting to lose its strength, her mind is still very much young dog mode.

 

[Lumpy1106]

For me, dogs start at 60 pounds. I have had either a lab or larger dog almost my entire life - love them! Our most recent Chocolate Lab passed away a couple of months ago and DD is begging for a Golden Retriever. We will put that in motion in '25.
We also generally always have 2 cats. We get those from the pound and always adopt them in pairs (litter mates) as kittens. Cats will keep each other company and will minimize the destruction to your furniture (since they don't get bored). Not as picky about the cats, but we have had 2 calicos (separate times and litters - there's usually only one per litter) that have both been great. Love black cats too but they are almost too smart. The pair we had you could literally not keep inside the house. They'd slash window screens and learned how to open doors to let themselves outside.

 

[Moliphino]

With Leota, my sister sent me the facebook post from the rescue for Leota and her sister. I emailed them, not expecting to hear anything back (I'd been applying to rescues all over New England for quite a while already and usually got no response). But they did respond and I was approved. There was one person approved before me, so I didn't get to choose which of the two puppies I wanted (which was fine, they were both super cute). A week later I drove to NY to pick her up. As it turns out, I didn't get the puppy they told me was mine. I don't know if the other family changed their mind or if they just couldn't tell them apart that well. They had been in a rescue in Alabama and only arrived in NY that morning, so everyone had only seen pictures from the foster home.

With Rosie, I was following the rescue I adopted Leota from. Leota was approaching 2 and loved dogs, so I was keeping an eye out for any puppies I might like. They pulled Rosie's mom from a shelter in Alabama when she was pregnant and I was drawn to her from the start. The 6 puppies were born and they were adorable little floofs. Just before Thanksgiving they posted 6 week old photos and opened adoption applications. I spent the holiday weekend showing everyone in my family the pictures and trying to decide which one I wanted. Rosie's little spectacles and white chin just drew me in. She looked a lot like our family dog that died 1.5 years earlier, we couldn't resist her.

Leota is the one on the right


Who could resist this face?

 

[barkley]

I didn't choose mine----they chose me.

this is exactly what happened with us. our first cat showed up one day and looked well fed so I thought it was some neighbor's cat that had wandered into the yard. it disappeared a day later only to return about a week later looking like it was malnourished. we were leaving for a 10 day trip to wdw so I told dh I was going to leave a full bags worth of dry food and water bowls out so we did not come back to a tragedy. 10 days later we returned to a well nourished cat who continued to live with us in 2 different states for another 14 years. our 2nd and 3rd cats came into our lives about 6 months prior to death of our 1st. a cat showed up on our property and realized that we had heated walkway mats so it set up camp and lived out there during the snowy winter occasionally making it's way to our deck and peaking in (we thought it might be feral b/c it would'nt come near anyone). coaxing on our holdest part got it to a petting stage. 1 week before the death of our 1st cat the 2nd had a litter of kittens outside-and one looked almost identical to our 1st cat (calico/same markings). we believe our 1st cat passed on and passed to torch to #2 and #3 to care for us.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Rescue German Shepard and a "Smoke" cat.
Circumstances to long to post, but wifie volunteers in animal rescue and placement and it was our good luck.

https://imgur.com/87jmqHx

 

[Simba's Mom]

All our cats showed up as strays. The 2 I have photos of were our first, and the only ones I have photos of. Elsa (the one in the chair) was abandoned in our neighborhood, and went on to have 7 kittens when she was about 6 months old (by the vet's estimate). Butch was the runt of her litter. The other 5 we have have stayed outdoors, we trapped them, called animal control, who neutered them, then surprisingly, returned them to us. So all our cats have been strays, but have been neutered. They're all interrelated-the Mom and some from each of 2 litters she had, before we had her stopped from reproducing. We have quite a problem with strays and feral cats, but not enough people stop the reproducing. Off my soap box now!

 

[bettertheangel]

I went to the Humane Society to adopt a different cat that I saw online. My best friend went with me. She pointed out a huge cat, so I went and petted him. When I started to leave, he reached out for me with one paw. That was it for me. I went to the front desk and adopted him.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

This guy was running loose on a street near us. Someone alerted the Crazy Bunny Lady (aka Me!). I went to see if I could catch him and get him to a shelter. He gave us quite a run around, but my family teamed up and nabbed the little critter. We took him home for the night, which turned into a week, then a month. We’ve now had him for over 9 years. He’s an exceptional bunny, having lived with a tumor in his chest for nearly 3 years with daily medication, regular vet visits and lots of love. We will continue to spoil him as long as he wants to stick around.

 

[Dug720]

This is Merida bigger than my profile pic.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

I tried to adopt a dog back when my husband and I lived in an apartment. I was told that without a yard we would not be considered to adopt a dog. So, we decided that if we had to buy a dog, we might as well get the dog of my dreams- one that looks like Lady from Lady and the Tramp. She has been everything I dreamed of and more, she is so sweet and gentle and has never so much as growled at my children. And she’s so pretty!!! My husband thought it would be cruel to wrap her up in a hatbox but he did get me a nice box to unwrap on Christmas morning and then we put our puppy inside it haha.

 

[imbelle]

After my last Malamute passed away, I said no more pets (too traumatic to lose them). A year and a half later I was in Iceland and fell in love with an Icelandic sheepdog. So the Never God gave me double whammy.