I'm getting really tired of people who are insensitive when something happens to one of my pets. Noah's bio-dad was coming up for a visit the same day Loki had to be put to sleep and he arrived there three hours after I was saying good-bye to Loki at the vet and he spent the whole time asking me why I looked so serious and then he kept telling Noah he thought I had some sort of depression problem. Duhhh! My dog died THREE HOURS AGO!
Then when Ridley was at the vet, I was visiting these people because I'm sort of assigned to go see them every once in a while from my church and I mentioned that my cat was at the vet and they asked how much it was going to cost. I said I didn't know, but the vet estimated $600, so the lady said, "$600?! I would have just shot the cat. Heck, I can give you another cat. My cat has kittens every three months." I didn't even know what to say to that, so I just stared blankly until someone changed the subject.
Heidi..wow. Being depressed over a depressing thing is not a "depression problem". I would've told the second lady that I'm going to be shooting her instead of wasting my time coming over and keeping them company.
I've spent $1k+ on my rat this past January for a URI just to have him die a week later. I don't regret it a bit.
You live in a pretty rural area right Heidi? From my experiences, to a lot of older rural people, animals don't mean much. My grandpa has told me stories in the past of shooting all the kittens in the barn, etc.
A lot of other families looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how much it was to fix Homer's UTI. It was also $600, shit, I would have taken out loans if I needed to.
I don't think its just older rural people. I have a couple of middle-aged neighbors that grew up on a farm and they were talking about how dogs were disposable. One of them said they had BCs all the time and they usually didn't live past five because they would get hit by cars all the time. WTF? Maybe you should try keeping them away from the road or training them not to run near cars? The other one has an 11 year old dog with a malignant tumor and isn't willing to try chemo even though the vet suggested it. WTF? I know he's got the money. He just put 20K into his mustang convertible.
Interesting, I thought it was a cultural issue that tended to appear more to these sides of the globe (mediterranean cultures). I see there are some people over there that share the notion that animals only serve a purpose and are disposable...And the landmines, don't even get me started! I have to steer Kuma clear of loads of them. I've started just a section of the square ate the back of my building, cause it's the cleanest one, only Kuma poops there and I always pick it up.
Yeah, I live in a very rural area. Everyone I go to church with is either a farmer or a rancher (or both). The view toward animals is quite a bit different because they're more connected to the process of using animals to sustain themselves. Most people eat meat and use other animal products, but are quite disconnected from the process of an animal from a field to their mouths. I think in some ways farmers tend to be more respectful of life and in some ways, they are less respectful, and of course, it depends on the individual. A few weeks ago, someone was telling me how he was helping a cow give birth and he had tears in his eyes as he explained how beautiful and precious all life is and how it made him feel to watch a calf come into the world. Mostly, they just don't really get the concept of a "pet". All the animals on their property have a job. Cats catch mice, dogs protect the property and keep rabbits out of the garden, cattle provide food, horses pull wagons, etc.
The particular comment I posted I felt was quite insensitive, though. I've told lots of people about Ridley, farmers included, and no one else suggested I simply shoot him and get a new cat. Some of them said they wouldn't have spent the money, but what really bothered me about this person was the tone. She was acting like it was really stupid of me to save Ridley's life and was rolling her eyes. I just found that rude.
Ok, so I've got another off leash dog idiot story. On weekends when I have a little more time, I sometimes walk Lucy (and now Joey) in a neighborhood that's a little farther away. It is filled with Pits and Rotties all chained in the back yard and all neurotic as hell. I always feel horrible about it. Anyway, between all these neurotic dogs is this one house that has a damn Chihuahua that I've never seen before. It was off leash and charged us. Joey, seeing an opportunity to play with a new dog started back barking in his happy playful way. I pulled him back and got in between my dogs and the Chihuahua. When I stepped in front, it stopped immediately and just sat there barking. I took a step toward it and it ran back a few feet. I'm thinking, ok I can continue my walk now. As soon as I turn around, this dog decided to follow us. So I stop. I look from a distance and it has no id tag on its collar. We take a few more steps and it continues to follow us. I walk back toward it snapping my fingers and pointing back in the direction it came from. It runs off a few feet and then turns to follows us again. Not wanting to be responsible for this dog getting lost, I felt I needed to try to convince it to go home. I kept walking toward it. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this dog constantly barking at us, its owner comes out and calls it over. It goes reluctantly. This stupid guy puts him on a tie out and walks right back in the house. No comment, no apology, no thank you. Nothing!
We had a young couple bring in a pit bull puppy that had just been attacked by their other adult pit bull. They brought it into emergency and the doctor took a look at the puppy and determined it needed some serious surgery, it's face was covered in puncture wounds and lacerations. It was pretty grusome and very sad, this puppy was like 7 weeks old. These people said "Oh yeah, do whatever you have to do to fix her." They signed the estimates and consent forms for surgery and asked a receptionist if they could visit with the puppy one more time before they left. Well, they had already put a catheter in the puppy's foreleg and had given her pain medication, but they brought the puppy in to visit with these people anyway before they left. The tech was going to come back in 5 minutes after they were finished, well too late, THE PEOPLE RAN OUT THE DOOR WITH IT, CATHETER IN IT'S LEG AND ALL!! Who does that??!!
A lady brought her 3 month old pit puppy in one day and said "Well, I just moved to a new house, and this dog lives on my sun porch right now, and she seems to have this cut on her back, and it just keeps getting worse and I don't know what to do. I washed it with shampoo and everythang and it just ain't gettin' any better."
*SHAMPOO on an open wound!*
This thing had a 6-8 inch open laceration on it's back that was necrotizing(skin was dying and falling off) probably because she let it go for so long without treatment, oh and probably from dousing it with SHAMPOO!! She took it home without treatment and we found out later it ended up dying.
Hmmm let me think. We had this family bring in a Rott and they had allowed their child to put a hair tie around it's leg. They had let it go without treatment for so long and the hair tie was so tight, it cut off the circulation and caused gangrene to set in on the leg and they had to amputate the leg. These people relinquished this dog to someone who works here luckily, because they couldn't afford to pay for the proper care, not to mention they shouldn't own a pet period. I feel bad for their child.
A lady brought her iguana in because it was near death's door and she didn't know why. She aquired it from someone, but failed to research what the proper diet was for an iguana, and did not supplement it with calcium for 3 years. It died.
A lady with a Shar Pei that got into a fight with her other dog decided instead of bringing the dog in for treatment right away, it was a good idea to put Desitin, a diaper rash cream, on her dogs facial lacerations!! Then she called us and asked why the dog's cuts were infected.
Oh oh, another one. A rescue organization brought a pit bull puppy into emergency one day when I was working. Get this:
It had been hog tied along with 5 of it's littermates by some TEENAGERS, then they decided to set the abandoned house in Detroit they had them in on fire. *On fire* All of the puppies died except this little brindle female that was brought to us one day. We named her Miracle. She had to have many, many skin graft surgeries and her tail amputated. She is alive and doing well and is able to walk and lead a pretty normal life. The doctor that did most of the surgeries on her fell in love with her and adopted her. The police in Detroit did absolutely nothing to find these kids, and I'll bet a million dollars if someone knew who they were, they wouldn't tell the police anyway, because that would be "Snitching".
Oh wow Kelly. Those stories are most definitely worse than any of mine. Perhaps the people I get pissed at are idiots, but he people you were writing about just plain suck at life. That must be really tough when a case like that comes across your desk.
I'm immune to most of this stuff, I've been doing it for 5 years. But there are those certain cases where it really just gets to you.
I had a lady call after her dog was put to sleep and told the treatment staff handling her dog's body to not put her in the freezer, because "she never liked the cold." I've actually had more people than you think call and ask that, or to put a blanket on their pet in the freezer to keep them warm. That's actually more sad than idiotic, but you really get caught off guard when people ask you things like that.
Sometimes I think that people should have to take a class and become certified to own a pet, or have kids for that matter! It sounds outrageous, but a pet takes just as much responsibilty and commitment that it would to own say a gun or being able to drive a car or drive a snowmobile. You have to have a license or get a certification for all of those things, but it's ok to own a pet even if you know nothing about it, how to take care of it, or not have any money to financially keep it healthy.
Kelly I'm not sure if your sharing stories about idiots or people that are just plain evil. Only humans could treat animals in such an inhumane way. It's disgusting.
Friday night I was walking the dogs one last time before going to bed. Across the street I see a Australian Cattle Dog that is always around. Well for some reason the guy didn't have a leash on it and he darted across the road right us. A car stopped about three feet short of hitting us. Then it wanted to play with Whiz and Nemo, who did not want to play with him. I had to give it a good kick/shove with my foot to get it to back off (I figured that was better than Nemo latching onto it's face).
The guy came running over, pale as a ghost. He apologized a lot. I told him not to worry about it and that I was glad his dog had not been hit. I think that will be the last time he tries to let the dog go pee in the front yard without a leash. At least he cared though!
I'm with Brandon, the folks you spoke of left the realm of idiocy and are treading very heavily on the plain of EVIL. I could go on for hours about the horror show I see at animal control on a daily basis. But instead I will share just an idiot story.
Walking the pups this morning (I have Piglet and Moto, my walker has Himiko) and we get to this park we bring them to. It is 7am and we typically are the only folks there. Out of no where this guy shows up with his two boxers. He has one off leash and is taking the other leash off. I stop. I put all three dogs and walker behind me and say "what are you doing?" as his dogs start to lunge at mine. He is like "oh mine are fine". I tell him "Mine aren't and neither am I. I work at animal control, just so you know". At this point his dogs are already gone. He has to run after them. They are not listening to him and it takes him a good few minutes to catch them.
1 There are leash laws
2If you have dogs that you want to let off leash. Make sure they are sufficiently trained to come back when called.
3If your dogs are lunging (NOT play bowing) at a human, they are NOT fine.
I posted this in another thread, but it really goes here:
This past weekend, the cable guy had to come out to the house because of the phone. Jazz was running about with her "I have a new friend" look and the guy goes to the front door, holds it open while talking to another guy outside. Jazz looked at me like, "Can I go out? The door is open". I told her to go crate and she looked at me with this in mind, "Me?? I'm not the idiot holding the door open with a dog who'd like to be outside." She slunk off to her crate and was not happy. Here's some shots of her poking her head out of her crate.
Thanks. That adorable Jazz is taking up the entire bed right now - I'll get that same look when I tell her it's time to go to bed and "Go Crate". She's thinking, I sleep on the bed while you're not here, why do I have to sleep in the crate when you want to sleep? Then at 3am, she'll be on the bed - I don't zip her into the crate very often.
I was standing outside with Piglet and Himiko this afternoon, and a woman came up and asked me "is that a cat?" I had to ask her to repeat the question, I was sure I hadn't heard her correctly. She again says "Is that a cat?" To which I replied, "NO she is a puppy" with a bewildered look on my face.
Comments
I'm getting really tired of people who are insensitive when something happens to one of my pets. Noah's bio-dad was coming up for a visit the same day Loki had to be put to sleep and he arrived there three hours after I was saying good-bye to Loki at the vet and he spent the whole time asking me why I looked so serious and then he kept telling Noah he thought I had some sort of depression problem. Duhhh! My dog died THREE HOURS AGO!
Then when Ridley was at the vet, I was visiting these people because I'm sort of assigned to go see them every once in a while from my church and I mentioned that my cat was at the vet and they asked how much it was going to cost. I said I didn't know, but the vet estimated $600, so the lady said, "$600?! I would have just shot the cat. Heck, I can give you another cat. My cat has kittens every three months." I didn't even know what to say to that, so I just stared blankly until someone changed the subject.
Heidi..wow. Being depressed over a depressing thing is not a "depression problem". I would've told the second lady that I'm going to be shooting her instead of wasting my time coming over and keeping them company.
I've spent $1k+ on my rat this past January for a URI just to have him die a week later. I don't regret it a bit.
You live in a pretty rural area right Heidi? From my experiences, to a lot of older rural people, animals don't mean much. My grandpa has told me stories in the past of shooting all the kittens in the barn, etc.
A lot of other families looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how much it was to fix Homer's UTI. It was also $600, shit, I would have taken out loans if I needed to.
Yeah, I live in a very rural area. Everyone I go to church with is either a farmer or a rancher (or both). The view toward animals is quite a bit different because they're more connected to the process of using animals to sustain themselves. Most people eat meat and use other animal products, but are quite disconnected from the process of an animal from a field to their mouths. I think in some ways farmers tend to be more respectful of life and in some ways, they are less respectful, and of course, it depends on the individual. A few weeks ago, someone was telling me how he was helping a cow give birth and he had tears in his eyes as he explained how beautiful and precious all life is and how it made him feel to watch a calf come into the world. Mostly, they just don't really get the concept of a "pet". All the animals on their property have a job. Cats catch mice, dogs protect the property and keep rabbits out of the garden, cattle provide food, horses pull wagons, etc.
The particular comment I posted I felt was quite insensitive, though. I've told lots of people about Ridley, farmers included, and no one else suggested I simply shoot him and get a new cat. Some of them said they wouldn't have spent the money, but what really bothered me about this person was the tone. She was acting like it was really stupid of me to save Ridley's life and was rolling her eyes. I just found that rude.
I come across idiots all the time where I work.
We had a young couple bring in a pit bull puppy that had just been attacked by their other adult pit bull. They brought it into emergency and the doctor took a look at the puppy and determined it needed some serious surgery, it's face was covered in puncture wounds and lacerations. It was pretty grusome and very sad, this puppy was like 7 weeks old. These people said "Oh yeah, do whatever you have to do to fix her." They signed the estimates and consent forms for surgery and asked a receptionist if they could visit with the puppy one more time before they left. Well, they had already put a catheter in the puppy's foreleg and had given her pain medication, but they brought the puppy in to visit with these people anyway before they left. The tech was going to come back in 5 minutes after they were finished, well too late, THE PEOPLE RAN OUT THE DOOR WITH IT, CATHETER IN IT'S LEG AND ALL!! Who does that??!!
A lady brought her 3 month old pit puppy in one day and said "Well, I just moved to a new house, and this dog lives on my sun porch right now, and she seems to have this cut on her back, and it just keeps getting worse and I don't know what to do. I washed it with shampoo and everythang and it just ain't gettin' any better."
*SHAMPOO on an open wound!*
This thing had a 6-8 inch open laceration on it's back that was necrotizing(skin was dying and falling off) probably because she let it go for so long without treatment, oh and probably from dousing it with SHAMPOO!! She took it home without treatment and we found out later it ended up dying.
Hmmm let me think. We had this family bring in a Rott and they had allowed their child to put a hair tie around it's leg. They had let it go without treatment for so long and the hair tie was so tight, it cut off the circulation and caused gangrene to set in on the leg and they had to amputate the leg. These people relinquished this dog to someone who works here luckily, because they couldn't afford to pay for the proper care, not to mention they shouldn't own a pet period. I feel bad for their child.
A lady brought her iguana in because it was near death's door and she didn't know why. She aquired it from someone, but failed to research what the proper diet was for an iguana, and did not supplement it with calcium for 3 years. It died.
A lady with a Shar Pei that got into a fight with her other dog decided instead of bringing the dog in for treatment right away, it was a good idea to put Desitin, a diaper rash cream, on her dogs facial lacerations!! Then she called us and asked why the dog's cuts were infected.
IDIOTS!
Oh oh, another one. A rescue organization brought a pit bull puppy into emergency one day when I was working. Get this:
It had been hog tied along with 5 of it's littermates by some TEENAGERS, then they decided to set the abandoned house in Detroit they had them in on fire. *On fire* All of the puppies died except this little brindle female that was brought to us one day. We named her Miracle. She had to have many, many skin graft surgeries and her tail amputated. She is alive and doing well and is able to walk and lead a pretty normal life. The doctor that did most of the surgeries on her fell in love with her and adopted her. The police in Detroit did absolutely nothing to find these kids, and I'll bet a million dollars if someone knew who they were, they wouldn't tell the police anyway, because that would be "Snitching".
IDIOTS ALL AROUND!!
I'm immune to most of this stuff, I've been doing it for 5 years. But there are those certain cases where it really just gets to you.
I had a lady call after her dog was put to sleep and told the treatment staff handling her dog's body to not put her in the freezer, because "she never liked the cold." I've actually had more people than you think call and ask that, or to put a blanket on their pet in the freezer to keep them warm. That's actually more sad than idiotic, but you really get caught off guard when people ask you things like that.
Kelly I'm not sure if your sharing stories about idiots or people that are just plain evil. Only humans could treat animals in such an inhumane way. It's disgusting.
Friday night I was walking the dogs one last time before going to bed. Across the street I see a Australian Cattle Dog that is always around. Well for some reason the guy didn't have a leash on it and he darted across the road right us. A car stopped about three feet short of hitting us. Then it wanted to play with Whiz and Nemo, who did not want to play with him. I had to give it a good kick/shove with my foot to get it to back off (I figured that was better than Nemo latching onto it's face).
The guy came running over, pale as a ghost. He apologized a lot. I told him not to worry about it and that I was glad his dog had not been hit. I think that will be the last time he tries to let the dog go pee in the front yard without a leash. At least he cared though!
I'm with Brandon, the folks you spoke of left the realm of idiocy and are treading very heavily on the plain of EVIL. I could go on for hours about the horror show I see at animal control on a daily basis. But instead I will share just an idiot story.
Walking the pups this morning (I have Piglet and Moto, my walker has Himiko) and we get to this park we bring them to. It is 7am and we typically are the only folks there. Out of no where this guy shows up with his two boxers. He has one off leash and is taking the other leash off. I stop. I put all three dogs and walker behind me and say "what are you doing?" as his dogs start to lunge at mine. He is like "oh mine are fine". I tell him "Mine aren't and neither am I. I work at animal control, just so you know". At this point his dogs are already gone. He has to run after them. They are not listening to him and it takes him a good few minutes to catch them.
1 There are leash laws
2If you have dogs that you want to let off leash. Make sure they are sufficiently trained to come back when called.
3If your dogs are lunging (NOT play bowing) at a human, they are NOT fine.
I posted this in another thread, but it really goes here:
This past weekend, the cable guy had to come out to the house because of the phone. Jazz was running about with her "I have a new friend" look and the guy goes to the front door, holds it open while talking to another guy outside. Jazz looked at me like, "Can I go out? The door is open". I told her to go crate and she looked at me with this in mind, "Me?? I'm not the idiot holding the door open with a dog who'd like to be outside." She slunk off to her crate and was not happy. Here's some shots of her poking her head out of her crate.
I forgot about this one...
I was standing outside with Piglet and Himiko this afternoon, and a woman came up and asked me "is that a cat?" I had to ask her to repeat the question, I was sure I hadn't heard her correctly. She again says "Is that a cat?" To which I replied, "NO she is a puppy" with a bewildered look on my face.
A CAT?!?!
Come on that is just dumb.