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Pets
Dec 3, 2011 3:20:50 GMT -5
Post by mintygreen on Dec 3, 2011 3:20:50 GMT -5
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Pets
Dec 3, 2011 13:27:21 GMT -5
Post by pitbulllady on Dec 3, 2011 13:27:21 GMT -5
I have too many pets to mention one by one, since I breed snakes. I currently have probably over 50 snakes of various species, ranging from Eastern Garters to Yellow Anacondas. I have one cat, five dogs and about a dozen tarantulas and native true spiders in addition, but mostly it's snakes. Two of my dogs are really old; my American Pit Bull Terrier is pushing 12, and I still have one Catahoula Leopard Dog who is 15 1/2, which is really rare for a very large breed! My youngest dog is a horribly hyper Carolina Dog x Feist(a terrier-like dog used to hunt squirrels)that was abandoned along with her mother in my yard. I'd really love to find her a new home, though. I also have an equally-hyper full-blooded Carolina Dog, which is the North American version of a Dingo, a long-term feral animal. I'm really more into large working/hunting dog breeds, even though at my age, it's gotten more difficult to maintain a big active dog. The older I get, the more I appreciate snakes and spiders!
pitbulllady
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Pets
Dec 3, 2011 17:41:44 GMT -5
Post by mintygreen on Dec 3, 2011 17:41:44 GMT -5
I have too many pets to mention one by one, since I breed snakes. I currently have probably over 50 snakes of various species, ranging from Eastern Garters to Yellow Anacondas. I have one cat, five dogs and about a dozen tarantulas and native true spiders in addition, but mostly it's snakes. Two of my dogs are really old; my American Pit Bull Terrier is pushing 12, and I still have one Catahoula Leopard Dog who is 15 1/2, which is really rare for a very large breed! My youngest dog is a horribly hyper Carolina Dog x Feist(a terrier-like dog used to hunt squirrels)that was abandoned along with her mother in my yard. I'd really love to find her a new home, though. I also have an equally-hyper full-blooded Carolina Dog, which is the North American version of a Dingo, a long-term feral animal. I'm really more into large working/hunting dog breeds, even though at my age, it's gotten more difficult to maintain a big active dog. The older I get, the more I appreciate snakes and spiders! pitbulllady That's a lot of animals to look after, must be a lot of work if you do it all by yourself. That's cool though. My neighbours up the street had a pit bull that passed away earlier this year. It was either 15 or 16 years old. They can't get a new one though now since they were banned here. So only people that already had one before the ban could keep that dog until it passes away but new ones aren't allowed to be owned. EDIT: I just looked it up, the ban was in the news again just the other day(they were banned back in 2005): www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/12/02/pit-bull-ban-ontario.html
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Pets
Feb 13, 2012 6:05:56 GMT -5
Post by mintygreen on Feb 13, 2012 6:05:56 GMT -5
One of my guinea pigs had to be put down recently. It's very sad, she was not very old, only about a year and a half old(and guinea pigs are not seniors until they are 4 years old...she wasn't even half way to that point....and some guinea pigs live as long as 8 years). A year and a half is not very old. What happened is she stopped eating. She wouldn't take the carrot from my hand and was failing to bite into it. So I looked at her teeth. They looked overgrown a bit so we took her to the vet to have them trimmed.....and for the record I do have stuff in their cages for them to chew on to wear down their teeth(although this doesn't necessarily mean they'll use it, I can't force them to actually use it). Anyway, her teeth were clipped but she still wasn't eating. We took her back and discovered the real problem....she had kidney disease and a tumor. She had gone downhill really fast and there was nothing that could be done. We could have done surgery that would have cost thousands but they said she would still have a 99% chance of dying and it would just put a lot of stress on her, so we had to make the decision to put her down. All I have left of her now is a little bag with some of her fur in it. It was Black Star who died, the one in the picture in my earlier post that's black with the white on her head. She's not the guinea pig I was the most attached to since she was always a bit more afraid of humans and never got as used to people, so it was harder to get as attached to her as the others but I still cared about her. My white guinea pig, Blanca is definitely the one I'm most attached to though....the way she interacts with me is just really special, she clearly likes me a lot and cuddles against me when I take her out of her cage. She's also so comfortable on my lap that she will wash herself and everything. She is just that relaxed. So Blanca is just really special and I hope to have her for many years. It's worrying after the untimely death of Black Star. The vets said it must have been genetic.
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Mar 24, 2012 17:06:58 GMT -5
Post by mintygreen on Mar 24, 2012 17:06:58 GMT -5
Well now my dog passed away yesterday. She was really old(almost 14) but it's still really sad.
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Pets
Mar 24, 2012 19:00:50 GMT -5
Post by pitbulllady on Mar 24, 2012 19:00:50 GMT -5
Well now my dog passed away yesterday. She was really old(almost 14) but it's still really sad. Awww, I'm sorry to hear that. I have had many dogs and other animals that lived to ripe old ages, and it makes it all the more painful when they go. I have a Catahoula Leopard Dog, the last remnant of my wild boar-hunting pack, who will be an astounding 16 years old this May 25 if he makes it. So far, he seems pretty healthy, good weight and good appetite and all. It is REALLY rare for a large breed, especially one with Mastiff in the background like the Catahoulas, to live so long. My last Pit Bull Terrier passed away a few months ago. Right now, though, my oldest pet isn't even a mammal, but a spider! I have a female Southern Black House Spider( Kukulcania hibernalis), that I caught at work 13 years ago. She was already an adult at that time, and based on my experience raising these from spiderlings, the females grow VERY slowly, so she probably was at least 7-10 years old when I caught her! These spiders are very long-lived, at least the females are, much like female tarantulas, even though they're actually classified as "true" spiders and are only very distantly related to tarantulas and other "Mygalamorph" spiders. pitbulllady
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Mar 29, 2012 1:03:33 GMT -5
Post by mintygreen on Mar 29, 2012 1:03:33 GMT -5
Well now my dog passed away yesterday. She was really old(almost 14) but it's still really sad. Awww, I'm sorry to hear that. I have had many dogs and other animals that lived to ripe old ages, and it makes it all the more painful when they go. I have a Catahoula Leopard Dog, the last remnant of my wild boar-hunting pack, who will be an astounding 16 years old this May 25 if he makes it. So far, he seems pretty healthy, good weight and good appetite and all. It is REALLY rare for a large breed, especially one with Mastiff in the background like the Catahoulas, to live so long. My last Pit Bull Terrier passed away a few months ago. Right now, though, my oldest pet isn't even a mammal, but a spider! I have a female Southern Black House Spider( Kukulcania hibernalis), that I caught at work 13 years ago. She was already an adult at that time, and based on my experience raising these from spiderlings, the females grow VERY slowly, so she probably was at least 7-10 years old when I caught her! These spiders are very long-lived, at least the females are, much like female tarantulas, even though they're actually classified as "true" spiders and are only very distantly related to tarantulas and other "Mygalamorph" spiders. pitbulllady Thanks for the condolences. *hugs* Yeah, it is really surprising for a larger breed to live that long. My dog was a Chihuahua so I don't think being nearly 14 is that strange for the breed....certainly rare though with larger dogs like yours. There was a pit bull on my street a few houses up from where I live that was either 15 or 16 when it passed away last year. They can't get a new one either, since they are now banned here. Only people who already had one before the ban could keep the dog. Also, wow, I didn't know any spiders lived that long! That's amazing. I know there is a caterpillar somewhere in the arctic that takes 14 years to become a moth because the growing season where it has food to eat are so short that it takes a long time to get enough to become a moth and spends most of it's time hibernating and then waking again during the short growing season. I saw it on a program recently. Anyway, I miss my dog....she was a part of my life for half of my life considering that she was 13 going on 14 in June and I'm 27 going on 28 in July....so she was half my age and I'd had her since she was a puppy.
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