[geeks] Re: Breeding, etc.

[Ken Hansen]

Can this even still be considered *geeky* - it is starting to feel more *creepy*... ;^)

Hey, I like pets (have had a snake (garter/garden/whatever), hampster, two cats (my grandmother yelled at the first after licking my brothers birthday cake, and was never seen again. My grandmother's response - "She shouldn't have been on the table, licking the cake." ;^), and a dog (German Shepard, *near* pure bred, very nice dog)).

I loved them all, well, except the snake - that was more idle curiousity than anything else - but hey, if it doesn't plug in, it can't be geeky!

May I be the first to propose surrogate_children at sunhelp.org? ;^)

Ken


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert J. Slover [mailto:robertjslover at earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 4:59 AM
To: geeks at sunhelp.org
Subject: [geeks] Re: Breeding, etc.



Greetings, Amy

: > I stayed out of the cat discussion even though I think they're a waste
: > of space in general.  
:
: mmm, i disagree with this but i understand that some people just dont
: like animals. much like some people cant abide kids. 

I did qualify the statement with 'in general' (I've seen one or two
exceptions) and said absolutely nothing about disliking animals.  Quite
the opposite.  I just hold the opinion (through experience) that cats make
poor pets.  I just buried our male this past winter, and his sister the
prior May (evidently a genetic thing, their liver and kidneys stopped
working, even though they spent their lives on low-ash cat food, and the
last few years on special diets).  I spent the last six months giving IV's
to the male once or twice a week, as needed, to help his kidneys out.   I
spotted these two in the Humane Shelter ~11 years ago, due to be PTS the
next day.  Up to that we were going to bring home 'Sh*thead', a yellow
tabby missing a front paw, but he still had 2 weeks on the chart.  Briefly
we had a Russian Blue kitten that rode home in our engine compartment with
his brother.  I spent $400 on the brother but the vet could not pull him
through.  The survivor went to a good home.  Anyway, as far as cats go the
two we most recently had were the best I've ever seen, the breed is
'Ragdoll'.  They made my wife happy, and made my sinuses bleed daily for
over a decade despite my prescriptions.  Regardless of that, once
committed, I would not have gotten rid of them or slacked in their care.
I've had others, Snowball, my dad found in the winter 1976 and brought
home.  Snowball was declawed already.  Snowball got out one year and found
out she could not climb out of the reach of or defend herself from a
larger cat that killed her.  For this reason I've never believed in
removing a cat's natural defenses, despite the suffering our furniture and
carpeting have been subject to.  That said, I've never found cats very
enjoyable.  If the choice were mine alone I would never choose one as 
a pet. 
  <a whole lot of stuff snipped...>