No pets here. We are thinking about getting one when my daughter is potty trained. However, I have never had any luck with pets. My last dog kept runnning away after we had the baby- jealous I guess. He kept running to the vet's office, so you know he must have been desperate to get away. It was very sad, but I let the vet find him a home. The dog before that had to be put down. I had someone stalking me. They were sending me notes in my mailbox. Very detailed and disturbing notes. One day my dog jolted out the door and bit someone. He would not let go. Turns out he was the stalker. Unfortunately, the judge did not care. We had to pay a thousand dollar fine and they ordered the dog to be put to sleep. The guy moved after that. Anyway, I love pets, hate the hair, hate the vet bill and like I said my track record stinks!

We have two cats, Lacie and Gracie, a 55 gallon aqaurium full of angel fish. and a 20 gallon aqaurium full of gold fish.

We have 3 calico cats named Callie, Cookie & Chelsea. All of them were rescues from different rescue organizations. Callie has 6 toes on each paw which makes her a little unique. Her front paws remind us of a catcher's baseball mitt. We also have a cockatiel name Nibbles (or Nibblet) who "talks" to anyone in the room and even will call the kitties. They all get along and sometimes tease each other.

Key West, especially the Hemmingway House, is my favorite place on earth!

OK, that aside, my cats are my children.  Our daughter, Sami, who will be 5 in August, is an orange tabby.  She was an only kitten with a bunch of farm cats, and all the adult cats didn't want to let her have any food.  She only weighed a pound when we got her at 8 weeks and she had scratched her ear open.  Now she's a happy healthy loving cat. 

When Sami was 6 months old, we got another cat named Joshua, but he died at 8 months of FIP.  About a month after he died, one of our friend who recues cats brought over a kitten who had been sealed in a box by a senile old lady and left on her front porch in 90 degree weather with no food or water.  I kept telling myself I wasn't ready for another kitten yet, but when I picked him up, I swear he looked at me and said, "Mommy!"  We named him Jack, he's a 13 pound grey tabby (but really not fat), and he turned 4 yesterday.

We also have a catfish in a toxic 20 gallon tank.  All the other fish we've had have died, but he seems to be happy.

I am a dog person by nature, but have a twelve year old black cat named Reggie.  I named him for Reggie White.  Every time there is a hairball or some other bio hazard to clean up, I try not to take Reggie's name in vain. 

Dylan, that's so crazy.  we used to have a Black cat named Wally--for Rashid Wallace.  HA HA.  He was black and i thought it was rude to call him Rashid.  in retrospect, that is dumb...  but we ended up having to get rid of him because he went wierd after we had Corbin.  he never attacked him.  he was very gentle with him.  but he started going to the bathroom anywhere he wanted.  he'd walk up, look you right in the eye and squat and pee.  or we'd find poops on our bed, or anywhere.  Corbin was starting to crawl and put everything in his mouth.  not good.  so we had to get rid of him.  i really regret it. i miss him.  and my husband won't let us get anymore pets because we've had so many cats since we've been together and they always die, or we have to get rid of them.  its sad and he is hurt by it.  I'd get another cat in a second though...

Jen,

Every pet has its own distinct personality and that is probably why we get attatched to them.  Like Mz said, I believe pets will compete for our attention in some very interesting ways.  Kind of cool that we both named our pets after sports figures. Wally and Reggie.  Sounds like a new detective show.  Sounds like you made quite the upgrade however with little Corbin.

Mz, you are the resident expert on cats.  How is it owning several cats?  That must be an interesting dynamic to watch how the cats interact with each other.

I have had similar issues with my cat Petie peeing.  

He had a bad patch this winter where he would want to go outside and i wouldn't let him.  (yes, he has a kitty box, and yes, it was snowing out with very low temperatures)   one day after saying "NO, Petie, you can't go outside, he jumped up on the breakfast bar where i was sitting, turned so his rear end was facing me and sprayed me!" 

yes, I let the cat go out after that.  

Then 2 days later Petie climbed into be with us and was sitting on my chest purring, i was like, aww, he isn't such a bad cat after all, and started to pet him.   he then proceeded in peeing all over me in bed... 

I am the worst mornnig person in the world and to be standing there in the shower in my jammas with warm cat pee dripping off me set me off.  If i had found the cat i probably would have done something i would have regretted later, but he hid really well and i couldn't find him before i left for work. By the time I got home I had calmed down.  

Petie is doing much better now.

We also have a mini pin named Max.  He is totally spoiled and is one of those annoying yap dogs who barks himself stupid quite frequently, but we love him to death.   We have had tons of cats in the past, but this is our first dog.   It is practice for a kid. 

JD - That's funny - lol

Acutally, it's just the shredded remains of a rawhide chew bone.

I  have a dog.  Her name is Quinn.  We got her from a resuce shelter.  She had been severely abused.  We have had her two years now and the vet says she is a lab/chow mix.  Really funny looking, but my daughters liked her.  she would not come to me for almost a year.  Now I cannot get rid of her.  She follows me everywhere, even over the kids.  I sit in my office all day and she lays here at my feet.  also have two parakeets one blue and one white, don't remember what the kids named them.  I just call them damn birds.

I had a sweet wonderful Siberian Husky named Murphy when I was growing up who would ring the doorbell when he wanted to come inside and wouldn't eat leftover pizza unless it was warmed up. Totally spoiled. I completely miss him.

Right now I don't have a pet of my own but do have a God-cat. My old roomate's cat named Twinkie. All she ever wants is a belly rub and a lap to lay on. SIgh...I miss her.

We have 2 cats.

1 is a american short hair named bebe ( named after the blonde chick on south park that is wendys friend.)

2nd on  is a long hair persian named Boo boo ( after Shirleys stuffed kitty on Laverne and Shirley) and she is black as well.

 

had a 7 year old maine coon but Bailey passed away 05/18/2004 after a bout with cancer. I mourned for 3 months.  Bebe missed him and she waited by the  front door waiting for him to come back. It was heartbreaking. I kept blaming myself for his death as I thought it was my fault( the fact that I smoke even tho I did it outside still made me paranoid)