Pet pics thread

[Cruzergirl]

Originally Posted by the chi

Soooo, as I am sure most of you have gathered by now, I am a huge bleeding heart for hard cases and I LOVE animals.

Couple weeks ago the hubby and I were camping down in Ocala Natl Forest, an ATV weekend, and we found this guy, ribs all poking out, bald in places, hip bones ready to pop out of his skin, and me being me, I started feeding him, made a few calls, and ended up homing him with with some people we know. I just couldnt leave him out there starving to death.

He's a pretty interesting fellow, one helluva cooler thief (we thought he was a bear stealing into our cooler.) Very docile, at least he was when starving, trained and overall seems like a great dog. He didnt work out with the folks we homed him with, and since the hubby and I were both taken with him, he's back at our place.

We found his owner, she doesnt want him, lived not far from where he was starving to death, I'm sure theres more to the story, but this is apparently his third home, and we are hoping to keep him so long as he works out. Booger is about 75 pounds or so and gets to around 95 when well fed. This is him visiting me at the office yesterday. How can you resist this face?





This is him guarding our camp...

Good for you!! Sometimes these animals come into our life when we least expect them. He is beautiful! I hope he works out for you, it sounds like he could use a break.

I just adopted another cat. Skin and bones. Sweet little thing though.

[wildchild]

there are two things that will get my dog a place in the old shed near the chickens, skunk smell and dead fish!!!!

yuck!

especially a malumute, that must have been a fun day or two of cleaning the thick fur on that guy.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Cruzergirl

Good for you!! Sometimes these animals come into our life when we least expect them. He is beautiful! I hope he works out for you, it sounds like he could use a break.

I just adopted another cat. Skin and bones. Sweet little thing though.

Cute kitty.

[Cutty72]

Originally Posted by caveman

I think after a little research, and I do mean little, that I want a blue heeler. Or an Australian herding dog. They are of medium size ranging from 40-55 #s, short hair, good with a family and good at defending the home. Plays well, with other animals that its familiar with and is very trainable. Usually attaches to one member of the family more than another but still is a good family dog. Needs at least 30 min a day of good solid exercise, which will help me get off my fat butt and lose some weight I have put on over the past 6 or so years from leaving the Army. Is ok with a basic yard as long as the previous situation is met satisfactorily. But is also ok with just loungin around the house too. I want a pooch bad. My family had a cat when I was a kid as my Pops always said, "Dogs are too much work, gotta walk em, gotta clean up their shit, and are always too needy." To which I would always reply, "but cats are just too damned moody, and if they don't want to get any attention then F you and leave me alone." My thoughts were they are too much like women. Don't get me wrong some cats are very cool, have great personalities and make cool pets for those that are very independant themselves. Thats not me, I love the thought that if I need some my pet to give companionship, I can call on it to come and just be there layin with me to chill or go out for some play time or whatever.
Dog seems to be the only pet that I would ever need.
If there is anyone out there that has had a Heeler and think I am off base or don't know what the hell I may be getting myself into, please, by all means, help wake me up.

No experience with Australian Cattle Dogs, but we had a LOT of Australian Shepherds growing up. Great with the family kids, and excellent guard dogs. If the master is around, they are good with other kids/people as well. If the master is not around, the protectiveness kicks in. They are also always watching their master for if he/she needs help. I can remember one of them "confronting" my cousin when we were wrestling in the grass at the farm. It was interesting, but he backed down when I told him it was ok... Still kept a close eye on me from not too far away Long hair though, so that's prob a downer for you.

As for the Blue Healers, we had a couple when I was younger. They were really good at first, but as they got older (6-7 yrs old) they started turning into Marko. Not really mean or anything, just anti-social. They would always be off by themselves, and never really wanted to play with us kids. They did still work for my parents though, when needed. Also excellent guard dogs, they were supper protective of the farm and everything in it.

Hope that helps, kinda limited experience, but it's what I know.

[HokieDNA01]

Just learned the other day that Australian Sheperds are actually completely American Breed Dogs. Interesting.

There are blue and red heelers on the Petfinder.com website near Detroit if you are interested.

[HurricaneHeather]

Originally Posted by Cruzergirl

I just adopted another cat. Skin and bones. Sweet little thing though.

I want to cuddle with the furry kitteh! So friggin cute.

[Tmall]

Wow I'm lucky. If one of my dogs so much as steps in poo, they won't even come in the house. They'll sit at the door and look aggitated until I clean em up.

The "puppy" loves stinky mud though. He runs right to it anytime we're around some. And he used to eat cat shit, until I started smelling his mouth randomly and giving him a dollup of toothpaste every time I smelled poo on his breath.

[Cutty72]

Originally Posted by HokieDNA01

Just learned the other day that Australian Sheperds are actually completely American Breed Dogs. Interesting.

Per the AKC.

Originally Posted by The AKC

A Look Back
There are many theories about the origin of the Australian Shepherd. Despite its misleading name, the breed as we know it today probably developed in the Pyrenees Mountains somewhere between Spain and France. It was called the Australian Shepherd because of its association with Basque shepherds who came to America from Australia in the 1800s. The Australian Shepherd was initially called by many names, including Spanish Shepherd, Pastor Dog, Bob-Tail, Blue Heeler, New Mexican Shepherd, and California Shepherd.

[HokieDNA01]

Originally Posted by Cutty72

Per the AKC.

Weird cause this is a AKC website has a similar (almost identical) paragraph to yours, but it says the current form was developed exclusively in the United States.

"Although there are many theories about the origin of the Australian Shepherd, the breed as we know it today developed exclusively in the United States. It probably originated in the Basque region of the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France, but was dubbed the Australian Shepherd because of its association with Basque shepherds who came to the United States from Australia in the 1800's."

"The United States Australian Shepherd Association works hard to maintain the breed true to type in its land of origin."

http://www.akc.org/breeds/australian...rd/history.cfm

[Cutty72]

Lol, same website, just a different page on the site!