"Real Pets" Rant (Warning: Contains Some Sad Stuff and Language)

[mathnerd]

Before I started at the exotic clinic, I had no idea how intelligent birds were. We have a rescue bird in back who can hold conversations and loves flirting with all the women who pass by. He wolf-whistles at us or will say "g'night gorgeous" when we go to shut off the lights at night.

Parrots are interesting creatures. I never knew quite how interesting they were until I moved in with BF and have experienced living with the Evil Attack Parrot (tm). The Evil Attack Parrot (tm) is a yellow-nape Amazon, and as is common for his breed, fiercely attached and loyal to exactly one human. The rest of us can go die in a fire, as far as he's concerned. But I do love that dumb bird, even if he hates me. He amuses me to no end. Some examples of his quirks:

-He'll do anything for cheese, even step up on my hand. If he thinks you've got cheese open in the kitchen he'll start doing the happy cheese dance in his cage, going over to the side that looks into part of the kitchen trying to see if there's a way out of the cage to get to you. He doesn't get cheese very often, but when he does his whole demeanor changes for at least an hour.

-He has a particular fondness for country music. I have a rather vast and eclectic collection of music ranging from Gregorian chant, to typical classical, Broadway show tunes to 80's alternative, to heavy metal, to 70's disco, Classic rock, Elvis, classic country, modern country, and even a little hip hop. I don't think there exists a genre that I don't have at least a handful of songs from. It gets interesting when I put the playlist of "everything I own" on shuffle mode. The Evil Attack Parrot (tm) ignores it all until a country song comes on. Then he starts singing and dancing his tiny little feathered heart out.

-He recognizes and knows the meanings of at least 25 different human words.

-He has definite opinions on who bf should talk to on the phone. If bf is talking to his mother, the bird gets particularly loud. Apparently bf should not talk to his mother.

-He has even more definite opinions on how bf should dress. He gets upset if bf is wearing shorts or not wearing a shirt. He gets downright nasty if bf is wearing shorts *and* no shirt.

The list just goes on and on. He might not like me very much, but he's really very fun to live with.

[Slave to the Phone]

For some reason my allergies keep acting up when I open this thread.

DataHound, I got your point about the lady connecting the fish to her son. That's why your kindness was doubly important. Losing her fish might have made her feel that she was losing a connection to her son.

I've lost more cats than I want to think about. Happily for us, every euth was peaceful and the vets and techs were kind. If we had ever been treated as callously as some folks here have been, we would have never returned to that vet which would have honestly cost the practice quite a bit of money.

Not just what we pay to keep our personal pets healthy, but because I've been involved in pet rescue for more than half my life. People who adopt rescue pets usually ask for recommendations. Our group has fired 2 vets and started warning people away from them. They both left town within a year of pissing us off.

OTOP, most vets are kind and caring. Most techs are as well. Our old, senile, hyper-T guy is still having more good days than bad ones. When he starts having more bad days than good, we will do our last act of kindness for him rather than keeping him around for our selfish reasons. I have faith that our vet and the techs will treat him kindly and us with compassion.

[blondescales]

Many years ago I had fish and I can say that my swordtails, mollies and plecos all had personalities. One pleco liked to float on his back at the surface of the water, scared me the first time I saw that.

Some people are just idiots when it comes to pets.

[workerbee222]

I had to euthanize one cat last month. Pets do sort of connect us to the past. When My husband first saw Gepetto, he literally gasped and said, "He's beautiful."

In the eight years I had Gepetto, my husband and my mother have passed away. His passing brought into focus all the other things that happened during his time with me.

[Minflick]

What I tell people when they ask me if it's time to put the pet down is to look at the pet and pay attention to them - and see if they're still enjoying life, even on a very reduced level. If all they can do is sit in the sun and eat and go potty, BUT they still enjoy that, then no, it's not time. If they can do that, and the PET is miserable because they want more, and they aren't happy with what they have, then yeah, it's time.

Or, sometimes, the pet has deteriorated to the point that while they may be enjoying things still, it's more work than the owner can handle. We had a lady come in and talk to us about her dog who had cancer, and he'd had chemo and it helped, but then his condition really deteriorated, and the dog was in good spirits but the owner was worn out. She had a full time job, an aging parent, couldn't afford to have somebody come in during the day while she was at work. So, then, I agreed that it was probably time, and she should discuss with the family, get consensus about it, and bring him in. Nobody should suffer to prolong life.... IMO.