Family pet thread

Gator by the Sea

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Strange story about how Figgy lost his eye...we’ll probably never know exactly what happened. It was a few years ago and my wife and I had just sat down to our anniversary dinner. The kids were asleep, wine was poured, dinner was on the table, and the cat walks in through his cat door all nonchalant like nothing is wrong. We didn’t think anything of it at first because he didn’t come running in, or meowing or show any signs of distress. Then my wife looks over at him and says “oh my God, look at the cat!” His eye was dangling from the socket. So I ended up spending our anniversary evening and night at the emergency veterinary hospital and a lot of the next day too. The vet had to remove the eye but he found no other signs of trauma or damage, no signs of scratches or bites, no toxins or venoms...in short, no evidence of how it could have happened.

The good news is, Figgy adjusted really well to only having one eye and he does everything he used to without any problems. And we think he’s still a handsome cat and we love him just the same.
 

Swamp Queen

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Strange story about how Figgy lost his eye...we’ll probably never know exactly what happened. It was a few years ago and my wife and I had just sat down to our anniversary dinner. The kids were asleep, wine was poured, dinner was on the table, and the cat walks in through his cat door all nonchalant like nothing is wrong. We didn’t think anything of it at first because he didn’t come running in, or meowing or show any signs of distress. Then my wife looks over at him and says “oh my God, look at the cat!” His eye was dangling from the socket. So I ended up spending our anniversary evening and night at the emergency veterinary hospital and a lot of the next day too. The vet had to remove the eye but he found no other signs of trauma or damage, no signs of scratches or bites, no toxins or venoms...in short, no evidence of how it could have happened.

The good news is, Figgy adjusted really well to only having one eye and he does everything he used to without any problems. And we think he’s still a handsome cat and we love him just the same.
What a crazy story! I really wonder what happened.

I follow a bunch of different cat and dog pages on Instagram (yes, I'm that girl but I don't care b/c they make me happy) and there are so many that have "handicaps" like missing legs, eyes, etc that are absolutely so resilient. I particularly love the ones that are completely blind and watching how they manage to get around with no problems and fully know their homes/surroundings. It's amazing to me!
 

playzwtrux

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Jun 11, 2014
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When I was a very wee lad, we had a white female German Sheppard named Major, first dog I remember having. I was still early in elementary when we had to have her put down and we didn't get another for a few years.

Then, dad came home with a German Sheppard Doberman mix, body of a GSD and the colors of a Doberman. We named him WT because the hair at the tip of his tail was white (white tip). He lived for about 12 years, was ran over by vehicles at least 3 times that I knew about, and then dad put him down because he was in such a bad place of life. During the time we had him, we also had some cats, so he grew up with cats and although he was totally dog, he would act like a cat in some ways, like pawing at stuff like a cat).

Until I remarried a few years ago, there were no cats or dogs in my life, but a rescue dog came with the new wife and kids, Dexter. he was a Yorkie, and hated men. He peed in my shoes multiple times without provocation, and just didn't care for me at all. My wife decided to get rid of him because of all the trouble he was causing, and a former, elderly neighbor of mine had recently lost her schnauzer. We asked her if she wanted him, and they have been phenomenal together ever since.

Last Labor day weekend we were off on an anniversary trip when my wife's brother called asking if we'd keep his GSD puppy for a few months until they finished building their house. We said yes, but if we fell in love with him we reserved the right to keep him. Reluctantly, he agreed. My BIL bought him as a puppy at 8 weeks, and we picked him up at about 4-1/2 months old, we've had him ever since. He's now 15 months old.
We kept his name that my BIL gave him, Moose. He's highly intelligent, but scares the crap outta neighbors by running up to them barking. He has a big dog bark. I've been training him on my own, but stepped it up with a professional trainer when he ran into a neighbors yard and freaked them out.

He's a rare color for GSD, and although we don't have papers on him, it's been represented that he's pure GSD. I want to have a DNA test to confirm, we'll see.

Moose.jpg

We've recently entertained the idea of getting a white female companion for him and have the opportunity right now. It's an 8 month old, pure white, but she's not house broken. Since we're in the middle of renovating the house, and new flooring will be part of that reno, now would be a great time to house train a dog.

GSD's are very smart, and I doubt we'd have any issues training her.
 

crosscreekcooter

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View attachment 9984
This is Figgy, short for Figaro. My daughter wanted a black & white cat named Figaro, just like Minnie Mouse. We got him at Christmas time, and my kids heard the line “so bring us some figgy pudding” from We Wish You a Merry Christmas so the nickname Figgy stuck. As you can see, he has one eye (or as we like to say, a permanent wink), so we also call him our pirate cat.

Nice cat. We built some condos on a South Cacalacky barrier island a few years back and engaged a local whacked out local broker. Dude had one eye. The first time I went to his office, he came out to greet me and following him was a little Jack Russell mix that also had only one eye. Neat little dog, we always joked that the broker probably put the dogs eye out on purpose.
 

Zambo

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What a crazy story! I really wonder what happened.

I follow a bunch of different cat and dog pages on Instagram (yes, I'm that girl but I don't care b/c they make me happy) and there are so many that have "handicaps" like missing legs, eyes, etc that are absolutely so resilient. I particularly love the ones that are completely blind and watching how they manage to get around with no problems and fully know their homes/surroundings. It's amazing to me!
We fostered a blind yellow lab a couple years ago. She came with a smaller dog and they were sort of bonded so we kept them together. I would have adopted them if we had the space. I was leery about having a blind dog but let me tell you, she was amazing. It was like she had an internal GPS that told her where everything was on our whole property. Now, if you moved stuff around she would bump into it a few times before she plotted it in her brain, but still, I couldn't believe how well she ran around. I would throw the ball and she would hear it go and chase in that direction, and she'd hear it hit the ground ( a good way off too, not like 20 feet or something). Then she'd find it with her nose. We have a retaining wall in the side yard and she'd run full speed right at it and you'd think she's just going to plow into it, but nope, she jumps right over it like she's in the Matrix or something. Truly an amazing animal. We were able to adopt the two of them to the same family. If I can find a video of her chasing the ball I'll post it up.
 

JDW

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That would be awesome...but she’s a girl...now I have a great name for a boy
 

GatorRaz

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This is Triton. We lost him last night. He was 11 1/2 years old and loved to watch Gator games w' me on the back porch. Worlds best wide retriever! We love him so much!
Go Gators!
 

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