Monday, January 30, 2012

Dogs and Cats

Today my sweet little cat died.  She was 16 so I suppose I should be happy that she lived a good long life. Her health and mobility came to an end a couple of days ago.  I was expecting her not to last too much longer.  You know the saying that some people like their pets better than their kids.  I'm not going to go there...

The first thing Army daughter wanted to do was rush out and get me a new cat.  No.  It's not that I don't want another cat.  I don't want any more house cats.  If we get any more cats they will go out in the barn.  Now we still have a cat that stays in the house at night but is outside all day.  As I said, that cat is the last of the inside cats.  Perhaps it's because I don't want to buy any more cat litter.  Or I don't want any more cats thinking they get a larger share of my bed than I do.

I love animals.  I've always had some sort of pet, whether it was a dog or a cat or both.  I even had a goat that thought she was a dog.  She hung out with the dogs and slept in the doghouse at night.  She used to throw herself at the window because she wanted to come in with the other animals. 

I try to teach the grand kids that if you have animals you are responsible for their welfare.  They depend on us to take care of them.  That's why before we eat breakfast or dinner the dogs, cats, chickens, and sheep will all be fed.  They can't get their own meal so we are responsible for taking care of this for them.  And they eat before we do.

Many years ago, about three moves before my friend moved to Oklahoma she lived across the street from me.  One day her dogs got out and were roaming the neighborhood as a pack.  They came into my yard and tried getting into the pasture to go after my sheep.  I shot one of her dogs.  The rest ran off.  I will defend my animals from predator animals.

We almost lost Yip-yip today, too.  That would have made a bad day even worse.  Yip-yip was next door playing in their backyard.  She heard a noise in the front, and being Yip-yip had to investigate.  She came roaring out of the back and right into the path of two stray pit bull dogs.  One of the dogs chased her back into the backyard.  The neighbor's grandson was out back and he started yelling for his grandparents.  He then picked up a metal pole and started hitting the pit bull.  The grandpa came out with his gun but instead of shooting the dogs shot near them.  The grandson was able to get Yip-yip and put her into their house.  The grandpa took another shot, intentionally missing the dogs.  They ran off. 

I went over when I heard the commotion.  I saw the two dogs.  I'd never seen them before.  Neither had the neighbor.  He didn't want to shoot the dogs just in case they were from the neighborhood.  I told him that if I was the one shooting that I would have shot to kill, not shot to run off.  They were lucky that the dogs didn't go after the grandson.  Yip-yip was ok.  They didn't do anything other than get a bite out of her stupid little winter coat that she wears.  I love that stupid winter coat.  It saved her life.

This evening I got a phone call from the neighborhood drunk.  He was calling because he trapped the two pit bulls in his dog kennel.  I told him what happened and he tried to convince me that they were nice dogs.  They didn't go after his puppy.  That's great, but don't keep your puppy in the kennel with those two dogs.  No, his puppy was in the house.  He wanted to know what I think he should do with the dogs. 

I told him if I saw them again they'd be dead.  He didn't want to call the pound because they'd just be put to sleep.  Then call the pit bull rescue for the no-kill shelter.  Just get them out of here or I will.

12 comments:

  1. On one hand you say that you are a responsible pet owner and on the other you say that your dog was at your neighbor's house. Doesn't sound very responsible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hate that about your cat. Never a good time to lose a pet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you had read past posts in my blog you would know that the neighbor used to own Yip-yip but we now "share custody" of both dogs. They are free to run back and forth on each other's property. We have a gate between the two properties which is kept open for the dogs to go back and forth. Even though the front of the neighbors property isn't fenced the dogs rarely leave the two properties. If they do it's because they aren't looking at property lines when chasing a bird or squirrel. Once the chase is over they come back home.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eh...there's always someone waiting for a chance to say something negative!
    I'm glad your Yip-Yip is fine, and I'm sorry you lost your cat. My animals are special to my heart in ways my humans are not! <3

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow-
    I have never left another blogger a nasty response and I won't start now.

    Best of luck to you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm with you about the pit bulls, would have shot to kill. No extra thoughts with your grandchildren around.

    Sorry to hear of the cat. Long time pets are always hard. I am looking forward to the day that I don't share our bed with an animal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I was wondering why my followers went from 60 to 59 today! For Downeastprepper - not that you are going to read the comment because you said you no longer would... I don't want to shoot someone's pet or any domestic animal but when two "pets" come 250' off the road into a backyard and put their mouth around your own pet, to me, that's a reason to shoot.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I own a gentle pitbull. If she ever got out and attacked someones dog I would hope they'd shoot her. I'd mourn my dog and probably be really angry but once a dog starts attacking for no reason it's safe to say that a small child could be next. Sorry to hear about your cat. It sounds like she had a good life.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't understand the comments left-- the pit bulls did go to attack your dog and got a hold of his/her sweater, right? So they did attack but people think you have no right to shoot the dogs? Huh?
    TA

    ReplyDelete
  11. I totally agree with you, stray dogs are a danger. We have fenced in with hog wire our 10.5 acres, but our Pyr is an escape artist. While Pyrs are the only breed to never reportedly attacked a person, if our Pyr was attacking someone's livestock or pets I would fully expect him to not return home. We have shot many a dog that has wandered onto our property. Sheep and goats are at extreme risk from stray dogs, and if owners can't keep their dogs under control, they get what they get. I'm sorry while I like animals, I don't have an unnatural affection for them that places an animal's welfare above that of a person's or their property.

    ReplyDelete