Washingtonians

[itsren]

IF I lose track of DW (she has had a stroke and some times gets disoriented) Quincy will search her out or if he is with her and I whistle he will lead her to me.

And lest we forget the worst part about having a dog UNCONDITIONAL love ! ! ! ! !

So sorry... that's cool that your dog helps you find your wife. What an awesome dog!

Didn't mean any offense to dog owners here.

We have a few problem dogs in our neighborhood that are not trained, yap a lot, or are not kept on leashes. They bug me. I've been attacked twice by an unleashed pit bull in my neighborhood. I developed a strong dislike (terrorizing fear) of dogs after that. The pit bull was collected by animal control after the 2nd attack, but my fear level of any off-leash dog has not decreased. The last dog that absolutely freaked me out was a dog that walked into my home and started running around and barking at me. That experience just about put me over the edge. I was in tears. The kids were in tears. Thankfully, my neighbor, who is good with dogs, came over and took it out. Turned out it was a stray that had been dumped in the neighborhood.

Now, when I'm out walking, if a dog is off-leash, I'll cross the road to get away from it. Doesn't matter what kind it is. I'm just flat-out scared of them.

 

[FlyRobinFly]

There are family members that I don't want near me and are about as annoying as a rash...

 

[itsren]

With all due respect to you and your allergic son,
Not one of my dogs is expensive.
Yes, dog food is pricey, so are those tennis balls for toys.
In all the years that I have had a dog as a pet, the expense is far less than the expense of a son from a woman that I married.

My dog gave me something that I can't reuse but can pass along. He gave me unconditional love. My "son" gave me conditions that had to be met...usually with hundred dollar bills. The human boy is in jail. The dog, well he never hurt a soul. The dog died because I spent money on the wife's son instead of vet treatment.

Considering "price", I'll take a dog any day. Maximum return on a small investment. It's unconditional and freely given to those who deserve it.

Dogs give you everything that you can reuse. But only if you consider "reusing love".

I apologize if I have offended you. If I were a dog, I would simply accept and wag my tail.

I'm really sorry. I didn't mean anything mean by my comment. I was just seeing things from my point of view, living in a neighborhood with lots of issues cropping up. We live in an urban neighborhood with small lots (10,000 sq. feet and less). The neighborhood has been changing dramatically the past few years. We are getting more and more mean dogs, who are either not trained, or are trained to attack. We have many pit bulls, german shepards, doberman pinschers and others. I love to walk, and as I walk the neighborhood, I get barked at, growled at, and have been physically attacked twice. I developed a phobia. Dogs come over to my yard and mess with my chickens. I guess it's not the dogs fault, it is the owners.

We had a hunting dog for years. He died at 15 years old. He was a good dog, but he was a trained dog. He was expensive though - vet bills, dog food, etc. I wouldn't mind another dog, if we moved away from the Casino, and lived on property that was a lot bigger than 10,000 sq. feet. I truly believe dogs need room to run and play.

Again - I'm very sorry.

 

[Hinotori]

I managed to build myself a cage for a bunch of little bunnies yesterday evening. I got to looking at things that are just laying around the house, and I found an old mini greenhouse. I was able to use the 4 shelves to create the 4 walls of the pen. Then I used some hardware wire, that I bought to line the bird cages with, and created a raised floor to keep them out of their own poo poo.

My new cage seems to working rather well if I don't say so myself.

That looks really nice! Very good job there.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: There are family members that I don't want near me and are about as annoying as a rash...

I have a sister like that. With Mom and Dad gone, I have to decide whether or not I want to continue my relationship with her. I'm inclined to not doing so.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

There are family members that I don't want near me and are about as annoying as a rash...

 

[itsren]

I have always had "hay fever" type allergies. My reactions were so bad that my eyes and throat would start to swell closed. I would sneeze so much that I could barely stand up.
The Dr. I was seeing sent me to be tested to see what I was allergic to. Not bad of the 35 things I was only allergic to 33 of them.

They made me my own serum. started out with an injection once a week then every 2 and ended at once a month. Now I am a big wimp when it comes to shots and needles but the allergy shots were not bad. It has been 13 years since I last had any of those shots and my allergies are very much under control. While I will occasionally have a very mild reaction it is nothing like before.

So to anyone who has"seasonal" "hay fever" type allergies.I HIGHLY recommend getting tested and trying this. While there is no guarantee it will work for everybody I feel it is worth the effort. And (to my knowledge) you are not getting any drugs with possible side effects. As far as I know it is just small amounts of what you are allergic to and the little bit of saline type solution that is used to assist in the injection.

CR - that's reassuring to hear! Thank you!

They tested me for 31. I was extremely allergic to 30 of them. For some reason, she would only make a serum for 20 of them. I get 4 injections every week. She said it will take me 2 years before I can drop down to getting shots less than weekly. They will also work on the other allergies later on.

It is good to hear that this has worked for someone else who had bad allergies, who also dealt with a swelling throat. The swelling throat is a daily thing for me. And, I'm always very tired. Before I started shots, I wore a respirator outside and when I was near my chickens. I can now be outside without it, and I can go near my chickens without the respirator - so something must be working! When I worked in the yard or garden, I still have to wear the respirator though.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: Very creative!

 

[itsren]

I just picked my first tomato yesterday. If it gets frosty around here I'll be pulling out the plants and hanging them from the rafters in the garage to ripen.
The little ones - Sungold in particular - have been great but the others......not so much this year.

I finally have some ripe ones and LOTS of green ones. What happened???? It was so sunny, I thought for sure the tomatoes would ripen early. Didn't happen.

 

[itsren]

Ya, reading back over it, I should've edited the dog vs. kids post that I quoted and only kept the parts that I liked. I just liked the parts about dogs giving unconditional love. Not the parts about dogs being better then kids. I have kids, I love them with all my heart and soul, no person or animal will ever come before them.
CR's post hit it more on the head for me actually. I'm a huge dog person so the statement someone made that dogs don't give anything back, I totally disagree with but that just depends on what people consider as "giving something back". Do they lay eggs for us to eat? No. But can they find a missing person? Yes. Do they provide fertilizer for our gardens? Eeww, no. But can they find drugs and other illegal contraband that we can not, or detect cancer before it will show in tests, or detect an oncoming seizure? Yes. Can they read a bedtime story to the kids? Unfortunately, no. But can they keep your family, or home safe from people with bad intentions? Yes. That to me is definitely giving something back. Dogs, IMO also give us things that the human race isn't capable of, such as, a lifetime of unconditional love, 100% selflessness and forgiveness over and over and over.
One of my favorite quotes "A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more then he loves himself".

These are just my opinions. I'm no expert. Just an ordinary dog lovin person. No ones right and no ones wrong, we just look at it differently.

You are very right. When I posted that they didn't give anything back, I certainly wasn't thinking of dogs in that fashion. I have a friend who is training a dog for the blind, so, yes, I know many dogs give back... for certain! I wasn't meaning it that way. I was totally focusing on my frustrations with dogs I have had experiences with. Our hunting dog, other than companionship and hunting, he even became a frustration after my kids were born. Suddenly he went from being the favorite kid in the family to my having to protect the babies from him. So, that skewed my thought process regarding dogs, as well. We found it difficult to retrain an old dog who lived most of his life being third in the pack to finding himself becoming fourth, and then seventh when the twins were born. He was 9 or 10 when my first child was born, and he just didn't handle a child coming into the family very well.