Pets - tell us about yours

[Music_Freak]

I was just searching for an old thread here about how pets help us with mental illness/health and it seems to be gone, so I thought I'd start another one.

As some of you know already, I have a black cat named Buddy and he's my life, basically. I have no friends or contact with family currently, so he's it. Knowing he's around is a great comfort and during bad periods he's generally the only thing that gets me out of bed.

So, go ahead and share anything about your pets and make us all smile.

[Jynxii]

I love my pets. I spend my days off work with them, they make me feel good. I’m quite a Reptile enthusiast, I have 7 pythons and 12 lizards (blue tongues of varying locales, a bearded dragon and 2 goannas.) oh, 3 chickens and a cat... if I never needed to leave the house again and just stay home with them, I’d be more than ok with that.

[Summer Rose]

Me too, Jynxii. My dog, Scout, means the world to me. She loves me just the way I am and makes me smile every day.

[MsPurple]

Hi everyone. I love reading about other peoples pets. How joy they bring us. I know when I'm feeling down petting an animal is sometimes the best therapy

I'm so excited as next month I am going down to Melbourne for 2 nights. I will stay with my mum and brother and the doggies. My brother has a whippet called Betty, and my mum has two maltese x called Sammy and Brian. I get so many photos sent to me but it is never as good as seeing them in the flesh. Haven't seen Betty for two years and the other two in 6 months. Far too long

[fred4761]

Hi Jynxii, are reptiles very interactive as pets? I don't know much about them (aside from witnessing the odd brown snake slithering through the back of the property!). Sometimes I feel like I too could stay at home forever with just my pets to entertain me and keep me company - I find that animals are so much easier to deal with than people. As I type this I have one of my min pins on my lap, the other beside me on the couch, one of my cats asleep on the armrest beside me and my other cat is purring behind me on the head rest of the couch. Pets are such a blessing!

[Jynxii]

Some are, some aren’t. It’s down to personality really. Some of my snakes like to wrap around my neck and give a great neck massage or sit on top of my bush hat,, or others will constantly try and get off you... same with the lizards,, after 8 months I’ve only JUST been able to start interacting with my goanna,, now she loves to climb on top of me and sit on top of my head....

[Jynxii]

This being said,, I strongly suggest you do not pick up wild snakes for neck massages,, especially browns.

[fred4761]

Ha ha . . . trust me, I have no desire to pick up random wild snakes for neck massages!!

[fred4761]

It must have been chilly last night . . . I woke up this morning to find one of dogs under the covers curled up behind my knees, the other was nestled behind me with her head resting on my back, my youngest cat was under the covers against my stomach and one of my other cats was also asleep on the bed! Only my 17 year old cat was in his own bed but he has a heated one. My partner thinks it might be time to get everyone heated pet beds, but I do love snuggling in bed with my pets. Maybe we just need to get a bigger bed!

[J-J]

Hey Everyone,

I have two cats, Valentino cat (Now 11), I adopted from the RSPCA.

When I moved Brisbane to the Gold Coast Val suffered from anxiety. Basically, I moved from living at home to moving to an apartment. So I adopted him a friend Summer who at the time was a kitten now aged 5.

My friends at the time thought it was funny since I suffer from anxiety and so does my cat.

They mean the world to me my fur babies. I have no friends and only talk to my mum, her husband, Nana, and doctors.

This is pretty dark, however, the cats are one of the reasons I'm still here.

Pets save lives 🙂

[Mickii]

I love hearing about people pets. Mine are the best therapy. At one stage when things were really bad for me I heard about an elderly lady who was going into a nursing home and had no one to take her very old dogs. Her story broke my heart, so I took them and made a promise I would give them the best life possible. I had Twinkles for 2 years, and Toby for 4 years. It broke my heart when they went to doggie heaven. I also started to take other dogs that were old or had behavioural problems, the dogs people did not want. I thought of my place as the Twinkles and Toby Foundation in their memory. Fortunately I live on a property. It really gave me a purpose. I love each one of them, and they keep me busy. In the last year or so I reached the maximum number of dogs I could rescue at one time, and it beaks my heart that I can not take any more. I find the amazing thing about my dogs is just being with them makes me feel better. As I write this I have two old dogs Kale and Dallas on my lap...they are so like Twinkles and Toby. They have no teeth, so their tongues just flop out, and they are snuggled in their pyjamas. Dallas was in vet hospital for a few days a couple of weeks ago, and we were not sure if he would pull through, but he made it. I can not explain the joy I felt when he came home and ate a whole bar-be-que chicken breast, wagging his tail! I guess the when things are really dark, it is good to remember that our lives are important, not just for us, but for the things we love.