pepesdad1":yqv7bltx said:
...Try checking the local animal shelter...there are plenty of hounds just waiting for you...and the right home, which I'm sure you will give it.
I prefer rescued dogs myself, they are so appreciative...you'll love yourself for doing it.
That's a given, bro’. The county shelters and various private rescue operations are full of four-legged people who are slated for extermination if no one rescues them. We don't look anywhere else. That where we found Kina...
...whom we lost to cancer in 2010, December. It wasn't an especially cheerful Yuletide. In fact, I'm still grieving. She left a big hole...one that it's time I filled.
See, I didn't want a dog...my kids did. I finally caved and said, "OK...but I have to meet the dog. This is going to be a family member. It's going to take more than four legs and doggie breath to qualify..." So, we went to the Baldwin Park shelter, where Mrs. Vito and the Kidz had previously lined up several candidates for my perusal and approval. I was not impressed.
Then I turned around and spotted Kina in another row of pens. She was about 15 feet away. We made eye contact, and she started vibrating. I walked up to the chain link gate, and she pasted herself up against it, as if to say, "Pet, scratch...anything. Now." I complied. Instant bond. I informed my family, "This is The Dog™. This one. Right here. Not another one. This one." And she really was.
So we're checking all the nearby shelters. For The Dog™. It's only a matter of time.
4noggins.com_Mike":yqv7bltx said:
An owl swooping down and carrying away a beloved pet seems to me to be a particularly savage way for it to die. Sorry!
Thanks Mike. Yeah, it took a while to figure out what happened, but that's how we learned not to let the cats stay out after dark. We live on the edge of a wilderness area, where foxes, coyotes, but most of all owls are the principal predators on kitties. The thing is, the night it happened Kina was very upset, but I didn't know why at the time. Then Tuffer didn't come when I called her, and I thought "...uh-oh..."
I don't know how fast it happens, an owl-kill. It can't be a pleasant thing. But I don't blame the owl. It's just doing what it needs to survive. At least Tuffer's demise did someone some good. The great circle of life, and all that.