Anonymous wrote:I'm an essential worker at a remote site, and I have an apartment there for long shifts. There's a cute guy I'm interested in at the end of the row of apartments. When he's home, my rescue cat (I swear it's her, not me), has a habit of climbing on the roof and meowing loudly over his apartment.

He's taken to leaving a stepladder in the laundry room, and he helps me bring her down sometimes (even steadying my waist on the ladder). I grumble at her, but she gives me The Look.

She knows.

Anonymous wrote:We have a nine year old miniature poodle who really loves her special people and two special toys. Like many poodles, she understands many words and you can send her into rapture by telling her that one of her favorite people is coming to visit. She will sit quietly facing the front door when she senses our neighbor is coming to visit (pre-COVID time) or, even if I tell her Peapod is coming (because, again preCOVID when they brought deliveries in) she had one driver she just loved to see. But the sweetest thing she does is care for her favorite toy, a small cotton sheep. She got it two years ago and it changed her life. She had played with toys before, but never had a really special one. She was immediately taken with this sturdy little sheep. She will play with it for long stretches at a time and is just so happy. Now, when we are working from home, she brings it to the foot of the stairs to catch us as soon as we come down to make dinner so we can play with her and the sheep first. But the best thing she does is to go get the sheep before we take her out for her last walk of the day. She carries the sheep in her mouth for the whole walk until it is time to pee. Then she looks up as if to say, “please hold my sheep” and looks back up to retrieve the sheep and carry her inside when she is done. It just started one day last winter and now happens almost every night. She will even go upstairs to get the sheep when she senses it is about time to go out. It’s so sweet.

Anonymous wrote:We have a nine year old miniature poodle who really loves her special people and two special toys. Like many poodles, she understands many words and you can send her into rapture by telling her that one of her favorite people is coming to visit. She will sit quietly facing the front door when she senses our neighbor is coming to visit (pre-COVID time) or, even if I tell her Peapod is coming (because, again preCOVID when they brought deliveries in) she had one driver she just loved to see. But the sweetest thing she does is care for her favorite toy, a small cotton sheep. She got it two years ago and it changed her life. She had played with toys before, but never had a really special one. She was immediately taken with this sturdy little sheep. She will play with it for long stretches at a time and is just so happy. Now, when we are working from home, she brings it to the foot of the stairs to catch us as soon as we come down to make dinner so we can play with her and the sheep first. But the best thing she does is to go get the sheep before we take her out for her last walk of the day. She carries the sheep in her mouth for the whole walk until it is time to pee. Then she looks up as if to say, “please hold my sheep” and looks back up to retrieve the sheep and carry her inside when she is done. It just started one day last winter and now happens almost every night. She will even go upstairs to get the sheep when she senses it is about time to go out. It’s so sweet.

Anonymous wrote:Ok I've got two!

1) We have an Australian Shepard that is sort of a rescue. She was brought up on a farm with sheep, and was part of a litter of 11.

For every star sheep herder, there are siblings who just don't have the talent. She is timid. The sheep herded her! The rancher was disgusted with her and even though she has fancy bloodlines, just gave her to us.

Anyways the same qualities that made her a crummy sheepherder make her a great pet. She doesn't nip or bark or do anything to be difficult. She was practically seamless in integrating into our home because she was an adult and fully trained. She has really come into her own, where she is not afraid and very happy. She's totally gentle and all dogs seem to know this; all dogs like her.

The other thing is my DH is allergic but he takes shots now because he loves her so much and wants the kids to have a dog. Everyone loves her so much.

2) We had a cockatiel that was 20 years old that died. That bird was amazing, but I wasn't looking to replace him.

We ended up at a bird supply store which is also a sanctuary and there was a cockatiel there. I thought he was just being boarded, but turns out he was a return...he was originally found after a huge fire in California, and named Sparky, and a family took him in. But 9 months later, the family had some kind of family emergency and brought him back. They said he was not tame.

At the time we were having some crises in the family (my mother dying; one child with a medical crisis) I said to my family: "No, no...I'm not looking for a project." But I looked over at my DH and he had tears in his eyes. I dragged him outside and said, "why are you tearing up? My mom? or X? or Y?"

And he said, "Sparky. I can't believe they abandoned him!"

And I thought, Ok, we are adopting this untame bird. So we did.

And Sparky turned out to be tame and a great little bird!

And one day while outside on my kid's shoulder as she was playing a guitar, a hawk flew by and scared him and he took off and ended up on the roof of the neighbor's house. We called the fire department and they actually came and got him down. It made the local paper! Ha we love our little Sparky!