Oh my heart....

[The Valkyrie]

I'm feeling ok now. I couldn't stop crying when I came home and made this thread. People need to be careful on the road. It's not that hard to not hit a cat on a 35 mph residential road.

Some people don't care.

I lost one of my favourite cats to a car back in 2008 when he was just a year old.

He's buried in my parents' garden and I still talk to him when I go home.

[Whateverist]

I'm feeling ok now. I couldn't stop crying when I came home and made this thread. People need to be careful on the road. It's not that hard to not hit a cat on a 35 mph residential road.

Some people don't care.

I lost one of my favourite cats to a car back in 2008 when he was just a year old.

He's buried in my parents' garden and I still talk to him when I go home.

Good to see I'm not the only one.  It shouldn't be necessary to become a true believer to indulge in an imaginary dialogue with an expired beloved pet.  You can have quite a lot of fun if you are able to keep "as if" things in perspective.  Hell we all manage it when we're asleep, it shouldn't be that hard.

[robvalue]

I'm totally the same. I can't bear seeing any sort of dead or suffering animal. We've collected many injured animals that have a chance and taken them to vets or rescues. Some had to be put to sleep, but some had a fighting chance.

I also get choked up way more by animals suffering than I do humans. I can't say exactly why. And just like you Becca, I cry even about fictional animals in things. Even when nothing sad is happening! For example, the lyrics to Teddy Bear's Picnic often make me well up. I'm just incredibly over sensitive when it comes to animals I guess.

[Nope]

Our last cat was a kitten that my son and his friend found on a busy highway. We don't know what it was doing on the side of the road but some people dump their animals in rural areas. I don't know why they wouldn't at least take the animal to a shelter where it stands a chance of being adopted.

There is a movie that my boys used to repeatedly watch about two dogs and a cat that made their way across country to be find their family. At the end of the movie there is one scene where the old Golden Retriever comes over the hill and all he wants to do is see his boy again. That scene makes me cry every single time that I watch it.

[robvalue]

People are too spineless to turn up at a rescue centre and say, "We don't want this animal anymore" so they take the cowards way out and dump it. Absolute heartless bastards.

[rexbeccarox]

People are too spineless to turn up at a rescue centre and say, "We don't want this animal anymore" so they take the cowards way out and dump it. Absolute heartless bastards.

I just don't get why people take on pets they can't handle.  I hate when I hear, "well, we're having a baby, so we can't keep our cat/ dog/ goldfish," or, "we're moving and fluffy's not welcome in our new place."  My roommate spent the better part of a year doing research into what types of breeds she was interested in, and what rescues to find those breeds.  She finally found her "perfect" puppy, but some lady got to her first.  My roommate was crushed.  Then, a few days later, she got a phone call from the rescue saying that the lady who adopted the puppy didn't want her anymore because she couldn't run six miles.  Six miles???  A five-month-old puppy whose joints and bones are still developing?  We got the puppy, so everything worked out, but are you effing kidding me?  Pets should be considered members of your family; at the very least, they are living beings with feelings and personalities.  If you can't handle a baby, do you just take it to a shelter, risking its demise?  Do you just dump it on the side of the road in hopes someone will pick it up?  Do you make it run six miles? It makes me SO angry. 

(of course, I'm not talking about *you*, Rob )

[The Valkyrie]

People are too spineless to turn up at a rescue centre and say, "We don't want this animal anymore" so they take the cowards way out and dump it. Absolute heartless bastards.

I just don't get why people take on pets they can't handle.  I hate when I hear, "well, we're having a baby, so we can't keep our cat/ dog/ goldfish," or, "we're moving and fluffy's not welcome in our new place."  My roommate spent the better part of a year doing research into what types of breeds she was interested in, and what rescues to find those breeds.  She finally found her "perfect" puppy, but some lady got to her first.  My roommate was crushed.  Then, a few days later, she got a phone call from the rescue saying that the lady who adopted the puppy didn't want her anymore because she couldn't run six miles.  Six miles???  A five-month-old puppy whose joints and bones are still developing?  We got the puppy, so everything worked out, but are you effing kidding me?  Pets should be considered members of your family; at the very least, they are living beings with feelings and personalities.  If you can't handle a baby, do you just take it to a shelter, risking its demise?  Do you just dump it on the side of the road in hopes someone will pick it up?  Do you make it run six miles? It makes me SO angry. 

(of course, I'm not talking about *you*, Rob )

People who abandon animals piss me off.

I have a very affectionate black and white girl at home who was abandoned by her owners after they moved into a house a few houses away from the place I used to live.  I first noticed her outside during a winter storm, sheltering by my neighbour's front door (the cat absolutely loved that neighbour's little girl and would sit outside their house for hours, in all weather, waiting for her).

The cat wasn't being fed so I started feeding her. 

When my neighbour, the one with the little girl, confronted the owners about their abandonment of their cat the response was, "When we moved in we were told we weren't allowed cats!"

"So what, you move in anyway and just throw your cat outside, not even bothering to feed her?"

Apparently they didn't give a response to that question, but just walked away.

Long story short, Honey, my name for her, eventually adopted me as her new human, and her "owners" moved away without even bothering to inquire about her.  She's in a much better home where she has companionship and sleeps wherever she wants (and in some truly weird places).

Bastards who abandon animals should be driven into the desert, with no supplies, and left to fend for themselves.  That's the equivalent of what they do when they abandon pets.

[rexbeccarox]

It's so effing sad! I'm so glad Honey has you for a mom.

[robvalue]

It's bad enough people can abandon a new pet after a few days when they get bored, but how people can dump a long time family pet is really beyond me. Our pets are our family, completely. I'd never give them up unless I had absolutely no other humane choice. How people can have a baby then turf out their dog... Fuck me

[abaris]

It shouldn't be necessary to become a true believer to indulge in an imaginary dialogue with an expired beloved pet.  You can have quite a lot of fun if you are able to keep "as if" things in perspective.  Hell we all manage it when we're asleep, it shouldn't be that hard.

My pets come to me in my dreams. Speaking of keeping things in perspective, since I obviously want them to visit.