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16K views 72 replies 31 participants last post by  SomockrEve  
#1 ·
Let's see where this goes. It seems like there are a lot of pet owners here.
Here's my 2.
~JOE~
 

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#6 ·
Found this runt and 6 of his siblings under a cement stair near a busy street, they were all about a week maybe 2 weeks old at the time. Bottle fed them for a few weeks and found homes for most, kept him and eventually got his sister when her caretaker passed away. I wouldn't spare any expense to keep these guys around, Sonny (in picture) swallowed a magnet when he was young which cost $1300 to get out, got attacked by a bat during the day and was under quarantine for rabies concern, and most recently developed a kidney issue where he lost 50% of his weight. Through much effort he is about as healthy as before and gained 75% of his weight back. Fluids every 3rd day for the past 2 years and 4 different types of RX food have him happy and playing like a 2 year old....these guys are at least 10 now.
 

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#8 ·
Our two trouble-makers.

On the left - Nilla, a rescue. One of her litter-mates was DNA tested by a family that rescued it that we have kept in touch with. She's part Great Pyrenees, part American Eskimo, part Newfoundland, part Chow. We have started to think she has dwarfism, honestly. Lol. She should be huge. Her Mom was 85lbs. She's 40lbs and will be two in March, so she's done growing. Dunno how else to explain her small size. Unless she got her size entirely from the chow and AE, and her looks from the Newfy and GP. Even for an AE or Chow, she seems like she would be small, though, IMO.

On the right - Hawk. He's a Belgian Malinois that we got from some friends whose malis had pups, and is about 90lbs.(very big for a mali, actually) They wanted to keep this one, but he's an alpha like his Dad, and him and his Dad just did not get along. So we took him in 3 years ago when we bought our house. He'll be 4 in May.
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My fiance(she said yes on Xmas Eve!) has a canary named Squeaks, and I have a 36 gallon saltwater reef tank with assorted critters and corals, with the highlight being a pair of clownfish.

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#9 ·
Smallie, do you have any extra mini brittle stars I could buy? I hear they multiply like crazy
 
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#11 ·
I don't have any actually Phil. I have 10 Blue leg hermits, 5 astraea snails, 3 bumble bee snails, two nassarius snails, two cerith snails, lots of bristleworms, a black ocellaris clown, and an orange ocellaris clown. Had a purple firefish, but he died. And like 20 assorted corals.

They're not too bad once they're established urban. Mine has been up for 4 years this coming May. Only thing I have to do to it now is a 5 gallon water change twice a month, and daily water topoffs. It has turned into its own little self-managing ecosystem at this point.

120g is quite a bit different than my 36g though. A lot more involved. More room for error though.
 
#12 ·
Possibly the most useless animal in existence. Will have nothing to do with water, boats, the outdoor elements or anything else relative to my lifestyle. In spite of what RonG says( :D ), if an intruder got in the house, they would be warmly greeted like a long lost friend as she has no idea what a stranger is. This is my 12yr old whippet, Riley.
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Riley was brought home as an xmas present for my dad in 2006. I inherited her after he passed in 2009. In her younger years, she was an excellent frisbee dog& have clocked her as fast as 38mph. Nowadays, curling up under a blanket on the couch is more her speed.
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Even though she's a major cramp in my style as far as planning my daily life, it'd be hard to imagine life without her.
 
#15 ·
SmalliesNEyes said:
They're not too bad once they're established urban. Mine has been up for 4 years this coming May. Only thing I have to do to it now is a 5 gallon water change twice a month, and daily water topoffs. It has turned into its own little self-managing ecosystem at this point.

120g is quite a bit different than my 36g though. A lot more involved. More room for error though.
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Mine is the same, I'm starting my 3rd year with this tank and its come to the point I only gotta top off the water once a week or so. I check my levels and everything is right where it needs to be. Pull out the filter media, wring it out, and its good to go another 2 weeks. I haven't done a water change since I went from gravel to sand in June and the only fish I've had die on me are fish the damn gar eats lol.
 
#16 ·
Woohoodude11 said:
SmalliesNEyes said:
They're not too bad once they're established urban. Mine has been up for 4 years this coming May. Only thing I have to do to it now is a 5 gallon water change twice a month, and daily water topoffs. It has turned into its own little self-managing ecosystem at this point.

120g is quite a bit different than my 36g though. A lot more involved. More room for error though.
Click to expand...
Mine is the same, I'm starting my 3rd year with this tank and its come to the point I only gotta top off the water once a week or so. I check my levels and everything is right where it needs to be. Pull out the filter media, wring it out, and its good to go another 2 weeks. I haven't done a water change since I went from gravel to sand in June and the only fish I've had die on me are fish the damn gar eats lol.
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Saltwater is a little different. You have to replenish nutrients and such using the salt, or your stony corals will die, not grow, etc. They use calcium to build their skeletons. Calcium is in the salt we do water changes with. They're a must in a saltwater reef tank. If your tank is FOWLR(fish only, with live rock) then they're not quite as important, but if you're keeping corals, like I do, then a water change every two weeks is mandatory. Don't feel like losing all that money invested in my corals. If you only keep soft corals(ones that don't build stony skeletons) like mushrooms and things like that, then they're also not quite as important.

Oh, and nice looking pets all! Not surprising that a board full of avid outdoorsmen have a ton of different pets.
 
#19 ·
SmalliesNEyes said:
Woohoodude11 said:
SmalliesNEyes said:
They're not too bad once they're established urban. Mine has been up for 4 years this coming May. Only thing I have to do to it now is a 5 gallon water change twice a month, and daily water topoffs. It has turned into its own little self-managing ecosystem at this point.

120g is quite a bit different than my 36g though. A lot more involved. More room for error though.
Click to expand...
Mine is the same, I'm starting my 3rd year with this tank and its come to the point I only gotta top off the water once a week or so. I check my levels and everything is right where it needs to be. Pull out the filter media, wring it out, and its good to go another 2 weeks. I haven't done a water change since I went from gravel to sand in June and the only fish I've had die on me are fish the damn gar eats lol.
Click to expand...
Saltwater is a little different. You have to replenish nutrients and such using the salt, or your stony corals will die, not grow, etc. They use calcium to build their skeletons. Calcium is in the salt we do water changes with. They're a must in a saltwater reef tank. If your tank is FOWLR(fish only, with live rock) then they're not quite as important, but if you're keeping corals, like I do, then a water change every two weeks is mandatory. Don't feel like losing all that money invested in my corals. If you only keep soft corals(ones that don't build stony skeletons) like mushrooms and things like that, then they're also not quite as important.

Oh, and nice looking pets all! Not surprising that a board full of avid outdoorsmen have a ton of different pets.
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Funny enough, i use salt in my fresh tank. Its good for gill function and helps with fish coloration and is the most natural low impact way to get rid of ich. Albeit, it only calls for 1 heaping tablespoon per 5 gallons. I use the big orange Home Depot bucket for my tank stuff, so that whole thing takes 1 scoop of salt.

I thought of starting a 13 gallon saltwater nano. The startup cost very quickly changed my mind. Then getting into the price of nice looking frags and whatnot made it easy to forget about it!
 
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#20 ·
The gf has a saltwater tank, you can find some quality (but small) frags on craigslist for $5-15. The guys are usually nice and occasionally hook it up with extra frags
 
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#21 ·
Aux: That's just f'ing hilarious.

Phil: Thanks. Yes Lucy is a pretty girl. She weighs 50 lbs. She's the sweetest dog ever. Funny thing is, shepards & blue healers are supposed to be really smart. But through the mystery of DNA she got short changed on brains. Great dog anyway.
 
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#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
Okay, the non photo 'bombed' shots.

'Snickers' -female German Shorthair Pointer

IMG_20180105_9695.jpg


'Twix' - Tortoiseshell like my sunglasses.

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When we moved up to Gurnee this year, Twix started the summer off by bringing a Toad home every day. We didn't have Toads in the yard in River Grove. Apparently cats enjoy mutilating toads.
 

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#23 ·
^^^I love cats but they're sadistic shits. We had one years ago that caught mice, ate just their ears, tail & feet & then left them where my wife was sure to step on them in the morning. I swear that cat enjoyed it all.

Gunner just kills them & stuffs their dead bodies under the hassock in the den.
 
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#24 ·
Rambler said:
^^^I love cats but they're masochistic shits. We had one years ago that caught mice, ate just their ears, tail & feet & then left them where my wife was sure to step on them in the morning. I swear that cat enjoyed it all.
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The cat was probably trying to give you the mouse as a gift. A way to sort of pull its weight around the house. We had a couple cats growing up that would do that. One would drop dead mice in your bed while you were sleeping.
 
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#25 ·
Here's mine, he's 12 1/2 years old, had him since 3 months. He loves the dog beach. Used to bring him out to Busse with me quite a bit when I lived in Elk Grove Village, he may have harassed a few of you before. Two tumors removed from his right forelimb in the last two years, and he started needing twice a day insulin shots this winter. I start my days chasing him around trying to get him to whiz on a stick so I can test his glucose before the sun comes up. Anyway I really love the little guy and spend as much time with him as possible these days. Great thread Joe, and really liked seeing everyone's pics etc.
 

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#26 ·
urbanHog312 said:
just got this guy last week; my new bird dog named Blue. a golden wasn't my first choice for a breed but the wife overruled and i'm glad she did because he is showing great progress with training. he has a strong drive and a really birdy instinct.
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Urban, your pup definitely gets the "To freaking adorable" award so far. When I was growing up my dad had two professionally trained German shorthairs with field trial champion parents...and we had a Setter runt that was our house pet...Rusty just had that special DNA some dogs have, he quartered, set and retrieved instinctively and kicked the shit out of those Shorthairs in the field....I have a photo somewhere where he was set on a blind retrieve for a pheasant that the Shorthairs couldn't fetch and he's got that pheasant in his mouth with looks like a big ass grin and he was definitely strutting on the way back.
 
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