posted on May 5, 2001 08:17:36 AM new
Good morning. In Texas they are about to vote to change a city law to allow hogs as household "pets", to get around them being considered farm animals, and requiring pasture. Since I posted a thread last night about "hogs", (Harley Davidsons), this story caught my eye. If you could have any animal, regardless of size, as a pet, what would it be and why? Mine would be a white tiger, from birth, once able to leave the mother. They are so beautiful, strong, and quite a great protector of where they live. Burglars, protect your asses!
krs - I had an Iguana back in the 70's. What a great pet. He would get out of his cage and hang on the coils on the back of the refrigerator. He liked the warmth.
(The gif is not an Iguana, I know. It's all I had.)
posted on May 5, 2001 01:42:33 PM new
HQC would tell you the advantages of an attack pig.
I like a clean house better than having pets.
If I had a yard I would keep geese.
posted on May 5, 2001 02:25:52 PM new
Leapin lizards....make great housepets. They don't bay at the moon or need to be taken for a walk and they eat broccoli..which is a definite advantage for some folks who hate the stuff.
posted on May 5, 2001 04:52:32 PM new
A Wombat - a cute, fat, furry one. I used to have a pig, I raised her from birth and then my ex hubby killed her for meat!!! It took me years before I could eat bacon again.
posted on May 5, 2001 05:19:06 PM new
Kazanne, that is awful!!!
I could never understand how farm kids could raise an animal, give it a name, treat it as a pet and then sell it for food. I would think they would be as attached to it as I am to my dog and cat.
BTW, because of it's close proximity to the interstate, several fast food restaurants and a truck stop with a restaurant have been built beside a longtime livestock auction house in our town. That's a little unnerving.
posted on May 5, 2001 05:49:46 PM new
I live with the animal I most want: He is a half Asian Leopard Cat/half Bengal hybrid.
As an F1 (the first generation cross), he is much more like a Leopard Cat than a domestic cat.
He has a magnificent true pelt and spots (like his Leopard Cat dad), with a "wild" head (long and narrow with slightly buggy eyes), and a VERY exotic and muscular build.
He weighs just over ten pounds, and is NOT a cuddly animal. Actually, he is quite guarded around people (Leopard Cats are among the LEAST domesticable of all the wild cats), and is, for the most part, a curmudgeon.
He steals raw meat while I am cooking (he once ran off with an entire veal cubed steak..I could hardly contain myself I was laughing so much), and drinks water from off his front paws, not directly out of the water dish.
He also has a wonderful sense of humor. We had to remove the toilet paper from the roll because he enjoys shredding it into tiny bits. When he no longer had that, he jumped into the kitchen garbage (where we tossed the remains of the roll he had destroyed), got the tattered roll OUT, and brought it back to the bathroom. Clearly, he told us where his toy of choice belongs!
And once in a LONG while he'll curl up on me to take a nap. It is then that I can pet him and just wonder at him.
I treasure those moments...otherwise, he is just a goofy miracle.
He also doesn't sound like an ordinary cat: he makes more of a nasal "EEEEEEEHHH" than anything resembling a "meow".
He was shipped from Canada, so we joke that all he can say is "eh" (no offense meant to ANY Canadian...hehehe).
It is truly like having "Animal Planet" up close and personal.
posted on May 6, 2001 10:00:46 PM new
A ferret. We used to have one named Quasimodo (the fearless quasimodo who would attack the vaccum cleaner, but I digress). He was such a fun pet. When my kids get older I will get another one. :0)
posted on May 7, 2001 01:19:10 PM new
One of the best pets I ever had was a white (Embden) goose. Messy creature, but fiercely loyal, protective and puts a watchdog to shame when it comes to warning that strangers are nearby.
posted on May 7, 2001 01:22:23 PM new
I was corrected on the phone by a fellow Texan. It wasn't a "hog", but a huge pot bellied pig, that brought the vote to change the "pet" status. Hmmm, like there is a huge difference? Bacon is bacon, to me. Fry it up!
If you could have any animal, regardless of size, as a pet, what would it be and why? Mine would be a white tiger, from birth, once able to leave the mother. They are so beautiful, strong, and quite a great protector of where they live. Burglars, protect your asses! 
