Pets of Mudspike

We’ve all talked about our various pets in a few different threads throughout this forum, but have never really had a single place to share all of them. I figured now’s as good a time as any to start one up.

My soon to be ex just took her elderly chocolate lab to the vet this morning- her dog just turned 15 on September 1st, and she’s been losing weight for the last few months, and having a hard time standing up or moving around every now and then.

She called me this morning after she left- as I’ve been dreading for months, her dog Reagan is dying. There’s evidence of internal tumors to go along with one that’s appeared on one of her back legs in the last couple of weeks, and after two surgeries in the last year to remove other tumors, she’s frankly too old and frail to continue subjecting to operations. The vet is thinking she has maybe a month or so, depending on how she reacts to antibiotics that may slow the growth of the tumors.

As a result, we’re planning joint “bucket list” events for Reagan, to try and pamper her as much as possible over the next few weeks before the inevitable trip across the Rainbow Bridge happens. Below are some of her greatest hits, over the past five years that I’ve been fortunate enough to have had her as a part of my life.

One semester in undergrad, I’d go home before lunch on Wednesdays, pick up Reagan, and we’d get dumplings from the food truck on campus, and some of us would sit in the grass and eat lunch with her while we worked on assignments or homework:

The dog park is one of her happy spots, and she always seems to know when we’re going.

This was the first trip for the dogs out to the beach, back in February during our unseasonably warm winter:

I’ll post more later, and some of her younger sister Coraleigh.

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Oh dear old girl, they are such big parts of our lives. much love from our house Harvey the cat and Bo the dog

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Dogs and Horses are the only creatures on the planet to understand and practice unconditional love. They will love you just because.

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What a great idea for a thread. I’m very sorry to hear about Reagan’s health issues. I will populate this thread with pictures of my best friend once I gather some good ones.

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This is Maxton, he was a kitten when I found him a couple of years ago at Laurinburg-Maxton airport. He’s a very doggish cat…

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Schuyler’s a big goober

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I have a pair of cats … Yeah, yeah. I know, I know.

Kara and Nyx

They do a lot of ‘cat’ things. Indoor cat things.

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And of course I do human-with-cat things.

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15 years! That’s 105 “human years” no? She’s lived a good life @Navynuke99.

It’s amazing what dogs can endure and hide at the same time as if nothing’s wrong. My Lab mix was 11 and basically a walking tumor. She seemed to be having trouble breathing one night so the next day we brought her to the Vet. After some x-rays, the Vet was blown away because she was having trouble finding an area in the x-rays that WASN’T cancer(!), other than the small sliver of lung pushed up toward her spine that the poor girl was still managing to breath from. Her lung capacity was literally pushed out of existence by the cancer. We were destroyed but we didn’t want her to suffer any longer so we had her put down immediately after one last tear filled walk in the field next to the vet office.

I guess I should’ve supplied a pic … here she is in all her glory … we couldn’t keep her out of lakes or rivers! … even rapids … almost lost her in Lake Ontario once …

Pic2

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Here he is when he was better looking (mind you, so was I)…

8 short years later and a lot of miles on the clock…

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My dog practices unconditional hate … luckily she’s only 11 pounds and her bites don’t mangle your flesh that much …

P

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Im pretty sure their love is conditional on food but we love em anyways. Lazy creatures.

Rusty and McCoy

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I have a cat named Miss Marple.
I love her. I think she likes me as well because she bites me much less than other people and she likes to sit or sleep on me.
That’s her as a fluffy kitten the day we got her seven years ago:

Now she looks like this (I just noticed I don’t have many pics of her that I can actually share… will have to take a few more).

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I’ve had rabbits years ago that I still dearly think of today!

Meet pepper, this was a week before she died(I always chased em through the yard with a camera)

And her sister takari, always the quiet one of the two. Especially in the last two years, she was mostly content with a gentle sniff around and just chill out somewhere. Although I think she had some joint issues and had trouble walking around.

They grew old and a bit fat in the end but hell, I loved them as much then as when they were wee little rabbits that could fit in my hand and sit on my shoulder all night!

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On March 11th of last year, I left my first job after graduating from college, with the plan being to take a week off before starting a job at another engineering firm on the 21st.

The morning of the 13th, my first day of my “funemployment,” I got a call from my wife, with an apologetic tone in her voice. The week before, we’d filled out an application to foster with Peak Lab Rescue, a labrador retreiver (mostly) rescue agency in our area. They’d just posted a picture of a frighteningly cute young yellow lab on their Facebook page they were calling Poppy, and she’d said we could take the puppy. Now, she was asking if I’d be ok driving down to the vet’s office in Apex to pick her up and bring her home. When I told the vet tech which dog I was there to pick up, her immediate reply was,

“OMG, she’s such a sweetheart! You’re not going to be able to give her up.”

After a good bit of coaxing and help from the vet tech, we were able to load her into the back seat of my car, and I drove her home, where she proceeded to sleep like the dead once she found a suitable comfortable blanket in a sufficiently well-lit room (it took a few weeks for us to get her over her fear of the dark).

Not shown: puppy getting car-sick in the back seat within five minutes of leaving the vet’s office. That took a couple of months to fully go away.

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…and here she is over the last year. After a full three weeks spent fighting over her name (I wanted to name her Annabelle, the wife said that was stupid and reminded her of the “Conjuring” horror films), we finally settled on “Coraleigh.” Based on the vet’s best guess from when she was brought in, she’s about three years old at this point. She’s been staying with the soon to be ex since I moved out in January, and I’ve only been able to see both the dogs sporadically since then- and since May, I hadn’t been able to see them at all, until a couple of weeks ago. I’ve indicated a few times in the last several months that I’d really like to keep her when everything is finalized, but I’m increasingly becoming less and less certain that she’ll even be willing to discuss that, especially with Reagan’s inevitable passing on the horizon.

Still, here are some pictures of Coraleigh over the last year, as she’s gone from a nervous, frightened, malnourished stray to a happy, energetic, very social dog who loves everybody, and is loved by everybody.

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This is my buddy “Mischief” through 9 wonderful years. He goes everywhere with me.

First picture was the very first picture we saw of him before we went and got him.

He gets the extra expensive furniture to lounge on. These first two pics were when he was less than a year old.

Getting older now.

He sleeps in the bed with us, sometimes acting like the whole bed is his!

Stopping for a rest during one of our walks.

Playing “squeaker ball” in hallway. He loves chasing ball down hallway.

Playing catch/chase in the living room.

Relaxing in living room. Nine years old now. Time goes by way too fast.

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Rocky our rooster


Pixie with a large branch and Pixie and Pepper having a romp.
Poor Pepper is 15 and getting incontinent but still a happy dog :slight_smile:

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That rooster looks like a c-ck.

:slight_smile:

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It’s nice to know I’m not the only one still mentally in High School.

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Those two would be no good for eating. Too much fat.

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