Coolest/Favourite Pet

[Danzaver]

Provide details of one, or the other, or both.

I shall provide both.

Coolest pet - A great big boa constrictor we had when I was growing up in Papua New Guinea. It was about twice as thick as a fist and 18 foot long - it could have eaten my younger brother and killed any one of us if it got a coil over us. We fed it whole live chickens and guinea pigs. We kept it in half a corrugated iron water tank with an iron grill on the top with a heavy chair weighing it down. Nonetheless, it was strong enough to escape, which it did and is still probably living in the cocoa plantation out the back eating baby wild pigs.

Favourite pet - any one of my ratties. Probably one called Tara (which is Persian for Star, which backwards is Rats, the singular of which is A Rat, which backwards is Tara :smalltongue: ). She was the smartest rat I have ever had, and was very aggressive and protective of me. She would attack anyone who came near me, usually going for hands, elbows, or heels, depending on which was closest.

[reorith]

coolest pet my adopted mutt name q. i got her my freshmen year of highschool and she died my senior year :( she used to follow me around everywhere and we would chase birds together :( brb, finding a pic.

my favorite pet was my telekinetic dog, blood. in the aftermath of the third war, we lurked and scavenged in the wreckage of the america midwest. he was the most loyal companion a boy could ever have, but then i had to pick between his companionship and an honest relationship with a woman. i think i made the right choice

[thubby]

coolest/favorite: dog. seriously, they can do anything.

[JettWilderbeast]

My coolest pet(s) are my smooth newts, I have 2 a male and a female, they are so cool! I did have 4 but 2 escaped and died.... But these 2 I have are awesome and fingers crossed for babies!

[Castaras]

Cleocatra. Cat, amazingly awesome pet. Comforted me when I was down, savaged, and did what she wanted.

[SilentNight]

Moe, cat, reliable, cute, there for me and always provided a good dose of fuzz therapy.

[Death, your friend the Reaper]

http://www.au.lspace.org/art/fan-art/images/death-on-binky.jpg

BESIDE THAT CATS, CATS ARE NICE.

[Admiral Squish]

Coolest pet I've ever had? Hmm... Probably my current doggie. She's frikken' brilliant. Even figured out how to egt me and my brother to stop playing video games and pay attention to her: She would walk up and put her chin on the controller.

Coolest pet I can think of having? Sloth. Fuzzy, cuddly, cool to watch, and a lot more mellow than a monkey.

[SurlySeraph]

Favorite pet? Plecostomus catfish. http://members.tripod.com/extreme_skier/fish/pleco2.JPG

Who wouldn't love a face like that?

Coolest pet? Black ghost knifefish http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/blackghost.jpg

Ideal pet? A redtail catfish. If only I had a few hundred gallons of free tank space...

[Nerd-o-rama]

My family pets have been sweet but boring. What I'd like is a ball python or one of the cleaner varieties of rodent/mustelid. Big, big emphasis on the "or" there.

[Mauve Shirt]

Coolest, my African Grey parrot, Cyrus. He makes an awful mess, but he's awesome.

My dog Ralph is my favorite pet. Or I should say preferred. He's a Rhodesian Ridgeback, and a complete nut.

[Parvum]

Functional, stylish, efficient, and available by the dozen. Nothing beats a good pathetic human. They'll carry your things, they'll cook your food, they'll make you look better by comparison! Note: Humans will not cure terminal diseases or, really, anything. If you are currently using a human as a pet, have used a human as a pet, plan to use a human as a pet, or know someone using a human as a pet, please contact the proper authorities and slap yourself in the face. You don't know where that human has been.

On a more serious note, I've always been interested in the snake. I am under the impression that they are surprisingly affectionate for reptiles. Cold blooded care and food that, if dead, requires you to fish for snakes. It sounds like an interesting experience.

On a less serious note again, anyone have a tank big enough for dolphins?

[Don Julio Anejo]

I want a raccoon, too bad they're not domestifiable.

My grandma also used to keep a few hedgehogs running around the house...

[†Seer†]

My grandma also used to keep a few hedgehogs running around the house...

Yatta! I was going to say a hedgehog myself, hehe. Planning on getting one when I graduate.

[RS14]

Coolest pet: The beautiful, 6 inch fishing spiders I just barely failed to catch on my last kayaking trip. Though come to think of it, that's probably illegal. The Georgia DNR is a bit picky about native wild animals as pets. :smallsigh:

Favourite Pet: Cats. Cute, fluffy, affectionate.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I only haz my brother :smallfrown:

Parvum, ehh, he´s my brother, so I know where he´s been:smalltongue:

[Bag_of_Holding]

A brother can be an entertaining... pet- although I must admit that about 7 years of age the naughty-ness starts to outweigh the entertainment value... :smalleek:

Oh well, I still love me little bro even if he's like on the brink of puberty (about 10 years gap between me and me bro, actually). I still can't imagine him as a teenager though... I don't think I'll ever get over this feeling.

[thubby]

Yatta! I was going to say a hedgehog myself, hehe. Planning on getting one when I graduate.

I'd be far too tempted to dye it blue.

[Lyesmith]

Cats for me. Coolest was probabl Stepney, a farmcat we adopted. He was a beautiful orange, and really fun. And he acted like a cat, which our current one does not. (He still kills mice. But just dosent bat at you playfully. He just lies there and gets stroked, the big fat slut.)

Favourite was Sally, wonderful chatty while tortoiseshell who was very quirky. Wonderful affectionate being.

[SoD]

I had tadpoles when I was about 8. They were a birthday present from my best friend...they ate each other.

[Danzaver]

My coolest pet(s) are my smooth newts, I have 2 a male and a female, they are so cool! I did have 4 but 2 escaped and died.... But these 2 I have are awesome and fingers crossed for babies!

That is so fricking cool. I WANT one. I doubt they are allowed in Australia though... I encountered the same problem when I tried to get a Zambian Giant Pouched Rat.



On a more serious note, I've always been interested in the snake. I am under the impression that they are surprisingly affectionate for reptiles. Cold blooded care and food that, if dead, requires you to fish for snakes. It sounds like an interesting experience.


They seriously are. My sister has about 13 reptiles... many of the dragons (bearded variety) are a bit standoffish but some of them are very affectionate. But the snakes have always been beautiful creatures. I adore snakes. Except for the current one who was abused and now bites everyone. We call her Sarsparilla because she sucks and everyone hates her.


A brother can be an entertaining... pet- although I must admit that about 7 years of age the naughty-ness starts to outweigh the entertainment value... :smalleek:

Oh well, I still love me little bro even if he's like on the brink of puberty (about 10 years gap between me and me bro, actually). I still can't imagine him as a teenager though... I don't think I'll ever get over this feeling.

Teenagerhood is creeeepy. My little bro just turned 18... from the moment he turned 15 onwards it was just, he was so determined to be a different person, his every mannerism changed. I still love him, and he is still very funny, but I miss the old one. You can't get too attached, and you have to kind of act like you don't know them as well as they know themselves, or they will just resent you for 'cramping their style', or 'trying to control them'.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Teenagerhood is creeeepy. My little bro just turned 18... from the moment he turned 15 onwards it was just, he was so determined to be a different person, his every mannerism changed. I still love him, and he is still very funny, but I miss the old one. You can't get too attached, and you have to kind of act like you don't know them as well as they know themselves, or they will just resent you for 'cramping their style', or 'trying to control them'.

Thanks for your kind advice... it means a lot. :smallsmile:

[Serpentine]

Coolest "pet": I looked after an injured snake-neck turtle for a bit. It seemed to like getting scratched under its chin.

Favourite pet: Well, aside from Moses and Amy, whom I loves, my first budgie, Ziff. Got him when he was little, taught him to wolf-whistle and say "hubba-hubba". He'd sit on my shoulder and nibble on my ear. Then he jumped into my porridge and died a few days later :smallfrown:

Pet I'd most like to have: Hmm, this is tough. I'd want it to be huggable, affectionate and fun. A snake or maybe a tuatara would be really cool, but I don't know how much they usually meet all those requirements... I would really love to have a pet crow. They're so smart and cool and stuff. I keep thinking that it'd be awesome to have an... turns out I can't remember what they're called. Gigantic hairy dogs. I saw a long-haired black one once, when I was really little, and thought it was a rug.

[SoD]

I wouldn't mind a paradoxical frog, or a bat, or a ferret, but I'm going to end up with my cockateils (Pediment and Downspout, anyone get the reference?) and a dog called Necromancer (No! Bad Necromancer! Drop that bone!).

[Serpentine]

Paradoxical frog! Now they're cool :smallbiggrin:

[Phase]

Coolest, my African Grey parrot, Cyrus. He makes an awful mess, but he's awesome.

Gah! I want one SOOOO BAAAAD!

I'm a bird fanatic, and would love to have a bird that I could have a conversation with. It would be smarter then most people I know. I want one...

I had a Golden-collared Macaw once, he died at age thirty, they are supposed to be beautiful, but he pulled out almost all his feathers when I was born n a fit of jelous rage. We grew to love each other in the last few licks of his life, but it was for the best that he died. He was old and in a lot of pain. I miss the times that we shared, like when I taught him to dance...

R.I.P. Teddy...

[Serpentine]

Sure it wasn't that suddenly there was a horrible screaming devil-baby keeping it up all night? I bet your mother would've been pulling out her feathers, too, if she'd had them :smalltongue:

[Player_Zero]

Cats for me.


Favourite Pet: Cats. Cute, fluffy, affectionate.


Cleocatra. Cat, amazingly awesome pet.


Moe, cat, reliable, cute, there for me and always provided a good dose of fuzz therapy.


BESIDE THAT CATS, CATS ARE NICE.

What they said. Cats.

[Phase]

Sure it wasn't that suddenly there was a horrible screaming devil-baby keeping it up all night? I bet your mother would've been pulling out her feathers, too, if she'd had them :smalltongue:

I'm pretty sure, apparently I didn't make much noise when I was a baby.

Spoilered for sadness and length...
Psitticaforms (Sp?) are very possesive and territorial by nature. He had imprinted on my parents and he was the one who used to get all the attention. When a little tiny pink thing suddenly enter his territory and became the center of attention of his 'Flock-mates,' he kinda went berserk. It's like an older child having all his parents attention, then the new baby comes. The older child doesn't get why his parents are ignoring him to take care of and love the baby. Now give the older child a superiority complex; the ability to fly; hundeds of feathers within reach of an über-powerful, bone-crushing beak; and not even a rudimentory ability to comprehend the human mind or even language. He also was always a very agressive animal, biting any strangers he could somehow get his beak at, including me at age three. It as only during his last, like, year and a half of his life that he would even land on my knee. We began to bond, and when he started getting sick, I got really worried. He had become my best friend. When we took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with Gout. He could barely bend his legs, which to you and me is like being unable to bend our arms to pick anything up. He had trouble hanging on to the branches in his cage that he spent most of days playing in, so we made him a padded surface to stand on in order to eat and drink. The saddest memory I have of him is when we took him to the vet one time during the last few months of his life. The doctor needed to take some blood for a test. He was really scared of ths strange person we were handing him to, so he flew to my mom's shoulder to try and seek protection. She had to give him back to the doctor, so he tried flying to my shoulder for protection. It was touching and heart-wrenching, I had to give him to the doctor but it was like: "He'll save me, my best buddy will save me from the scary thing!" It was really hard for me to hand him back to the doctor, and I still miss him very much...

I rambled on about a very sad story, didn't I...

[Surprise!]

That neighbor kid looking for his ball


Goooood times

[Agamid]

As danzaver already mentioned, i keep reptiles. I want to get a big frog too but licensing for frogs is sooo much work.

the title for coolest pet is a pretty tight contest... My first lizard was incredible; she was so empathic and so beautiful (i now have her tattooed up my leg), but my current big beardy is just so... special, in the retarded sense of the word. She's a rescue and was hit by a car, she has brain damage and thinks she's a person, has very little depth perception and is completely enthralled with my little brother.
But then of course there were all the snakes we had in PNG, and my brother's (yet another one) carpet python who i raised for 5 years, she's just the best natured snake i've ever met.
And then there were the cuscuses we had in PNG too and Markhan was pretty cool too (he was a german/sheppard/Rottweiler/bullmastiff cross and 6'2" when he stood on his hind legs).
And then their was the reticulated python i helped look after for a while. She'd been kept in a tiny box for about 7-10 years without food, water, exercise or a clean and was really sick and underweight else she would have eaten me, no questions (she's the second largest snake in captivity).

My favourite pet would be Tubby though... hence the whole having her tattooed on me. She was an Eastern Bearded Dragon (Pogona barbata) and my first lizard.
I still have one of her sons.

[Moff Chumley]

Chumley, my late guinea pig. I have two more now, but they're more hyper...
Go cavies.

[phoenixineohp]

Favorite pet? Plecostomus catfish. http://members.tripod.com/extreme_skier/fish/pleco2.JPG

Who wouldn't love a face like that?

I love my pleco! He's a foot long now and such a funny critter. My dad jokes that we will need a backhoe to bury him. :smallwink:


I want a raccoon, too bad they're not domestifiable.

I was reading a website that mentioned that they would be more popular than dogs if they were domesticated. Now my friend and I want to try. Several generations and it should be okay. It's the litter training and lock on the fridge that would be hard. :smalltongue:



Except for the current one who was abused and now bites everyone. We call her Sarsparilla because she sucks and everyone hates her.

What is she? And have had her checked out by a vet? Things like cancer that cause a lot of pain can make a nice snake have to communicate by biting. Or have you tried taming her down? With lots of bandaids?



*snip*

When my guinea pig got really ill I had to take her in to be put down. She was calm in my arms and when the vet took her, looked over the vet's shoulder to me as she walked out the door. Broke my heart. Damn... now I'm crying. :smallsigh: :smallfrown:

Coolest pet? I think my geckos are neat. But really, I've had more than 10+ species of things. I can't pick just one!

My favourite pet? Sandy. My sister and cat. I'll miss her always. :smallfrown:

[Player_Zero]

My favourite pet? Sandy. My sister and cat. I'll miss her always. :smallfrown:

Your sister was a cat? :smallconfused:

[GrassyGnoll]

I had a possum for an afternoon. It was a baby in good health and adorable. My mom agreed it was adorable, but my dad thought it was freaky.

I often fantasize over all that never was.

[phoenixineohp]

Your sister was a cat? :smallconfused:

Yep. As an only child and she came to the family when I was 2, and lived 19 years, she was part of the family and treated like a sister. :smallsmile:

[Noir-Neko]

Coolist pet. - Chiron: He was my Prying Mantis, he had a tendency to chew off the Heads of crickets, then hold the head in one claw while he ate the body, periodically looking at the head. It was kinda creepy. I remember one time, he was hanging upsidown above two crikets and he snatched one up, the other looked up, wondering where the other went.


Favoret Pet. - Rusty: He was an Orange Manx/Tabby Cat. The only cat I ever knew with a double chin, he reminded me of John Wane. He loved sitting in my Dad's old reclining chair, just waiting for him to get home to try and get him off. Good times. In his early years, when we first moved to our house, he often took to hunting mice in the yard (we had cut down several trees when we moved in) That took him about a a year or two to weed all of them out. Good times.

Cheers.

[Agamid]

What is she? And have had her checked out by a vet? Things like cancer that cause a lot of pain can make a nice snake have to communicate by biting. Or have you tried taming her down? With lots of bandaids?


She's already starting to tame. She now only constricts my hand and poos on me instead of biting.
But believe me, there's nothing physically wrong with her. She's a carpet python and adolescents of their species are renowned for their aggressive behaviour. She's not a baby anymore, but she was abused by her first owner (i'm her 3rd) and so she's quite terrified of people.
I handle her quite a bit and keep her stress levels to a minimum, and she's slowly getting better.

When i handle her i wear one of my pairs of vintage evening gloves to lesson, even stop the bites from hurting or breaking the skin.
I learned with other snakes that if you stop reacting when they bit then they stop biting.

[Serpentine]

Your sister was a cat? :smallconfused:My late sister was a dog. What's your point? :smallannoyed:
(:smalltongue:)

On the taming of interesting animals: I saw something years ago on domesticating foxes. They had a bunch of them and bred the nice ones, typical trait selection stuff. After a few generations, they started... things like their snouts became shorter, their eyes larger... I can't remember most of it, but basically they became more puppy- or more dog-like, as well as becoming more tame and domesticated. Thought that was pretty interesting...
On a similar theme, there was a motion a while ago to replace introduced pet animals with native Australians. The bilby would replace the rabbit, quolls instead of cats, dingoes instead of dogs, etc. The logic was that, apparently, no animal domesticated by humans has gone extinct, so it could be used as a means of conservation. While I know there'd be lots of issues involved, it would be damn cool. I mean, aside from the fact that they're vicious buggers, who wouldn't want a pet Tasmanian devil?! :smallbiggrin:
(Update for anyone who's interested: Progress is being made with the Tasmanian devil face cancer thing. Apparently it's mostly on one side of Tazzie, where there's a much smaller gene pool. The ones on the other side have greater resistance, so they're working on developing a vaccine from them. I find it reassuring, anyway :smallsmile:)

[AKA_Bait]

Hard to decide bettween the two dogs I have owned in my life.

Scruffy: Smart but somewhat wild Airdale owned when I was just a wee thing and given away by my parents when I was little. Saved my life / kept me from serious injury at least twice. Was somewhat unmanagable though, would run off and return a day or two later covered in fleas. Once, one a Tuesday, ate volume 1 of a leather bound copy of Anna Karenina and came back on Wednesday and ate volume 2.

Shenanigan: My current floppy eared little mutt. Most friendly dog in the universe. Inveterate attention hog but in a good way. Several of my friends have threatened to run off with her when I wasn't looking and my parents try to get me to leave her at their house pretty much all the time.

[phoenixineohp]

She's already starting to tame. She now only constricts my hand and poos on me instead of biting.
But believe me, there's nothing physically wrong with her. She's a carpet python and adolescents of their species are renowned for their aggressive behaviour. She's not a baby anymore, but she was abused by her first owner (i'm her 3rd) and so she's quite terrified of people.
I handle her quite a bit and keep her stress levels to a minimum, and she's slowly getting better.

When i handle her i wear one of my pairs of vintage evening gloves to lesson, even stop the bites from hurting or breaking the skin.
I learned with other snakes that if you stop reacting when they bit then they stop biting.

I hadn't thought of evening gloves. I guess that would work for shorter toothed species. I just like gardening gloves, but they are often not long enough.

Yeah, reacting doesn't do any real good. You have to keep at it and just curse them out. :smallwink:

Good luck with her.