Stories you tell yourself about your pets [Archive]

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iris lilies

6-3-25, 6:22pm

Many of our pets have had a myth about them in our family lore. It’s something we make up and then it becomes part of their pet story. Our current story is that our little Petsian cat who came from Germany is here illegally. Everyone else in our household was born in the United States, but she was born in Germany. She did not have a visa. She may have to self deport

the second bulldog we ever had for some reason was known to have a bank account and money. We always talked about “Bert’s money” and what she was going to do with it. None of our other dogs have had money. I don’t know why this particular Dog was thought to have money. We are weird I guess but we like our pet stories

pinkytoe

6-3-25, 11:14pm

I like to think that the Siamese cats I have owned - one after another for over 65 years now - are really the same little spirit sent to accompany me on the journey.

rosarugosa

6-4-25, 6:32am

Louie was adopted from a city shelter in Providence, and his intake exam indicates that he was living rough and covered in dirt and scratches and fleas. It is hard to believe, because he is such an impeccable gentleman now! Anyhow, he gets very nervous when the trucks come around on trash pickup day, so I have this narrative about how he used to have to eat from the trash, but then the trash guys would come along and scare him away.

iris lilies

6-4-25, 9:52am

I like to think that the Siamese cats I have owned - one after another for over 65 years now - are really the same little spirit sent to accompany me on the journey.
Aw that is nice

early morning

6-4-25, 12:12pm

We had a small black cat who was very smart, very manipulative, and quite tyrannical. She also had a penchant for shiny objects, shoes, smashing eggs, and - oddly- bags of bagels. We always figured she was a reincarnation of Napoleon, via Imelda Marcos. I don't know how to account for the bagels.

ToomuchStuff

6-12-25, 1:11am

So the cats I had were adopted by me because I was close. The other person, well they would have ended up at what sounds like her "animal farm." So no to Miss Clarkson.

I contacted their former owner, through the caretaker, sibling, employee of the above, and they would be happy to have them back home.
I handed them off to her and her son today and they just stayed relaxed and there was no meowing like there has been when I have had to transport them between homes. I thanked them for the opportunity to watch those cute little furry faces (Miki the trans cat that was neutered and everyone thought was a girl at first, and Kit, the runt of the liter sibling/dominant one) and will miss them.
If I survive this, I did ask and get a visitation right.
If I beat this, I will probably adopt an older cat again, as both prior pets were elderly (dog and cat). My mom, now is thinking about a kitten. I will miss those two, but there was no meowing when they went into their arms. I think I made the right move.

bae

6-12-25, 1:19am

I wrote this up about my dear buddy Elvis the other day:

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When Elvis dies—and I know that day is coming, though I’d give anything to delay it—I’ll lose more than a dog. I’ll be losing the last living thread of something that has shaped my soul.

Elvis isn’t just a pet. He’s the final torchbearer in a long line of scent-hounds—stubborn, noble, hilarious, maddening, devoted—who have moved through my life like quiet, drooling philosophers. He carries with him not just his own weight in the world, but the memory and manners of those who came before him.

There was Basil the Basset, the original stoic, who taught me patience and the art of letting a dog be. Then Blake and Lilly, that dignified old pair who could communicate entire moral systems with a single sigh. And Cromwell—dear Cromwell—who wasn’t just a dog, but a gentleman of the old school. Wise, gentle-eyed, a teacher. He carried the cultural knowledge of the hound lineage like an old scholar guarding the last library. He trained Elvis not with force, but by example—passing down rituals and expectations like a monk passing on liturgy.

Elvis learned from Cromwell how to wait by the door with purpose. How to listen, not just hear. How to lean in, full-body and without shame, when someone needed grounding. And in that way, Elvis became both student and steward of this living inheritance.

When Elvis goes, it will be the closing of that long chapter. The last bark in a long, slow litany of sound and silence and scent. A book written not in words, but in muddy footprints and warm sighs and the way a hound chooses the exact right spot on the rug, every time.

People will ask me if I’ll get another dog.

And the honest truth is: I don’t know.

How do you begin again after the last of the old knowledge is gone? Elvis is not a standalone creature. He’s the final stanza of a poem that’s been unfolding for decades. When he goes, the house won’t just be quieter. It’ll feel unmoored. Like the hearth is still there, but the fire’s out.

Maybe, one day, I’ll feel that tug again—the need to share the world with another long-eared, soulful-eyed beast. But it won’t be to carry on the line. That line will have ended, and deserved its rest. If I ever do open my heart again, it will be something different. A new story.

But not yet.

First, I’ll sit with the silence. And I’ll remember the wisdom of Cromwell, the stubbornness of Basil, the grace of Blake and Lilly, and the gravity of Elvis—who held it all in his great hound’s heart.

(Elvis is still alive, and doing vaguely-well, but I worry, he's several years older than his breed's "use by" date...)

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https://i.imgur.com/9EwKfxO.jpeg

happystuff

6-12-25, 8:53am

Beautiful tribute to them all, bae. Hugs

iris lilies

6-12-25, 9:42am

Lovely, lovely loving words for beloved line of hounds, bae.

catherine

6-12-25, 9:58am

Wow, that is beautiful. I feel your anticipatory grief.

I have lost two dogs, each occupying roughly a decade or so of my life, and I've always said that a dog's life brackets specific eras in the human's life. When I think of Laddie I think of my kids' school years--my daughter was 7 when we got him and she was leaving the home for college when he was leaving us. You mentioned the word "fabric"--so true. The routine of the dog's life is so intertwined with that of the owner's that when they go, it's like a thread is pulled right out of the fabric of ur lives, leaving us literally torn.

Thanks so much for sharing that.

LDAHL

6-12-25, 11:56am

https://poets.org/poem/epitaph-dog

This puts me in mind of Lord Byron’s epitaph for his dog Boatswain.

early morning

6-12-25, 11:59am

bae, that's a lovely tribute to your four legged family members. I love hounds, my father raised black and tans for a while. DB has had hounds many years, the last died about 15 years ago (he now has a setter, by chance.) Several years ago they were emptying the house in preparation for a new build, and we were wiping down things that had hung up near the ceiling, untouched, for like 40 years. And this is going to gross out non-hound people.. but there was dried slobber on some stuff, likely from their first basset. He was a slinger of slobber of the highest order, and he was such a love. (A very very stubborn one, but still.) And we all just sat down and cried and shared stories of him, and his basset and bloodhound "followers". They were all such characters. Hounds are very special people.

iris lilies

6-12-25, 12:05pm

Bassets are wonderful. I am in love with every one I see.

iris lilies

6-12-25, 2:02pm

In my old city neighborhood, years ago, there was an older single man who had a very large Basset Hound called “Biggie.” He was the neighborhood’s favorite dog because he was often out in the neighborhood, walking. Or should I say, standing.
Biggie took some steps and then stopped. Took more steps, then stopped. Walking him was a hours long affair.

early morning

6-12-25, 4:01pm

OH, they're great dogs, at least the ones I knew. When we dog-sat for DB's first basset, it was imperative that we have a vacuum cleaner and hairdryer on hand, as boy-o loved nothing more than a good vacuuming off, followed by a bath with "Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific" shampoo (does anyone else remember that stuff??), then a blow-dry. AFTER a good shake, of course, so as to wet down EVERYTHING close by. And he still smelled like a hound, lol. He would not wear a harness, and his neck was so much bigger than his head that he could ditch a collar in a shake. Bassets have such a low center of gravity that it's really hard to make them move if they don't want to, and to stop them, if they do. And they are BIG dogs, they just have really short legs, so it's easy for forget how big they are. Until they want to be carried.

bae

6-12-25, 7:08pm

And they are BIG dogs, they just have really short legs, so it's easy for forget how big they are. Until they want to be carried.

Basil here was 60 pounds. Blake was 80 pounds. Here they are with my daughter, who they taught to walk. She'd crawl across the floor and grab their fur, at which point the dog would sigh, slowly stand, and then slowly walk along, with the child clinging to the side of the dog and toddling along.

This pair of bassets was very protective of the new addition to the family, and never left her side.

https://i.imgur.com/YD3k6wJ.jpeg

frugal-one

6-12-25, 10:22pm

That’s a great picture! Had a basset for a few days. I knew why they wanted to get rid of it. It continually howled and bayed. Definitely was not the pick of the litter. Ha!

happystuff

6-13-25, 8:39am

What a great pic, bae! Thanks for sharing.

catherine

6-13-25, 10:00am

Adorable!!

rosarugosa

6-14-25, 7:03am

I've always thought Basset hounds were the cutest; I never realized they were so big! When I was a kid, there was a man in the neighborhood who had a pair, Lancelot and Guinevere. It seemed like they lived for a very long time, but I later learned that there were subsequent iterations of Lancelot and Guinevere.

early morning

6-14-25, 1:01pm

That's a wonderful picture, Bae! Thanks for posting it for us.

littlebittybobby

7-19-25, 6:03pm

okay---here's something you may find fascinating. So anyway---after doing much f-book research, i found that one o' the descendants of this lady(see photo), are f-book friends with someone in Ak 6448who lived in the same itty bitty town in iowa, where AK's most notorious serial killer grew up. y'see--that lady lived in Ak, and her brother in Doo-Doo town put a bomb on an airliner headed for Ak. Yup. Pretty amayzeen coincidence, i say.

rosarugosa

7-20-25, 7:45am

Getting back to stories we concoct about our pets, this guy is pretty funny sometimes:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19GMumQ2w1/

iris lilies

7-20-25, 10:42am

Getting back to stories we concoct about our pets, this guy is pretty funny sometimes:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19GMumQ2w1/

I watch him on Instagram. He is a veterinarian in real life who obviously loves cats. One of his cats, I think Nuggie, is neurologically impaired.

littlebittybobby

7-26-25, 5:51pm

okay---have anya you kids noticed that Brown Tabbies seemta buddy up and hang together? Just curious.

iris lilies

7-26-25, 6:53pm

No, my brown tabby has no one like himself to hang with because I do not hoard cats as you seem to.

littlebittybobby

7-26-25, 9:10pm

okay---Faux, Faux, Faux; is there something of value that you wish to contribute to the conversation, here? But anyway-- The subject here was Brown Tabbies. They must know they are each brown tabbies. The BT's I've had seem to hang together, that's all. Just from REAL experience---not Tee-Vee and novels from the lirrrrrrarry.

rosarugosa

7-27-25, 6:46am

We have never had more than one brown tabby at a time, so I haven't had an opportunity to test this theory. We've had brown tabbies sequentially: Humphrey, Silvio, and then Raymond (current resident).

littlebittybobby

7-27-25, 4:07pm

Wow, RR! Brown tabbies are a special breed---er, I mean--coat color. But yeah---over the years, I've had prolly a Dozen. Yup.

iris lilies

7-28-25, 11:12am