The Pet Thread

[GreenePony]

I love it, perusing this thread quickly exhausted my daily supply of up votes. Here's my little dober-girl, Misty. She's been with my parents for the last year and a half while I live over seas, but once I take stock of how grad school goes I'll look at moving her in. Although now she's so used to having my parents two dogs around, and their big yard, I might feel terrible trying to move her to a small apartment in the city!

She's adorable! To make up for the downsize, DH and I are planning on taking our puppy (she's 1-ish so I guess not really a puppy) to dog parks regularly (apparently ever house in Alexandria has one within a mile of it), and getting dog puzzles. My cousin's dog was laid up for a while and they seemed to entertain her well enough.

[mandarin.orange]

Here's a picture of three of them sleeping on each other:

I think these are the three cats engaged in the "Triple Jump" event!!

[ktel]

Some more photos of Turbo

[Dal PhDer]

This is the BEST 'start your day off happy' thread!!!!!

[GreenePony]

I never posted pictures of my Olive! (or as she is more commonly called right now 'stinkerface')

This last one is after the move to the new apartment (and when she got the name stinkerface), we dared to go into DC and left her home alone. She was not happy when we got back and even more unhappy that the laptop was positioned so she couldn't lay on top of it to get my attention.

[Dal PhDer]

o.m.g. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!! How adorable!!!!

Edit: Thought I would post a few more of my baby!

Edited August 15, 2012 by Dal PhDer

[mandarin.orange]

Aww! Esp. that last pic...they're so good at taking over the computer, aren't they.

[GreenePony]

Sometimes I wonder if Olive is more cat than dog, she sleeps like one, loves to lay all over (or walk) the laptop... but she's certainly loud enough to be a card carrying Sheltie

[CageFree]

This is Freyja:

And this is Socrates:

[annieca]

If I can afford it I'm definitely adopting a cat when I get settled at grad school. After a summer of living with both a dog and a cat, cats have won my heart over. I certainly don't want a kitten but not one as old as Frisky. Frisky was 19, going a little deaf and therefore had the loudest meows I've ever heard. They could be heard throughout the townhouse which was 3 stories!

[ktel]

If I can afford it I'm definitely adopting a cat when I get settled at grad school. After a summer of living with both a dog and a cat, cats have won my heart over. I certainly don't want a kitten but not one as old as Frisky. Frisky was 19, going a little deaf and therefore had the loudest meows I've ever heard. They could be heard throughout the townhouse which was 3 stories!

Just put a budget together. If you don't have a support system factor in the costs of boarding your pet. And vet bills are difficult to budget for because they can come as a big shock. It's worth it though, in my opinion.

[BrokenRecord]

This is Freyja:

Gorgeous!!!! Too bad my on campus apartment won't permit dogs I'd love to have one but don't think I'm ready for such a responsibility!

[CageFree]

I've had her since she was a puppy... she's 6 now. We had to search (and pay higher rent for) an apartment that would not only let pets, but would not ban German Shepherds specifically.

Cats are great pets for students, IMO. They are relatively cheap (i.e. they are small and don't eat much), and if you feed them well, keep them indoors, and take care of them they are generally pretty healthy. Socrates has been the picture of health and she's 8 years old already. Other than "checkups" she's never had to go to the vet.. she's never been sick, thankfully.

[bryanilee]

Well I guess pets like to "help" when you're on the computer. My orange guy likes laptops, especially warm ones in the winter. In fact, the keyboard on one of them doesn't quite work right anymore because he sat on it so much. And he also likes to put laptops into strange modes that I can't get out of. Here are The Boys:

Edited August 24, 2012 by bryanilee

[csibaldwin]

I have a dog named Toby, since 2003, before I met my wife. She is like a daughter to me and will be with me throughout grad school.

[Ambigiousbuthopeful]

This has to be the sweetest thread ever  

 

aw-feeling overload!

[zabius]

I have two dogs... an older beagle named Circe and a younger terrier mix named Gunnar. Circe is a stray dog that I found when I first moved to North Carolina for my masters in 2010. She's incredibly sweet and affectionate... I tried finding her previous owner (via physical fliers, craigslist, ads in the paper, etc.) but no one claimed her, so now she lives with me. I don't know how old she was when I found her, but the vet estimated that she was probably around 9, which would mean that she's ~11-12 now.

 

 

Gunnar is a shelter dog that I adopted from someone else who couldn't keep him, as he kept fighting with her other dog. He can be a bully at times, but he gets along with Circe surprisingly well. He's tons of fun... very playful and energetic. He just turned 2 last November.

 

 

I also collect scorpions as a hobby. I've kept over two dozen species over the last few years, though lately my collection has dwindled a bit. I plan to rebuild it once I get myself settled in grad school... there's no sense in buying a bunch of scorpions now just to transport them 1,000 miles away in a couple of months! I have far too many to post pictures of all of them, but here's a picture of a few favorites:

 

A giant desert hairy, Hadrurus arizonensis) stinging a cockroach.

 

A male-female pair of death stalkers (Leiurus quinquestriatus) disagreeing about mating:

 

A Florida bark scorpion (Centruroides gracilis) fluorescing under a blacklight:

Edited April 9, 2013 by zabius

[csibaldwin]

Here is a pic of Toby, I forgot to add it...

[Queen of Kale]

<-- this girl is the love of my life, Wendy.  She's bigger and bossier now, but this was when she was 6 mo old.  She's a catahoula.

[raneck]

<- Sergeant (aka Sargie). His sister Luna is probably glaring up at him from the floor.  They were a pair of stray kittens a friend found during my last year of undergrad.

[1Q84]

Do you find as a grad student, you have to offload a lot of the care of your pets to your partner (if applicable)? I really, really, really want to adopt a dog once I start school but I don't want to be irresponsible and negligent because I'm not sure how busy I'll be.

[zabius]

Do you find as a grad student, you have to offload a lot of the care of your pets to your partner (if applicable)? I really, really, really want to adopt a dog once I start school but I don't want to be irresponsible and negligent because I'm not sure how busy I'll be.

 

I had two dogs throughout my master's program, during which time I was also single and lived on my own. It's very doable, but you may need to adjust your schedule to make time for the dogs. I was often on campus from ~9-5 every weekday, but I also used my lunch break to go back home and walk the dogs. I lived close to campus, so this was pretty feasible. I also worked a nice, long morning walk into my routine. Then, of course, the first thing I did when I got home was play with them (they were always so happy to see me) and give them their dinner.  One semester I had to teach an evening class (that lasted from 6-9pm, ugh), and on those days I usually made a second trip home to walk and feed them at about 5pm. They didn't like that I was gone for so long then, but they managed... the class only met once per week.

 

If you have a partner or a roommate, it's a lot easier. If you're stuck late on campus, for instance, you can call that person up and ask him/her to feed or walk the dogs. And if you're really busy with homework and can't be disturbed, the dogs will have someone else to play with when they're bored. But, I didn't have anyone that I could count on like that, and I managed just fine. :-) One thing that probably helped, though, was the fact that I had two dogs... which meant that they could play with each other when I wasn't home.

 

My advice is to wait until you're settled in your new program before you consider adopting a dog. Get a sense of your initial course schedule as well as how much time you'll be spending on campus for research. After the first semester, you'll have a good sense of this. Then, if you think you'll have the time, go for it... dogs are great fun, and for me they were the only thing that made my time at my [awful] master's program enjoyable. You'll need to factor in time to feed them, time to walk them throughout the day, and of course time to play with and pet them, but you can do it if you have good time management skills.

 

If you do get a dog, I'd advise getting one that is not a puppy... puppies require a lot more time because you'll need to train and supervise them in addition to feeding, walking, and playing. I don't think that I would have been able to handle that on my own while still doing everything I needed to do for my program, but perhaps you might be different. With a partner, it would probably also be much more manageable... provided that your partner likes dogs, that is. :-) Puppies also need a lot more attention and playtime, and will make sure that you know it.

 

One other thing to consider, though... if you have dogs, you can't just go out of town on a whim. Make sure that you have someone who can take care of the dogs if you need to go to a conference or something like that! You also can't go out on the town with your cohorts straight from work, without first stopping at home to feed and walk the dogs. If you think that you'll be spending more time on campus or going out and relatively little time at home, then a dog probably isn't the best thing for you right now.

Edited April 19, 2013 by zabius

[callista]

<--- this is DC.  Originally that stood for "dirty cat", but it can also be "diabetic cat" or "doofus cat".  He's about 15. <3

[callista]

I also collect scorpions as a hobby. I've kept over two dozen species over the last few years, though lately my collection has dwindled a bit. I plan to rebuild it once I get myself settled in grad school... there's no sense in buying a bunch of scorpions now just to transport them 1,000 miles away in a couple of months! I have far too many to post pictures of all of them, but here's a picture of a few favorites:

 

Your scorpions are badass.  Where will they go when you move?

[zabius]

Your scorpions are badass.  Where will they go when you move?

 

Thanks!

 

I'm not sure yet. Part of me wants to take my current specimens with me, and then add more species to the collection once I've settled in. Another part of me thinks that it might be better to sell the scorpions online before I move and then get back into the scorpion hobby later if I have the time. I might also give them to a friend. I have a few months to figure it out. The issue is that I've developed an attachment to some of my specimens... especially desert hairy up there. He's one of the few that has a proper name... Dwayne II.

 

I guess it also depends on the apartment that I settle on for grad school. I wouldn't take the scorpions unless the lease specifies that caged pets are okay. I'm going for dog-friendly apartments, though, and those are usually "other pet" friendly too.

Edited April 19, 2013 by zabius