okay do you have any pets
yeah i have three cats and a dog
oh boy sounds like us yeah go ahead
um
uh we just got the the dog less than a year ago so he's still a puppy
oh what kind is it
he's a mixed breed he's part Collie part Shepherd and part Chow
oh so he's got
more Collie and Shepherd than Chow the only Chow he's got is is his tongue
oh he's got a blue tongue oh
yeah he's got little spots on them
we have two Chows and a miniature Schnauzer and recently added a guinea pig which wasn't by my choice but
i was out ruled so but the dogs are mine mainly mine and my husband but i just love them to death
was the guinea pig for your for your child
daughter yes yes as if the dogs weren't enough had to have a guinea pig so
anyway she's she enjoys her though so that's that's what matters but um our Chows we've had them
i'd say right around six maybe seven years and they're um
really
registered and we've been breeding them she's had about four or five litters
oh my my husband's always wanted a Chow but i'm kind of concerned about um with having cats
oh
uh-huh
and how how they socialize with cats um which is one of the reasons why we got a mixed breed um because we we thought they would socialize easier
right
um-hum
um my husband had originally wanted an Akita and his brother has an Akita and he so far he's bitten ten people
um-hum
um
oh man
so
goodness
and the people that he got the Akita from used to have cats and they no longer have any other cats
so
uh
it's telling them yeah when we had um we had a cat when we first married no yeah we had the cat first and then we got um the Chows and bring them bringing them in as puppies
they got along just fabulous with her and uh you would think you know that they were all dogs the way she would prance around them and and paw at their face and they'd just play and they were never they never harmed her
um-hum
so uh they got along great now i don't know how
how it would be bringing in uh
cat to a full full grown dog
yeah i i wouldn't want to bring a cat into a full grown dog but i i wouldn't feel
yeah
um hesitant about bringing a puppy in to adult cats i think they would socialize easier
right
i think so too
um
how how old is your child
five she
five so you had the dogs before you had the baby
right and i was not really concerned about
um them harming her uh i think i think a lot of that that that we hear all the time is how you bring them up
um-hum
and ours are real friendly they're protective but they're very friendly and lovable i mean you think they're lapdogs
uh-huh
you know they'll just come jump on your lap and want to be have their bellies rubbed and everything and
what color are they
uh the female's red and the male is black
oh i bet the black one's pretty
yeah he is he's a big old thing and um i was concerned about the female mainly and as luck had it uh she had puppies the same week my daughter was born so it was kind of like she had her babies and understood about
about your baby
you know yeah and and i think that really helped and um my daughter you know since since she's little has been playing with them and
they let her tug their hair and and get on their back or whatever and she's she's grown up with them and loves them to death and they love her so
yeah i think it's good for kids to grow up around pets as as long as they don't have any allergies to them or anything but i think it really helps them to
so
i do too
yeah
understand when when uh they go to other people's houses and they have pets i see so many times kids just
you know
being mean to animals not really understanding that the animals have feelings
yeah exactly that or or uh the other extreme they're they're terrified of them and i hate that and they shouldn't be i mean some maybe but but um
yeah yeah
like our miniature Schnauzer she's just she's just like um
a little hyper thing and just prances around and jumps all over everybody acting silly and a lot of kids are scared of that
and which i understand because she is you know a lot of movement and everything but when she calms down they're so scared of her it's it that bothers me because she's the friendliest thing she wouldn't hit you know harm them at all
um
and and and that's mainly people that have never had pets around their children
so i think i think it's a good idea to have them
we've had a um
in the past we've had birds too uh like cockatoos
uh-huh
and parrots and uh
now are the are the cockatoos are those the big ones
the big white
yeah
birds with the the orange crest on top
yeah
we've had those and those are neat they're messy
very messy yeah and loud oh a lot louder than a dog you know a dog you can stop barking you know or whatever but the birds you it's hard to keep them from squawking or whatever but
are they
yeah
but they were neat enjoyable animals to have
well we've thought about getting an aquarium partly because partly for the cats i think the cats would really enjoy it um
um-hum
yeah with a lid
yeah yeah of course um but so far we just uh and and starting up an aquarium an aquarium we we're thinking about getting a saltwater and they're so expensive to start up
oh yeah they
yes yes they are and in your the luck of keeping them alive through those first you know few days
yeah yeah
but the the saltwater fish have so much more color and they're so much more beautiful
i know they are
um the freshwater tank's just really to me they don't there's most of them really aren't that pretty
no
i really don't i really don't care much for them
right i don't blame you there i think the saltwater are a lot more attractive than
i don't know those fish fish are just beautiful just it's like you have a little bit of
ocean with you or something something rather than just little fish
yeah yeah
but i don't mind having my daughter had a
like a little goldfish
uh-huh
about a year or two ago and it finally died and that was neat but it and they're you know she can't play with it you can just look at it and
yeah yeah
you know you can't roll around and
tussle around with it
like you can a dog or a cat and
yeah i wouldn't i wouldn't dare have a a goldfish here because uh it it it would probably be in a small bowl and then my cats would knock it over i have to be real careful about
yeah
um-hum
where i put things if the cats will will jump up on things and knock things over all the time
oh no oh no
they're always up where they don't where they're not supposed to be
yes yeah and that's hard
i know that's that's just like kids you know you you they know that they're not supposed to do it but they're going to do it anyway because they know they're not supposed to
that's right and they're so independent i love having them for that reason
yeah yeah and until we got the dog um it was real easy to to go to town for three day three day weekend or whatever and now
sure
it's like a major production trying to find somebody to take care of the dog while you're gone
um-hum
um-hum
that's right that is hard
and i we knew it but we never even thought that about when we got the dog we just saw him oh he's so cute let's take him home you know and then the first weekend we had him we had we were in a apartment in a two bedroom apartment
oh yes
um-hum
and my husband went out of town
and left me with with the brand new puppy and i had to work twelve hours that day
oh fun
oh no
and so i left the dog locked in the bedroom and i put paper all over the floor well when i came home i opened the door and there were chunks of carpet padding
oh
oh oh no
everything all over the place and he had tried to dig his way out from underneath the door
oh no i guess you didn't get your deposit back did you
well i had the carpet fixed um i yeah i didn't even tell the apartment managers about it
oh good
oh okay oh no bless your heart
but that that was my first real experience with with with a puppy when when we had our family dog growing up
i was eleven or twelve i think when we first got him and i wasn't really involved in the the the
um-hum
paper training and you know teaching him commands and stuff so this was and to me a whole new experience only it wasn't like cats at all
sure yeah
yes it is
no no i wish it was i wish they were in that instinct
but they don't our only problem with our Schnauzer she's an indoor dog most of the time and
so
um-hum
uh we finally she's right at a year and we finally got her you know house trained and everything uh her only problem is trash
if you do not pick the trash up you know the container and put it on a table or chair or something she'll knock it over i don't care how full full she is so it's not like she's hungry it's just she wants to get into trouble
um-hum
my cats do that it if i throw anything away that's any kind of meat or anything like that anything that
um-hum
that they think is good they'll get into the trash and then it doesn't matter where you put it and where you hide it and how how tight you have the lid down on it they'll get into it
yeah
yeah
i've come home many a days from work to find trash all over the kitchen floor
oh i hate that
and the cat's just looking at me like sorry
uh yeah you shouldn't have left it there i just hate that when she does that i just oh and she knows it's wrong you'll walk in the door and she'll cower and go hide under the table
i couldn't help myself
um-hum
so you she knows she does wrong
but she uh she continues continues to do it so
yeah and the problem that we're having with our puppy right now he's not really he's actually not really a puppy anymore he's like sixteen months old
um-hum
um
but he's still chewing
oh is he
um the last thing he chewed up was
uh when we
