recording
so what kind of animals do you have
well i have two cats
uh
i have two cats because i can't have dogs um where i live i i've wanted a dog i owned a dog we had dogs when i was growing up all the time
uh-huh
and um you know our our cats are are very interesting and we never owned cats when i was growing up so this is a
uh it's been a really really neat uh neat kind of learning experience for me they've blown all my uh conceptions preconceptions about cats
so do you do you have pets
yeah i have a dog and a cat
uh-oh do they get along
so oh yeah they it was uh a very hairy two weeks there at the beginning uh the dog was a little under a year and the cat was about six weeks old and it it was a hefty break in
uh-huh
oh did the dog the dog like uh know that there was a cat and
well it was very it was interesting because it it's just you know part of their makeup they're psyche i mean they just hate each other automatically but after a while they they got to be good friends and uh
hum
luckily it's sort of a big cat i mean it's about twelve pounds and uh so he can hold his own against the dog and uh but they they i basically got the cat to keep the dog company and uh they they do that
yeah
yeah that's that's actually why we got our second cat i we thought our cat needed a pet
uh-huh
uh you know you tend to personify these things but our our cat thinks our oldest cat thinks that it it should be a person and our youngest cat actually thinks it's a cat
so it works out pretty well um
yeah
well i'll tell you one thing i found with with pets um i i think cats
are easier to take care of especially when on a situation like you go off on a trip uh you know it's a real pain with a dog because you have to have someone come over and walk them and let them out and that kind of thing
uh-huh
yeah
feed them and all that
and sometimes i think wow if i had two cats i'd just you know get a feeder and
uh yeah you know an interesting story is i i i have a friend who has um a cat that actually knows how to open Tender Vittles bags
so if they go on a trip they just leave the bags on the kitchen floor and the cat'll go and open one when it wants to eat
oh that's amazing
i'm i swear to God it's like you know the i guess uh it earlier uh earlier time it would have to figure out how to use a can opener but you know now it it's pretty self sufficient i just think
you they say you own a dog and you feed a cat and i think that that's pretty much pretty much true
yeah
that is interesting i hadn't ever heard anything like that but uh
yeah i it blew me away
yeah we've been uh we've been pretty lucky too the uh reason we first got the dog to begin with was i lived i'm in school still and i lived uh closer to campus
um-hum
and uh as usual the neighborhoods right near campus aren't that nice
uh-huh uh-huh
and uh so we got the dog as protection and i guess it worked because we were never broken into and the but the people on either side of us were so yeah uh
oh really
uh we we usually had rifle cleaning parties on the front porch when you know you move into a bad neighborhood you have your have all your friends over play the Grateful Dead and clean your rifles and they pretty much get the idea
uh but the dog i guess would work too
yeah yeah
well it is a big dog
uh she's uh around fifty pounds she's a a very very skinny shepherd
oh okay
uh well she's not pure and
we we tried to figure out what she was crossed with we know the mother was a shepherd but uh she looks like she's crossed with like Greyhound because she is just thin as a rail and uh
oh
wow well see they they say that the uh mixed breeds have a better temperament anyway all that inbreeding that they do that they have to do to maintain a pure blood line i guess makes them really weird
yeah definitely and they're also prone to more diseases and uh skin problems and
my sister has a a pure bred gold uh yellow Lab and that dog has every problem you could imagine you know it's allergic to fleas it's uh got another skin condition and just
the dreaded hip dysplasia
yeah yeah
yeah that's uh
so we we haven't really had much problems with her she's uh just extremely hyper and uh i guess that accounts for her her physique and she runs like a gazelle so
um-hum
it's fun to take her to the park and watch her run rings around all the other dogs
trying to play with them and they look at her like you're crazy you think i'm going to catch you
she's
maybe she is part Greyhound huh
so yeah yeah either
that's that's uh that's interesting i thought about for a while there uh there's a a movement now to uh adopt ex-race dogs and
right
