We have always had two cats during our married lives (35 years).
Yesterday I had to put our 20 year old cat to sleep. She was in severe
renal failure. I could hardly talk to the vet when I brought her in and
sat in the exam room for several minutes with the cat before I could
leave. Pets become part of the family.

Ross

Montblack wrote:

("Jim Burns" wrote)
[good stuff snipped]

Great post Jim.

We have a 16 year old male toy poodle ...with 6 teeth! He's 97.5% deaf -
so we're the dog owners in our neighborhood always yelling at our pet. g

I was with you up until this part:

"Animals remember short term events, they learn through conditioning,
they do not remember yesterday, last week, last month, last year per say."

Animals maybe, but I think dogs 'know' things and remember things. After
raising kids you begin to realize that a two year old is just a small
four year old - without a vocabulary. Dogs fall into that category -
limited language skills. They mostly say it with their eyes. :-)


Montblack
Coalie was named by the nieces when they were four. He was black like
coal. Might have been something they saw in a book? The girls are now
sophomores in college.