Just a chime....or??

[westgrandboulevard]

For me, the essential difference about today is that I'm a day older than yesterday.

But, yesterday's gone. It's now today, and I'm as young as I ever shall be, so I'm going with that.

And I may choose to wear a silly hat, or do a funny walk....

[144man]

Thank heavens for "Time". It's the only thing that stops everything happening at once.

[westgrandboulevard]

I'll second that.

[Jerry Oz]

Now you guys have my mind racing with all of this talk about time. WGB, are you five hours older than the rest of us? I might go out to pick a few wild mushrooms at lunch to see if I can expand my mind a bit.

[westgrandboulevard]

Well you know Jerry, I've never really thought about that. You'll need to wait for 144man to reply, as he's good on deep thought and technicals! If the UK is indeed generally considered to be 'older' than USA, then I suppose we here are all older, by a few hours. But I guess 'now' is now, whatever the time in the country we are in.

If I'm five hours older [[it varies between summer and winter time - at the moment we are six hours 'ahead'), then 144man is even further ahead, as he is a few years in front of me...

Take extreme care with those mushrooms you pick.....

[Jerry Oz]

I will do that, compadre.

It will become more confusing now that the news cycle is in instantaneous. Something may happen in London at 2:00 AM, yet it can be reported in Columbus, Ohio to have happened early tomorrow morning. Just another sign of the apocalypse, I guess.

[westgrandboulevard]

For those here in UK, all the posts on SDF are shown in US time.

I suppose that any SDF member or guest not living in the US Eastern Time Zone will also have to make time adjustments?

[Jerry Oz]

I suppose. The eastern US has been recently designated the Official Center of the Universe, so it's only appropriate that we have the official time of the internet.

[westgrandboulevard]

Ha. So any news elsewhere is 'olds'.....

[moe]

The Time? Where is The Time?
Jerome, bring me my mirror...............

[westgrandboulevard]

Someday my Prince will come....

[144man]

Someday my artist formerly known as Prince will come...

[Jerry Oz]

Some day, my dog formerly known as Rex [[but now answers only to "Prince") will come. He is one arrogant SOB.

[westgrandboulevard]

Instead of being a pet and defender, he probably thinks he's your agent and manager.

[144man]

Well, he's not getting 10% of my bones.

The only thing I know about time is that it goes faster every year.

[westgrandboulevard]

That, plus money and hair......

[Jerry Oz]

I may be broke, but at 50, I'm happy to say I still have all of my hair. Now, most of it is in a box that I keep in the garage, but I still have it and that's what's important.

[moe]

Jerry, how do you know that your dog didn't find your box of hair? He might've thought it was a hairy play toy.

[Jerry Oz]

It's possible, Moe. He's been known to grab my keys, open my garage door, and take my car for joy rides, so it wouldn't surprise me if he found the hair. I'm going to check it right now.

[westgrandboulevard]

We have a cat here who, by hooking her paw under a door, lets herself into the kitchen cupboard for a spell of peace and quiet.

I can be sat at this computer and hear the 'click!' from quite a distance.

She discovered some time ago a hole in the floorboards there , which she can just fit through, and where she can let her fur down in 'Cat Cellar'......

[Jerry Oz]

Cats are so cool. I am happily petless, but if I get another one some day, it will be a cat.

[144man]

It's strange that solitary creatures like cats like having pet humans.

[westgrandboulevard]

They're much more capable of opening cat food containers.

[moe]

Keep the cats, fellas. Not for me; I've gone to the dogs, and will only have a big one when I retire.

[westgrandboulevard]

BIg dogs make very reassuring companions. They need more attention and have a different, perhaps closer bond to us than cats do in general, and sound the alarm very quickly.

I admire all sorts of animals. If I ever were in the position of having a larger sized dog, I'd be considering a Flat Coated Retriever.

[moe]

A Rhodesian ridgeback is my kind of dog if I ever have the time to care for one.

[Jerry Oz]

If I'm getting a dog, it's going to be a short-haired Jack Russell Terrier. I'm done with pets, though because I have a hard time letting go when it's inevitably time to do so. Better to have loved and lost? Can't prove it by me.

[westgrandboulevard]

Jerry, that was my line of thought.... until five years ago, one of the cats next door decided quite firmly she wanted our home to be a part of her territory.

I studied her and studied her, all the time resisting feeding her here. All the while I was thinking it was she who seems to be making the choice, and if I thought she could be integrated. Horrors. All that fur being shed [[!), going in and out, wondering where she is - all that kind of stuff!!!

We know when a relationship is special, when we find ourselves worrying about life without that special someone, be they a human or a pet. And it didn't take long before I looked at Belle, and felt the same.

Then I thought, all over the world there are lovely people who I'll never meet, and we all have to slip away sometime, so time becomes short.

And so it is with dogs and cats, and it comes a lot quicker for them, but there are so many just looking for a good home. It's all about the giving, not the loss to ourselves. They never take more than they need.

When a sad day comes, I'll cry whenever I really must but for no longer, and I will have the memories of innumerable happy days to sustain me. And I do have the option of immediately choosing another companion. That is my own choice where, very often, the animal doesn't have that degree of choice.

When the world disappoints, a trusting animal companion is the best and most natural therapy, and helps us retain our own independence and sense of worth. If we understand animals, and what makes them tick, we are at peace with ourselves, and better understand our fellow man.

Lecture over, LOL. Have a nice day!

[moe]

Well said, westgrand!!! Catch up with all of you later........

[144man]

I have never met a cat I didn't like; I can't say the same about dogs.

[westgrandboulevard]

Yes, it is indeed very hard to like and trust a disagreeable, aggressive dog, exhibiting threatening and even dangerous behaviour.

The owners of such dogs very likely share the exact same demeanour.....

[Jerry Oz]

Thanks for the post about Belle, WGB. My story is about a cat that was smaller than most adult cats in the neighborhood who found his way to my parents doorstep [[they all start like that, don't they?). We didn't feed him or encourage him, but he kind of felt like our porch was home, so he kept coming back. Then my mom gave him something to eat.

Over the next five years, he became my constant companion, jumping on my lap when I plopped down and making my legs soft enough by clawing them to his satisfaction. We didn't even name him. He was "Cat" and that was enough to make him happy. At some point, the bigger cats in the neighborhood didn't take well to him, so he'd come back scratched up but undeterred. One day he came back with an eye scratched out and that broke my heart.

As too many of these stories will, this one ended when I was in college. He was sick and very weak for a couple of days and that was more than he'd experienced in the time that we had him. He didn't get better. He was nearly blind and could barely get around. I made my mind up that I'd take him to the vet the next day and if they told me that he couldn't be saved, I'd put him down. He never came home again; I imagined him run over by a car or simply dead in someone's yard.

I went to work that night and someone, a customer in my grocery line, asked me why I had tears in my eyes. When I told her, she was nice enough to let me know that it was my fault that he was dead for not having him neutered. That made me feel MUCH better. Anyway, I'm cool with the memory of my little black buddy in spite of my apparent complicity in his death; every time I see a black cat, I smile before stifling a tear. Just like I'm doing as I'm typing this...

And that's how a dog person became a cat person more than 30 years ago.

[144man]

Have you noticed that if you take a photo of a dog, most of the time it looks just like a stuffed toy, but if you take a photo of a cat, it looks like there's an individual looking back at you?

[moe]

Can't agree with you, 144man. You love cats as much as I love the dogs. We would probably have supporters for both animals.

[westgrandboulevard]

I had my own pets and livestock when I was young. As we never had a dog in the family, and I've not yet had one of my own, that could be one reason I'm more in the cat lobby, simply through experience.

I guess it's true that most people have a natural preference to one more than the other [[maybe something that appeals to our own nature), but by degrees.

I had my own chickens then, but for decades they then went out of favour. Now look, they are being kept all over the place! And it was only recently I realised why, to date, I prefer some chickens over others. It's their dark eyes!


We think we know ourselves, but every day there's something new...

[144man]

I like well-trained friendly dogs as much as I like cats. However, cats are easier to look after.
I don't have a pet of my own, but I sometimes cat-sit for my sister.

[moe]

You both would've laughed at this: I'm in the kitchen when I hear a knock at the kitchen sliding door. I go to the door and lo & behold there's a turkey! I said: "you come back at Thanksgiving & I'll be ready for you." Turkey left.........

[westgrandboulevard]

Ha! And left pretty quickly too, I'll bet!!

MInd you, I'd be tempted to ask if the turkey had time for a coffee and some corn. Chatting with a turkey could be interesting....

[moe]

I've met a few turkeys in my lifetime, westgrand........

[westgrandboulevard]

So have I, moe. They must be from the same flock!

There's something good to be found in just about everyone but, yes, you do have to look really hard for it with some of 'em....

[Jerry Oz]

Everybody is somebody else's turkey, y'all. Except, maybe me.

[westgrandboulevard]

Then that sounds good enough reason to simply strut your stuff....

[moe]

Speaking of "stuff"....or rather stuffing.........do you have any? What kind?

[Jerry Oz]

Oh, geez... I stopped eating my animal friends about a month ago. What am I going to do come Thanksgiving? Or Christmas? Or New Years Day?! Stuffing without the bird isn't stuffing, is it? It's just stuff...

[westgrandboulevard]

I'm getting the feeling you may not have completely thought through this new diet thing, Jerry.

[Jerry Oz]

I have, beyond holidays. I've been considering forgoing meat for awhile. There's so much about it that seems wrong. I'm not doing it for dietary reasons, although I have lost 10 pounds. My problem is how to effectively replace the protein. I'll figure something out.

[arrr&bee]

Oh i almost forgot to feed my pet peeve,thanks guys!!!

[Jerry Oz]

I heard they get cranky when not fed on a regular basis.

[arrr&bee]

Yep sure do,i had a pet ego big one too but when i got married my wife wouldn't let me keep it!!

[Jerry Oz]

My wife has my ego. She plays with it from time to time but normally just keeps it caged up.