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I have gone through this cycle recently. I have an only child, daughter who is 15 and she was hell bent on getting a puppy. We were apprehensive of her commitment to take care of the pup and concerned that her novelty will wane away after few days. Finally like in many house holds we had to yield to her wishes and get home a golden retriever pup. But what followed was beyond our expectations. She has transformed herself from a carefree spoilt single daughter to a responsible committed caregiver to the puppy.

He is 7 months old now. Pets are the biggest mood lifters in the world. The unconditional love they show will melt the hardest of hearts. All in all we thank our daughter for helping us make one of the finest decisions in our life. But mind you, the initial 3 months will be as hard as it can get. Patience and empathy is the key. After that, it is fine. I some times think my dog is a kid of around 4-5 years who just can't speak. Such is the intelligence showed by him.

Please make sure you have a plan B to take care of them for short and extended periods when you are away. So make an informed decision.

That is one feisty looking cat with interesting pattern on the fur. Please share more pictures!

She is a marble bengal. She was part of a litter of 3 kittens. All three are still with me. They were my first bengal litter and I just couldn't give away any of them:coldsweat
There you are, pictures of all three. Okapi was the only marbled of the three. She is a darling and she loves to snuggle and sleep. Her brothers, boss and sherdil are more independent and laid back. Boss is the largest of them all, at around 7kg.

Just beautiful. They look like mini leopards with that pattern on them. I have never seen house cats like this. Boss looks massive.
In my limited experience with a few stray cats that frequent our home I have noticed that male cats are generally laidback and cool while the females are twitchy, always so cautious. Thanks for sharing!

My kittens have grown six weeks old now. They are adorable. Would any member at Bengaluru like to adopt both of them or one of them for free? Please PM me. Many thanks!

These are the gingers we adopted.





Attachment 2290392

We are looking for a homestay, in and around Hyderabad or Secunderabad, to keep our pet dog. In the past we had kept her at Petcetra in Manikonda but since the start pandemic the owner has closed the place and doesn't know when it will re-open. If at all.

Kennels where the dogs are tied up all day long or put in cages are strictly no, no for us. Our dog is free to roam around the house and compound all day long without even a collar.

Any lead will be appreciated.

6 hours old kittens. Stray cat that we feed trusted us and gave birth right in the garage where we had given her a box well hidden from prying eyes.
She doesn't mind us being there but I haven't dared to handle the kittens yet. There are two. I hope they survive.

If mum does not mind, you can put your hand in with the kittens. Stroke her first, then you will have her smell on you, as well as yours. But maybe... wait a few days.

Congratulations to you both!

<<<--- My Dear Laughing Cat

is sick. Fine at 3.am this morning, later I had to search for him and found him hiding at the back of an inaccessible place. Sometimes crying.

We went to the vet. Thorough felling and poking all over.

Nothing obvious, going back tomorrow if no change. He still hasn't eaten.

Adding over to the feedback provided by other members. As a family do understand the importance of training your dog. And training requires a lot of commitment especially when it is your first one! To help you understand my point better, think about this. It's your first dog, so there are high chances that everyone in the family pets/cuddles him/her all day around and no one has trained the pup to be alone for say even 30 minutes, which in turn leads to separation anxiety. One fine day for whatever reason everyone decides to step out together leaving the dog alone inside the house. And the dog who has no idea what it means to be by itself, looses it's mind, worse becomes destructive! Another example, you don't train your dog to properly walk on a leash. The dog pulls, darts towards anything that catches his/her attention, jumps on people etc. There are so many other problems that can crop up if you do not train well or at all, and trust me they do! Experiences like these make for a bad ownership or worse a literal nightmare for few!

On a side note, I just realized that in all my previous posts I have only been talking about training. The importance of training is something I have learnt from experience. Long post ahead. (Mods please break in down if needed.) After having worked for some 3 years, I was going to leave within a year to pursue higher education. So, decided to get a dog as a companion for parents. Prior to that we have had all kinds of pets and were the go-to family for any kind of injured animals in the compound. He was a French Bulldog that just happened to us in a way. Someone I knew had bred their female, and I quickly chanced upon the opportunity. Very little was known about the breed itself in India back then. And as the common notion goes, we thought it's a small dog so my parents would be able to manage him. But this guy was a little dynamite! He had many funny names around in my area 'chota packett, bada dhamaka', 'chota don', 'chotu dada' etc. Later on, on my insistence my parents did work with a couple of trainers but it wasn't of much help. (Frankly, the quality of trainers was also really poor back then. All they knew was to toss some food, make the dog sit and call it obedience.) My parents gave him the best of the foods, supplements, accessories and medical care but also really spoilt him, he had no structure, no discipline! It would get really difficult for my parents at times to manage him. Never the less, he had a wonderful life but unfortunately passed away a couple years ago. Good training would have certainly helped here!
Moving on, here in NY it was COVID times and people were abandoning dogs like crazy. So, decided to foster one. This guy was rescued from some farm in Tennessee and had been in a high kill shelter for a some months now. I confirmed with this agency in NY and they arranged for his transport. I go there early in the morning to pick him up and in front of me is this beautiful adult Husky/GSD/Akita mix. During the hand over they simply tell me he is known to have some issues, so be a little careful. That's it! I bring him home and it's the usual charade, all excitement and baby talk around him! A couple days in, he completely decompresses and one fine day I get to see what they meant by "issues". This guy has no concept of what a leash is, hates every other dog he sees, has energy levels of an Olympic athlete, a prey drive of god knows what; anything that moves needs to be chased, literally even a piece of paper blown of some wind! I would return home with sprained wrists, locked up backs while trying to dodge, I think probably everything! I was told by the agency that there were some "potential adopters" in the pipeline and he would get adopted in say a month at max. And 4 months down the line, after being rejected by countless "potential adopters" I get a call from the agency that we might have to send him back to the shelter where he came from as there are hundreds of abandoned dogs pouring in from different states in NY and they have so they have to wisely use their resources. I just casually ask them, what happens when he goes back? To which they say, they don't know, they might even put him down! That is when I decided to foster fail! In the beginning there were times when I would have 2 of friends space-out in the hallway, who would call to inform we are clear to takeoff, and takeoff we would! I worked with a lot of trainers, which costed me a lot of money. I have worked with trainers charging $75/hr to $500/hr, and of course it always has to be the most expensive thing that clicks! But after all of this, this 70 lbs of brute strength has finally been tamed and now even lives with another dog! And all of this was achieved by good and most importantly consistent training! I had to make a lot of changes to my lifestyle to be able to match up to his energy, which actually has made me much healthier! And NO, I do not baby talk or cuddle him anymore, but also am not all militant on him! Remember, they are a different specie, they are not humans. Hope this helps you better understand what it is like living with a dog. Attaching a couple of photos, now that I have spoken so much about them.

Hi ! BHPians,

This is Toffy my second and my dad's 3rd pet. She is an Indie that we adopted in July 21. She is extremely energetic and loves to play around and is quite naughty as well !



Earlier, we had Steffi, a lab for 14 years whom we lost in April 21 due to natural causes. She was a beautiful soul and loved to roam around in cars. She even accompanied us to quite a few road trips. There were even some hotels that we visited which were not dog friendly, but only Steffi friendly lol:



We are trying to take Toffee out on car drives, but because she is a rescued Indie, she is quite apprehensive in entering cars and going on drives. We are trying to help her get rid of these fears and hope that she will also be an avid car ride lover like Steffi.

Do you guys have any solutions for this car ride apprehensiveness? Please do suggest the same if you do. Thanks !

Oh no. Hope he recovers. Is it the terribly hot weather? I never saw my cat panting all these months until two days ago. She even allowed me to wet her body - usually any signs of water near her body and she would bolt. And her appetite has gone down too.

It seems we have his desi brother here in Bangalore. Half the size but equally troublesome :)

Might have a fear of enclosed spaces from prior experiences, so would need gradual conditioning.

If you have the luxury of safe spacious parking where you can keep an eye out (like an independent house), you could start with letting her be in the car for a while each day to get familiar & comfortable with it. Maybe try sitting in the car, and cajoling her to join in? Increase the time spent in car gradually.

Once she is comfortable with the car's interior and not alarmed by being in it, try short drives around where you live (familiar surroundings for her) before increasing distances gradually to see how she reacts.

Both aspects are important. Familiarity with the vehicle itself, and with it being in motion and taking her through unfamiliar surroundings.

Might take a while and results may vary, so patience is paramount.