oh - she's exquisite! What's her name?

This is Pocky, a grey chinchilla named after the Japanese cookie. Incredibly intelligent, curious, social and sometimes cranky. His personality is very different from Sage (black velvet chinchilla, featured in my profile photo) who is a bit of a spaz, but penseful, poised, a little mischievous, but a sweet girl.

are chinchillas nocturnal? expensive upkeep? stinky?.... (looking to get a small unique pet)

This is Banzai, with my little one. Banzai was a 120lb German Shepherd, not a fat guy, just huge. He pretty much scared the daylights out of everyone who happened to see him, but he was extremely gentle and devoted to our family. He was an excellent guardian of our baby and the most patient soul with youngsters whether they were children, puppies and kittens. Banzai died this year, he's left such a huge hole in our hearts. He's been our dog for 12 years and in that time we might have been seperated from him for about a month if you total all the vacation we took without him.

He taught me a lot about acceptance. I was sitting downtown (Toronto) last Friday and a sex worker approached me and the baby, she was pregnant and coming down off crack. My first thought was "Oh my gosh! How could she be sooo selfish!!!" but I remember back to when I lived downtown with Banzai and me, my husband and Banz would take our nightly walk through the streets and come upon sex workers, drug addicts and homeless people. Banzai would approach them all and nuzzle them gently. They then started to talk to us and told us stories about their lives, most of them quite tragic. As we walked pretty much nightly, we got to know them and Banzai did his magic by letting them know that he would not judge them and he was just there to make them feel loved and give them some peace, if only for a few moments.

It reminds me a lot about Jesus and what he must have been like, love without judgement and helps me to connect to that greater concept in life.

Boy, that was hard to write, I had to stop midway for a few moments. There are times I feel like I'll never find another dog like him. We do have another dog, who is a loving wonderful character-however woefully stupid, and very neurotic unlike Banz, he too misses Banzai terribly. I just pray that we'll all get to see Banzai again. I'd love the opportunity to throw my arms around him and plant a kiss on his muzzle much to his chagrin.

banziboo, thanks for sharing your memories of Banzai. He sounds like a wonderful dog.

Thank you. I'm biased, but he was definitely the best dog in the world. And that's downright mild compared to the way my husband waxes about him. ;)

This is my fur baby Melykin:

...and this is her sister Leah.

There is a new book out called "The Spirituality of Pets".

http://www.woodlakebooks.com/product_detail.taf?site_uid1=14958&hallway_...

I think I'm going to ask Santa for this book for Christmas.

MadMonk,

Hi,

You wrote:

I for one want to state emphatically that this creature brings me closer to Creation and the Creator than any hymn to God ever written.

That would be the relationship dimension that hymns, no matter how beautifully written or sung can't deliver.

Our friends give us their trust and become familiar with the sound of our voices, our appearances and our scents.

I think their most amazing ability is to communicate a range of emotions without benefit of our words or facial expressions.

Samuel, our Lab Samoyed cross is an excellent lap dog and his big wide paws do a great job of distributing his 50lbs of muscle. If I lie on the couch he will flake out on my chest. It takes a while to convince him that his elbow doesn't go comfortably with my sternum or that I really don't need him to groom my ears but he soon settles down and it feels good.

Then someone knocks on the door and I'm his launching pad.

50lbs of skidding dog raking claws across stomach and chest is just a little uncomfortable.

At the end of a long day a few wags from this guy and a game of ball convinces me that my troubles weren't really all that heavy anyway.

Grace and peace to you.

John

And this is our old guy - his name is Hemp.

This is my bible cat Patty ... she loves to sit on my bible or theology text book while I'm trying to read it ... and if I read it out loud, she purrrrrrs!

This is Sally Cat ... She's just Pretty

This is Lucy-the-Wonder-Dog. She is the Love of my Life! And she is a Pastoral Care Puppy. She's not so big on bible stuff, but give her the opportunity to do nursing home visitation, and she's the happyiest Dog on the planet.

I already posted a picture of Felix on the importaint questions thread but you can never see too many pictures of the big fat boy. Hes 8ish.

He does enjoy a good lay on his back. He is the exact colour of our hardwood floors so its hard to get a good picture of him doing his thing on the floor.

I used to have a hedgehog, Hampton. Still miss him too. He passed in 2004. He was a cuddle pie who liked to snuggle into your neck.

My Cleo when she was younger. That is the top of the dresser mirror. About 6 feet up. :)

My dog is great for my spirit.

this is my puppy, Star, shes my happy_dog :)
she loves me unconditionally and i love her back

happy_child

PS i am amazed that i got this picture, Star usually gets quite put-out when i try to get a good shot ;)

This is ravi. He is a very bad boy but i love him nonetheless. He looks like a cross between a fox and a seal.

This is Winnie. She is very aware of my emotions. She always knows when i am down and need a friend; never fails, i turn around and she's there.

Last night I wrote a long thing about my two dogs and then tried to attach a photo and it didn't work, but then the second one worked, so my part of the discussion starts with "and" even though I hadn't already written anything! By the time I had figured it out, I was too tired, to write it again!
Oh well, I put a photo above of our older dog, Hemp. He is a retired sheep dog who never quite had the concentration to stay on the farm. He makes a great companion though. He actually attended a class with me at theological college - some of you may recognize him (:
It was going to be an evening class with only a few people in it and I didn't have a car at the time and didn't want to walk home alone after class. I knew the prof. loved animals so I asked and he said if no one else had a problem with it, Hemp could come. So he was with me every time we got together that term. He loved it! He'd lie beside me or the professor and have his break outside when we had our 10 minute half-way break! I think my classmates enjoyed it too - it was kind of cool to have another creature in the room! Once and awhile I still ask him what he rememembers from that class - it was United Church polity after all!

Our dog that's pictured here, is younger and is also a border collie. His name is Nook, and he came from a rescue situation and really SHOULD have been a working dog. But we love him and he has shown us a lot about love - he is totatlly energetic, crazy, funny, goofy: basically a big furry bundle of love. He shares it quite readily with almost anyone - especially if you look at all like you might throw his toy for him (:
My 'boys' are very special to me and they have taught me a lot - I can't imagine a home without them.

this is our dog, gidget... we just got her at thanksgiving from a rescue organization in tennesee. she had been abandoned by her owner, and her eye was so badly damaged it had to be taken out completely.

my daughter knit that scarf for her, because she wanted to make sure that she wouldn't get too cold, since she's from tennessee.

we figure she's a cross between a jack russell terrier and a chihuahua.

she has become such an important part of our family that we just can't imagine life without her anymore!!!

This is Nose E, our youngest hamster. She's almost a year old. She is very well behaved. I love to take care of my little hammies when it's just me at home because A.J's at work... The fact that in the wild these types of hamsters live on their own, I feel it's my duty to make them feel loved.

This is Rose E, it was her 1yr birthday recently. She was ill a little while ago and I rushed her to the vets. She got some antibotics though and she's right as rain now!

And this is sushi. He's actually my mother in laws, but as I live here with her then I get to see him all the time! He drives me crazy when I'm trying to work out on my dance mat game and he just sits on the arrows!

Awww @ all of these pets. Very nice, and very cute :)

This is my dog T.J., but since I am living in residence I only see her once a week or so. I heart T.J.! Shes an English Springer Spaniel, who we got from the Moose Jaw Humane Society, I do believe.

This is dog Robyn. She is a sheltie. I only see her once a week or so because I too am living in residence. I love her :) When I was younger I was very shy and I told people she was my best friend.

Wow and by "This is dog Robyn" I definitly mean "This is MY dog Robyn". The dog in this picture is my boyfriend's. He has two but this is Becka. She is my substitue Robyn, she is always ready to play fetch, unlike my lazy Robyn :)

She's huge!

Either that, or the picture is big! lol

And she's beautiful

I posted this somewhere else too. But here's my cat, Bisquit. He's beyond FAT and I've chosen to keep him that way rather than put up with 24/7 yowling.

LoveJoy, your cat looks like she likes to be vacuumed...is this true?

ha ha ha ha ....NOT! Whenever someone opens the broom closet door, he waddles at mach-1 speed up the stairs and under a bed, just in case someone might get the vacuum out! But he likes his fat belly scratched.

You all should post your pics at www.cuteoverload.com

This is my favorite site...

They recently posted pics of these bears at a playground. SOOOOOOO cute.