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Original poster

Tell me about the best animal you’ve ever known

70 replies

WheelieBinPrincess · 22/01/2022 19:17

Doesn’t matter if it’s a pet or a bird in the garden you made friends with or what.

I’m missing my rescue bunnies today, Joan Collins and Tommy Cooper.

Joan Collins was a beautiful black lop who belonged to a little girl who lived next door. She was called Rosie and kept in a hutch outside and only peeked in at once a day or so to feed. One day when the girl was trying to cuddle her she bit her, and she got hysterical, and the dad came out and said he’d let her loose for the foxes.

So I took her, and she became Joan Collins and a very pampered house rabbit, and then I took on a retired magic show rabbit I called Tommy Cooper, who worked all his life in children’s magic shows only be left at Pets at Home for adoption. They had a fab life together, and would curl up in a velvet cat bed at night. Both toilet trained too.

I’ve only ever had rescue pets, bearded dragons, hamsters, a rat, guinea pigs, budgie that have lived out the rest of their lives with me but not practical at the moment as don’t have the proper time for them and we don’t have space and we’ve had a baby, but definitely will have them again at some point.

So now I make friends with the squirrels and birds outside, and a fox that lives under the ivy at the end of the shared garden. I’m on maternity leave now but when I was at work I had a pigeon friend I’d share my lunch with.

Anyone got any lovely animal friend stories to share?

OP posts:
TheGoldenWolfFleece · 23/01/2022 13:28

Oh no max Sad

Original poster
WheelieBinPrincess · 23/01/2022 13:34

@Wren77

That was so lovely, what a beautiful animal Daisy was

OP posts:
Original poster
WheelieBinPrincess · 23/01/2022 13:35

@AintNobodyHereButUsChickens that’s so sad.

OP posts:
Wren77 · 23/01/2022 14:15

[quote WheelieBinPrincess]@Wren77

That was so lovely, what a beautiful animal Daisy was[/quote]
Daisy still is! She is a poppet xx

Original poster
WheelieBinPrincess · 23/01/2022 14:15

Ah I’m sorry! Misread. I’m thrilled Daisy is still with you!!

OP posts:
Brigante9 · 23/01/2022 14:16

My horse, Beau, who I lost last month. He was so willing, totally green when I got him, but tried so hard. He could be cheeky but came to call and was my ‘big dog’ as my dh said. I had him for 14 years and it broke me to have him put to sleep. He was my motivation to get up, get going in the afternoons, he was the reason for my routine. I’m really lost without him.

TheDuchessOfMN · 23/01/2022 14:26

@AintNobodyHereButUsChickens

When I was 12, I met Max, the Springer Spaniel. He was a neighbours dog who had little to no interaction with the neighbour. He lived in the garden and had a kennel. He used to bark at me as I walked past but I used to sit on the ground near his gate and talked to him. Soon, Max started looking out for me and would wag his tail like mad when I appeared so then I started petting him and cuddling him. He would even stand up at his wall and look over it watching out for me when I came home from school. I never failed to stop and say hi to him. One day, the owner came out and caught me, but he didn't tell me off, just asked if I wanted to walk Max now and again. I. Was. THRILLED. The neighbour left a lead on a hook in the garden so me and Max could come and go as we pleased. And we did. I walked him most evenings after school and would disappear for the entire day on weekends, we would walk miles and miles together, all over the place. Anywhere local we could walk to, we walked to it! This went on for a couple of years until one day, Max just disappeared. I knocked and knocked on the house but the owner never answered, eventually he moved out and I heard from another neighbour that he gave Max away. I was devastated, utterly heartbroken and I cried for weeks. I never even got to say goodbye Sad He was my best friend and I still wonder if he missed me like I missed him when he was taken away Sad
How can some people be so utterly heartless? Sad

I’m sure Max missed you too Flowers

Hobbesmanc · 23/01/2022 14:48

Awww so many gorgeous stories. I've lost too many pets over the years and I can still see everyone of them if I concentrate. But my first love was a beautiful blue budgie I named imaginatively Bluey. What a character. He lived out of his cage most of the time. He would potter around the table ( he wouldn't go on the floor as his claws snagged I the nylon carpets. This was the seventies

He'd come when called onto your finger or head and snicker in my ear. I loved him so much as a child I used to have nightmares of him flying away or dying

However to my shame as I grew up I didn't have the same interest and I went off to college at 18. My mum told me he pined for me which makes me feel guilty still. I was on a gap travel year in my early twenties when in a rare call home mum told me she'd found him lying on his cage floor looking peaceful. He was 14 a good age for a budgie. I had a little cry.

When I got back mum had saved one of his bright blue tail feathers and reader. I still have that now thirty years on in a little box of memories

Bluey. The best budgie ever.

KurtWilde · 23/01/2022 15:19

My eldest dog. From day one (we rescued him from appalling conditions at only 5 1/2 weeks old) he was perfect. Loving, gentle, sweet, funny, somber, thinks he's a lapdog despite being a huge 55kg akita. He has the most expressive face I've ever known, unfaltering patience with kids, cats, people. I've actually never known a dog like him. He's 5 now and steals the heart of anyone who meets him.

Foreverlexicon · 23/01/2022 15:20

I had a one eyed horse who I got through some sheer luck. He entirely changed the course of my life; I was on the brink of giving up horses and about to go to university. I kept him, didn’t go to university, competed and experienced many things I never dreamed I would of.

He’s now semi retired and lives a life of Riley pottering around the countryside a few times a week with a lady who worships the ground he walks on. He has a heart of gold and a massive sense of humour and I owe him everything.

Kizty · 01/02/2022 19:01

Aw it’s nice to hear so many stories of much loved hamsters, mice and rats. I had a gorgeous hamster as a child who was so loving. People underestimate what amazing pets they are. I still think about him occasionally 30 years later. He would lick peanut butter off our fingers and never bite them.

Lady0racle · 01/02/2022 19:12

Bruno, my late beloved Alsatian/Rottie cross. The gentlest dog I’ve ever known and the most intuitive. He knew I was pregnant as soon as I did. He was never aggressive but once when my abusive ex came to the door, he wouldn’t let him over the threshold. He just put himself between me and him and stood there like a statue - wouldn’t budge. I got him after my ex left so I don’t know how he ‘knew’ - picking up on my stress cues, I guess? He also had the most beautiful, velvety floppy ears.

He loved chasing scents on the sand dunes. When we went on long beach walks he would round up his family like a sheep dog, continually making sure he hadn’t left anyone behind. I hope he’s in doggy heaven bounding across the beach, splashing joyfully in the waves and ever hopeful of some chicken for dinner!

BitcherOfBlakiven · 01/02/2022 19:21

My Grandparents dog, who was still a puppy when I was born. We had 15 amazing years together, she died 20 years ago and I still burst into tears at times Blush

We didn’t have pets, but I saw my Grandparents several times a week as they looked after me when my parents shifts clashed. So she was my pet, to me, even though I didn’t live with her.

I was chief dog sitter when they went abroad, my parents had divorced by the time I was 12, so me and my Dad would go stay at their house with her, rather than just him when they were married.

However, she was a lead pulling dickhead whenever my Dad walked her, but was an angel for me so I was in charge of that too Grin

She would come and sleep in my bed with me, as she got older I’d lift her onto my lap during the day so she could nap on me in the day too, it was basically like having a furry newborn!

Darbs76 · 01/02/2022 19:24

Your bunnies sound lovely OP.

I’ve adored all my pet dogs over the years as I’m a real dog person. But my best dog is my current dog Cooper. He’s just everything to us all, he has brought some much joy to our lives and I know that the kids will tell their kids / their grandparents about their first dog Cooper forever. I wish dogs could live a lot longer than they do. But we nearly lost him at 13wks and I vowed to cherish every day if he survived and I really do. Just adore him and he adores me. He’s the best

MrsDThomas · 01/02/2022 19:34

Our late parrot. He was about 50 when he died.

Sang, talked, loved chips!

RestingStitchFace · 01/02/2022 19:41

My childhood dog and my current dog. Both beautiful souls totally in tune with me. I honestly feel they were/are my soulmates....

XenoBitch · 01/02/2022 19:42

I had a budgie who was a very prolific talker. I taught him all the swear words, and he would make up his own phrases too (some were homophobic, but he made them up himself!).
I miss the little birdy bones off of him.

malificent7 · 01/02/2022 19:45

My lovely cat who brings my ball of knitting to me in one piece every morning as a gift...bless her!

Isseywith3witchycats · 01/02/2022 19:52

My Cairn terrorist (sorry terrier) Skips i got him at six weeks old and in the fifteen years he lived he was a character, had little dog syndrome, hated anything bigger than him Staffies were top of the hit list, howled at neighbours theme tune, constantly managed to get over a six foot wall till i found out he was jumping on the bin moved that and stopped him, was so gentle with our cats, if we let him off in the park when he had enough he would run straight home and though he was only little he was blooming fast, when our border collie got old and slow he would go back and keep her company till she caught up with us all sorts of things he was brilliant and over ten years later i still miss him

Jj2431 · 01/02/2022 20:18

I have two

First was a neighbours cat. I was a suicidal teenager, living in an abusive home and being bullied at school, she came and sat with me one day and we were friends from there on, I never fed her, she just used to sit on my knee every day in the front garden, she would follow me to the shops and would sit outside my house waiting for me to come out, she found ways to sneak into my house to be with me and when her owner moved away, she found her way back to me, unfortunately the owner offered her to the new next door neighbour instead but I got to see her for another year or so until they too moved and this time she didn't come back. Heartbroken.

Second was my cyprus rescue who passed in 2018. He always knew when I was sad. He would fling his toys around when I was on the floor crying and look at me enough to say come on mum, I will cheer you up, he sat by me whenever I was ill to comfort me, he was gentle with everyone and everything and would even try to share his treats with humans. He died too young at just 5 years old from Addisons disease :(

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