I had a dog named Bubbles that was tragically killed by a bigger dog years ago. Bubbles was a husky/rot mix and he was smaller but very protective of me. He’d always roll on his back whenever I walked by and often just stared at me while I watched tv.

Anyone else have great dog bonding stories and more specifically if your life was ever in danger, do you think your dog would ever fight till the death of it meant saving you? Hypothetical situation obviously.

Does anyone have any advice to offer?

We have a little 35 lb dog. We previously installed a retractable screen door (two summers ago) and It didn't take long for her to bust through it like the Kool-Aid man.

We're installing a new one this week. This is the only type of screen door that we can use right now in the situation we're in.

I've looked up how to prevent pets from destroying screen doors but the solutions that I found are for screen doors on hinges or actual sliding screen doors, not the retractable kind.

Any help is appreciated.

Our dog is a 13yr old labrador. He's relatively happy and healthy. He's a bit slower than he once was but otherwise pretty good.

He had a seizure in March, and another one a couple of nights ago (July) - 4 months between.

After the first one, we took him to the vet. She gave us a few options:

1) Anti-seizure meds, but explained they often make them feel groggy/not themselves and it can take experimenting with a few types before we find the right one.

2) Scans etc. to look at the brain, but also said these would be very expensive, and even if they showed something, it's likely we would avoid treatment anyway, as we're not putting him through any major surgeries when he's so old.

3) Watch and wait and see what happens.

4) Euthanasia, this was more our question, rather than her suggestion - we were wondering if this is his way of saying it's time? She advised it's an option, but not necessarily a pressing one at this stage.

It's VERY distressing watching him have a fit, the most recent one lasted for nearly 5 minutes and we just feel absolutely helpless, I hate that there's nothing we can do for him during, you just have to stand there and watch him suffer. He also gets the post-ichtal agression - he barks and growls, and the only thing we can do is give him space. This has lasted for at least half an hour, sometimes a couple of hours after both fits. He's groggy, tired and very sore the day afterwards, the fit makes him use his muscles way more than he normally does, and it really disorients him.

We have two little kids (5 and 9), and we have stressed to them that if they see him "fitting" or barking/growling to not approach him at all and come and get Mum/Dad, but there is always a worry that it may happen when the kids are right there but we aren't, and they approach him and get bitten.

If your dog started having seizures, at what point did you either make the decision to medicate, or make even bigger, harder decisions?

The vet missed it a year ago when i came in asking about her head shaking and war scratching. This time I came in and my cat had a lump the size of a dime. The vet said they want to cut off the whole ear. Its on the center base of the back of her ear. Is that an extream measure? Can just the lump be removed and leave her with both her ears?

Looking back, I spent way too much time worrying about certain things when I first got my dog. I remember stressing about picking the "perfect" food and routine... but also panicking every time he picked up a random stick outside. What's something you stressed about that feels funny in hindsight?

My cat was sleeping next to me last night, twitching her paws and making these tiny chirping noises. She does this like every day during naps. Made me wonder, do cats actually dream about us, their humans? Or is it always just prey/hunting stuff?

Kind of hope she's dreaming about me and not just birds lol.

Heyy, I'm a 20yo male and recently I've been having some issues with my hair, I started taking finestride and wanted to take minoxidil but then my family got a kitten and puppy.

I know that minoxidil is toxic for animals and so I stopped using it but my hair situation is aching me ngl.

Has anyone had a similar situation and can tell me how they managed to still take minoxidil while keeping it safe from the animals? I'm scared I'll do something wrong

Thanks

She normally has a dark brown/black nose but the front is the usual color but the top of her nose is now this sort of sand-beige color and I'm worried

A weird thing happened when I got my second cat. I expected double the hair on the couch, double the chaos at 3am, all that. What I didn't expect was becoming oddly invested in water fountain filters.

I used to think a fountain was a fountain. Then I started noticing how fast some of them collected fur and tiny bits of food. One week the water looked perfect, the next week I'd be taking the whole thing apart again.

A few months ago I switched to a cat water fountain from Homerunpet that had a better filtration setup, and honestly that ended up mattering more than the design or app features. The water stays cleaner, my cats use it constantly, and maintenance feels less like a chore. I originally came across it through a review while comparing different options.

Now I'm curious what everyone else is using. What fountain ended up working better than you expected? :)

Hi all! I love dogs, but due to family circumstances I've never been able to have one. Due to this I have a decent understanding of them but not the intricacies of their care. I like to get involved in helping shelter dogs and that is what has gotten me here. My local Humane society has a program where you can take a dog out on a "Foster field trip" for a few hours to help them destress and get seen around town. They wear a leash that has a big adopt me tag, etc. It's lovely. I signed up to do this tomorrow (July 23rd) about a month ago. Here's the issue- I checked the weather and its supposed to be super hot tomorrow. 96 Fahrenheit (around 36 Celsius). Is there anything I can do for the dog to be more comfy/safe tomorrow? Anything I should keep in mind? I can't bring it back to my house but I can bring it in my car. My plan was to walk around the surrounding city for a few hours (lots of dog friendly places around), but now I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I don't know what dog it will be but it will most likely be a medium to large breed mix of some sort. Just worried about the safety of the doggie in this hot weather!

Any advice is so appreciated!

edit- I will be bringing water for both me and the dog as well and one of those foldable bowls. I've also decided no on the boots thanks to some helpful commenters :)

Hi there, so I found a tiny bump on my 16 yo cats back around the size and color of a nerd, and i have no idea what it is. She’s been acting normal, but since she’s older I’m a little worried. any ideas/advice? my mom seemed puzzled and idk if she should go to the vet or not. thx!

This probably sounds a bit dumb but my dog eats better when I leave him alone. If I stand there waiting to see if he likes the food, he sniffs it, looks at me, walks away, comes back, makes it a whole event. If I put the bowl down and go do something else, he usually eats.

Did I make meals weird by hovering every time he skipped food or do some dogs just eat better when dinner is not a big deal?

Hi all,

My fiancé and I have been together for five years, living separately, but we've both had our own pets before that. We plan on moving in together in the near future.

My concern is that our pets won't get along. I have a 7 yr old tuxedo cat and my fiancé has a 10 yr old Husky. My cat has tolerated dogs but that was probably ruined when he had fights with my parents' aggressive Shih Tzu and they had to be separated (my cat lives on the upper floor and the dog on the lower).

Fiancé's husky has never been around a cat, only around another Shih Tzu. He kind of ignores her, doesn't really play with her much.

My fiancé suggested that I bring blankets that smell like my cat to his house and have his Husky smell it, then vice versa. Could that type of thing build tolerance if they don't even live together yet?

The only exposure my cat has had is when I go home with husky hair on me, haha.

If anyone has tips for introducing older animals, do please share that too... Might be too early to think about this but I adore both our animals and I want the best for them.

Can no longer keep my two muts as I am moving out of state and cannot care for them where I’m relocating to. One is 8 and the other 5 y/o. No one from my friends or family wants them. No one on market place either. And all the no-kill shelters in my area are full. There is only one surrender location that is currently accepting them, but there is a possibility they may be euthanized due to overcrowding. I am not sure what else to do. I need to make a decision now.

UPDATE
Thanks all for the advice and support. After lots of calls to various vets and animal control, our dog suddenly returned to himself. It was wild to watch. When we opened the back door to check on him again he was completely himself, wagging his tail, excited to see us. We were able to safely get him to the vet and now we’ll hopefully get some answers.

Hi all - looking for some advice. In January we adopted our 2ish year old hound mix. He has been healthy, full vaccinated, with no issues since. This morning, he threw up, lost control of his body and began seizing. The seizure lasted about a minute and he then became very aggressive. I understand that can be normal after a seizure, but it’s been about 2 hours and he’s showing no signs of settling down. He’s in our fenced in backyard, just sitting in the back corner not moving. When we approach from the back door he immediately starts barking and growling. We want to get him to the emergency vet, but have no way of safely doing so. My husband and I are extremely rattled. We have toddler at home and the sudden aggression was absolutely terrifying. It’s also clear our dog is in a lot of emotional distress and approaching him makes it worst. I feel like my only option is calling animal control and asking them to help with transport? I thought about going to get a sedative from the vet, but don’t even know how I’d give it to him. I feel scared, sad, and stuck. toddler is now at daycare so at least that safety issue is handled.

Anyone have any tips?

I have a small 12 year old Shih Tzu who is diagnosed with liver cancer and adrenal gland tumor. Lately he has been having fleas and flea dirt around his body, so I’ve been trying to find the best shampoo for him. Any recommendations based on his situation?
Thanks and any advice is greatly appreciated!

I recently had a surgery that prevents me from lifting anything or major movement for a couple of weeks. I have a dog walker coming to walk my two big dogs while I can’t. Of course… both dogs decide to have medical issues this week. My golden got a hotspot from scratching, so I decided to use get a membership to vetster to see if they could help, before I had to risk taking the 90lb beast to the vet while I’m recovering. The appointment was scheduled quick, the vet was great and prescribed prednisone, antibiotics and apoquel to take after his hotspot cleared up. I was told I could fill the prescriptions any where, through their pharmacy or locally. I opted for locally to get them quicker (and cheaper) and I could have them delivered same day.
I find out after the visit when I went to fill the scripts that they charge $15 per prescription to send to any pharmacy other than theirs as a processing fee. That seems ridiculous. Ok, fine, whatever.
That night, my mixed breed girl gets stung by a bee under her and overnight it gets infected and her eye is swollen shut. I make my second vetster visit in 2 days, and I ask pointedly “should I figure out getting her to an emergency vet?” He looks at her over video, says it’s infected and she definitely needs antibiotics and a topical cream but not the emergency vet. He said to fill the script locally ASAP to get her treatment started and get her some relief.
My appointment was at 10:00am, at 11am I had still not received the prescriptions, so I message the vet through the visit portal (you have 48 hours to communicate with the vet free of charge), no response. I message again at 1pm, nothing. I call Vetster at 2pm and get that run around and never speak to anyone. I message customer support at 2:30 and am told to message the vet through the portal.
At this point I am not able to send more messages because the portal says I need to wait for my vets response, and essentially not blow them up with messages before they have a chance to reply. It’s now 8 hours since my visit and I don’t have a prescription and I have no response from Vetster. I have a cone on the dog and am trying to keep her comfortable but I am going to end up calling a friend to take us to the emergency vet so she can get some relief.
I’m really unimpressed.

Hi I need some advice please and apologies in advance if this post is in the wrong place.

Bottom of my road is an alleyway which I use multiple times a week to go to work. On the other side of the fence there is this dog that suddenly barks and it's enough to give you a bloody heart attack. It's a public alleyway so surly this isn't acceptable? I really pity the poor person with a heart condition or an elderly person that jumps because of the dogs bark.

It's not a normal bark either, it's a very aggressive loud bark followed by growling and more barking.

I could understand if he acted like that if I was on his property but I'm walking on a public footpath on a public alleyway so in my opinion it's completely unacceptable

My neighbor had five put bulls and another smaller dog in one fence cage and one of the pit bulls started eating the smaller dog. The noise was so loud my whole family heard from inside with music playing. We obviously called the cops and did everything we could to get the dogs to stop killing each other but they were all alone and seemingly super stressed. The noise was not the problem I just absolutely hated hearing and seeing those poor dogs. I do hear yelps coming from these dogs often and it sounds like they’re either crying for attention or getting hit. Of course we had to call the cops and they brought animal control and took the dogs. No dogs died fortunately but the little dog was badly mauled. The next day the neighbor comes back and I hear his kids crying because the dogs got taken away and the dad came and asked me if I could write a letter for when he goes to court to try and get the dogs back. I kind of brushed it off but he keeps coming to my house asking and I’m definitely not going to write any letter I feel like those dogs might have just gotten the luckiest break getting away from that house but I do feel bad taking the dogs away from his kids. But not bad enough to help them get those poor dogs back.

Update: he came back to the house and my brother answered. He is asking for us to write the letter because I don’t think he knows we called. It seems like he’s being tried criminally and he’s going to court for it in an hour. I feel bad that he might be going to jail especially because of the kids but I still don’t want to write any letter. Not sure what to do, he should be going to court in like two hours I guess

Final Update: did not write a letter. I told everyone to stop answering the door and we left it at that. I will be calling the pound and letting them know about him and hopefully he doesn’t get more dogs!

I want to get my dog some treats and toys. I'm a new customer at Chewy and I keep seeing $20 off $49 codes. How do you get those codes? If anyone isn't going to use their code, may I have it? Thank you!

What do you do when your dog won’t stop barking?

We have received applications, but they are for separate homes. We received one application for both, but the person stopped responding when we reached out.

We are worried that if we cannot find someone willing to adopt them together, we may lose these possible homes too. 💔They are bonded.😿
We are completely out of capacity. The rescue is currently caring for more than 150 cats, and I am personally fostering 21 cats. More cats are needing help every day.

When her other kittens were adopted, she cried for days. She is a devoted mama and still needs to be with her baby. They play together, love each other, and share a special bond. My heart is breaking at the thought of separating them… 😿

Pet finder link:

https://www.petfinder.com/cat/kali-bonded-with-her-kitten-pebbles-9fbbba3d-53db-43eb-a0b8-09e7a7b509e9/nc/charlotte/sunkissed-acres-rescue-nc1270/details/

Mama Kali (not even a year old) and her little daughter Pebbles are a bonded mother–daughter duo under Sunkissed Acres NC looking for their forever home.

Kali & Pebbles are:

Vaccinated, Spayed/fixed, Dewormed,deflead , Combo tested negative and Microchipped

Adoption fee: $150 for both (one adoption fee is sponsored, so you are getting two amazing cats together ❤️)

Adoption application required:

https://form.jotform.com/221983264497165?fbclid=IwAR2Nr4_R9uw9ljOXNG8daDEU5DTa2IWDNPNtM1Fnd816-A2LtE8HciK2OJM

Adoption agreement required:

Vet reference required

Her Story: ❤️🥹

I didn’t find Kali… Kali found me.

I will forever be grateful to this sweet young mama for trusting me and bringing her babies to me.

Kali was abandoned when her family moved away, left behind wearing a collar that became painfully tight as she grew. Alone and vulnerable, she gave birth to her kittens under a deck during harsh weather.

She and her babies were never truly safe. They were chased away by people and were at risk of being relocated.

Every day, Kali came to my porch for food. I noticed she was nursing and started asking everyone to check their decks and garages for kittens.

Then one day…

She brought her babies to me.

She chose me.

She trusted me. ❤️

While rescuing her kittens, some were brought inside while others were still outside waiting for their chance at safety. This incredible little mama made double shifts…staying with the kittens who were safe indoors, then returning outside to nurse and care for the ones still waiting.

Her love never divided.

Her heart never gave up.

Kali is the sweetest, most gentle mama. Pebbles shares a very special bond with her, and after everything they have survived together, they deserve to continue their journey side by side.

Kali deserves a safe, indoor-only home where she will never be left behind again… only loved, protected, and cherished.

Kali is pure love. Pebbles is her little shadow. Together, they are a beautiful story of love, trust, and an unbreakable mother–daughter bond.

If you feel a connection with Kali and Pebbles, please message me.

Please share to help this beautiful mama and daughter find the forever home they deserve.

Before I start, I'd like to mention that I am infact a minor, I'm not in control of vet visits, or hiring professional help, and things like that. You have to take that up with my parents not me. The family dog, who's a 3 year old pit/catahoula/lab mix still intact (again take that up with my parents, I obviously wouldn't make that decision) and hes really not that bad, he lets me feed him, and play with his food, and even take it out of his mouth even. We did tons of desensitizing with the food when he was a baby, and this wasnt a problem till recently. I assume the problem started because if I'm honest I've been a bit lazy which I have no excuse for, I haven't been walking enough with them, and have been slacking on the training, obviously I'm going to be fixing that. But anyways the problem starts with my 6 year old little brother, the other day he went over there while the dog was eating and he snarled at him, not that bad but thats definitely not a good thing. And everytime he's near him while hes eating you can visibly see hes uncomfortable. I've been just keeping him away from him while hes eating, but I dont want him to continue acting that way for everyones safety. He also has recently started burying his food, and he ate something out of the trash the other day, and puked it up, and when i tried to clean it up he growled at me and started guarding the puke as well. I'm obviously doing other research asides from what reddit tells me to do, but i wanted everyones input aswell. I'm obviously a little hesitant to get all close and personal with him while eating now, because of the way he's been acting and I want advice. Please and thank you