OT. Post your pet pic | Page 8 | Syracusefan.com

OT. Post your pet pic

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HakAttack said:
View attachment 9578

That's Ernie our Polydactyl Cat. We named him Ernie after Ernest Hemingway, who was also a lover of Polydactyl Cats (aka Cats with extra fingers and toes.) My fiancee and I got engaged in Key West a few summers ago, and visited the Hemmingway house, where many Polydactyls roam, so once we saw that this one had some extra digits, the name made sense.

He's a true Poly, you can see his front "thumb" on his left front paw in this photo. Normal cats have five toes on the front and four on the back, but he's got six on the front and five on the back, which is more rare to have extras on both.

Apparently these types of cats are more common in New England (where we currently are) as they were bred to be ship's cats. The extra fingers and toes apparently gave the cats better grip on the rolling ship decks at sea.

If you're interested, here's more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyl_cat
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When growing up, I had a polydactyl cat - thumbs on both front paws. I swear he used then as if they were functional/opposable - he would open unlatched doors and do similar things with them. Relative? ;)
 
cto said:
View attachment 9579

Homer the skunk and Toughie the pug. They got along very well. Sorry for the lousy quality, but picture was taken circa 1955 on a Kodak Brownie. Homer was a very pretty skunk. Perfect V down her back. And Toughie was feisty little pug. They were good friends.
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That is a great photo, knowing that they are friends.
 
This thread is turning out to be a pretty enjoyable and well responded to, thread. It is getting the response I was hoping for. I'm looking forward to see more people respond with photos and stories of their pets.

There was one negative bashing post and it did come from marsh. Apparently he has had bad experiences with cats and does not like them. : )

Keep the pics coming.
 
orange79 said:
When growing up, I had a polydactyl cat - thumbs on both front paws. I swear he used then as if they were functional/opposable - he would open unlatched doors and do similar things with them. Relative? ;)
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Oh man, our cat is so smart. He knows how to open cabinets and cupboards and he uses his extra thumb on his paws, like a real hand. The real joy though is watching him bat a ball around. It really looks like he's using mittens!

I can totally relate.
 
cto said:
My uncle was a heavy equipment operator and was driving a bulldozer that ran over a skunk's nest, killing the mother and all but one of the babies (which, by the way, are called kittens). He felt terrible about it, so he picked up this tiny creature with unopened eyes and put it in his pocket. At the end of the day, it was miraculously still alive. Knowing that my mother and I loved animals, he brought it to our house. It was more dead than alive. We stayed up all night keeping it warm and feeding it warm milk from a doll's baby bottle. Somehow, it was still alive the next day, and it kept getting bigger and stronger as we continued to improvise ways to take care of it.

Suddenly, it started to develop its scent gland... which is set off, involuntarily, by stamping its feet and raising its tail when it is startled. We realized we could not keep her in the house once that began to happen, but we also realized we could not let her loose because all she knew was humans and living in a house. So my mother found the only vet for miles around that would operate to remove the scent gland (a very messy operation). We had very little discretionary money... and my father could not believe that my mother spent what he considered a fortune on this little skunk, but she did.

Odd epilogue: My uncle died at age 95 the day we beat Oklahoma in 2003, and I was asked to give the eulogy at his funeral. One of the stories I told was how he was responsible for me having the best pet ever.
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Great story, got my day off to a good start!
 
Cowtown said:
Thanks for sharing, all. :) Not a cat person, but I always like someone else's pet. Grew up with dogs in the house, Saints and Shepards, a couple of Great Danes. My last one was a blonde American Cocker Spaniel. When you didn't have kids, you can get really attached to pets. It broke my heart that last day when I had to take her to the vet after her stroke. About all she could do was wag her tail some. She always loved to go for a ride in the car, and I felt so guilty. I remember almost every minute of that day. We held her while she went. I went to the pound shortly afterward, and I wanted to take them all home. But I had to leave because I realized couldn't go through that again.
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sorry to hear that, letting them go when it's time is so hard to do. I swore that when I had to let my last two dogs pass on I would never get another but I didn't want to live in a house where there wasn't a dog. I have a 4 year old great dane now who has been going gray for about a year. He's the greatest though and am so glad he's in my family.
 
cto said:
View attachment 9579

Homer the skunk and Toughie the pug. They got along very well. Sorry for the lousy quality, but picture was taken circa 1955 on a Kodak Brownie. Homer was a very pretty skunk. Perfect V down her back. And Toughie was feisty little pug. They were friends -- perhaps because we had Homer before we got Toughie.
Expand...
Toughie! Great pug name.
 
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