Have you ever formed a bond with an animal that wasn't yours or you couldn't have?
Maybe your neighbor all but neglected their dog and you fed it or provided companionship while you worked in the yard. The dog just didn’t understand why he/she couldn’t be your dog, and tried coming over/under the fence several times.
Or someone close to you had a cat that cried and waited for your return at their door when you left, or a former roommate’s pet was very close to you and you had to part ways when the living situation changed.
Or, perhaps, if you do a lot of walking in the neighborhood or walked to school when you were younger, befriended or at least grew familiar with a dog in someone’s yard along the route, which it grew hard to part with as you went on your way on a frequent basis.
Companion animals understand companionship, bonding, and belonging—but don’t seem to understand that they are owned by someone else and cannot come with you. Nor does the law regard their feelings or rights.
Related ways of answering this topic may be if you had to give up an animal when YOUR living situation changed or a family situation didn’t permit your keeping the pet. Severing bonds with companion animals is even more bittersweet.
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I once made friends with a customer’s cat. Every time after we got friendly, the cat would come out when it heard the sound of my truck and follow me around. This went on for about 10 years.
Two years ago, the cat had become very old, skinny, and frail. I thought I would never see the cat again. Then one spring day, while at their house, I heard a strange squawking sound. I turned around, and there was the cat, sprawled out in the warm sunshine, probably breathing it’s last. But it still managed to say “hello.”
And it was the last time I saw the cat.
I have a relationship with all my neighbors dogs, I’ve walked them, rescued them, fed them, bought treats I knew they’d like, etc… I saw something I didn’t agree with happening with one of the dogs, went to talk to the neighbors and they got upset, so while I still have a relationship with the dog, I don’t have one with that neighbor (bad people.)
Also, I tend to fall in love with most animals, goats, cows, cats, chickens, just about any of them sucker me in with their love.
I only gave up an animal once, when my ex and I split, he took the male, I took the female and it broke my heart.
Well, one of my lost boys, who is all grown up now and has a family of his own, brought his family back to visit a couple of years ago. He went to a local park that is crazy with ducks and geese. This one goose just FELL IN LOVE with Shane. It was just insane! The goose hissed at his wife if she got too close! Picture
Last summer at the park this one goose kept peering into our car as though it was looking for something. Or someone.
I have developed a bond with my daughters hound, Peta. Peta is not the sharpest tool in the shed but she is a sweetheart and very affectionate once you get to know her. She is very shy however and skittish, particularly around males which is what makes our relationship a little odd. Other than my daughter, I am the only one who gets a tail wagging greeting with her bounding up to me when I come through the door.
It is an unfortunate situation that my daughter is enduring at this point. She has two dogs and they both detest each other to the point of violence. She has taken both dogs into an obedience program and they responded well, both learning what is expected of them. And then you put them in the same room and it all goes out the window and they are at each others throats. Literally. She has to keep them apart, one outside and one in; switching them out several times a day and trying to split time with them. Unfortunately she cares for both dogs and cannot bear the thought of parting with either one.
Peta is the bigger, stronger and younger of the two and so when we put them on leashes and try to get them to have time together in the same room I get Peta. It all goes well, she sits quietly beside me and Mona quietly sits by my daughter until in the course of the evening the two dogs make eye contact. The seem to honestly try their hardest not to do it but it invariably will happen. It has yet to work out that it did not end out in a growling, snarling, snapping fit that, if it weren’t for the leashes, would result in bloodshed and given her advantages, I am fairly certain Peta would come out the better in that match.
What Peta needs is her own home with her own people (and possibly cats, she is good with cats) but I am not in a situation where I can be that home at this time. Now if we can only find someone with a big yard and who truly wants a loyal, loving companion that also meets with my daughters exacting standards. Until then, Peta and I will continue to be good friends….
Yeah! The duck just walked right up to him, practically crawled in his lap! It was insane.
I know! Something that really concerns me…Do geese mate for life? I think they do. And WAS that Shane’s goose looking for him, 2 years later?
Oh, I formed some “bonds”.
@ragingloli No Bodily Fluid Transfer stories!
Which reminds me of a joke I just saw:
Q: What is the difference between a Garbanzo Bean and a Chickpea?
A: Trump never had a Garbanzo Bean on him.
think about it, it will come to you
All the time. I used to have what I would loosely call pet spiders, in my yard. I observed them daily, and helped them when possible. I used to have dozens of giant orb weavers. Very intimidating, but harmless, to us. Several of the ladies were bigger than an average hand.
Sadly. They started spraying for mosquitoes more, because of the Zicca scare. All of the spiders died. I tried saving some egg sacks, but the never hatched, despite my best efforts to preserve them…
I honestly love most wildlife, and consider the animals friends. I see dolphins frequently, when I’m in my canoe. I often wonder if they are the same ones each time. They had a baby a couple summers ago. It was only as long as my arm when I first saw it. They swim right by me. I could probably touch them, but I don’t want to upset them.
My daughter said that her dog, Maggie, knows the sound of our vehicles and starts going bonkers as soon as we pull up. She said the dog really, really loves us! And it shows. She just crawls all over us…and she’s not a lap dog by any means!
Each vehicle sounds unique. Even the same models. Dogs get used to which vehicles are used by who. And they can obviously hear them before us.
When I was a kid the neighbor down the street had a cat that would come to our house for lunch. He was the sweetest cat ever. Poor thing had to be put to sleep eventually, I don’t remember why. The owner let us know, and my sister and I went to visit at the vet before they did the injection. That was nice that she let us know. She realized my family had a relationship with the cat.
I was bonded with my sister’s cats. Not to the extreme of if they were my own, but I definitely had some emotional attachment to them.
Pretty much all animals I know or see regularly I care about, I’m not sure if I can call that all bonding though? The deer in our backyard in TN, the turtle when I lived in Delray Beach, my friend’s cat here where I live now.
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