Pets & Plants

[Alaska Native Manitou]

I grew up in the Alaska wilderness.  We were far from people but some animals would eat out of my hand, & my best friend was a wolf.  Since then I've lived in towns & now a city; I've taken care of dogs, cats, rabbits, goldfish, parakeets, cockatiels, & chickens.  I also remember the forget-me-nots & sitka spruces in Alaska & have had various houseplants, particularly aloes.

Which non-humans have been important to you?

 

[Rainy Robin]

That's so cool about your wolf friend!

I'm a huge cat person (I've had three cats so far) and also love betta fish. Cacti, sunflowers, and zinnias have always been important to my gardening habits as well. 

[roboticanary]

two cats, one amusingly lazy and one full of mischief, mainly he would open doors by jumping on them, I still remember seeing him hanging forlornly from the handle of a locked window and slowly falling off. Lazy cat once tried to convince me he had caught a sparrowhawk which had clearly just crashed into a house. I went outside and he was sitting there all proud like 'look human, behold my amazing hunting skills'

I also had one rabbit who was so calm back when i was a crazy toddler, and my little brother had a pet hamster who managed to escape into the cavity walls of the house for about a week, we had to catch him when he snuck out to nab some chocolate from the kitchen.

As for plants, my nan was a keen gardener and I have a few plants around that she gave me over the years. I keep a money plant on my desk which she gave me when I started uni. Lots of food plants as well. when i was very young my grandad put two small planters in his garden and set them as mine and my brothers, every time we went round we would check on the plants, water them and take care of them. we would grow some strawberries and a few vegetables, usually carrots and beetroot.

 

[Alaska Native Manitou]

https://www.prevention.com/health/g27586276/benefits-of-indoor-plants/

[Ch0c0]

I live in the city so I feel pretty far from nature right now. It was better when I had a cat, rodents and turtles. It's not the same than contact with wildlife but it was great nevertheless.

Hopefully I can afford to adopt animals again in the future. In the meantime I make do with houseplants like aloes and other succulent plants.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Ch0c0

[Ace Bookdragon]

My dog and my horse are both very important to me. My dog is really comforting to be around and she provides a lot of comic relief. My horse is more of a challenge to work with, but he's also quite sweet and he has a special place in my heart.

[AroaceParrot]

I have 6 parrots and a snake. I have a special connection with all of them and absolutely adore each and every one of them. I always call them my "children". They bring me a lot of comfort and have helped me get through a lot of difficult things.

I also love plants and hope to have a sunroom someday so I can fill it with plants. I currently only have a few aloe plants, however, this spring I am hoping to plant a small butterfly garden next to my home.

[Rolo]

I have a cat and chickens, and lots of house plants.

[Kit]

I would literally die for my cats. They're really important to me and cheered me up lots of times.

[Apathetic Echidna]

I spent a lot of my childhood in 2 different country areas, one area was mostly wilderness where I would interact with wild animals like kangaroos and echidnas. Which gave me a sense of stewardship for the environment, especially in the drought times where the water bowls we put out was the only water available to the animals. 

The other was country filled with small dairy and beef cattle farms, which quickly led to me no longer eating beef. I still have a photo in my room of the steer who was my friend which led to me no longer being able to bring myself to eat beef. Everyone back then did lots of handling so the cattle were quiet, to the point that I climbed all over and rode a massive bull when I was 10. Then government policy changed and most farms went under or were bought out, which gave me a simmering hatred of big agribusiness and (not all, but most) property developers which has influenced my food choices, education choices, housing choices and probably even my friend choices for the past 20 years.

Ultimately I have had pets, my rabbit that got me through my teen years was very important, but those two areas and their countless unnamed animals are what have really meant the most in shaping my life.    

[cassssssss]

I’ve had multiple cats, hamsters, and a rabbit. I currently only have one cat though, but in the future I’d like to try taking care of a dog. I do like plants and really love nature, but I have no skill in gardening (I don’t know where to start oof). I’m also planning to live somewhere more natural or at least have a big garden.

[Blake]

Dogs, cats, a hamster and snakes. But I love that your bestie was a wolf,that is a goal for me cuz I want to be a environmental ecologist with wolves as main goal.

[Erederyn]

Like many others, I love cats. I had a cat for 14 years, but she passed 3 years ago. I still miss her alot. When I'm in a more stable living situation, I want to get another cat. For now, I have some plants, which makes me happy as well. I made a terrarium a couple of weeks ago, it's like having a mini forest in a jar! 

[alto]

Of all the animals I own, I absolutely love my dog.  She is an enormous jerk, but I still love her to death.  She sleeps with me every night :)  

[FragileDear]

Dogs are really important to me. We got our first family dog when I was 5 because I insisted. We are now on our third and last family dog and I love him to bits. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by FragileDear

[vinniebandit]

No pets anymore, though at various times, cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs... even snails! - I live in a town house, no garden. So no plants either. Motorbikes and guitars are my pets.

[Nessa]

I love dogs but also other animals. I have plants but my flat is too small to have a dog now and I couldn't afford it anyway. Younger I used to have turtles and grew up with dogs. 

I am hoping to have a house one day with a garden and a dog. 

[Alaska Native Manitou]

[roboticanary]

I have left my parents with the horde. My beautiful gang of fish. 

Basically I bought a small fish tank at about 15, and bought guppies (fantails are great and I just love them). Now in previous fish we had some of them did breed but it was like 1 or 2 survived to adulthood and after a couple of generations they would die out.

Not this lot. There are now too many of them to count. They make a proper beautiful swarm and not long before I left we picked up a bigger tank on the cheap because the sheer numbers made the little tank a nightmare to clean.

As best as I can understand they seem to be happy now. And I love to come back home and see how the horde is doing.

[Nix]

Let’s see, I have a 13 year old cat and a large amount of cherry shrimp. And around 60 house plants plus a full balcony. I also rent a small plot in a community garden that I grow flowers, fruits and vegetables in.

[atrocious_ar0mantic]

On 10/24/2020 at 3:54 AM, 2 Spirit Cherokee Princess said:

I grew up in the Alaska wilderness.  We were far from people but some animals would eat out of my hand, & my best friend was a wolf.  Since then I've lived in towns & now a city; I've taken care of dogs, cats, rabbits, goldfish, parakeets, cockatiels, & chickens.  I also remember the forget-me-nots & sitka spruces in Alaska & have had various houseplants, particularly aloes.

Which non-humans have been important to you?

 

My furchildren. I have two shorthair tabby cats who I’ve had for as long as I can remember. They’re both very plump and vocal loaves 

[96Neko]

I had 3 cats I found the first outdoor she was very skinny and seems not healthy at all later I found out the owner abused her and throws some chemically stuff at her (one side got a huge hairless hole) and after all the paper stuff I got the other 2cats but there left me last year

[Alaska Native Manitou]

[The Gray Warlock]

Many. Cats, dogs, some hamsters, a rabbit. I had a half beagle named Nike because she had a mark on her head that looked like the Nike logo. I'm down to one cat. I'll probably hold out before getting any more. She does not take well to new animals in the house.

I have about 10 plants, 5 different kinds of succulents and a couple of cacti. Low maintenance and they look cool.

[illumi]

ok. giant pet dump here

i have one pet cat named mr white but because my humor is dogshit i nicknamed him mr cum. hes a tabby with folded ears and hes 9 or 10 years old this year i think [i shamelessly forgot] but here are some photos of him

 

now. ive had a few pets when im a kid before and ill write down each of their backstories one by one. they will all be in spoilers because 

1. its long
2. all of them are dead except for one or two
3. we dont have the best environment and most knowledge for raising these pets

so proceed with caution

backstory of my two pet quails

Spoiler

so my grandma fetched me a pair of baby quails. one male one female. my mom used a box and made a nest for them and theyve been doing pretty well. she even bought a cage for them so they can safely get some sunbath on the balcony

the box is not sealed at all but when these two tiny dinos came out of the box and run around the balcony door must be closed because they might fall to their untimely demise. when theyre running around the apartment they especially like to chase after my moms pink slippers; strong visual stimuli i guess. idk

they lived for a few months or more? i dont really remember. but all came to an end when i was at school and during that time the female quail escaped to the balcony and jumped down. she died and her body was retrieved. she stayed in the box for a short while before my mom disposed of her and the male quail is still doing fine. he didnt react to her body and just stumbled over it

a while later my grandma took the male quail in the cage and went to the balcony together. she had to get something and left for a minute then come back only to find the cage flipped and the door open. there was no quail to be found and shes sure he jumped off the balcony and immediately rushed downstairs to look for his body but it was never found

my mom theorized that he jumped down got injured but survived and he ran away from the building into a bush somewhere. she said that he might not survive for long because there are a shit load of stray cats in our community and hes vulnerable

a few days later i went to school like normal and my mom told me she heard the male quail around the apartment building but never found him. she never said that she heard him since and hes also very likely dead

backstory of the tadpoles and small lobsters

Spoiler

alright. this might be very brief because i actually dont remember what happened. i also forgot where i got those tadpoles from but i think its from a pond somewhere that my grandparents scooped up? but weve been raising these tadpoles for a little while before the lobster joined the family

i went to the market with my mom and we went to the seafood section. there is a bunch of live lobsters in a container and i want to get one. my mom is surprised because she thought i wanted to eat a lobster and i never liked lobsters but after i explained she bought two lobsters i think? or one. or two but one of them died really quickly

after we went home she put the lobster a container filled with water and the tadpoles are in another container. i dont remember how we raised those guys like feeding them and stuff but the tadpoles did grow a bit and the lobster is pretty chill. the tadpoles later grew large enough that the container can no longer fit in so many so my mom has to release them back at the same pond theyre taken from. as for the lobster i think it died and got cooked. idk. were not good at raising aquatic animals thats for sure

backstory of my two pet chicks

Spoiler

my grandpa was an amazing fellow. hes always on my side and hes my bestfriend. we went to the local park one day and saw a person selling little chicks. and i wanted to raise even more birds so i asked my grandpa to buy two. he agreed and bought two chicks. one has been dyed red and the other is in its natural yellow shade

we both know that the rest of the family is not going to like this news so we had to conceal the existence of these two chicks. we prepared a shoebox for them and placed down a bed and two containers containing food and water. got them in there and placed the box in my grandpas bedroom [im not at my grandparents house most of the time so i dont really know where he hid them but he promised he will]

the rest of the family still doesnt know about the chicks even after they died. they passed a while after they were bought and i even made a little memorial on them with a red and yellow fake feather. i have no idea how they died but they just did

backstory of my first and last pet bird

Spoiler

this was after i got mr white. hes all grown up and i love him a lot. but ive always wanted a pet bird ever since the pair of quails so i begged my mom to buy me a bird on the pet market

after saying no repeatedly because shes afraid that the cat will harm the bird she eventually said yes and bought me a tiny bird. this bird has black feathers with a few dots of white and some yellow crown feathers. i forgot its appearance but i think these are the right colors. i named it corona [not the virus i swear] because its crown feathers looked like. well. a crown

corona died the fastest out of all the pets ive ever had. literally just within a day. i was at school and when my mom picked me up she informed me that corona died by suffocating itself between the bars of its cage. i was shocked to hear it and cried all afternoon

i later found out that the cat mightve frightened it to death. when we just got it my mom put a blanket on top of the cage so the bird cant see the cat and therefore wont be stressed. she also distanced the bird on the balcony and closed its door to be sure that the cat and the bird are separated. but i guess at some point during the day the blanket fell off and the bird can see the cat and that stressed it out. it flew around the cage frantically and ran into the bars

my mom placed coronas body in a small wooden box and buried it

.backstory of my pet turtle

Spoiler

ok now this is the one thats still very much alive under my uncles care. my uncles apartment is literally a zoo. hes got pet turtles birds and fishes and hes really good at taking care of these animals

i just bought a baby turtle in the market because they looks cute so i just thought i had to get it. bought some turtle treats and placed it in a small container with shallow water. fed it everyday and its growing really fast. i named it jack

i had to move to another state because i transferred schools so i have to leave jack under someone elses care and i immediately thought of my uncle. he has a pet turtle so he can definitely handle both; i was right. jack is still alive and kicking even today 

for a bonus here are some pictures of my friends cat