FReeper Canteen~Share Your Pet Stories & Pics~02 Oct 08

Here to support & entertain our Troops, Vets & Allies! | Canteen Crew

[AZamericonnie]

Welcome to the

~ Freeper Canteen ~

Share Your Pet Pictures & Stories!

Time to pay tribute to our beloved pets who give us unconditional love & joy.

Have a funny story about a childhood pet?

Perhaps your pet has some funny quirks or habits?

Come share your stories!

"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language." ~ Martin Buber

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"My little dog -- a heartbeat at my feet." ~ Edith Wharton

"A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution." ~ Hazel Nicholson

"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals" ~ Anonymous

"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!" ~ Theophile Gautier

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." ~ Roger Caras

"There's no need for a piece of sculpture in a home that has a cat." ~ Wesley Bates

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." ~ Anonymous

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself." ~ Josh Billings

"Until one has loved an animal,  a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

"Old age means realizing you will never own all the dogs you wanted to." ~ Joe Gores

"A canter is the cure for all evil." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

[Brad’s Gramma]

Prayer update! Please keep praying everyone!!!

[luvie]

You DO have a lot of love to give, and I am sure that
they both appreciate your loving care!

Nite, Sissy! (((hugs)))

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for the update! Prayers continue...

[Fawnn]

You and your family have my prayers.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good night and safe journey, Taz...((HUGS))

[amom]

Thanks for the excellent thread!

I’m part of the better late than never club again tonight...*sigh*.

Kathy I hope you got home alright and found good food as well.

At one time I had a housebroken silver Angora rabbit named April. April loved to have run of the house and as long as she was well mannered (using her litter box) I was ok with that. One day an insurance salesman was over when April leisurely hopped from the hallway, entirely across the living room and into the kitchen. This salesman’s jaw dropped and he looked at me as if to say “did you see that?” like he doubted what he’d seen. LOL April got many special treats for a good while after that one.

After many years of being horseless I again got a horse. She was a Morganie (no papers but Morgan type) named Barbie. Barbie was named because when she was little she’d run into some barbed wire and the marks left made little tufts of hair in different places around her body. Barbie and I spent much time riding the sand dunes of Oregon and the desert of California. One of my most memorable rides was a night ride in the Mojave desert of California. There is nothing quite like riding in the middle of the the night with the full moon lighting the desert. A moment I will never forget. Barbie is gone now but still one of my favorite ‘friends’.

Today I am the proud member of my African Gray parrot’s flock. His/her name is Tonk. She/he is 5 years old now and I’ve had him/her since a few weeks after she was hatched. Tonk can talk and whistle and likes to tell me what to do. I also have a big black dog hamed Scooter. He is half Cocker Spaniel and half California Desert Dog (his mom got loose in the CA desert...nuff said). I also have ten hens of various breeds and two roosters. Now I need a few kittens, another dog for Scooter to play with and we’ll see about another horse. Just no GOATS!

Thank you to our troops wherever you are.

[Kathy in Alaska]

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.....

Lots of those in your pet family. My Dad has a Shadow. Black lab....solid black from head to toe.

[amom]

swmobuffalo thanks for the update...goodness it can be frustrating. (((HUGS))) to you and Mr swmobuffalo and your son. Prayers continue.

[BykrBayb]

Keeping up those prayers. Thanks for keeping us posted.

[amom]

Wow Kathy, moose in the parking lot! What a sight that must have been!

[Tribune7]

Prayers continue

[Tommygun99]

We have a black chihuahua named Cissy. Every morning my wife asks her if she would rather be a dead dog or a democrat. Immediately she falls to the floor !!! Smart dog that Cissy .....

[amom]

Folks looks like we’ve lost one...Prayers up.

Army Pfc. Christopher Fox...

21-year-old Fox died Monday after being wounded in a small-arms attack in the Adhamiyah neighborhood in eastern Iraq. His patrol was ambushed, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Fox grew up in Memphis and attended Hamilton High School, where he played football. He lived for a time with Frost’s family in Knoxville before moving to Fort Carson, Colo., where he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division.
Fox was on his second tour, due to be discharged from the Army in July.
He was in the service for three years, worked as a mortarman and earned awards including the Army Commendation medal, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper. Frost said he also won a Purple Heart after a device exploded on him a couple of months ago.
He always wanted to be a soldier, she said.
His MySpace Web page, where he last logged in on Friday, reads: “Can’t wait to get back to the States.”
It was tough, Frost said. Still, he loved it.
“He loved the people he worked with, comrades in arms. He died over there fighting for something,” she said.
“He was a hero. He deserves to be recognized as such...

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/oct/02/soldier-had-his-eye-on-ut/

[amom]

LOL Smart dog!

[Allegra]

Prayers up for your husband, swmobuffalo and for you and for your son.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, member of the “better late than never” club. I got home and found food. You eat?

You have had quite an assortment of pets in your life. So did you say, “What rabbit?” LOL!!

California desert, full moon, awesome.

Tonk and Scooter, hens and roosters....Mrs. Dolittle. LOL!!

What?? No goat?

[Drumbo]

Alex was born in a dumpster on Texas Drive on the West Bank of New Orleans (in Gretna). The first time I met Alex was in November 1975; he was just a few days old. I had recently moved from the BEQ at the Naval Support Activity into my first off-base apartment which I shared with two other enlisted men. I answered a knock on the door one dreary day and found a crowd of children, none older than 12 or 13. They had three noisy newborn kittens in a shoe box and a story about the dumpster and the missing mother and tears ... and they said, "Please mister, will you give them a home?"

About the last thing a young Navy man in a strange city and a new billet in a traveling band needs is a kitten or three. But somehow, the one little kitten who looked most like a short haired American Grey melted my heart as did the tears of the little boys and girls imploring me to take him in. That's how Alex came to live with me at Texas Drive.

I remember how tiny he was those first weeks and how I feed him powdered baby formula mixed with milk through an eye-dropper. My roommates thought I was crazy, but soon came to enjoy the tiny ball of fluff and buzzes. Between us, we had enough girlfriends that we could leave town with the band and know that Alex would be fed and watered and get plenty of affection. Things went well until Alex discovered windows. By the time he was a few months old, his favorite pastime was sitting on a window ledge watching the world outside. Unfortunately, the no-pets policy at the apartment complex led to an ultimatum. That's how we came to live on the second floor of a house on Opelousas Avenue in Old Algiers next to the closed Abbalon Theater. Alex got us evicted from Texas Drive.

The second floor apartment was perfect, with a walk-out balcony where he could sun himself all day. By his first summer, he had learned to climb down the trellis next to the balcony and explore the neighborhood, the levy and the ferry landing. Soon he had somehow made enough friends that he could hitch a ride on the ferry and cross the Mississippi to the City. That's how he became a real New Orleans street cat, visiting the "Cat Lady" on Rampart Street (who housed and fed scores of cats) and eventually gaining entry into all the best restaurants and food shops that populate the French Quarter.

Alex became famous, while I never did. Despite the gourmet food he cajoled and the attention he drew, he returned regularly to our place on Opelousas Avenue, at least as often as I did. Sometimes the band would travel for two weeks at a stretch, but Alex was always waiting when I got back, or he'd soon show up, demanding his can of Kozy Kitten and a good scratching behind the ears.

He sometimes let me follow him as he made his rounds. You don't walk a cat, but if they like you enough, they'll walk you.

With the exception of his Kozy Kitten, he had exceedingly good taste. He visited Brennan's, Cafe Du Monde and The Gumbo Shop where the Chefs and cooks feed him crab meat and catfish and other delicacies. They all knew him.

Chef Paul Prudhomme was in residence at The Chart House in those days, before he opened his K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen on Chartes Street and became world famous. He would greet "Lee Gato" as he called him, at the back door with fresh shrimp, and then usher him into the kitchen. I questioned Chef Paul about health regulations and he said "Lee" or "Kitty Lee" was an exception because he was "the city's best mouser". Even the health inspectors turned a blind eye to Alex because an obsessively clean short-haired cat was much preferred to the other vermin that populated the old city, and Alex worked for his supper.

By the time I left the Navy in 1979 we had moved to Rose Haven on Nelson Street, just a block from the Carrollton and South Claiborne Avenue Street Car stop. I took a job at Cris Owen's 500 Club at the corner of Bourbon and St. Louis, and Alex would ride with me on the streetcar to the Quarter each night.

He had become a New Orleans celebrity. He used to come into the 500 club during the show and Cris would nuzzle him to her ample bosom, fitting a small knit baby cap he would reluctantly tolerate when the spotlight was on him, she would sang "Rock'abye My Baby To A Dixie Melody" and Alex would ham along to the delight of patrons and tourists.

One night, across the street at Al Hirt's Club, Jumbo tried the same routine, but Alex would only sit on Al's stool looking bored and whenever Al approached with the baby hat prop he would turn his backside to Al and stretch with his tail high in the air. Al did a very good Rodney Dangerfield, "No Respect" routine as the audience roared.

Alex had a legacy and a myth and I heard more stories about him than I witnessed. In 1982, after a flood destroyed many of my belongings, I decided to leave New Orleans, but Alex - he decided to stay in his city. I've read that cats are very territorial, and this one was very smart. We had moved around so much that he understood moving on, or at least I like to think so. A week before I left New Orleans, Alex spent a whole day watching me pack and a rare night at home, sleeping in my armpit as he seldom had since he was a kitten. The next morning he was off again and six days later when it was time to go, he still hadn't returned. A neighbor had spotted him at the Cat Lady's, so I figure he had said his goodbyes and I went on my way without him. I never owned him, if anything, it was the other way around. He was the best good boy I ever had the pleasure to raise.


ALEXANDER LE GATO ~ CIRCA 1976

[amom]

Glad you’re home safe and sound and well fed. Yes I ate and am just now digging into a bowl of ice cream.

I didn’t say anything to the insurance salesman because it was more fun to just watch his expression.

No, NO GOAT!! LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

Ice cream is next on my agenda.

I can just imagine the look on his face....would love to hear the stories he had to tell.

[amom]

What flavor are you going to have? I had Hagen Daz Coffee...with tiny chocolate chips...yummmmmy.

I have often wondered the same thing about his stories, lol.