Am I the only clankiller person who doesn't have an unconditional love of dogs? I mean, I love the buggers, but when you are mostly meeting them when you're out riding your bike in farm areas and they chase you down/attack you, you find them slightly less interesting. Last bad experience I had I was riding past this farm and two smaller dogs came out barking at me, and I was like, oh cute, two little dogs....AND THEN TWO MASSIVE ROTTWEILERS CAME AROUND THE CORNER. Like, the cliché of a Rottweiler, with chains for collars and everything. I went from being chased by 2 lapdogs to being chased by 4 dogs, including two giant ones. I never rode so hard in my life haha. Luckily the farmer was there to call them back, but they were chasing me for a good 2-300 meters.

Disclaimer: Malta is a wasteland for cycling, and most dogs haven't seen a bike in their lives. Which would explain why they keep chasing me down on the country roads.

Time to boost this thread back to the top!

We sadly lost Diego nearly 2 years ago now. He started going downhill in early 2021, losing weight and seemingly sneezing a lot so he had a couple of courses of antibiotics which would seem to help, then wouldn't. At the end of May the vet said she could feel a lump on his liver but she wasn't an exotics specialist so couldn't do anything. We came home and looked around for an exotics vet near us. The day we found one and were going to ring, we found him lying in his own diarrhea and realised it was his time to go. He was 6 which is not bad for a degu, the lower end of old age.

Scrat is still happily carrying on at 8 years old! I found a lump under his left front leg on Monday night so yesterday I managed to get him into the local vet and they recommended surgery straight away as it felt solid, though free moving, so unlikely to be a cyst or infection. He had no complications and is perfectly happy this morning, other than being confined to his travel cage for a week. We kept him in with us last night and only heard a couple of squeaks but otherwise he was settled. He spent the evening scrabbling at the bars but he's been calmer this morning and is currently flat out on his side. He's had his daily antibiotics and painkillers so they have probably knocked him out a little!

Sorry to hear you lost Diego. Losing a pet is always hard.

We still have Roscoe and Diesel, our corgi mutts. They're showing their age (especially Roscoe) but are still doing fine. We adopted a new dog a little over a year ago, Kaylee. She was advertised as being a chow chow and corgi mix, but there's no corgi in her. She's very high energy and I got very little sleep the first few months, but she's gotten much better. I'm hopeful with some time she'll calm down a bit more, but we'll see. I'll include a puppy picture because I appear to not have any others readily available.

She's so fluffy! Congrats on the addition

Also a congrats from me! The man complaining he didn't get enough physical exercise from being at the office complaining about an overly energetic dog keeping him busy.

(in all seriousness, being woken up by a pet sucks. Glad she's better now)

We had to say goodbye to Scrat on Weds. A couple of months ago he got a lump under his chin, then last Friday we felt the one under his arm had come back. He also went blind in one eye shortly after his surgery, we think from the stress of it. He was still carrying on just fine though, no pain, running round being a terror, eating and drinking fine. Then 2 weeks ago he got a penis prolapse. Like good pet owners we took the piss out of him then took him to get it sorted out. There was a swelling partway up it that the vet thought was a tumour then decided was just swelling from the prolapse. Unfortunately it popped out again and when I took him back on Weds the vet (different one) confirmed it was a tumour in there. He had been a little down on Tues but had perked up again in the evening and on Weds but it was kinder to let him go. Diego was like that too, kept going up and down until he was just way down, and clearly Scrat was bothered by his knob being out! It was also ulcerated so likely wouldn't have healed.

So now we are pet free again and it feels so empty in the flat. I keep trying to look on the bright side of things, like no more using electric to heat up his warm pads, or putting the heating on for him (Niall and I will suffer with multiple layers of clothing for as long as we can), no more poo flung out the cage or hay getting everywhere... but those are all poor substitutes. He made it to 8.5 years old so pretty impressive really! He also got the last laugh as we decided his older, smaller cage would be better for him to get around especially as these days he was only spending the night in there, and all day out in the room with me. So we spent all of last Saturday dismantling the huge cage and setting up the smaller one. He watched us the entire time and I'm now convinced he was sitting there thinking "Ha losers, you're wasting your time!"

We thank him for his service, bon voyage.

Ah, poor Scrat. A penis tumor is nothing to giggle at. Well, maybe a little. I'm sorry to hear you've lost him. I'm sure he had a great life thanks to you, probably far better than in someone else's hands. I'll take a drink in his honor.

Thanks guys. You have to giggle at it a little, if only to keep from crying! I've been away for a week visiting my parents which helped but then it hit me as I opened the door last night that he isn't here to welcome me back. So now I have to go back to pestering other people's pets. I did get lots of fuss from my parents cats so I haven't been entirely fur-free

Sorry to hear it Pev But yeah, sounds like he went out like a champ, trolling the shit out of you guys. That's a small comfort.

Do you guys have any plans for a new pet or are you gonna enjoy the lack of maintenance for a while first? Maybe go for a little holiday together if you can, now that there's no animals to take care of? If you can that is.

We'll wait and see. Definitely have a break for a while. We're not meant to have pets here anyway and we do want to get a house (there's another impossible dream atm). Moving would be easier without a pet. But depending how long that takes and how soon we get fed up with no animals around... well we'll see. The room feels really empty right now; we've taken everything down and piled it up so it's not completely gone yet but there's a huge space behind me where the cage was so I am being tempted to get an arts and crafts area set up. I think we'll at the very least wait a year, mainly coz the Discworld Con is next August and we have tickets. It's in Birmingham so we can travel in each day like we did last year if there are pets to look after but it would be nice to stay at the hotel again too.

I didn't know Discworld had a con....

You could always get a pet turtle and bring him with. it'd be appropriate.

Aw Satis now I feel I missed out on a trick! My friend used to have one; they didn't have time for it in the end but I could've borrowed him! He was called Boris haha. Although he was a tortoise so not the same thing at all (but I know in America all tortoises are just called turtles so I'll let you off). Anyhoo yeah, there is the one I go to every 2 years in the UK, there is an Irish one, a German one, an Aussie one and a US Discworld Con. Very different to most cons from my understanding though (never been to any others, just heard from friends/read about them). No queuing to meet 'celebs', no paying for autographs, all very casual. I went to 2 before Pratchett was too ill to attend anymore and ended up sharing the lift upstairs with him. All the guests just turn up in the dining room and bar with all the members. But it's a small affair too; 900 people usually.

Um... on topic, last con there was a pet there, a big Old English Sheepdog puppy who was out in the bar the whole time and pretty much stole the show. And I do have a crocheted (not by me) dragon that I take named Cyril.

So I would agree that most people (or at least Americans) don't know the different between a turtle and a tortoise. Shiny and I have owned both and do actually know that difference. But I'm pretty sure Atuin the world turtle is a turtle. World turtle, star turtle, something along those lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_(world).

That's pretty cool though. Meeting Terry Pratchett at a con is pretty epic. The most nerdy things I've done is go to Star Wars movies on opening night in costume (a few times) and i've been to Quakecon... so I guess I have been to a con. It's been a really long time though. I have a big aversion to crowds, especially post-covid, so not sure I'll ever repeat the con experience.

Oh sure A'tuin is a turtle, but I'm not stealing a turtle from the local sea life centre to take to the con

I hear you on the crowds. There's a big comicon that gets held in Birmingham as well these days and I was tempted to go one year as the RDR2 cast were there. Except that after you pay to get it in it was going to be something like £45 to stand in line for hours and get an autograph from one person! I love RDR2 but not that much. Combine that with all the crowds and it was a definite no from me. The crowds at the DWcon aren't so terrible as not everyone goes to the same thing and it's all held in a hotel so aside from the biggest events like the play and the opening/closing ceremonies there are probably only about 50-100 in a room at a time. I think most go these days just to meet up with friends they only see at the con and drink in the bar.

As for your Star Wars movies in costume, my one goal is to finally see Rocky Horror live. I think I'd have to dress up, it would feel weird not to but it would also feel very weird to do it! I often go as a witch to dwcon because I'm lazy; some of the costumes people make are amazing though. I should dig out some pics and link them. Someone came as the entire Discworld last year!