12/22 Is My Spouse Normal?

In Who's Corner Do We Have?
Posted by: kukana44
Posted on: 2004-10-08 08:37:25

If I were the husband of the wife that had 60 pets, ( unless it was built around a dude ranch or something) I'd make one suggestion to her. " Honey, I know that there are needy organizations like adult/assisted living establishments that have connections with professional people who are in dire need of some pets, right now.

As for the weekly, shower husband, I'd try being subtle, at first, by saying, " You know, honey, that certain soap that you shower with is too irresistable for words. I just can't get enough of that scent." If that would've failed, I'd have to lean towards another direction. " By not showering on a regular basis, you've just earned yourself endless nights, sleeping on the couch without any lovin' from this " cookie." The direct approach for me would be to address this individual like this," If you have any respect for my space, you'll honor it by taking regular showers. Your brother, Pepe le Peu has just left the building."

As for the woman with the excessive shopping habits, cut up all of the credit cards and rely on a more reasonable budget. If the prob. behind all of this shopping is boredom, there are plenty of openings for community work around. If it's an addiction, she needs to seek professinal help.

A man's obsession is out of control, when he eats and sleeps by the TV, every night and the last thing that he can remember is hearing the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner.

Sincerely,
Kukana
Pets
Posted by: astmary
Posted on: 2004-10-08 11:13:22

I say you can never have too many animials. IF you are truely an animial person. I take in unwanted and injured animials of all types. Because there are so many uneducated animial "shoppers" out there buying baby animials. After the newness and cuteness is gone many of these animials are negeleced. There are people like myself that are a safe place to send these unwanted animials.
I own my own business and can afford to take care of unwanted animials. In Fact, my husband and I bought a 6200 square ft. house to accommodate the animials. We have outgrown the house so we just purchased an Island in Tampa Fl. We planed to build our home with the animials in mind for the design of the house. I currently have 6 dogs, 1 cat, 6 parrots 13 doves 12 lovebirds finches, a squrel, a ratcoon and fish tanks. While Im writing this I got a call from someone that found 4 baby rats. And yes, I even take RATS! I will raise them and then release them in the wild. God placed a love for animials in my heart at a very young age. This work is my hearts desire.
Signed, Ellie May
Critters
Posted by: shrimpety
Posted on: 2004-10-08 12:21:06

Ellie May, I am also an Ellie and was thrilled when I met my now husband because he loves animals as much as I do. We once went for a walk, saw a cat fair and came home with a kitten. One day we went in our front yard, found a feral kitten and took her straight to the vet for a check up. They are now two of our wonerful five cats and three dogs in our home. They are amazing.We too outgrew our last home and moved to accomodate them. We are now buying the land behind our house to make even more room.

I got the feeling tha the husband on the show didn't so much have a problem with the critters as he did with the fact that they are not set up to provide for them properly.

When I bought my last house, it had an apartment attached. The tenant had been feeding all of the Feral cats in the town. It was disgusting. I know she thought she was doing the righ thing but really she just made things worse for everyone.

Nothing makes me happier than to snuggle with the gifts that God gave us. And I wouldn't do it if I couldn't take care of properly.

Thank God for four legged-friends!
That could be the case
Posted by: chaela17
Posted on: 2004-10-21 21:32:16

That could be what is bothering him is that they are not set up properly to take care of them. I live on 30 acres of land and wish to use it to help more animals but with not enough time and trying to make money to feed them it just isn't possible. I handle what i can.
Please Read
Posted by: krglvt
Posted on: 2004-10-08 18:07:03

I am a veterinary technician and I really feel like it is my responsibilty to comment on today's show. Some people may not like some of the things I am about to say but I feel like I need to for the sake of animals everywhere.

I encourage everyone to read the following article:
www.hsus2.org/sheltering/magazine/currentissue/jul_aug04/jul_aug04.html

It is about animal hoarding.

There are people who simply "collect" animals. Not because they love animals, which is the reason that so many give, but because they are trying to fill some kind of void in their lives. Unfortunately this almost always turns out poorly for the animals.

I do not see how anyone with 60 pets can possibly spend the time with them giving them the care and love that they deserve. It isn't physically possible for any person to do that.

In my opinion, allowing a child to be adopted into a situation like this is a mistake. Will a child fill the void this woman is trying to fill? If so, what happens to all the animals? If not, will there be more and more children?

I am not trying to offend anyone by my comments. I am just trying to offer another point of view. I see people that can barely take care of one dog. How can anyone care for a collection of them?
I agree
Posted by: taffytime
Posted on: 2004-10-08 22:55:34

I certainly believe that any agency giving someone a new infant in the environment that has all those pets and feces and urine no matter how well cared for they are is putting that child in harms way. We had a neighbor who took in loads of cats which nearly overwhelmed the neighbors with the smell . She thought she was helping but eventually the county had to euthanize all of them because she couldn't afford to feed them and they were negelected. People like that I think are just very lonely or like people to think they are so compassionate. It seems to be selfish to take in so many and not have time for them. I hope the birds were hurt and she is nursing them until they can be set free. Just the bird droppings are very dangerous for anyone with an allergy or for an infant/.

Posted by: thorvet
Posted on: 2004-10-08 23:24:25

I agree. I cannot believe their home passed a homestudy. The agency we adopted our son through would never have allowed a newborn into a home with 60 animals! A newborn needs a relatively sanitary environment, not a zoo! In addition, a newborn requires so much attention that the animals will be neglected. We had a basset hound when we adopted our son, we had to find a new home for the dog eventually because he didn't appreciate being second to a newborn. Guess which one WE chose? (Hint: it wasn't the dog!)

This situation gives adoptive parents a bad rap!
get a grip
Posted by: aringer
Posted on: 2004-10-08 23:49:02

you all are so judgemental! 95% of all our animals are out doors and we live in the county not the city which has different codes. The Majority of my pets are birds that live in outdoor aviaries which are easy to maintain. our children are getting a great education by participating as a family in their care. which leave us lots of time to care for our foster baby who is happy and safe!
A Little Touchy
Posted by: tonyaw72
Posted on: 2004-10-09 08:10:43

Well you didn't mention the fact (during showtime) that most of your animals are outside. Even still I can't believe that there are enough hours in the day to love on all the animals in your care (the way you seemed to on the show) and give 100% to your children as well. Again, if the infants were allergic to the birds would you get rid of them...what about the dog, cat, etc.
I won't apologize for being judgemental, most of us are just making comments and observations about the show you chose in which you chose to appear.

Posted by: jordan0801
Posted on: 2004-10-09 15:24:39

with the amount of money it takes to feed all of your animals, how are you going to be able to afford to buy what is needed for a baby? Formula, diapers....I go through 150.00 a month in Formula alone, 80.00 a month for diapers, baby food is starting to get expensive since the baby is on solids now. Clothes....they grow so fast, toys that your pets haven't played with already.....

Seriously? How can you even afford all of it?
Save money
Posted by: chaela17
Posted on: 2004-10-21 20:56:27

Well, you could save 150.00 if you breastfeed, i know i did for over 4 years
Re: Get a Grip
Posted by: chaela17
Posted on: 2004-10-21 21:32:57

Please tell us how your house visiting went when they came to check out your home for the child? I would love to know since i have animals and i would love to foster but since it seems easier to foster animals than it does children i am afraid that I would just get told, nope you can't have any children, you have to fix this or that to do it and sorry to the one that actually sent the dog away, that is the thing we are trying to avoid. So easy to give up an animal but sorry my animal ARE my children too, I would NEVER give them up. I would be trying to train the dog to learn how to get a long, just as a brother or sister would have to do the same but by the sound of it, those people would just give up the brother or sister instead of trying to find a solution to the problem instead of just getting rid of the problem. that is sad.
Totally agree!!
Posted by: couchbum
Posted on: 2004-10-09 00:26:16

Couldn't agree with you more. I didn't even need to read the article. But, I'll go check it out anyway.
krqlvt/animals
Posted by: nitetoe
Posted on: 2004-10-09 15:24:39

I am a single woman, living by myself. I totally agree with this person who is a professional in this field. I would love to have a dog for companionship, but, I live in an apartment, by myself and have full time employment, keeping me out of my home for 12 hours a day. As you can tell, the obvious reason to why I have chosen not to be abusive to a dog just because "I want one". I feel you have to be responsible in "all" ways when raising children or pets, in my opinion. I feel 60 animals is not acting responsible, in any way. How in the world do these people afford the food and medical for all these animals?
Animal Hording
Posted by: nfisher23
Posted on: 2004-10-09 23:03:41

I love Dr. Phil and think he has the best program on TV, but he completely missed the boat on this show. I thought he made light of a very serious problem. Animal hording is a real and serious problem. Animal hording usually starts with one or two animals, but the person just keeps on taking in more and more animals. I am not saying this particular woman was an animal horder, but what if someone with a problem was watching and saw how lightly Dr. Phil took the situation? A animal horder would look at this show and think Dr. Phil does not see a problem with a person having 60 pets, so I must be normal.

I worked at the fifth largest Humane Society's in the country and got to see the animals after the Humane Investigators went into homes where people had 50 - 200 animals. The people truly believed they loved their animals and were taking excellent care of them, but the were not. Unfortunately the animals usually were diseased, or so badly unsocialized that they had to be euthanized. I saw one case where 50 dogs were rescued and only 5 were adoptable. I restrained the other 45 dogs as they were euthanized.

Animal hording is a serious issue!

I am now a dog trainer and I know how much time and effort it takes to have 2 dogs and one cat, let alone 60 animals and a baby!
Thank you
Posted by: atlswan
Posted on: 2004-10-09 23:43:27

Thank you for posting the URL for that article on animal hoarding. I had never heard of the term and it explains so much.

Here in Tennessee, I've read a lot of stories recently about people raising too many pets in a too tiny space. And the people who have done it don't see that they've done anything wrong. But when you look at all the malnourished, badly socialized dogs one woman was raising in her home, it was clear something was very wrong.

Thank you for educating me!
well put krglvt,,
Posted by: megs68
Posted on: 2004-10-10 21:56:18

just wanted to say that throughout my time living on a national park, over 3 yrs, i was the 1 who had to take in sick or ingered animals, the 1 thats stuck with me was, an eagle, we had a person from wires, (wild life fund) they had brung to me a baby eagle, it was a male 16months, and had spent its life in a cage, poor thing couldnt even spread it wings, the person the eagle cam from had found it and thaught they could care for this bird, and just caged it and kept it untill someone had noticed this bird in terable condition,, i spent the firse 4 weeks teaching (charly) thats what i named him, he would let me hand feed him he would come running when i called him, as he couldnt fly, due to being caged so long poor charly hadden grown his wings ,,so form many weeks he use my roof of my house and it was like a ruunway to him, his feet on the tin roof scratching,,oh what a noise, then we would hear him crash of edg and not fly, this went 4 weeks, glad to say now that some 10yr on and charley still living on the national park and has a femail bird, the mated and we now have saved the life of yet another native animal, so please dont forget, the profecionals do the jobs, they have been trained to do so, so i just ask that any1 with more than a cat bird or dog, to be sure u can give them all the time excersise and rite foods they need or you may just do more harlm than good, for the sake of the animals,,,i think somone should step in, its unhealthy to live with so many pets indoors,,,
There is a difference!
Posted by: elfomatic
Posted on: 2004-10-15 15:00:02

I totally recognize that animal hoarding is wrong but I think that people have to understand that there is a difference between having 66 dogs and 66 other pets ... I have 66 pets ... but most of them are reptiles. If I had 66 dogs and cats, for instance, I would agree it would be insane!

I have no problem taking care of them. Yes, it is a lot of work!! But I invite anyone to come to my house and say that my animals are not taken care of. My 3 dogs (small ones -- Chihuahuas, a Shih-Tzu) and my 6 cats are all vaccinated, have a clean bill of health from the vet, get heartworm, flea prevention, exercise, etc. My dogs have a fenced yard and get walked daily. My cats have several floor-to-ceiling scratch posts.

I have 2 tortoises like the woman's on the show. They have their own spacious outdoor pen separate from the main yard which gets cleaned out daily! They do NOT stink!

I rehab turtles and tortoises and regularly have them coming and going. I don't go out looking for pets ... most of mine (especially the reptiles) are rescues!

I have 3 seperate vets -- one for my dogs and cats, an avian specialist for my Molluccan cockatoo, and a herp vet for my reptiles!

They are all taken care of, all of a good weight ... all have a diet appropriate for their species and all recieve vet visits as needed. My reptiles have environment specific humidities/temperatures, specific diets, and access to UVB fixures as required.

All my tanks receive a full water change every week in addition to regular filtration.

So please don't group everyone who keeps a lot of pets in the same category as animal hoarders.
who's got the run of the home,,,
Posted by: megs68
Posted on: 2004-10-10 21:56:18

i have to say, i agree with you krglvt-
its a sad this to read, when i hear of ppl like this it makes me so mad, i can only emagin that some of if not all these animals are not getting the propper care, its 1 thing to give them a home but another to give them your home, this can be most unhealthy, birds caues and carry head lice, male cat spray and kill or deform unborn children, so i sugest if u have any friend visiting who may be pregnate, id advise then to stay clear of your home and the potentual danger it can cause he unborn child, read up on it, its fact!
your poor hubby, well have to wonder, he may play all these sports to be out of the house,zoo,,
sure we should shower each day, but think about it like this, if he was 2 shower, he would only go back into the rest of the house witch must smell of animals, and pet fur, so why bother to shower and sit on fury loung or smell like the house within 10 min- of having a shower, so has he a clean place to sit, ,,is it him who smells, maybey the home is all u can smell now days, not healthy living for man woman and animals,, something has to change there,,

Posted by: loisknows
Posted on: 2004-12-22 15:59:03

you got the show all screwed up.. those are three seperate people not all the same.. ahahahhahahah i love your story about the eagle.. you're a hoot...ahhahah