The Joy of Having a Pet

Esther’s writing prompt: June 3 : Pet

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I grew up not having any pets even though I really wanted a dog. However, both my parents were working, and my brother and I walked to and from school every day. We stayed by ourselves until our parents came back home. That is not a good situation for a dog or for many other kinds of pets. This all changed after I met my wife. She was used to having dogs and other pets. While we were still students we had an aquarium, hamsters, a rabbit, and a cat. Unfortunately, I was extremely allergic to the cat and I got very sick. Luckily, we found someone who could take care of the cat.

After we got married and had kids we had a couple of aquariums, a pet snake, a frilled lizard, hamsters, and eventually dogs. On one occasion we went fishing in a lake here in Texas. We used minnows for bait. My daughter wanted to take the leftover minnows home and put them in an aquarium. She named all of them Sally. Sally #1, Sally #2, Sally #3, Sally #4, Sally #5, Sally #6, etc. She was very young at the time and did not take care of her Sallys’ very well. She wanted them to have cranberry juice, so she poured cranberry juice in the aquarium. She wanted them to have a beautiful red aquarium, so she poured red paint in it. Well eventually the minnows died.

Freshwater fish Riffle minnow (Alburnoides bipunctatus) underwater photography. Minnow in clean water and nature habitat. Natural light. Lake and river habitat. Wild animal. Underwater photo of fish.
Sally #1 and Sally #2 Asset id: 1182854671 by Rostislav Stefanek

Our first dogs as a family were our Labrador Baylor and our German Shepherd Baby. To be precise, Baylor was a mix, one quarter Rhodesian Ridgeback and three quarters yellow Labrador. They were both rescues that were adopted by our niece (Baylor) and Claudia’s sister (Baby). They were both wonderful dogs. Baylor loved swimming and he was brave and very playful.

Our yellow Lab Baylor is sitting on the left. Our brown-black German Shepherd Baby is sitting on the right.
Our Labrador Baylor and German Shepherd Baby. They were both rescues.

Next, we got a Leonberger dog by the name Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle, or Le Bronco, or just Bronco for short. He was a big friendly goofball who saved our Pug Daisy’s life, probably saved Baylor’s life my smelling out an oncoming insulin shock, found and saved run away hamsters, and saved the entire neighborhood by chasing off a trespasser / intruder / peeping Tom. I wrote a book about him “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”.

A photo of our Leonberger as a puppy. He is wearing a red scarf.
Our Leonberger Dog Bronco at 3 months old
Our Leonberger Bronco is standing on our red sofa. He is giving me a hug.
Me with our Leonberger Bronco. He was not yet fully grown.
My wife is sitting on a red sofa. Our large Leonberger Bronco is sitting in her lap. He is big and heavy, and she is barely visible underneath him.
Our large but cuddly 167lb Leonberger Bronco is sitting in my wife Claudia’s lap.

Next, we got a Japanese Chin named Ryu and the Pug Daisy. Two little energetic and funny dogs. Ryu loved howling and he sounded like an opera singer. He loved the applause he got. Daisy was a funny girl, and she loved being around Ryu. They did not like it when we travelled and on one occasion they staged a protest. They defiantly sat down in one of the suitcases and refused to move.

Our Japanese Chin is sitting on the left in suitcase and our pug on the right.
Our Japanese Chin Ryu and our Pug Daisy are protesting our travel by sitting in our suitcase. They want to come with us.

Finally, we got our little rascal, the mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo. He is an intelligent, curious, energetic, anxious and spoiled dog that is a chore. He probably understands several hundred words. When we still had Bronco, they were best buddies. He was pestering Bronco, biting his tail and even swinging in it. Luckily, Bronco was patient. When we leave for a little bit, he sits in the window and looks out into the street. When we say “Rollo, go look out the window” he runs to the window. He knows we are leaving. He is our most misbehaved dog, but he is full of life and full of joy.

Bronco is standing behind Rollo. Rollo is black and white and very small. They are standing in front of the kitchen.
Our Leonberger Bronco with our new puppy Rollo, a mini-Australian Shepherd.
our mini-Australian Shepherd on the left, is biting and pulling Bronco’s tail. Bronco is on the right.
Rollo, our mini-Australian Shepherd could be a pest. He loved biting Bronco’s tail and even swung in it as if it was a swing.
The joke in the photos is : Daisy says, “Rollo do you want to hear a joke”, Rollo says “OK”, Daisy says “knock! knock!”, then they both start barking “Woof! Woof! Woof!”, “Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Our Pug Daisy and our mini-Australian Shepherd barking at people passing by our house. Notice the joke.

The Joy of Having a Pet

Pets give you unconditional love, company, adventure, memorable moments, hilarious moments, protection, and lots of joy. Playing with them or taking a dog for a walk is good for your health, as this article from the Mayo clinic states.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

66 thoughts on “The Joy of Having a Pet”

  6. Hi Thomas, this is an adorable pet post. I love all your dogs. The dogs in the suitcase are hilarious. Your wife holding a 167 pound dog seems a bit overwehemed. Wow! All of your dogs are gorgeous. My brother and his wife had 5 dogs when she passed away. Sometimes they had more than that, but it was too much for Randy. He gave most of them back to the people who had sold them to her. They were show dogs. The one he kept was his little chihuahua rescue who is about 14 and super full of energy. You’d think she was about 4. Love your post!, laughed out loud in places 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much for your very kind words Marsha. At 167lbs Bronco was a bit overweight. He was supposed to be 140lbs. Not a good time to sit in my wife’s lap. I should say he went on a diet shortly after that picture was taken. He was not happy but it worked. Your brother and his wife certainly had a lot of dogs. At the most we had four at the same time.

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      1. Four is the limit he put on her, but she didn’t listen to him. He became her dog slave. LOL She trained dogs, and traveled around the country until she became unable to do that.

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    1. Thank you so much Debbie. Yes dogs and pets can be funny and you are right they are definitely good for our health. Thank you for posting the link. I just visited your beautiful and colorful and poetic post.

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      1. That’s odd, because I checked my subscribers’ list and it shows your are getting the emails. 🤔 Maybe your email program is rejecting them as spam? I asked Google and got this answer:

        The most common reasons and solutions include:

        • Unconfirmed Subscription: Jetpack requires you to verify your email address. When you first subscribe, Jetpack sends a confirmation email to your inbox. You will not receive any post updates until you click the confirmation link in that email.
        • Spam or Promotions Folders: Notification emails (usually from donotreply@wordpress.com) frequently get diverted into Spam, Junk, or Gmail’s “Social” or “Promotions” tabs.
        • Email Blocking: You might have accidentally paused email notifications for that specific site or for all WordPress.com sites in the past.
        • Site-level Issues: The website administrator might have disabled the subscription module or paused the sending of email notifications in their dashboard. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

        How to resolve this:

        1. Check your Spam/Junk folder: Look for emails from donotreply@wordpress.com.
        2. Whitelist the sender: Mark the notification as “Not Spam” and add donotreply@wordpress.com to your safe senders list or contacts.
        3. Manage your subscription status: Log into WordPress.com Subscriptions to view all the sites you are following, clear pending subscriptions, and ensure emails are turned on.
        4. Try again with a different address: Sometimes existing WordPress.com accounts conflict with simple email subscriptions. Try unsubscribing and re-subscribing with a completely fresh email address. [1, 2, 3, 4]

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        1. Thank you for this information. Yes this comment went in my spam folder and I know the reason. There are four links in the comment and maximum is two links. That’s the default which I did not change. But anyway thank you for all this information. I will focus more on it tomorrow.

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      2. I just wrote a response to this, and it disappeared – probably to your moderation or spam folder? It had suggestions about fixing this problem. According to my records, you are getting the emails, but they may be rejected as spam? Anyway, let me know if you find the original comment.

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        1. Thank you Debbie as I just mentioned your comment went to spam because it had four links and the comment section only accept two per comment. However, breaking up the comment would work. Anyway, thank you for all the information.

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  8. I love Baylor and Baby’s photo, also Bronco’s… and I find it so cute, to have a German shepherd named Baby. 😊 It was nice to read about all your dogs, Thomas, Bronco is indeed large, I think perhaps comparable to a St. Bernard dog.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Nicole. We did not name Baylor and Baby but we named our other dogs. However, Baylor and Baby are great names. I should say that you are spot on with St. Bernard dogs. They are about the same size and in fact they have the same origins. The Leonberger was created by interbreeding St. Bernard dogs with other large dogs and later the St. Bernard dog was saved by interbreeding with Leonbergers. Interestingly, the first St. Bernard dogs did not really look like St. Bernard dogs do today, whilst the early Leonbergers looked more like St. Bernards Dogs do now. Around the turn of the century 1900 Leonbergers took on their modern look and got the black mask. Leonbergers were used in the first World War to pull cannons and ammunition carts (the Germans ran out of horses) and nearly became extinct.

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  9. I loved this post and finding out about all your pets. Delightful 🥰 I’m actually allergic to dogs so haven’t been able to have one. I love them though, but they can bring on an asthma attack. I’m okay with cats, though, strangely enough. Thank you for this, Thomas.

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  10. Thanks, Thomas, for reminding me of the fun of pets. My many dogs over the years gave the joy you’ve artfully described. When a cat came into our lives a few years ago, I had only dog training experience. So I put those to work. The reward? A cat that sits on command, comes when called, and even recognizes a hand command to roll over. Now he’s my desk-buddy in the morning.

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    1. Thank you so much for your very kind words Grant. I am very impressed by your cat. I have never seen a cat that sits on command, comes when called, and even recognizes a hand command to roll over. Wow! But you showed that it can be done.

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      1. What I failed to mention was ‘cat-delay.’ Rusty (the cat) often has to think about it, feigning that no one would have the audacity to ask him (Household Overlord) to do something his slave (me) asked him to do. Then the memory of treats and massages kicks in. Suddenly, he becomes Mr. Showcat. However, like a kid, it’s next to impossible to get him to do the tricks in front of others.

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  14. Java Bean: “Ayyy, on behalf of all the pets everywhere, let me just say: Gracias y de nada!”
    Lulu: “Well it’s not nada, we do get food and treats and protection and air conditioning out of it.”
    Oona: “And vet visits.”
    Charlee: “Why did you have to bring those up, Oona?”
    Oona: “Because they love Oona at the vet. AS WELL THEY SHOULD.”

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    1. Ha ha you are all so funny. Java Bean and Lulu you are so entertaining and full of life and Oona and Charlee you are truly great. It is wonderful that they love you at the vet Oona.

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        1. It is no big deal but I thought I’d mention it. However, you not getting enough sleep is a more serious issue. I hope you can sleep well tonight. Well it is morning now where you live.

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          1. I got about three hours as Maya got me up just after 4. The back still aches, but a few days of the muscle relaxers and rest will help. I don’t sleep well if I get too hot and the recent heatwave has been unbearable, even with the fan on.

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