Aspies For Freedom

Its me Akitty45.  I volinteer at the Harvest Hills Animal Shelter.  its not that easy.  some cats are shy, some are friendly, some are mean. its fun to socialize the cats, but some get too rough or fight with their companions.  I get scratched or bitten every now and then, but hey its fun!anybody take care of an animal?

I volunteer sometimes at a local environmental center, where I help take care of the Raptors (birds of prey), and sometimes the snakes, turtles, and frogs.  It consists mostly of chopping up meat and fruit and thawing frozen dead mice, and also cleaning up guts and bird poop from the raptor cages, but I like being near the animals and there are things that make it worthwhile:  getting to put on a glove and hold a Barn Owl (Tyto Alba), taking the snapping turtles out to the turtle pen for a walk, ect.

I have a five year old cat, Chloe.  I think she is a long hair because her fur gets matted.  She is very friendly.
When I was interviewing the room full of cats looking for one, they were eager, biting me to pay attention to them, but Chloe went in the open cat carrier.  Now if I get that initiative from an adult female human

well, finding the right cat different then finding a soul mate, but their both difficult.  this goes with finding a soul mate as well as adopting a cat: you dont choose cats, cats choose you

I worked with cats that have temper problems.  one was named Olga.  She was a gray/tiger who needed a big house to roam around in.  I once took her out of her 'cat condo'(that is what the volinteers at the shelter call the cages. this one was 3 cages that could be divided into 6.  it was mobile too, there were wheels on the bottom) and that was a mistake on my part.  She was nice at first, but then she hid behind 'cat condo'.  when I tried to coax her out, she would scratch and bite me.  it took me a while to realize it was hopeless and let the other volinteers deal with it.  now I know to ask another volinteer before I take a cat out.  Olga was adopted after a long time.  I wrote a poem about her:
olga the cat
her love may be rough
but she cant get enough
of that kind of stuff.
she was friendly in her own way, but I'm glad she was adopted

I've never worked at a shelter, but I have plenty of experience at working at pet stores (none that sell cats and dogs, though). My house is kind of like a zoo as well - I have a dog, three cats, a rabbit, ten snakes, four fish tanks, and a tarantula. I also used to keep rats and scorpions, and on occasion a few years ago I would board one of my teacher's Bearded Dragons when he went on vacation.

thats a lot of pets.  there are milk snakes at my house.  what they do is take care of the mouse population.  heck if a milk snake wants to live in the walls of my house its fine by me.  so i could compare my house to a wild life sanctuary.  I saw a snake hunt once, it was interesting.  what kind of tarantulas do you own?  is it hard to care for them?  I have no experience rabbits, pet snakes, tarantulas, rats, or scorpions.  i just have experience with dogs and cats.  Having cat and horse care manuels come in handy, even if the only pet I have is a fish.  I just have to feed the fish once a day, and clean the tank when it gets dirty.  my dad did tame a chipmunk who had a stubby tail.  did not take long.  it was fun to see stubby nub nub try to cram a peanut into his/her mouth.

I just have a male Rose-Hair Tarantula I got about a month and a half ago. It came from some guy whose roommate just moved out and left the spider behind. The guy brought it into the store where I work to see if we could take it, but the store has a policy about not taking in people's pets. Since the store couldn't take it, I figured I'd just bring it home with me. Unfortunately, male tarantulas only live about five years, and this looks like it's pretty old already (it's already mature).

Most common tarantulas (Rose-Hairs, Mexican Red-Knee, Pink Toes, etc.) are docile and easy to care for and are good pets for busy people who may not have a lot of time and/or money to devote to a pet. They don't need large enclosures, don't need attention (though they will tolerate some handling), and they only eat a few crickets per week. They don't make noise or smell bad either, so for people living in apartments with a "no pets" policy they would be a good option.

Natalie, I think he is just gorgeous! I've seen a couple of tarantulas in pet shops here but nothing like him.

There are a few interesting spiders in my garden, such as the fat brown and yellow stripey St Andrew's Cross spiders and the pretty jewelled spiders. I also saw a bird-dropping spider once.

that tarantula is beautiful.  My faveorite kind of spider is the daring jumping spider.  but the biggest spider I have ever seen was a huge black-and-yellow argiope.  it was fully grown with black and yellow markings.  the full size is 1 and one eighth inches, but I think the one I saw was 2" long i think.  The most common spider where I live is the wolf spider, and those can grow up to be the size of a half dollar coin.  I am being honest when I say I have no idea how to take care of a tarantula.  from what I remember from this show, i guess the difficulty of caring for a tarantula depends on if it is agressive or not.

I have a soft spot for wolf spiders.  They are the only insects in my house -- they make sure of that.

I feel really ill after seeing the big picture of that thing. Uuuuuuuuuuugh shuuuuuudder    the thing that was under my pillow looked like that  ((  My hair standing on end &  goose bumps ))  

We have eight cats, all have different temperaments, voices, needs etc. we love them all to bits.
One odd thing though, the Toms will only sleep on my bed & the Queens on the boys beds.

Back off and nuke it from orbit!

I don't understand, are you telling me to leave the forum?

I think he's talking about the spider...