Wednesday, March 30, 2016

All of the Furs

I'm an animal lover.  I grew up with cats, once had a gerbil for a couple of years, and generally become enthused by all beasts with fur or feathers.  (And pigs.  And the bald versions of cats and guinea pigs, even though they look kind of weird.)


Unfortunately, Ken is allergic to all such creatures.  The fuzziest thing I get to pat in my house is my African violet.


(Apologies to Reed's Greenhouse for using your photo, however no other photograph captures the fuzziness of African violet leaves as effectively as this one.)

Because I am chronically pet-deprived, I'm a sucker for any opportunity to interact with animals.  I restrain myself from interrupting dog-walkers on their rounds, but it's not easy.  Even more challenging, my closest cat-person friends have a gorgeous kitty with silky soft fur... who absolutely detests being touched by anyone other than her immediate family.  You can't put a hand anywhere near her without getting hissed at.  :-(

Imagine my irrepressible glee when I heard about the Canadian Pet Expo!  Not only do they offer displays of cats, dogs, rodents, birds, and reptiles, attendees are welcome to bring their own pets, so long as they sign a waiver at the door.

Of course, most people brought dogs.  There were literally hundreds of (leashed) dogs in the building, sniffing each others' bums and frequently piddling on the floor with excitement.  (There were staff designated specifically to deal with this.  They wandered around with paper towels and disinfectant, cleaning up piddle puddles.  What a job.  I saw one dog in the midst of a poop accident, to the chagrin of the piddle police.  What can you do?  Poop happens.)

One little girl, I'd say around nine years old, brought a small, black cat on a leash.  The cat wasn't freaking out, but it's also fair to say that it wasn't relaxed.  

Someone else brought a pet pig in a special stroller.  The pig was around the size of Babe, and had a similar Mona Lisa smile.


Within Toronto city limits it's not legal to keep a pig as a pet, so people were going nuts over the pig in the stroller.  The woman who was pushing it around couldn't stand still for more than five seconds without drawing a crowd of would-be pig-patters and selfie-seekers.  The pig didn't seem to mind.  The woman ignored the hangers-on, more or less.  If I had been in her shoes I would have been annoyed by all the attention, but to be fair you can't bring a pig to a pet expo and not expect to be followed around like the Pied Piper.  

And now, here are some photos that I didn't steal.


"I would like to smell your phone please."



Beautiful Bengal cat.



"Why would anyone want a skinny pig when they could have cutie pies like us?"



This guy had the softest ears.



Miss Fuzzy-Face here was very friendly.



*snorty breathing*



Bull mastiff; weighs more than me.



This young kangaroo was so done with humans.  I'm pretty sure I heard him mutter to one persistent woman "Eff you and your endless attempts to get a roo selfie, mate."

And there you have it!  My compulsive need to pat furry beasts has been satisfied... for now.  

11 comments:

DarcKnyt said...

I bet that bull mastiff weighs more than you. I've heard they can get up to 200 lbs. That's 90 kg for you northerners. :)

Great pics, too. The cat trying to smell your phone looks a bunch like Tigger to me. :)

Anonymous said...

The black eyes in that phone smelling cat creeps me out. Please tell me that's the photo and not actual black eyes. Yeesh

Sparkling Red said...

It's the photo. :-)

Ginny said...

Awww I want to go! I am a huge animal lover. I have Bosco and would love more animals but cost wise and space wise (and Derek would not allow it) so I'm happy with my one fur child.

Great pics as usual!

Abby said...

Pet Expo - how fun! Thanks for the pics, now I want to go! Our youngest son likes reptiles, so we've attended many a reptile show. Not much fur at those things.

Lynn said...

What a lovely time you had, sounds like. Love all these creatures.

Granny Annie said...

Those hairless cats freak me out. Love all the other animal photos though. My mom had a Bull Mastiff as a pet when she was a child and loved it so much. My Slim is a Black Mouth Cur and I love her so much. Plus I have six cats you could come and pet plus you can also pet my chickens. I would have being deprived of furry animals.

Snowbrush said...

How does a woman like you marry a man like that? If I couldn’t have a dog or a cat, I wouldn’t know how to survive. On the other hand, I’ve found that two dogs are one too many, and that two cats are plenty.

Jenski said...

That sounds so fun?!

Vanessence7 said...

I know how you feel! I married a man with allergies too, so no more pets for us. What can you do? Sometimes love means no pets for you! lol The kids used to hang out by the office and practically jump on the dog-walkers who'd pop by there to pick up the treats they offer for resident pet owners. "Can we pet your dog?" Most people were nice about it, a couple were a bit uncomfortable. Eventually the kids decided they didn't want pets anyway because pets poop and they didn't want to deal with that. I think all our dog-owner neighbors are probably a bit relieved.

I miss my cats. I always had a cat before. Now I enjoy your cat pictures. :)

Snowbrush said...

“What can you do?”

We have two cats, but only one sheds much, and Peggy (my wife) is mildly allergic to the shedder but not to the other cat. I read that a full-blown cat allergy can come on out of the blue, so I asked Peggy what we would do if that happened, and she said keep the cats. She’ll be on Medicare soon, so I guess if it did happen, allergy shots might be a consideration. Still, if one’s allergy was bad enough, I don’t guess toughing it out would really be an option.