Ab Fab Friday's - What do your pets mean to you? 2nd March @8pm (AEDST)

[taokat]

He lived til he was 14 and became old and sick. We had a family meeting (my brother and I had both moved out by this stage!), to decide what was best for him. Everybody knew him and loved him.

I would love to have a dog for my daughter. My uncle has a couple and she loves them. 

They do make a home, and have such different qualities to cats.

[taokat]

They're our furry family members @Sister 

[Erin-RO]

Pets really do become a part of the family don't they @taokat @Sister 

Just the two dogs at the moment. I worked in a school last year and they had a therapy dog for the kids, it was just amazing!

[Sister]

Wow! 14. That must have been a really difficult decision for you and your brother. 

Yes....I would adore a dog for my son. Me too!

[Sister]

It is great @Erin-RO that dogs are being used in all sorts of situations. Nursing homes and for people with PTSD as well. 

[taokat]

They really do @Erin-RO. We talk to our cats and they meow back - this can go on for an entire conversation lol.

Seeing the benefits of animals is just amazing isn't it @Erin-RO! That would've been rewarding seeing it on that scale. I saw a video today about a nursing home where they have brought in tiny kittens for the elderly to bottle feed and look after and the improvements in their illnesses and frame of mind was incredible. 

[taokat]

You're absolutely right @Sister! I have a friend in Canada who has PTSD and has a trained dog to help her get out and about, and he's made the world of difference for her. 

[Sister]

@Erin-RO, @taokat,

I think we all need to have animals. They really are thereuputic. When we lived in the country, we used to have koalas and echidnas....it was fantastic when the children were little. We also had snakes....that wasn't so great!

Although I think it was the spiders that we found more hideous! Thats something I don't miss now we are in a unit.

[Sister]

@taokat......thats so good your friend in Canada has made progress. What sort of dog is it?

[taokat]

I grew up in the country @Sister, so know what you mean about the snakes and spiders! We had a brown snake that lived under the cow bails, and we never saw him but mum unravelled it's shedded skin one year that was over 9ft long!!

Carpet snakes used to get into the chicken coup and they'd be caught and taken down the road and released. 

We had cows, horses, rabbits, chooks, cats, and a dog! And all the wildlife around us!