[speaker001:] hi Wanet how are you
[speaker002:] ah doing fine where you from
[speaker001:] I'm from New England Massachusetts
[speaker002:] okay I'm from Berkeley California
[speaker001:] wow this is quite a quite a long distance
[speaker002:] ah certainly is
[speaker001:] do you have any pets
[speaker002:] no used to used to but none none right now
[speaker001:] how come uh you don't have any now you get tired of them
[speaker002:] well I I live in an apartment building and and uh and and it it's just just not feasible you know I'd love to have a dog you know
[speaker001:] yeah I've got a little doggy uh that I've had quite uh quite a long time in fact she just turned sixteen years old New Year's Eve
[speaker002:] ah
[speaker001:] and uh
[speaker002:] is she
[speaker001:] I beg your pardon
[speaker002:] what is she
[speaker001:] she's uh uh uh a poodle of a toy poodle a toy poodle and she's
[speaker002:] ah ah my got my mom a teacup poodle not too long ago
[speaker001:] this is a little bigger than a teacup
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh it's funny how uh how I I uh I got acquired this animal uh when I was uh married my uh ex-wife had said that she had a friend who had a little puppy that she needed uh the woman needed someone to babysit and uh this is what she had told the kids and she even told me that and after the two week period was up uh she then informed me that the woman no longer wanted the little puppy and wanted to know if we wanted to keep it well after you had an animal for a couple of weeks it's uh you become attached you become attached to it
[speaker002:] oh for sure oh yeah
[speaker001:] so I've had this dog now for for sixteen years and she's been a lot of company uh she's uh however getting a little old and things are starting to fail um I I live alone now and she stays in the house all day while I go to work and uh she's been holding herself pretty well the uh up until uh you know recently where she's been having accidents in the house because she either is losing control or she forgets where she is and uh I find a little present on the floor sometimes when I come home but she's she's usually pretty good
[speaker002:] yes well my my mother has one it's uh it's uh teacup and uh it's made such a difference for her but you know just I I I you know the way my mom's presence countenance it it's just just for having a puppy but you know having this dog she's had it for I guess three years now
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] oh possibly four but uh it was it it's it's really made such a difference from her I really would like to I'm a disabled person so I'm unable to to really take care of a pet and if if that
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] weren't so I would certainly certainly have one I just I just it frustrates me sometime not being able to have a dog
[speaker001:] um well you might wanna get yourself uh an animal that doesn't require much attention like a cat
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah well yeah uh I I I typically am not a cat person have a friend that uh has on occasion um brought her cat over for me to keep for you know time to time and and this cat is like no other cat I have ever seen and uh uh it would sleep on my chest you know it's just it is just a great cat but
[speaker001:] yeah well my my personal preference is is a dog uh I don't know that uh that I'd ever want a cat oh I like cats I just wouldn't wanna own one uh they're not uh they're they're affectionate but they yeah I don't know I can't seem to communicate with a cat like I can with my dog
[speaker002:] yeah well you don't own cats yeah you they they own you
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] or or you know grant you with their presence you know
[speaker001:] yeah right that your supposed to appreciate them well my my dog when I came home uh when I come home in evenings she my dog greets me at the door I don't know that a cat would do that uh
[speaker002:] yeah I used to have a that that could read me better than any human being in my life
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I could just walk in the door and she knew whether to to to quietly come up to me or to just run and and knock me over I mean she really could pick up on my mood the way I walked in the door it was uncanny
[speaker001:] yeah yeah hm I I think um you know we're able to read each other pretty well because uh she knows when I'm upset and I know when she's not feeling good too so I know like when she has an accident I know she's not doing it on purpose
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] when she when she was younger she used to do that to get even with me
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh and and you know some people might not believe that but uh but I do
[speaker002:] oh hey sure oh absolutely
[speaker001:] like if I if I put her in a room all by herself and close the door and leave her there for a few hours uh because I was going out she would uh break something or rip up the carpet or do something just to uh to to let me know that she was unhappy with what I did yeah
[speaker002:] really yes well I had that that cat that I mentioned I'll be one morning and you know the first thing you do is you get up and you you you you you you feed this cat something something and and you make sure that it can get to its litterbox well
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] some reason during the night the the door was not quite wide enough for it to get through and uh the next morning uh when my roommate got up and and uh did not feed it right away it decided that it was going to protest and so it jumped up on my bed and anointed my blanket for me looking looking at me eye to eye all the time while it was doing it all right have I got your attention now
[speaker001:] oh yes animals have a way of talking
[speaker002:] well it did I tell you if I could have gotten a hold of that cat that day
[speaker001:] I I don't know that I'd uh that I'd trade my dog in for the world uh it was about two years ago she got sick on me and I took her to the uh to the vet's because she wasn't eating and and uh she wasn't able to jump she you know lost all her activity and uh she stayed there for one day and the doctor called me up and said uh she had a low white cell count and that uh she wasn't she was dying and uh suggested that I take her to a working hospital dog hospital animal hospital so I took his suggestion and I uh took the the dog to a hospital a dog hospital and they said that they'd keep her there for three days well she ended up staying there five days at a hundred and something dollars a day because she was in intensive care I mean it cost me over five hundred dollars
[speaker002:] ouch
[speaker001:] plus the the uh the vet sent me a bill for what he did and uh and then she recouped she was okay for a couple of years and then she got sick on me again and I brought her to a different vet this time and I told the vet what medication I had given her and everything and uh he gave me the medication the same medication that I gave her the last time and she was okay and she's been okay ever since it's been about two years now
[speaker002:] uh well that's great it really is I I'm glad you she was able to pull out of it uh and so cheaply the second time
[speaker001:] yeah well the see the problem is if if the if someone wouldn't have came up to me and said it's gonna cost you five hundred dollars to keep your dog alive what do you wanna do I probably would've had second thoughts but what they well what they do is is they say well it's gonna cost
[speaker002:] yeah of course you would
[speaker001:] you know twenty dollars for tests and forty dollars for this and and you know and it creeps up on you you don't know that you know you really you you don't know what it's gonna cost until it's all over
[speaker002:] I
[speaker001:] uh to give you an example my mom uh had an elderly cat who uh who evidently evidently got old uh and uh the cat got sick so she took the cat to the vet and she had the cat there for two days and then the cat died so the doctor had called her up and said uh your cat died and you owe me this bill and oh by the way do you want me to to bury the cat so it cost her three hundred dollars um and she didn't get the cat back so you know they had to pay for all the the medical uh bills that the cat ran up plus the burial expenses and uh you know she just brought the cat in because he wasn't feeling good so that that was a kind of a surprise at least at
[speaker002:] really jeez yeah you kind of wonder what really happened
[speaker001:] yeah well even the you know they they claimed they did the best that they could and then the cat uh died so now I'm looking for another cat for them um I I've I've got a little kitten uh that's still uh oh it just being born right now so another five or six weeks I'll be bringing the little kitten over to uh to my folks
[speaker002:] my goodness  well that that that that will make their day
[speaker001:] yeah it I think it will because they're both in their in their seventies and uh the cat uh although it's a little bit of work for them sometimes turned out it turns out to be a a pleasant experience for them uh I think that they enjoy that
[speaker002:] only work initially
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] for cats anyway you know well listen it's been a pleasure talking to you
[speaker001:] yep well same here
[speaker002:] and you take care
[speaker001:] okay bye now
[speaker002:] yeah maybe maybe we'll talk again sometime
[speaker001:] okay what is that sound
[speaker002:] that's my buzzer at the door
[speaker001:] oh okay I'll let you go
[speaker002:] okay thank you
[speaker001:] right