[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] what I was doing at at home in fact I work at nights here so that's another long story we'll talk about it's funny that I got you though
[speaker001:] yeah it is
[speaker002:] uh I asked my wife to hand me the other phone because I was just I was busy and uh I had just gotten a call and I couldn't answer it and I said well I'll punch it on this one
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh it's a walk around phone but it's not a uh it's not the other kind you know
[speaker001:] yeah that's what mine is uh-huh
[speaker002:] so it didn't work
[speaker001:] now I've got a portable cordless is that what you're using
[speaker002:] okay no I'm using a regular phone now uh
[speaker001:] okay I got a I I'm using a cordless
[speaker002:] if if it's a what kind of phone do they talk it's not a dial but if it's a touchtone it's okay
[speaker001:] yeah right
[speaker002:] I realized that once I used I should have I was going to go in the kitchen and and punch one on the touchtone
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I realized that I had screwed it up so it was my fault
[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] that's funny that we had gotten it
[speaker001:] yeah it is
[speaker002:] uh I guess they want us to talk about dogs but dogs or cats
[speaker001:] dogs and cats that your cat your Rex
[speaker002:] I'll switch over to birds you know we we don't really have birds as pets but we sure because we have cats
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] we always wind up with I haven't yet uh a bird or two in the Summer because the cat will catch one and usually we'll catch the cat because the cat doesn't seem to kill the bird right away
[speaker001:] oh really uh-huh
[speaker002:] we wound up with a lot of birds over the years and
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] there are organizations we drop ours off at Fort Worth if they're still alive and you keep it alive which is hard to do for a couple of weeks
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] if you take it to an agency they'll send it back in the wild somehow and so we we wound up because of our cats with with many birds over the years uh again they're not pets exactly but uh
[speaker001:] oh oh this guy at work that I work with uh raises birds uh he has a a macaw macaw macaw
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and parakeets and something else he one of those macaw parrots
[speaker002:] the lady next door across from across the street from us just lost is it a cockatoo what's that one that's white
[speaker001:] yeah a cockatoo I think it's a cockatoo
[speaker002:] it got loose and I've forgotten what how she did it and she had it in a cage of some sort
[speaker001:] did it really
[speaker002:] and what they were doing I don't know but it flew away you know and they called it and everything and rode drove around the neighborhood looking for it but uh
[speaker001:] um-hum those are expensive
[speaker002:] yeah it's free yeah I'm surprised that a bird uh I guess they can find their way back but I wonder exactly where a tame bird would go
[speaker001:] did she ever get it back
[speaker002:] no no she never got it back I've heard stories like this before with parrots and all this uh because people let them out out in their house you know and fly around
[speaker001:] oh that's uh-huh yeah my daughter had one I wouldn't have one flying around my house
[speaker002:] and no I know uh but uh I've forgotten she had it outside somehow and somehow they they mixed signals or something and uh it got loose of course again again the animals are so much faster than we are in one way or the other
[speaker001:] yeah boy that's a shame
[speaker002:] uh you know I was telling you the story about fencing I do like dogs I I would I've always had dogs my whole life as a kid
[speaker001:] uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] uh
[speaker001:] don't you miss them now I mean
[speaker002:] well yeah I do I
[speaker001:] because they're they have such personalities
[speaker002:] yeah I do I think that all the animals have personality I'm not the cat person I my sister had cats when we were little
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] we always seem to have a cat and a dog together which again when you bring them up I do notice that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] they get along
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and my wife was the cat lover and when when we started out as a young young married couple we just had an apartment so you it's kind of easier to have a cat
[speaker001:] yeah right right
[speaker002:] and then she just never wanted a dog and then we got here to Texas uh she's from Texas again and uh she she had this thing with the fence and I I guess I have so many interests I don't really quite have the time with with two daughters and everything
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah right
[speaker002:] and all the activities to personally train a dog but I would I would I guess I'll have to wait until both of my kids are out of college before I get another dog again I guess I'm
[speaker001:] yeah right right
[speaker002:] I I I certainly saw your point with the Greyhound that there's there is a limit
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh to a pet um
[speaker001:] yeah you know you think you're you think that's what you want and I really gave it a good try
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and I had her spoiled I mean she was spoiled rotten but she was so and I have a new house and I and to walk in my house I'd have especially uh especially on a rainy day I'd have to take a bucket of water out there and wash all four of her feet this is a fifty pound dog I'm going to pick up a leg at a time and wash and set it down on something clean while I got the other three you know and and then I'd let her in the house well still even putting her feet in the bucket of water and wash them real good she still would come in so fast and so heavy that she'd dig her paws deep down into my carpet you know and just take out running to and she would
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] oh she was ruining my carpet and I thought gosh I I love my new house more than I love her I think you know I just really have a big investment and I don't I just it was just more work than it was really really I wasn't enjoying her that's what it was maybe if I'd a had a run for a dog run but I think that's cruel to put a dog in a run
[speaker002:] yeah yeah no I think so too uh my wife just she keeps convincing me because my my parents uh my parents are dead now but my parents and my brothers and sisters always had dogs
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and when we would visit them she said you can smell dog over the house I said well you're really right
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and so I never she always had a good argument why not to get a dog and we haven't since we've been married
[speaker001:] yeah but now see I have always felt that I could always smell cats cats to me always I I I used to have some friends' house that I couldn't stand to go in their house I could smell their their litter box I thought oh my God I couldn't stand it and I don't know how they stood it I guess they didn't smell it
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah yeah uh no yeah I think you're right uh people are surprisingly are allergic to cats too we do have some friends on and off that will
[speaker001:] oh do you
[speaker002:] I guess it's the hair the cat the short fur on the cat is uh one of the allergic reaction things like uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] cedar trees and all of the other stuff I guess the cat has a real fine not the that the real short hair dandruff or whatever they have that people do get allergic to cats uh
[speaker001:] yeah uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] in their eyes you know they just walk in the house even though we lock up the cats and they're crying
[speaker001:] yeah that's right
[speaker002:] and so some people unfortunately of course I wouldn't have an animal if I was allergic to it either
[speaker001:] well I wouldn't either
[speaker002:] uh my wife at one time said she was allergic to them uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I was going to say a story
[speaker001:] well I know is there're supposed to be is it Chihuahuas they're supposed to be good for asthma they say Chihuahua dogs are supposed to be good for people with asthma I always heard
[speaker002:] well I think the animal's good for you just because uh it gets you out and everything I uh
[speaker001:] oh yeah and don't I think they're using you know they're using animals in old folks home now and make and some hospitals because it's supposed to make people
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] brings your blood pressure down you know dogs are always so happy to see you come home you know they always are just wagging I don't care how grumpy you are or what dogs are glad to see you
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] cats are kind of independent like get in they're they let you live with them you know so independent
[speaker002:] right I have some friends uh uh that have horses you know
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and when my daughters were a little younger you know I thought well maybe that's a good maybe I'll get them uh you know this is Texas and I'll get them a horse
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] well we went over and we rode their horses and everything but and and just listened to the stories and the money the horse was sick all the time
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] you I don't know if you if you have any friends with horses but they get all kinds of eating disorders if they don't if they don't eat the right grain or if you
[speaker001:] oh see I was thinking about buying a horse maybe I don't want
[speaker002:] if you give him an orange or something you nearly kill it I mean it the the stories he would tell it must have cost him a couple hundred dollars a month
[speaker001:] uh-huh just to feed
[speaker002:] of course he had several horses for shots and different things I thought my God and I just saw something interesting Consumer Reports they talked they had a animals and they compared
[speaker001:] oh uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know whether you should have a bird and and the pricing and it had a comment around a horse something to the effect of you don't even want to know what it cost to keep a horse you know and I
[speaker001:] cost yeah I think I'll just go rent a horse if I want to ride one
[speaker002:] right I think the best thing in the world is to rent them I think that uh
[speaker001:] yeah I do too
[speaker002:] that that and boats are probably the same way I'd love to have a boat too but I think uh I'm not too sure I I would get that much use out of it you know
[speaker001:] yeah no I mean well I do enjoy my dog uh she's such a oh she's my best friend and when when I lived in Orlando she uh got paralyzed from her waist down and uh waist
[speaker002:] my goodness from what
[speaker001:] and I thought it was uh uh we almost had to put her to sleep and I just cried for two days but I think what I I I ironically what happened was she got had fleas and I think it was the stuff I was having putting on her that that paralyzed her but
[speaker002:] my goodness
[speaker001:] the fleas I think's what brought her back is she had to scratch so bad that she started using her paralyzed the the doctor was just amazed at a that she came back because
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] he really was going to was going to do surgery for fifteen hundred dollars or put her to sleep and I was going to have to opt to have to put her to sleep even as much much as I loved her I wasn't going to spend fifteen hundred dollars on an experiment
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah plus I'm not too sure yeah I think they are experiments too and they don't know that much uh
[speaker001:] no but it was just uh that spot that they put on the back of a dog uh they used to use it on cattle and uh so I started using it on her and I'd take to her to the vet once a month and get that spot put on her
[speaker002:] my sister spent a lot of go ahead
[speaker001:] and she wouldn't have any fleas never had any fleas hadn't never any then all of a sudden uh I took her
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] I was living in Orlando and I put I put her in the vet for while I came home to Dallas for a while and I took and when I picked her up she had fleas again and so my daughter came down and visited me me from Dallas and and while she was there the dog got paralyzed
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] and so I took her back up to the doctor and anyway he he said it wasn't that but another doctor told me that there had been uh people the pet owners had been getting permanently paralyzed from petting the dogs that had that spot on them
[speaker002:] my goodness
[speaker001:] so I thought well and so I can't find a vet that'll do that for me anymore put the spot on her anymore and I don't want it anymore anyway
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but I do fight fleas oh gosh
[speaker002:] oh yeah they're they're a problem the the different rainy seasons here I don't how long you been here in in the area
[speaker001:] yeah oh I moved back in eighty eight the December of eighty eight
[speaker002:] oh course you were here before
[speaker001:] yeah I lived here before I'd worked for TI for seventeen years and then I moved to Orlando uh with Mark and Marietta
[speaker002:] yeah okay
[speaker001:] and let let me talk about fleas we have nothing compared to fleas down they have down there
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] and they have them year round at least they die out kind of in the wintertime here in the yard down there they don't they're are just and they are big suckers I mean big
[speaker002:] yeah oh really
[speaker001:] and they are just almost impossible to get rid of it costs a fortune if you have a pet you're going to have fleas down there
[speaker002:] oh oh yeah
[speaker001:] and I just had my house treated and treated and treated and treated and did I did all the things you're supposed to and I couldn't get rid of