[speaker001:] well what kind of pets do you have
[speaker002:] at the present time we have none we intend to purchase a pup in two months
[speaker001:] are you you're married
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] and newly married
[speaker002:] no we've got uh we've been married forever about eight years eight years two kids that was just
[speaker001:] oh  sounds like us only we started off ours with we had we had pets before we had kids that's why I thought when you were saying you know we're going to have one in two months or something perhaps that you were newly married
[speaker002:] no we've uh my we we've got a five year old but we've had one pet since we've had her but uh he didn't quite work out
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] so um we are we've been now petless for a couple of years and
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] we're going to get another one this summer we're we've a got a vacation planned and we want to wait until we get back from the vacation before we
[speaker001:] yes that's easier
[speaker002:] bring a puppy in
[speaker001:] are you going to get a dog
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] that's what that's what we have is two dogs
[speaker002:] what type
[speaker001:] big dogs well our first at first they were our child substitutes before we had our children and we got one right after we got married we both decided we needed a dog we went to the pound and we got this mutt
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and he's been it was alright before we had our kids it was he's just he's a real hyper dog he barks and and jumps a lot so we had him for a year and then my husband decided after we had him a year that he'd wanted for his entire life to have a Siberian husky
[speaker002:] goodness
[speaker001:] and I think why didn't you tell me a year ago when we got the other dog  you know this was your dream of your life to have a Siberian husky so we got the other one for him and to keep the first one company when we were at work all day
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so we have the the old the older dog's a male and he's he weighs about forty pounds and then Pepper is a year younger and she weighs about seventy pounds
[speaker002:] yeah they're big dogs
[speaker001:] so we have two massive dogs go through lots of dog food
[speaker002:] yeah Are they primarily outdoor dogs
[speaker001:] absolutely
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I never wanted my husband wanted indoor dogs because he'd grown up with them but I can't stand it indoors I don't they shed and you know the mud and
[speaker002:] and the scratches and the smell and the uh wherever yeah
[speaker001:] oh yeah there for me dogs are meant to be outside
[speaker002:] I firmly believe that large dogs are meant to be outside we had Danes when I was a child and um
[speaker001:] goodness
[speaker002:] and we had our Danes in the house
[speaker001:] oh my goodness
[speaker002:] but I mean it's almost dangerous to have them in the house
[speaker001:] sure  they're going to run you down
[speaker002:] and uh we went through a time period that we had three Danes
[speaker001:] goodness and all of them were in the house
[speaker002:] we had yeah and we had we had had a litter and she had uh had thirteen puppies
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] eight of which survived and uh and she we ended up keeping one of those puppies
[speaker001:] I see
[speaker002:] we had the mom the dad and one of the puppies and it was horrendous
[speaker001:] yeah hm
[speaker002:] we wound up getting uh getting rid of the mom selling the puppy and just keeping the dad because dad was the favorite one anyway
[speaker001:] okay oh when I was growing up my folks we had fox terriers which are little bitty
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] they weigh about ten pounds
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and so we had we had one for a long time and then oh gosh when I was about ten or eleven I guess my parents decided that dogs would be a good way to teach reproduction so then they went out and got a female
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and then we started having puppies and she had she had four or five litters she always had to look we always kept them in the house when they had the when she when the babies were little
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and the rest of the time they were outside they had we had a big uh kind of a play house and part of that was their dog house it was kind of cordoned off
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so they had a place to stay out there and then they had the yard and they had a little run that uh they kept them in when we were trying to do stuff in the back yard and didn't want them out but we had the same kind of situation at one point in time we had the mother the one of her last her next to last litter we kept we had one one we never could get rid of he was a real dumb dog nobody wanted him the puppy was just one of these dogs just as dumb as a stick and we have him and then our female she had another litter we didn't think she was we thought she was too old to get pregnant again turned out she wasn't and uh she had her litter I guess her last litter had like four and two of them survived and then she didn't make it
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] two days after the they were born she had a she died she had some kind of an infection from it all she was just too old we had to feed the puppies we had to get up night and day with those just like with a baby
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and bottle feed them and we just
[speaker002:] we had a Schnauzer that got milk fever right after the babies were born and we had to feed all their babies feed all the babies there were five and there were four of them that survived
[speaker001:] oh um
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] weren't they messy too well did she did the mother survive
[speaker002:] yeah she did survive
[speaker001:] so you could still feed it but she kept them clean
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] oh she didn't she didn't do something
[speaker002:] no she didn't even she did not even take the sack this is the laziest dog that ever lived
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] when she had these puppies she crawled up onto my mother's stomach in the middle of the bed had the puppies and woke up my mother
[speaker001:] oh no
[speaker002:] to cut the sacks off she didn't even lick the sacks off laziest dog on earth she never she never nursed them she never cleaned them she never did anything to them they were like she they didn't exist
[speaker001:] yuck oh goodness what's a mess that was like oh boy they are so messy when they're little too
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] we were giving them a bath about every other day boy we were giving them a bath at least once a day but they were so horrible
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because they would roll and everything and oh
[speaker002:] yeah they just poop and it's yeah they
[speaker001:] yeah and crawl through it
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] oh I guess I had fish for a while when I was a kid too I had a fish tank and I had a few until
[speaker002:] like a nice aquarium
[speaker001:] well it wasn't really an aquarium it was an old you know how you used to have these um this was a box and it was originally it was made like an aquarium I guess except it was smaller but it was its original use was to put in the refrigerator on the shelf had a little spigot at one end
[speaker002:] oh yeah
[speaker001:] and you could get water out of it you know keep cold water
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] we outgrew the need for that and so I used it for an aquarium
[speaker002:] that's great
[speaker001:] it worked except the fish could swim it wasn't tall enough I kept the if I didn't keep the lid on it the fish would uh swim out and flop on the floor sometimes  flip out of the thing but
[speaker002:] the cat was always happy
[speaker001:] yeah those have been I mean and our dogs now our dogs with our kids I have two little kids three and a half and one and a half
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so we built the dog run down the length of our uh back yard because the kids were getting I mean we couldn't even let our older son until he was about two I guess he was two when we built the dog run we couldn't let him go out in the back yard because it was we have a deck with a rail and he could go on that but the dogs were so big and he was so little you know they just even walking by him they'd knock him down and the whole back yard had poop in it all the time
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] it was a mess for the little one so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] now we have a back yard and a dog run
[speaker002:] uh we've uh we'll probably get real small Cairn terrier
[speaker001:] oh that'll be nice
[speaker002:] and it'll probably be an indoor outdoor dog
[speaker001:] yeah back and forth uh
[speaker002:] but see my my oldest is five and a half and so she can take part in some of the uh responsibilities a three and a half year old really can't quite take part of many of the responsibilities maybe feeding them
[speaker001:] three and a half yeah or probably he or she is old enough to where they won't tease it too you know poke on it too much
[speaker002:] oh she's got respect for animals thank goodness
[speaker001:] yeah because that's hard ours our kids have gotten over it with the dogs behind it they have the run it's kind of like a wire run
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] so they go the first thing they do is they go out there and play with them but boy the little one still he just wants to poke my older one our older son's pretty good about it he'll pet the dog you know
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and and he's three and a half like you're saying and he he's pretty good with them and with other people's dogs and cats that he runs into but boy the little one still just wants to poke and and see if the dog will back off you know and
[speaker002:] I think that's eighteen months
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I mean I think that's just kids trying to figure out you know what's going to happen and it will happen again and again and again
[speaker001:] yeah I think it is too it's gonna get better yeah yeah I think if we didn't have pets if we didn't already have our dog and cat now we wouldn't get them because the kids are so little
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] I think when they're really little like the eighteen month old it's not fair to the animal because the kids are so miserable to them if they're out very much
[speaker002:] yeah yeah it has to be a real mellow kind of animal that can
[speaker001:] yeah that's
[speaker002:] uh survive it and child
[speaker001:] yeah and not get mad at the kid that's the other thing too that I I always felt Pepper the Siberian husky is really sweet she can I think the kids could walk up and they could literally probably stand on her back and she wouldn't even she'd kind of look at them like what are you doing now she's real good natured about it
[speaker002:] well that's what you I mean that's what you need in a pet if your going to have small children too
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but we uh
[speaker001:] well I think that's about all my pet stories right now so
[speaker002:] oh wonderful I'm just flat out of pet stories I don't even have a pet anymore
[speaker001:] okay well it's been nice talking to you
[speaker002:] well thanks thanks for calling bye-bye
[speaker001:] okay bye-bye