Anyone else's pets driving them crazy???

LOL - just as I refreshed the page and saw your post, I had just brushed my cat off the back of my chair which he was trying to scratch! I have nowhere near as many pets as you have, but my 2 cats have been a little goofy lately. This one especially - scratching in weird places, HE's the one with morning sickness (or maybe it's bulimia - for the past few months, he's been eating too much food then puking on a regular basis! EWW!) Right now he's walking around making a little "I'm feeling needy" noise, I keep trying to tell him that he isn't going to be able to be the focus of attention soon... The other cat is the kind that gets under your feet and tries to stand where you're trying to walk... especially bad when my pg belly hides my view!

Did you still want to give your pets away after the baby was born?

Good luck with your troublesome pets!

YES! My dog actually made me cry yesterday...

In general, she's a wonderful little girl. She's old, quiet, sweet as pie, never jumps or barks or scratches. She was a rescue, though, and has some VERY strange and inexplicable neuroses, the most problematic of which (at present) is a fear of crossing thresholds, particularly onto slick floors. She'll usually go in and out of the apartment without fuss, but she often balks getting out of the elevator and ALWAYS puts on the brakes going in and out of the building. If you pull her, she cries and lies down--and, for a small dog, she is built VERY solidly and can really dig in if she doesn't want to walk. In the past, I just picked her up (she's around 23 pounds) or scooted her along by putting my hands under her "arm"pits. Now, picking her up is out of the question and bending down to scoot her has gotten almost impossible.

Yesterday, I stood at the door to the building, desperately trying to get her to come in and she just wouldn't budge. Coaxing doesn't work, a low stern voice doesn't work...and she's just so timid and pathetic that I can't bear to get really angry with her (externally, that is...internally, I want to kill her). Eventually, I just burst into tears.

I'm dreading taking her for her walks today, and I can't imagine what this will be like when I have a baby in a sling to deal with as well. I think I'm going to have to try to get a trainer in next week to see if we can resolve the problem. It's not something we can really afford right now, but probably cheaper in the long run than getting a dog walker twice a day.

On another pet-related note: I just ordered a CD of baby sounds called "Preparing Fido". It's supposed to be great for preparing a dog to get used to the sounds of a new baby (cooing, crying, etc.). It's www.preparingfido.com for interested parties.

My pups have been driving dh crazy ("honey, we need to address the dog situation" was what I was told when he had to stay home alone with them for one night this weekend, they're mostly with me.) but I think they've adjusted well to our recent move and are better behaved than ever.

That said, there is still behavior that worries me when I look to the future with baby. They just learned that they can take off without me in the woods for about 10 minutes before they return panting and looking guilty. One was barking at something/one off in the distance and they would NOT come when called. Following in after them with a babe in sling is not in the cards.

We brought home a life-size babydoll from our CBE classes and they seem to have taken to him after being VERY nervous around him. He is also plastic, like their toys, so the younger dog did try to nibble his fingers at first and the older one tried to take him from me like "thanks for the cool toy mom!" We're also working on showing them that all toys that enter this house are not for them. Wow are their lives changing!

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: That picture really made me laugh! We had a goat when I was growing up, and he was always climbing on cars.

And dharmama, the image of you wrestling the sheep, 9 months pregnant, w/toddler in tow is pretty funny too. (Although I am sure it was not funny to you at the time!)

I only have a rott./shepherd mix and a horse that I board, but I am envious of you ladies. I am a farm girl at heart!

Amanda ~ I remember one of my friend's dog wouldn't walk on their hardwood floors. I think they ended up finding out that he had a hip problem and was afraid of slipping. Hope you can figure out what's up with your girl...definitely don't want to be having to pick her up while slinging your babe.

Danielle ~ Good luck! Distinguishing between dog toys and baby toys has been an ongoing problem for us.

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Yeah....not funny at the time but I can DEFINITELY appreciate how ridiculous I must have looked!!

My sheep misbehaved right before DD was born too...wonder if they sense something or if it's just that I've had two late spring/early summer babes.

Last time at around 40 weeks pregnant my sheep started escaping from their pen. I was a WRECK. At one point DH and I had to trail them through the woods. We ended up meeting a neighbor we've never met before and he said he could not believe his eyes when he saw a HUGELY pregnant woman running through the woods chasing sheep!

We ended up building a larger pen for the sheep days before DD was born. I was convinced that I could not go into labor until I knew they were secure....so there I was helping to dig fence holes at 40+ weeks.

When I went to the store to buy the supplies the guy that helped me load everything in the truck was very impressed. He told me it was great that I wasn't afraid to do a little hard work and that I would have a nice easy birth because of it.

Don't know if if my fence building was the reason but I did have a nice easy birth!

Oh and I've totally rethought my desire to get rid of the sheep (and decided that I should make NO major decisions regarding animals or anything else for at least another 6 mos ). Now I'm trying to figure out a way that I can rig up some kind of portable electric fence so I can get them out on the grass more...without having to worry about them coming up by the house and harassing me or bashing in our windows (our male sees his reflection in our basement door and thinks it's an intruder sheep ).