Donna--I hope you have your 'Smokey' for a good while longer. You never can replace a pet! Just like you can't replace people, we and they are all different temperaments and personalities. I will say my 'Buddy' is so much like my 'Sammy' though! They both consider/considered themselves to be *companion-cats* to the hilt. Sammy would play *fetch* with Q-tips and those big poney tail holders, as long as you had energy to re-throw them. 'Buddy' is the same way, except his toy of choice is those left-over rings from milk gallons!!! Good news--hopefully! Just back from the Vet with 'Buddy' and he thinks he might just have an irritation of some sort. He gave him a cortisone injection, so we'll see!! I wonder if 'Smokey' might have eaten a Vole or mouse that had been poisoned??? Anyone around you really serious about their gardening (besides you) that would put out bait for them? I do, but no one around me has cats--and any from farther over, probably would not venture into our yard, due to our dog, etc.--hopefully!!! Our 'Lab' wouldn't eat a Vole, if her life depended on it!! She's such a 'princess'! Connie--it's hard being the one to 'carry out' the deed, isn't it!! But, in the long run, they are better off, having a life of quality rather than the way some have to go! I think of the ferrel kitties out there with no one to attend to their medical needs. And, the chicken idea is a good one, Bunnycat! I'll have to keep that in mind! However, my two cats won't touch ANYTHING other than their food. You could leave raw fish on the counter, and all 'Buddy' would do is sniff it once or twice and then proceed to try and 'bury it'! When that doesn't work, he looks at you with his 'Big Blues' as if to say "How CAN you eat that stuff"!

Hi! I kinda had this question myself. I have a 12 pound Jack Russell/chihuahua (named Brian) who bites the whiskers off of my Golden/Rottweiler and my Pit Bull mix. This dog has won grand champion in obedience in 4H several times and is very submissive with us. But it is natural for dogs to establish their doggie alpha. Obviously Dog Brian, the 12 pounder, likes to be alpha. He never fights with other dogs, just likes to show his dominance with the whisker chewing and playful nipping. It always seemed to me like he is saying I really want to bite you, but I'll just chew on you instead. And it usually seems very playful. The other dogs just lie there and relax. Most dogs who get shown in confirmation have to have their whiskers shaved. So I have resorted to shaving the other dogs whiskers to keep them from getting pulled on. I cannot completely stop it because as you said you can't watch them 24/7. But Brian is very submissive with us and has never bitten anyone in his 8 years of being alive and in our family. So I'm not concerned about it, especially since the other dogs dont seem to mind. I was just curious if anyone else had this issue and what they thought.

yes Jae...hubster came down last Tues...we came Wed and her family came Friday...we run the kids out on Sun and Tues and we'll leave tomorrow...it's just a little piece of paradise! We rented a nice little beach house in Cape San Blas and had the wedding right in front of the house on the beach...it was a perfect wedding house!! had a little table set up for their cake and we did a bbq for after the wedding!! I think little Beeb as my son calls her picked a poifect dress for the beach...but I gotta tell ya...she's shorter then me...nobodies shorter than me...this baby is gonna be the little pea picker...in fact their dressing him up as a peapod for Halloween...I can't wait for him to get here!!

Sombreuil, I think one reason that they put a loaner in there was to see if it could be an issue like that. But the loaner works fine in that spot. And so does our basement dryer (which they also tested in that spot). And so did the PO's Meile (which was actually supposed to be included in our purchase but that's a whole other story. And when our realtor messed up, he offered to buy us a Meile set and I said "No, that's ok" because I didn't want to be a jerk. Hrrmmphh I should have been a jerk.) Manufacturers of good products may produce a random clunker. But a company that abandons the service of its products after 2yr9mo of moderate use is not a company I will ever deal with again. Period. I don't like to waste money by buying premium products for the sake of having the "best" (it's only laundry, and it's for my cleaning people to use, not me), but I cannot be bothered with this nonsense and waste of my time. Same thing with a GE fridge at our lakehouse. Appliance makers today make KRAP that lasts a handful of years. We all know that a generation ago these same companies used to make DURABLE goods. They can keep it. I will pay up for subzeros and the like so I don't have to be bothered.