Wolf?

[thisgal]

I live in West Virginia. An old boyfriend of my sister's used to have a wolf/husky mix. She was a beautiful dog. Her name was Princess. I remember she could jump higher than you'd think any dog could jump. She was more energetic than our weimaraner/catahoula mix, and better behaved than our collie/greyhound mix. Unfortunately, her owner was a waste of space and oxygen. Rumour has it that she ended up having a litter with his neighbour's dog (I have no idea what kind), and when he found himself overwhelmed with both a litter of puppies (I know they they were yellow lab-looking) and some kind of mental disorder, he shot her. :evil:

I would absolutely love to have the kind of job that you do, Hedorah99. I am extremely envious.

 

[Midnightrdr456]

I know someone with a wolf too. Its great with the family but they need to keep it in a giant enclosure when people come over, b/c it can be aggressive to strangers.

Honestly I think it comes down to the same as with most exotic animals. Do reticulated pythons or burmese pythons make good pets? What about animals like a Black Mamba? Not for most but some people do have them successfully (the mamba one i used b/c thats a HUGE extreme on the rare, dangerous, and special training needed, but does happen)

 

[thisgal]

Ya know what I really really really want as a pet ( )? A puma or a clouded leopard. Big cats make me droooool...:drool:

 

[Hedorah99]

Ya know what I really really really want as a pet ( )? A puma or a clouded leopard. Big cats make me droooool...:drool:

To ad my two cents I saw what a puma did to someones arm and was hospitalized by a clouded leopard Neither make pets, let alone good pets. Beautiful cats though.

 

[starmaiden]

I know a couple that brings a brother/sister pair of wolves to the dog park. They are beautiful, friendly, and well behaved. And they also can't stand to be more than 10 feet away from each other! It is illegal in my city to own wolves, pit bulls, and other 'viscious breeds'. So they have them licensed as 'husky mixes'.;P

By far, the most viscious, bitey, dogs at the dog park who start the most fights are the yorkies, rat terriers, and jack russels! :? And did you know that the Italians consider Corgis a viscious breed? LOL! I read a news story on it a few weeks back! Pitbulls=fine, german shepherds=fine, Corgis=Oh no! Hide the kids!

Just goes to show it's all a matter of perception!

 

[thisgal]

To ad my two cents I saw what a puma did to someones arm and was hospitalized by a clouded leopard Neither make pets, let alone good pets. Beautiful cats though.

Yeah, well, the rest of my thought on that matter was going to be a long lecture about the importance of NOT being an idiot and kidnapping one of those animals as a cub and raising it in an apartment in new york city and expecting it NOT to bite one of your limbs off. I'm no imbecile, you see...but I've always had this dream of being with a big cat; whether it's in rehab, or been rescued from a poacher or a new york city resident ( ), or whatever. Even just observing them in the wild would be awesome.

 

[Midnightrdr456]

my aunt and uncle have a bobcat that they had declawed (front ones). It was actually VERY friendly. But personally I would still advice against big cats of any kind as a pet.

 

[Hedorah99]

Yeah, well, the rest of my thought on that matter was going to be a long lecture about the importance of NOT being an idiot and kidnapping one of those animals as a cub and raising it in an apartment in new york city and expecting it NOT to bite one of your limbs off. I'm no imbecile, you see...but I've always had this dream of being with a big cat; whether it's in rehab, or been rescued from a poacher or a new york city resident ( ), or whatever. Even just observing them in the wild would be awesome.

The cat in question had been raised since birth by a loving young woman. It had not been stolen from the wild and not been abused in any way. It grew up fairly calm in a very spacious enclosure in Central Florida and was allowed in the house. It seemed very calm and normal, until the day it decided to see what the inside of someones arm looked like. Took 400 stitches at the end of it all. Like I said, they are wild animals, not pets. You get a very slim margaine for error with them. Ask Roy about that one sometime. That cat loved him and still tried to crush his throat. Don't gimme the, "It was trying to carry him to safety" crap he was telling everyone. When a large predator grabs someone by teh throat it means business. But since this is not wolf related we should change threads if you want to continue this conversation.

 

[metaldad904]

When i was a kid, my dad and I raised a Grey wolf/German Shephard mix (75/25% if my memory is correct) from pup till he was about 8 years old. He managed to get off his leash and was hit by a van . Very friendly, towards people and dogs alike, never ever showed aggression towards the family. Would bark quite a bit if strangers came in the yard, howled occasionally. Like a lot of the artic breeds, was hyper and a bit crazy, but very good natured. We had to rebuild his cage 3 different times b/c he kept figuring out how to escape lol. They're great dogs for the right owners, but not for just anyone. Like Pitts, Rotts, Dobes, etc. they need a certain type of owner. If you are not the type of owner who can be assertive and understands dog behavior, wolves or wolf mixes are not for you. But....with the right care and owner, they are quite wonderful and beautiful animals. They can be great with children and small pets if brought up with them. When mine was full grown, he was about 110 pounds and i was only around 84 lol (i was about 12), that always made for interesting walks:razz:

 

[C_Strike]

My granparents live in kenya for 6months of the year
They have told me many a story of big cats kept as pets that challenge for pack dominance..usually results n Very serious mauling to the face

 

[smrich]

Their are soooo many homeless domestic dogs and cats. I can't understand why anyone would want a wild dog or cat when you could use the time, money, and love for animals, to give a dog or kitty a good home and possibly save its life.

 

[Hedorah99]

Their are soooo many homeless domestic dogs and cats. I can't understand why anyone would want a wild dog or cat when you could use the time, money, and love for animals, to give a dog or kitty a good home and possibly save its life.

:clap: :clap:

 

[Randolph XX()]

Their are soooo many homeless domestic dogs and cats. I can't understand why anyone would want a wild dog or cat when you could use the time, money, and love for animals, to give a dog or kitty a good home and possibly save its life.

totaly agree on that one
i would rather admire wolf pack in distance instead of altering wild animal's behaviour to suit our needs, and i believe the chance of domestic dogs made suitable house pets is higher than wolves

however as for ppl keeping wild animals at home, don't froget all of our Ts were all WC not so long ago....others could say the same thing

 

[pitbulllady]

totaly agree on that one
i would rather admire wolf pack in distance instead of altering wild animal's behaviour to suit our needs, and i believe the chance of domestic dogs made suitable house pets is higher than wolves

however as for ppl keeping wild animals at home, don't froget all of our Ts were all WC not so long ago....others could say the same thing

There are dogs which are good housepets, and others that aren't. Many of the most difficult dogs to keep indoors are ironically those which were bred solely to be pets, as these tend to be the most difficult to housetrain. I've kept wolves in the house that were no problem at all, other than while "blowing coat", something that they can't control, or while lying on the floor taking up all the available walking space with those long legs! I've also kept several bobcats over the years, and find them to be better than most housecats, especially when it comes to interacting with people. I'm a "dog person" who has cats, so I guess I tend to unfairly compare felines with dogs, but the best way to describe the bobcats I've had would be dogs wearing cat costumes, with one exception, who was more like Spongebob wearing a cat costume, but I reached the conclusion that his mother must have taken too long removing his birth sac and he got deprived of some much-needed oxygen at that point. Bobcats are a bit like Labs, though-it takes them about two years to grow a brain.

With any animals, there are unscrupulous breeders and sellers who will do anything, even lie, to make a buck. I've seen this many times with domesticated dog breeds. I have personally overheard a guy selling Catahoula puppies at a flea market tell prospective customers that these dogs wouldn't get much bigger than a Beagle, were wonderful pets for children, got along fine with other dogs, and were just like Labradors with blue eyes! It's a recipe for disaster, but that doesn't mean that all people who breed or sell dogs or exotics or whatever are crooks who don't care about the animals.

There are, by the way, rescue organizations for wolves and wolf-dog crosses that adopt animals to carefully-screened people, so for someone who desires to have such an animal, and yet still wants to adopt rather than patronize a breeder, that would be the way to go. If I ever wanted to get another "hair" dog(a term coined by a friend of mine for all double-coated, heavy-shedding breeds), that's what I would do myself.

pitbulllady

 

[thisgal]

Bobcats are a bit like Labs, though-it takes them about two years to grow a brain.

pitbulllady

I guess Weimars never do grow brains... :wall:



There's something about wild animals, though. I guess we still feel that urge to be around them that our ancestors did when they domesticated dogs to begin with.

 

[Scott C.]

Their are soooo many homeless domestic dogs and cats. I can't understand why anyone would want a wild dog or cat when you could use the time, money, and love for animals, to give a dog or kitty a good home and possibly save its life.

I can't understand why they aren't eaten, but hey......

 

[smrich]

I can't understand why they aren't eaten, but hey......

lol, sorry I don't eat meat

 

[Sheri]

Ok, seriously.

These are such incredible animals.

We went wolfing last night - keep in mind when we usually go wolfing, it ends up being about 8-12 hours solid of searching and finding only deer...

and we saw TWO!

TWO wild timber wolves and man oh man... I mean, there really is no way to accurately describe the feeling of seeing them. We were able to pull over with enough time to watch them for a couple of minutes as they turned away. A couple of times, they stopped to look back and watch us. This less than an hour outside city limits. We drove the backroads after we saw them and there were tracks everywhere - it's gonna be hard not to spend every free second in that range now.

I suspect they were an alpha pair - one was so incredibly huge, it's almost difficult to comprehend.

I could never, ever get tired of that sight and as much as I love and admire this animal, I think I would prefer to catch glimpses of them free rather than to domesticate one.

I mean, wow. There's just something so wild and intelligent and beautiful and powerful about the wolf - nothing else compares for me.

 

[Scott C.]

....These are such incredible animals.

We went wolfing last night - keep in mind when we usually go wolfing, it ends up being about 8-12 hours solid of searching and finding only deer...

and we saw TWO!......

That's really cool. I'd love to be able to see a wolf outside of a facility.....