Forgive me if this kind of post isn't allowed.
I wanted to ask people what was new going on with their pets, if they had maybe learned something about them, or maybe just gotten one. Just two examples.
For my part, I have two adopted boys (Champion and Bowser) and had to, a couple years ago, move back in with my mom and now we share a house with her and her two dogs. Champion has always had a lot of behavioral challenges, which led to me doing extra work at my previous job to learn how to train him better (I worked at a doggy daycare and we had to also learn how to train dogs.)
But somewhere along the way between moving to a new place and having to work with him to teach him it was okay for the other dogs to play together (among various other things I've had to help him learn), Champ lost interest in most things other than a bit of play outside (he's still a bit rough around the edges there too) and sleeping on my bed. He's very difficult to walk because of his anxiety, too.
However!
Recently he started showing interest in a rope toy and when I picked it up and waved it, he grabbed onto the other end and started to pull. We had a great, really long session of tug-o-war and he was really worn out by the end. I've managed to replicate it several times now and it's given me a lot of hope for not just play time, but that he might be able to do things like walks in the future again.
What's going on in everyone else's pet parent lives?
Two of our cats recently had to go to the hospital for biopsies. They're both fully recovered.
The oldest doesn't have cancer -- just a chronic inflammation in his nose we'll have to control with steroids.
The other... they suspect small cell lymphoma. We're still waiting for the results of the second round of tests. He'll start oral kemo if it comes back positive. Prognosis is "a few years of quality life"