Part 280: Record Store Gallery III – Furry Friends

RECORD STORE TALES Part 280:  Record Store Gallery III – Furry Friends

I’m a sucker for furry friends.  Who isn’t?  Maybe you’re a cat person, maybe you’re a dog person, or something else!  I mentioned a few weeks ago that Kitchener has a high population of Miniature Schnauzers, and the Ladano clan have owned quite a few of those.

This first picture is kind of a sad one.  The year is 2000, and that’s me and my first puppy, Crystal aka Gozer.  (That’s what happens when you let my dad name animals.)  Crystal was a great little friend but very sick.  She went blind in ’94 and had all kinds of health issues.  This picture of us is the last photo taken of her.   I remember the day we had to put her down, I had to work an afternoon shift at T-Rev’s store.  T-Rev was out of town building a new store, and I was filling in for him as I occasionally did.  It was not the happiest shift to work.

GozerMike

However life goes on and a year later we got Ani!  Ani can be a bad little puppy sometimes, but she’s been my best furry friend for a long time now.  Unfortunately Ani suffers from a lot of the same health issues that Crystal did.  However she’s been a resilient little Schnauzer and has outlived her life expectancy by numerous years already.  And seemingly happily too.  Which is the main thing.

I brought Ani into the store one afternoon when I was off.  She was so good, a little scared though.  But she stayed quiet and didn’t try to escape, which she often does!  Customers would occasionally bring their dogs into the store, and I never had a problem with it.  Nobody pooped or peed on the floor when I was there.

Lotsa Schnauzers

Finally, I bought my own place and got this guy to go with it.  This is Zoboomafoo, a leaping lemur from a hit Canadian kid’s TV show.  It was on every morning before work and I started getting obsessed with it.  One of our store managers, a girl who worked in Cambridge, spotted a Zoboomafoo puppet at the Cinema One store there.  They only had one, and both of us wanted it!  It was a race to see who could get it first.  Needless to say, I won!

zoboomafoo

20 comments

  1. I am an animal lover – cats and dogs! But, I haven’t had a furry pet since I was 9 and the cat “ran away” after 6 months of ownership. My sis and I think it was given away. The cat clawed everything and ticked my mom off. haha

    I don’t own any pets other than two goldfish now. We have leather furniture and because of work schedules, it wouldn’t be fair to get a pet like that and not be home.

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    1. Oh goldfish…does my sister ever have the best stories about goldfish! I’ll never forget the day she bought Slippy and Slidey. Will Slippy died in a day or two and then came a succession of replacement fish: Flippy, Flappy, etc…

      I’m deathly allergic to cats, unfortunately. Every dog I’ve ever had has been really good with my stuff. I figured they’d chew on my comic books and action figures but they never did.

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  3. I’ve always lived in a house that had a cat. Right now, we have two cats. Sam and Kito. The kids adore them, and while most cats are terrified of toddlers, headed for high ground, our two are pretty great with them.

    I like dogs, but only when they live with other people. I wouldn’t want a dog, I don’t think. I like cats. Cats are assholes. But they’re their own assholes. I respect that.

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      1. Look at me still using the other blog log-in. Old habits die hard, man. Oddly, my Gravatar thing STILL isn’t turning up. Y’all might hve to deal with me being a weirdo symbol instead of a picture, I sure don’t have the patience to be mucking about with the=at garbage much longer… Anyway.

        Yeah, I like that best about cats. They need you to do things for them, like feed them and change the litter box, but really, they don’t need you at all. They couldn’t care less where you go or how long you’re gone. If they want, they’ll come get you. There are ears to be scratched behind, after all..

        Our kitties are the greatest in the world. They’re both rescue kitties (from shelters), and we brought them with us from Saskatoon to here. Sam is the big, fat, old marshmallow orange tabby. He’s so easy… a slut. He’s a slut. And Kito? She’s the mastermind. If ever there is kitty mayhem in our house, she’s behind it. She’s conniving and calculating, and she misses nothing. She’s part Siamese, that may have something to do with it.

        So Dude, does this mean you won’t be able to visit our house ever? Because that would suuuuuuck.

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        3. Thankfully know — if I know I’m going somewhere with cats I can take an Allegra and pack one for the road. I can visit there. I couldn’t live there. Just in case you wanted me to.

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