The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => History => Topic started by: jaydub on February 22, 2009, 07:16:45 am
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First Vince Foster, then Buddy the dog, now Socks (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/02/socks-clinton.html). Will suspicious deaths ever stop haunting the Clintons?
Oh, wait. He was 20?
Nevermind.
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The scandal here is not his death. The scandal is that they gave the cat away to their secretary. If you want to make a scandal out of something, anyway.
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It's... not like they abandoned it in the streets or nothing... or put it in an unethical kill-shelter.
They gave the kitty to someone who wanted it and someone that it seems like they trusted, yeah?
I dunno. When you travel as much as the Clintons do and "live" out of apartments (luxury apartments but still...) in two or three cities, it's gotta make it really difficult to care for pets in ways that don't just accidentally torture them with the constant travel and the small spaces and the total lack of routine. Pet-type animals need a lot of routine to not go crazy, yeah?
I'd say that'd be better life for a cat than basically living out of an airline kitty-carrier between Manhattan and Washington and all-points-everywhere.
Or being abandoned alone in an apartment in NYC basically only kept for legal reasons and twice a week an embittered assistant cleans the litter box and drops off food.
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Nice try, LFM, but they kept the dog, which is a lot more trouble to take care of.
Not that I really care, it's just that it seems silly that such a big deal is made out of Socks being the Clintons' cat when for most of his life he wasn't. But I guess once you are in the White House, that is likely the biggest job of your life and so you are always referred to as former White House staff.
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Fair enough.
All I'm saying is... Socks seems to have had a long and comfortable life as lives for housecats go, even if he kind of was a "show" pet in the White House that the family never bonded with enough to keep after Bill termed out. Sure, it's a little regrettable that the cat got given away but... that happens to a lot of pets, one of my dad's favourite cats ever was given to him because someone was moving into a no-pet situation.
It lived long and prospered and to attach fully-human senses of betrayal to the fact that it had multiple owners in its life is a bit much.
Pets are certainly more aware and conscious than a lot of people give them credit for but to assign the full value systems of human thinking to them... again, a bit much.
Good kitty. May there be an afterlife and may God have a really bitchin' laser pointer for you to chase.
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The Clinton's daughter adopted that cat right around the time Bill became governor of Arkansas. Didn't she go to college right around the time they left office? It would make sense that it was her cat and Bill and Hilary didn't like it as much and could give it a better home without them, no?
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I'm just jealous. I have a cat I can't stand and I don't have a secretary to give it to.
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If I wasn't living with four dogs now, two of whom are large and evil and would eat a cat in minute, I'd like a cat.
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You wouldn't like THIS cat. Trust me.
Edit: Wait a minute? Cat-eating dogs, you say?
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I need one of those cat eating dogs for this (http://flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/3284959389/) shithead.
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DAMNIT USA STOP TALKING ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL PETS AND GO BACK TO BEING A PROPER WORLD POWER.
You're as bad as poms with the bloody monarchy.
That was mainly at the article, not at you guys.
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Paul, have you had your cat looked at for a urinary tract infection and/or have you cleaned up the urine with Nature's Miracle?
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See this is the thing that needs to be emphasized. THIS IS NOT MY CAT! It's a cat that somehow has the belief that he owns my house.
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Sure, but how is that really different from other cats?
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DAMNIT USA STOP TALKING ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL PETS AND GO BACK TO BEING A PROPER WORLD POWER.
You're as bad as poms with the bloody monarchy.
That was mainly at the article, not at you guys.
Sorry, man (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/02/portuguese-wate.html). We just can't keep our priorities straight.
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What's wrong with a presidential mutt? I mean, literally - if Obama's a man of the people, what's he doing looking at bourgeoisie pooches like (the horribly named) labradoodle or Portuguese Water Dog? If he wants a purebred, I'd recommend a bull terrier with a furious leg humping habit. That should be good for breaking the ice at White House summits.
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I think you need to purebred to be sure that a hypoallergenic dog is, like, actually hypoallergenic.
Coupla drops of greyhound in there and whoever's the allergy risk is basically screwed.
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Seconded. Since when did owning a dog become a requirement to be a respected human being?
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What!? Don't turn this shit around. They are getting a dog because the two little girls want one. This is not a political issue. WTF?
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Oh, that's right. He promised them that they could get one. My bad.
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LFM, honey, I mean this in the nicest possible way but, you have no idea what you are talking about.
First of all, there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog, and anyone who says there is, is lying or ignorant. The breeds under discussion have a coat that needs to be cut, like a Poodle, and these can reduce the amount of allergen that's flying around because the dog is not shedding hair and skin cells all over the place. But they're not a magic cure for allergies and some people who are allergic may still be affected.
Second of all, that coat type is often inherited in a mix. That is exactly why there are such things as for example 'labradoodles,' which are just specially bred mutts that have the coat of the poodle parent.
There is no difference that 'one drop of greyhound' will make, if the dog has inherited that type of coat. However, just that type of coat doesn't solve the problem for everyone.
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Somehow I missed the whole hypoallergenic angle. That'll teach me to get out of the news cycle. I remember reading somewhere that some breeders will let you send them a shirt that they then let the dog sleep/drool on so you can get a preview of how your allergies would respond to the actual dog. I'm glad my physiology gave me a break on that aspect of life.
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I know that there aren't ENTIRELY hypoallergenic dogs but...
Aren't there, like, significantly-close-to-hypoallergenic dogs?
You have far more expertice on this subj, though, so I do yield the floor.
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All dogs produce the same allergens regardless of breed. It's just a question of the coat and how the coat care and shedding or lack thereof help or hinder the distribution of the allergens. This is what experts I have interviewed tell me.
There also seem to be individual differences, anecdotally - a certain person and a certain dog may be better or worse regardless of the coat type, but I don't think anyone has done any Science about this.
It's entirely misleading to use the word 'hypoallergenic'. There is no guarantee that if you get a poodle you won't have allergy symptoms. There are many infuriating things about this whole Obama puppy coverage but this is the most annoying, to me. The second most annoying is the claim that he needs to have a purebred because of the allergy problem and then people talk about Labradoodles when, hello, a Labradoodle is a mixed breed.
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DO YOU WANT SOME FRITTATA!
Seriously, though, the story that he promised the girls a dog was published at least as early as June or so. Political, probably, but a long time coming.
I don't care too much about the coverage, but I am glad that they apparently want a rescue dog of some sort.
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or you know he could get any old mutt and help the allergic kid get over the allergy. i'm allergic to cats but if i spend a good amount of time dealing with it safely i can be around cats without any problems. the only issue is when i'm around one after not having been around one for a long while.
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With all due respect Choop, for your average family "just get a pet and give it a try" is a good way for an animal to end up in a shelter. It doesn't work for everyone and allergies are a common reason pets are surrendered. Shots work for some but they take a long time - the Tech Staff got them for at least two years.
As far as coverage and wanting a rescue dog, actually the latter is pretty much a direct result of the former. They clearly had no idea what they were getting into when they made this promise public. Animal rescue groups jumped on it and had letter-writing campaigns to ask them to adopt instead of buying a puppy. When the allergy concern was raised, the (correct) response was that that didn't matter - if you want a particular breed, you can get a purebred at a shelter or rescue too.
So they kind of have no choice now, it will cause such an uproar if they buy a puppy.