My wallet hates this hobby

[Fuzzball79]

Yeah average is 24-48 months depending on conditions, damn shame really they are entertaining, affectionate and so intelligent.
I got tired of things not living long after developing an attachment for them,

One of the reasons we decided to get spiders after the rats had died . At least they don't come when called and sit and beg for treats and the Ts don't give a sh*t about me (that doesn't say I'm not upset if one of them dies, but it doesn't cut quite as deep). Bad enough that I know that I'm going to have to say goodbye to my 10 year old German Shepherd one day, which is going to be soul destroying (he's my soul dog).

 

[Kymura]

@fuzzball, we recently adopted a 3 year old shepherd, I absolutely adore them, my favorite bigger breed. Don't see many of them now that I live in the South. I agree with you on having to let go, its hard when we love them to say good bye. But it would be so much emptier without them in our lives, Dean Koontz said it best in one of his books.
It was on my Chihuahua's grave marker :

“Dogs, lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price. Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and the mistakes we make because of those illusions.”
― Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year

 

[Fuzzball79]

@fuzzball, we recently adopted a 3 year old shepherd, I absolutely adore them, my favorite bigger breed. Don't see many of them now that I live in the South. I agree with you on having to let go, its hard when we love them to say good bye. But it would be so much emptier without them in our lives, Dean Koontz said it best in one of his books.
It was on my Chihuahua's grave marker :

“Dogs, lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you're going to lose a dog, and there's going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can't support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There's such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price. Maybe loving dogs is a way we do penance for all the other illusions we allow ourselves and the mistakes we make because of those illusions.”
― Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year

Have you ever read "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller?
I don't want to spoil the story but some of it make me cry so hard, my husband thought I got bad news (Mind you I can't even watch the beginning of Marley and Me anymore without welling up lol.
“He's getting old. I don't count the years. I don't multiply by seven. They bred dogs for everything else, even diving for fish, why didn't they breed them to live longer, to live as long as a man?”
― Peter Heller, The Dog Stars

 

[Kymura]

Have you ever read "The Dog Stars" by Peter Heller?
I don't want to spoil the story but some of it make me cry so hard, my husband thought I got bad news (Mind you I can't even watch the beginning of Marley and Me anymore without welling up lol.
“He's getting old. I don't count the years. I don't multiply by seven. They bred dogs for everything else, even diving for fish, why didn't they breed them to live longer, to live as long as a man?”
― Peter Heller, The Dog Stars

Going to look for it I read everything and nearly anything, post apocalyptic it a personal fav.....(going back to play fallout now..)

 

[kormath]

Ordering spiders online...

It's like people who are addicted to amazon.. You look at one and think "Ooo that looks nice, I don't have that one yet" and that's how it starts.

That's exactly true!!! My son got one for school, we were looking at another to add to his study project and I liked and bought the B. Vagans. Now we're getting 3 more. 1 for each and one to "share" but will really be his lol