Seeing my female kitty feeling sorry for herself and struggling with one of those cone things around her neck.
I found her with a big rip on her back leg Tuesday evening. [...]
That's very sad. It reminds me about my working mate's little dog that died while sleeping.
I'll tell my story about a pet I had a long time ago (I'm allergic to dogs and cats):
I had couple of frogs in terrarium something like 17 years ago. They were both different species. An Australian one "White's tree frog" (
litoria caerulea) and a "european leaf toad" (
hyla arborea). I've always liked frogs and so my new friends (a couple) gave those to me as a birthday gift. They thought it was a good idea...
I could do nothing but try to take care of 'em the best way I could. I bought books and interviewed herpetologists about frog feeding, vitamins, air temperature, humidity and so on... But it took one year until they died in diseases because of wrong care taking information I got from the shop where my friends originally bought these wonderful and archaic animals. Also the european leaf toad found out to be a rare specie that should be taken a closer eye at! One herpetologist told to me in a phone that he had seen that specie only once in real life.
Living free in forest a White's tree frog can easily reach a great age of 25-30 years and grow as huge as an adult man's fist size. Whilst living in terrarium its whole life they could reach 10-15 years. Mine reached only 1,5 years. I know this may sound a bit ridiculous but all that fashion where "a suited business man is taking his agama lizard outside" started in 80's - went out of reach... It's insane that there are plenty of nearly distinct races living in rain forests that are massively brought to western families and no one knows how to take care of them. Bad thing is that there are also criminals taking part in some part of the ring that collects the animals. So the dealers or even the shop keeper him-/herself should know each group and all the situations that participates in the business. That might lessen the possibility about starved/exhausted animals in small plastic boxes in planes and wrong information about their origins.