Pets, Familers, and that stupid ......

[silvrsnstr]

MM All,
Here wonderin if y'all gots any pets, or familers, or that stupid dog that craps on your altar cloth? I have three cats, which activly participate in ritual. They eat the bread and holy water on my full moon rituals, and I have to cut a door for them!! And my dog likes to eat their crap and come and spill my holy water on me, but luckily she will wait for me to cut a door also! They are such wonderful pets!! Any others with such wonders?

Blessings,
Crimson StarRaven

[Wyrdsister]

LOL!! :) Active pets, huh? :)

Currently I have no pets. I'm still considering getting a kitty, and I have also had fish in the past. I wouldn't consider fish a familiar! :D

To be honest I've never really thought of having a familiar. I tend to think that it's much more likely that they will find me rather than me find them. :)

Wyrdsister

[Mairwen]

Why do you cut a door for your pets? Pets and children don't harm your circle.

[Danustouch]

I have four cats. When I first got my youngest, she decided to make UNDER the altar, her favorite place to make a mess. But...someone gave me a hint. Cats do not like the sound of their urine hitting tin foil. So..I placed tinfoil under the altar, and she finally settled on using the litterbox. Another thing you might try doing, is placing your animals Food under, or near your altar. Animals don't usually like to "Mess" their eating area.

Now...my only problem is keeping them OFF of the altar. They are fascinated by everything on it. I have feathers on my altar, as well as fresh flowers all the time. I can't tell you HOW many times my cats have knocked over the flowers.

As for ritual circles, one of my cats likes to be inside it. But since I mark my quarters with candles, I try to keep him out as much as possible. He hasn't quite figured out that fire can hurt him. He tries to sniff the candles. (poor kitties whiskers)...

My youngest cat is my familiar. She and I seem to have total communication. Seriosly, I talk to her as I would a human child, and she actually listens to me. I'm almost sure she understands me completely. I'll pick her up, look her in the eye, and ask her to tone herself down a bit, so I can get some sleep. I tell her.."Now, none of this running around like a nutcase and meowing all night" (night is her prime time to hunt the moths that get into our house)
"mommy and daddy need their sleep"...and as soon as I hit the pillow, she quiets right down, and goes to sleep. She seems to love certain music, too. She really likes Clannad. Since I play that music to relax to before ritual, I think it's pretty neat. Usually, she lays down on the couch, and watches me setting up the sacred space. Though she doesn't usually come INTO the circle.

Really..i'm not completely insane. I just love my kitties, and use every available moment to speak about them. Since we don't have children yet...our cats ARE our children..and we spoil them rotten!

[Amethyst Rose]

I have a dog and a cat. When I got my cat, from the pound, I just knew that I had to have him. It's like I knew the soul I was looking at. Sometimes I think he's my familiar and other times, I'm just as clueless about it.
I have an altar set up with a feather to represent air. Well, the other day I found a large, beautiful white feather on my lawn that I brought inside and replaced my old crow's feather with. Not 1/2 an hour later I heard a strange noise and when I went to investigate, found my cat chewing on my new feather! Sigh.... it was so pretty and now it's covered in cat spit....

[D~M]

Originally posted by Mairwen
Why do you cut a door for your pets? Pets and children don't harm your circle.

I read an article about this (I can't remember where) that said that lots of different people believe lots of different things about this....I personally think that animals can go in your circle, but not children ( no offence to them!)

I have 2 cats + 1 dog...the cats crap everywhere, and 1 of them has currently moved out because my mum+dad are realllllly meean and make the dog chase her ('Go on brodie, kill, kill, kill the kitty Brodie') grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr But she's my favourite out of the 2, cos she's really moody and mean bless er....

[Myst]

I have 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 fish, and 1 rabbit in our 1 bedroom apartment :) To keep animals from wandering through the wall of the circle I cast it large enough to encompass the entire apartment. They are also fascinated with my altar and refuse to stay off it if its anywhere near a height they can reach. You can see pics of them at http://digitaldenial.com/pictures/

When we have group circle both animals and children wander in and out freely. I think its a matter of the Gods understanding and having patience that the animals and children don't understand the need not to do that.

[Andromeda]

I have a 8 month old black and white kitten named Magz (Maggie) But there is no way she could participate in a ritual. She gets into everything and anything that moves she has to attack.

Blessings
Andromeda

[silvrsnstr]

My cats used to do the same thing, just run in and tear everything up. Then, when i had people over, they would never enter, just sit and guard the circle parimeter. I think that, since i cut a door for my firends, the y assumed that it had to be done for them as well. IT toook a few rituals of cours,e but now it is funny. When I have my firends over, it never fails to leave them laughing on the floor.


Blessings,
Crimson StarRaven

[Misguided Angel]

And my dog likes to eat their crap

OMG!! My dog loves to do this too! He thinks the litter box is a snack tray! It is SO disgusting! Bleh!!! :wtf:

[MerrisHawk]

kitty roca.

I bought a covered box.

[Isil Darkmoon]

Covered box didn't even do it for this one... I have to baby gate off teh bathroom to keep mr. Java monster out of the litter box

[blugirrl1]

I Sigh.... it was so pretty and now it's covered in cat spit....
oh how many times this has happened to me.. of course now it isn't the kitties so much as my DD and for the most part i let her touch. just try to keep certain things out of her reach. but i have noticed that all she seems to do is rearrange things on the altar. more to her liking i guess.

[Mab]

My cat usually just comes & goes as he pleases...

but my dog...


well, I was in the middle of a meditation/gazing session, circle & everything...when my dog Jake heard something across the hall from my front door (I live in an apt). He ran to the door, did his protective bark thing, then ran back toward me. Now prior to this he wasn't in my circle. He was in the kitchen. When he came back toward me, he stopped right at the edge of my circle, walked clockwise around the exterior perimeter all the way from North to North, then crossed in & plopped his protective butt right next to me.

I just thought that was too cool.

[Mab]

Covered box didn't even do it for this one... I have to baby gate off teh bathroom to keep mr. Java monster out of the litter box

me too. Icky. NOthing worse that THAT kinda doggie breath! :rolleyes:

[Black RiverWolf]

my dog River who i have alwys thought of as a familiar. he is so funny he will never cross into a circle unless he was in it to begin with. and when it comes to outdoor ritual loves to just sit and watch over me. and i talk to him like a human child too. he is my son along with all my other kids. none of which are human.

[LisaT4P]

Gareth and I let our cat wander in and out if he wants to, our circle usually encompasses the whole living room, so he has plenty of room to wander. He usually just picks a spot (mostly south-east) and settles in and just watches.

The kids aren't included in circle unless it's a Sabbat, we've just started that this year. But they are quite disruptive so we cast circle with them in it, do a quick (VERY quick) ritual and then close circle. They are way too "busy" to sit still for long and they wouldn't quite get the cutting a door thing. We do Esbats after they go to bed. :D

A suggestion for Kitty box snack trays: http://www.clevercatinnovations.com/top_entry_litterbox_about.cfm

Not sure if that would work for taller dogs, but my friend had a pug and it kept her from getting into the cat's box.

Lisa :)

[LadyTrinity]

i do not use austin powers in my spell work. I'm sure he wants to sometimes.. meeeeeooowww

http://img51.photobucket.com/albums/v157/ricksbabe_21/austin.jpg

[Goddess Rhiannon]

I currently have 5 ferrets....1 of which is my familiar. :frosty: