Meet our office-mates: The pets of Ars Technica

You've seen our offices, now meet the animals that make working at home more fun.

Read the whole story

 

[Eric]

buddhalite[/url]":1y0qpxcy]Love the bull terrier Eric! Here's a pic I took this morning of mine and one of my fathers dogs.

http://i.imgur.com/jvykMLJ.jpg

They're beauts!

Our next bull terrier may be full-size, as opposed to our current mini. But it's nice having all of the clown in a compact, 12" at the shoulder, 38lb size.

 

[Eric]

Vladimir Uschintsky[/url]":12o4xqa4]"Macintosh is our 13-1/2-year-old Airedale Terrier."

"Tell us, how did he come by that name?"

"Well, for starters we paid a LOT of extra money for him because he's SO pretty, even though he's just your average dog in every other way. Like many dogs, he loves to run in circles chasing his tail. He has this rainbow-colored collar and when he'd run around really fast in a circle it looked kind of like the spinning beach ball. Sometimes it takes awhile, but eventually he gets either really dizzy or really tired and just falls over and crashes. That sealed it: Macintosh."

Wife picked out the name. I was against it. We generally call him Mackie.

 

[Akemi]

Merry Christmas and happy holidays y'all!

 

[The Quick & The Read]

Shi Tzu's have such expressive little faces.

What breed is Andrews cat?

 

[brionl]

Here's Furbag Butthead Mousebiter and Frankie D. Weasleboy.

Frankie thought Furbag was the best ferret-toy ever. Furbag, not so much. About 2 seconds after I snapped this...

 

[Akemi]

Love the ferret ^

They're really cool and fun pets.

 

[DoomHamster]

Our somewhat annoyed cat, Trinket:

 

[qasimq]

Echo reminds me of my dog when I was a kid. Adorable

 

[Sephoroth]

vaporland[/url]":9tsyih68]my observation of this post indicates that cats are windows, dogs are macs, ferrets are linux

Some people have told me they don't think a lazy ferret really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry ferret charging at them in excess of 100 mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. -- Linus Torvalds

Or something like that .

 

[MycrosoftHell]

Sephoroth[/url]":33jfsexr]

vaporland[/url]":33jfsexr]my observation of this post indicates that cats are windows, dogs are macs, ferrets are linux

Some people have told me they don't think a lazy ferret really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry ferret charging at them in excess of 100 mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. -- Linus Torvalds

Or something like that .

I'm surprised anyone would call a ferret lazy. The ones I've met have been very high energy, maybe even adhd.

 

[MilanKraft]

White dog with black patches wins. Bow to the power of dog and rejoice.

 

[MycrosoftHell]

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!

 

[Sobad]

Love me some dogs. Cats are assholes though.

 

[sorrykb1]

Smokey the Wonderdog (OK, technically, she's my dad's dog, but I visit)

and
Sydney the cat - She's older now and blind and diabetic and as wonderful as ever.

 

[Rohic]

Here is Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, surveying her kingdom from her new castle that she got for christmas.

 

[KurtRoedeger]

Yay!!!!!! I didn't even read it yet, just excited my suggestion was done! Merry Christmas ars!!!!

Edit: just got done reading it. Thank you very much! Now to look at the other ars reader pets in the comments.

Edit2: love the Arsian pet pics. My menagerie includes two older cats, brother and sister that spend 23 hours of the day on the bed and the other hour going between the bed and their food or litter. A black lab ,Pietro vonPuppybutt, rescue dog that has licked every surface in the house from the floor up to about 2.5 ft. If he is not licking something he is walking around gnawing on a tennis ball. Then Duke, a border collie fox hound mix, rescue dog who had a rough life before our house. Took a little adjustment to stop the chewing but he is doing well and has rid the entire yard of all voles, moles and mice. Now I just need to get him to drink from the dog bowl instead of licking the dew off the side of the house or drinking from puddles after he dug a hole in the yard.

 

[qazwart]

Ferrets?

There is something really, really, very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I’m being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.

I’m sorry. That’s my opinion. You don’t have to accept it. There are probably very few people who would be as honest with you about that. But you should go consult a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and have him help you with this excessive concern, how you are devoting your life to weasels.

There are people in this city and in this world that need a lot of help. Something has gone wrong with you. Your compulsion about it, your excessive concern with it, is a sign of something wrong in your personality. I do not mean to be insulting. I’m trying to be honest with you and I’m trying to give you advice for your own good. I know you, I know how you operate, I know how many times you called here this week. Three or 4 o’clock in the morning, David, you called here.

You have a sickness. I know it’s hard for you to accept that, because you hang on to this sickness, and it’s your shield, it’s your whatever. You know, you gotta go to someone who understands this a lot better than I do. And I know you’re real angry at me, you’re gonna attack me, but actually you’re angry at yourself and you’re afraid of what I’m raising with you. And if you don’t deal with it, I don’t know what you’re gonna do. But you called here excessively all week, and you called here at 3 o’clock in the morning. And 4 o’clock in the morning. Over weasels. Over a ferret.

So I know this is difficult and tomorrow one of the newspapers will write how mean I am and how cruel I am and all this other stuff, but I believe, because my father and mother taught me this, that you should be honest with people. And I am giving you the benefit of 55 years of experience having represented hundreds and in some cases thousands of people on either side in the courtroom, having handled insanity defenses and cases.

You need help! And please get it! And you don’t have the right to call here at three o’clock in the morning, harass the people on my staff, because of your compulsion. So, David, see what you can do to get help. But we can’t help you. We don’t have the professional expertise to help you. Now we’re gonna move on to Richard in the Bronx.

Rudolph Giuliani famous ferret rant
July 1999

 

[ZaphodHarkonnen]

What a fluffy non tech piece.

Love it. ^_^

 

[taiganaut]

Sobad[/url]":2muoq176]Love me some dogs. Cats are assholes though.

Why do you need to ruin things?

 

[taiganaut]

brionl[/url]"jqwexpa]Here's Furbag Butthead Mousebiter and Frankie D. Weasleboy.

Frankie thought Furbag was the best ferret-toy ever. Furbag, not so much. About 2 seconds after I snapped this...

When I posted my two (Fats and Kitten) earlier, there were 2 pics of them sleeping adorably next to each other.

Usually when they wake up, there are about 20d6 seconds (1d20 rounds? heh) of grooming, and then a fight. <3

 

[Aurich]

senorc[/url]":1hpe2y9p]Not enough aquariums.

We have a 30 gallon freshwater aquarium but I didn't take a photo for the article. Cardinals, rummy nose tetras, otto cats, bosmani rainbows, and guppies. Live plants and several species of snails.

 

[Ray Sanders]

This thread delivers ... but needs more parrots.

 

[Vladimir Uschintsky]

athlon11[/url]":aywj5ylw]Too many cats, not enough dogs.

I would guess there's a very practical reason why so many of the staff have cats instead of dogs.

I would guess that many of the staff live in denser urban areas. Dogs, especially a dog of any size, usually do better with more open areas. Cats can be more self-sufficient than dogs, which also probably works well with the busy lives of the staff. Dogs need fed and let out at certain times. Cats will graze on food and use the litter box as necessary. Of course, this doesn't mean that you can't have a cat in the country or a dog in the city, but some pets are better suited than others for certain environments.

I'm wildly allergic to cats but dogs don't bother me. I love our dog, but I've met cats that were really neat, too. I just can't spend any time around them.

 

[Nutrimentia]

What a happy article. Thank you!

 

[zer0x1A4]

Rohic[/url]":12mdvq23]Here is Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, surveying her kingdom from her new castle that she got for christmas.

Madam/Sir - might I ask where you got that cat tree?

 

[Akemi]

Forgot I recorded this.

A video of Archer I made when he was just a few months old.

Cute, eh? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoEVwyykyA

 

[ethd]

No horses?

AND YOU CALL YOURSELF HORSE TECHNICA

 

[Akemi]

I guess the equine all stayed home without smart phones or tablets.

 

[sphenodont]

They're all pretty adorable, but my biases lead me to declare Ron the winner.

(I could swear that picture of Echo at the dishwasher was a scene from my house a couple days back.)

Here's a pic of our Kirby from a few months back. He's put on a few pounds since then.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

Ray Sanders[/url]":te76akyo]This thread delivers ... but needs more parrots.

Polly wants a recount.

 

[thomsirveaux]

The Quick & The Read[/url]":3rpjxl68]Shi Tzu's have such expressive little faces.

What breed is Andrews cat?

He looks very Russian Blue-ish but he's not purebred or anything, just some common pleb cat.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

DoomHamster[/url]":rtow21g0]Our somewhat annoyed cat, Trinket:

Spoiler

Caption: (... paparazzi)

 

[WildGunman]

So, are we to assume that staff not mentioned in this article like Lee and Casey are not pet owners?

 

[CherryNukaCola]

Your pets are adorable!

 

[Akemi]

Ostracus[/url]":91coxneb]

DoomHamster[/url]":91coxneb]Our somewhat annoyed cat, Trinket:

Spoiler

Caption: (... paparazzi)

 

[crazedgironemo]

David Kravets' Sadie looks exactly like my friend's Black Lab that I used to look after when they were on vacation. A low IQ dog (my friend had another dog who figured out how to open lever style door handles but this one never did, and if you made cat noises she could never figure out it's you; she'ld be completely puzzled she can't find the cat), she was nevertheless a sweetheart who would stand up on her hind legs at you and try to lick your face when you come home from the office (and having 80-pounds jumping at you is no joke), and she loved to have her neck scratched. She'ld come up to you with that exact look in her eyes... (I'm so sad you're not paying attention to me).

She had to be put down for stomach cancer.... :'(

 

[Rohic]

zer0x1A4[/url]":2p6cnera]

Rohic[/url]":2p6cnera]Here is Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Khaleesi and queen, Mother of Dragons, slayer of warlocks, breaker of chains, surveying her kingdom from her new castle that she got for christmas.

Madam/Sir - might I ask where you got that cat tree?

I Bought this one. Though I managed to grab it during a lightning sale so it was only $60

 

[Colin P]

Definition of a shih tzu: A zoo with no animals...

 

[Deleted member 1]

Muffy, OKA, Miss Doglet!, after capturing and ripping up a paper napkin: