Pets

Pets

The author and their boyfriend are deciding whether to get a pet, with the author preferring a cat and the boyfriend preferring a dog.
The author is concerned about the hassle of travelling with a pet and the expenses involved in owning one.
The boyfriend suggests getting a dog from a shelter, but the author prefers a pet that has been properly vaccinated and doesn't have issues.
The author believes a cat would be less work and more fitting into their lifestyle, while the boyfriend thinks cats are boring.
Both the author and their boyfriend don't have much experience with animals and are worried about their freedom being restricted.

It's a common enough sight in the large, securely enclosed dog park: let off their leads and given a licence to play, small dogs and big dogs racing up to one another, gleefully wagging their tails, the bold ones attempting a judicious sniff of their new acquaintance's most intimate body parts, the young ones embarking on a zoomie together around the perimeter.

Councillors have rejected proposals to exhume and relocate a dog buried at the former base of the Dambusters put forward amid concerns about the suitability of the grave's location once the site is repurposed as accommodation for asylum seekers. During an extraordinary planning meeting on Wednesday evening, West Lindsey district councillors unanimously voted down an application by RAF Heritage to relocate the dog to an airbase in Norfolk.

I first had goldfish as a child: two lived in a little pond we had made out of a kitchen sink in the garden.But I always worried I had accidentally killed them.I have a vague memory of taking our guinea pig, Stripey, down to meet the fish, holding him over the pond to see them, and his poo landing almost straight in their mouths.

Linda Elmquist, of Tucson, Arizona, smiled broadly as she held her little dog aloft.Finally, Scooter was being recognized for his best qualities on Friday as he was given the title of the World's Ugliest Dog.The competition, held as part of the Sonoma-Marin fair in Petaluma, California, for the past 50 years, is a world-renowned event that promotes dog adoption and showcases extraordinary canines that have defied adversity and celebrates their imperfections.

Re Emma Beddington's dilemma (My dog is 14, ailing and part of me.How can I tell when it is time for him to go?, 18 June), I am a vet but also a (currently former) dog owner, and know both sides of the story.It is a privilege as well as the hardest thing to be able to let them go.I had to let my 16-year-old Kiri go after years of companionship and I have no doubt that it was her time.

I buy a copy of the Guardian every day and am always glad that I do, as there is invariably an article that I feel richer and better informed for reading: often it's the Country Diary, sometimes it's political, occasionally music or culture.On Monday, it was sport.Jonathan Liew's recollection of third days of Ashes test matches (What we talk about when we talk about cricketing dads isn't as simple as Bazball, 18 June) not only enthralled me, its denouement blindsided me to the extent that I shed tears into my early evening beer in the garden.