small dog breeds/dogs suitable for an apartment (update p 6)

[Ronbo]

]Of course many of those songbirds are also non-native invasive species, as well. The Shakespeare Society purposely released various species mentioned in the Bard's works, in the 19th Century, with devastating effects on some NA species.

Only two of the released species prospered, and only one (the starling) has become a menace.

Wasn't the english sparrow an introduced species? It is very damaging to bluebirds and other established hole-nesters. As a matter of fact, both species can be killed with impunity, as opposed to all songbird species.

[s1m0n]

Wasn't the english sparrow an introduced species? It is very damaging to bluebirds and other established hole-nesters. As a matter of fact, both species can be killed with impunity, as opposed to all songbird species.

Yes, the House Sparrow / Weaver Finch is an introduced species in North America. I dunno who dunnit, however. Wikipedia says "as pest control", but doesn't say anything about shakespeare.

[Ronbo]

Wasn't the english sparrow an introduced species? It is very damaging to bluebirds and other established hole-nesters. As a matter of fact, both species can be killed with impunity, as opposed to all songbird species.

Yes, the House Sparrow / Weaver Finch is an introduced species in North America. I dunno who dunnit, however. Wikipedia says "as pest control", but doesn't say anything about shakespeare.

English sparrow is just another name for the house sparrow, among many unprintable ones from bluebird enthusiasts.

[s1m0n]

English sparrow is just another name for the house sparrow, among many unprintable ones from bluebird enthusiasts.

Sorry; I was trying to agree with your post while adding a couple of extra names.

[Jack]

I have success with lots of animals. It's just that one turtle I accidentally killed.

And dead Bridgette the Goldfish

And dead Mary Baker Eddy, also a goldfish.

And "accidentally killed" is a bit of an understatement. You dashed his guts out on a rock and left him there for the crows to pick at his eyes.

Call me cold-hearted, but goldfish seem like a different matter from a dog.

[Nanohedron]

Wasn't the english sparrow an introduced species? It is very damaging to bluebirds and other established hole-nesters. As a matter of fact, both species can be killed with impunity, as opposed to all songbird species.

Yes, the House Sparrow / Weaver Finch is an introduced species in North America. I dunno who dunnit, however. Wikipedia says "as pest control", but doesn't say anything about shakespeare.

A quasi-romantic lore has it that eight pair were released by homesick immigrants pining for familiar things from the Old Country - I suppose house sparrows would have been cheap enough for that sort of thing, but why go to the greater expense of shipping pests? But apparently this story is just that: lore. Although the initial "eight pair" part is right, it seems the reality was far less one of careless nostalgia than calculation; this from 50birds.com:

Eight pair were brought to the U.S. in 1850 for the purpose of ridding the shade trees of inch worms and in the spring of 1851 Nicholas Pike and other directors of the Brooklyn Institute released them in Brooklyn, New York. They did not survive. Nevertheless, destiny was on the side of the hoard and Pike arranged for the importation of one hundred more which were released in 1852 and 1853.

In 1854 Colonel Rhodes imported and released some of the birds in Portland Maine and some in Quebec. In the next ten years, a few hundred more were imported and released in Quebec and the areas around Portland, Boston and New York.
In 1869, about one thousand were released in Philadelphia. They were released in San Francisco, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis and several other cities in the interior. Between 1874 and 1876 a few were released in Jackson and Owosso, Michigan and in 1881 they were introduced in Iowa.

The more...um...editorial comments have been left aside.

BTW, "English sparrow" is something of a misnomer, as the species' oldest known native habitats were in Eurasia and Africa, and they spread from there.

This will be a vastly more entertaining post if you reread it in a Cliff Claven voice.

[Jack]

It's probably just because I've been reading a bunch of Ayn Rand for a philosophy class, but that's how the House Sparrow strikes me: as a kind of Ayn Rand. It aims for success, achieves it, kills many others on its way there, and doesn't care.

[Ronbo]

English sparrow is just another name for the house sparrow, among many unprintable ones from bluebird enthusiasts.

Sorry; I was trying to agree with your post while adding a couple of extra names.

No problem from me. I am always glad to learn something new. They are properly called house sparrows. I have just been calling them english sparrows for so long, that the name pops up before anything else. Darned birds seem to have as many names as Irish tunes sometimes.

[Ronbo]

It's probably just because I've been reading a bunch of Ayn Rand for a philosophy class, but that's how the House Sparrow strikes me: as a kind of Ayn Rand. It aims for success, achieves it, kills many others on its way there, and doesn't care.

If that is what you are getting from reading Ayn Rand, you are missing most of what she is writing about. You would do well to read her books a little more carefully. And be prepared to put in some sweat to find out what she is really saying.

[Jack]

It's probably just because I've been reading a bunch of Ayn Rand for a philosophy class, but that's how the House Sparrow strikes me: as a kind of Ayn Rand. It aims for success, achieves it, kills many others on its way there, and doesn't care.

If that is what you are getting from reading Ayn Rand, you are missing most of what she is writing about. You would do well to read her books a little more carefully. And be prepared to put in some sweat to find out what she is really saying.

I'm reading for assignment, not pleasure reading (I don't see how you could read such a thing for pleasure, personally). I"m told to remember and regurgitate X, so that's what I try to do.

Chirp, chirp.

[Redwolf]

Sorry, but there is no justification for free roaming Felis silvestris catus the only terrestrial predator that kills just for fun other than Homo ambulens.
Great Horned Owls and Barred Owls like kitties though.

Coyotes, too. Songbird breeding success rates are much higher in cities with a substantial urban coyote population that they are in cities where there are few or no coyotes. The reason is that coyotes keep the cat population down or close to home, and that cuts down substantially on the toll cats take on birds.

Here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, we refer to free-roaming cats as "coyote chow."

Redwolf

[Lambchop]

I have success with lots of animals. It's just that one turtle I accidentally killed.

And dead Bridgette the Goldfish

And dead Mary Baker Eddy, also a goldfish.

And "accidentally killed" is a bit of an understatement. You dashed his guts out on a rock and left him there for the crows to pick at his eyes.

Call me cold-hearted, but goldfish seem like a different matter from a dog.

You will find a dog to be such a burdensome chore-meister that your opinion will change quickly. It will be an easy matter to think of it as something you need to euthanize, much like those goldfish. Tropical fish. Bettas. Rats.

Spare the animals and get some counseling.

[Whistlin'Dixie]

Respectfully:

don't do it (although I am sure you will argue this one into the ground)

just the fact that you are young, "ill", have no family support, are single, in college, live in an apartment, don't have much resources, gosh, what else?????

be happy with your snake, it doesn't need attention, only needs to be fed occasionally, doesn't need to be cleaned up after very often and you can leave it alone when you are bored with it.

This is not to diminish anyone here who has encouraged you, or you yourself. Just PLEASE think this one through

(my college age son just picked up a kitten. he has brought it home innumerable times for vet visits already, *paid for by Mom* and it is coming home with him in March so it can be spayed. He loves his kitten, but if something ever came up, I WOULD KEEP IT FOR HIM!!!!! I am not opposed to pets of any kind, but I am IN A POSITION TO CARE FOR THEM. I love animals, was a biology major, and we already have many pets at our house. Just not a dog. Too much work)

M

[dwest]

[Jack]

Thank you everybody. I really do appreciate it. If I still do get a dog (it's looking more unlikely) I will be really informed.