I grew up around dogs, but I have cats. I love both, but my kitties are better suited to apartment living ;)

Well small dogs can also be good for apartment living. My mom has had her dog for a long time and when she had to move into an apartment no one really had a problem with him since he is a chihuahua/rat terrier mix.

True, some dogs (usually small ones) can be good for apartment living, but up until this past week, my complex didn't have a dog park or anything like that nearby where I could take a dog to let it run off leash in an open space. My kitties get a lot of joy out of the screened in deck, though. I would be more worried about a dog breaking out the screen and getting loose than I am about my girls.

I know how that can be, in the house I lived in before the current one there was a screened in porch leading to the backyard. It was perfect and the cats could be inside, but then my mom's friend brought her family and their dog to stay until they could find a new home (took several months, I hated it). Their dog wouldn't wait for us to open the door leading to the backyard and ran right through the screen, and did this every time we tried to repair it. Eventually one of our cats got into the habit of finding a rip in the screen and making it bigger.

Husband's cat when he was growing up would hang on the screen door when it wanted to be outside. There are pictures. I lol'd.

We have a hummingbird feeder outside our deck, and when the hummingbirds come by, my girls sit and stare at them, making those chirping noises that cats make. I love hummingbird season. :)

Ever seen hummingbirds fight? They slam their tiny bodies into each other in mid air. For such delicate looking birds they can be kinda rough- sometimes you can hear the impact.

My cat loves trying to go after them, but they are too fast and can fly, though maybe this year he won't try so much since the other birds have been going after him.

Last year, there were three hummingbirds fighting over our feeder: two females and one male. They fought like crazy. It was fascinating to watch.

The year before that, we only had one hummingbird, so husband set up a blind right next to the feeder. That let us get very, very close to her when she was eating.

This year, we seem to be down to just the two females. I've not seen the male again this year. We got a new feeder that has a perch for the birds to sit while drinking so she can be more rested when the other comes up to chase her off.

I'm sure there is a male around somewhere, or else those females won't be able to make baby hummingbirds. We actually have flowering plants that are red and attract them so we don't really need the feeders.

I have three dogs and a cat (all adopted from streets). Two of my dogs are females, the third one (also the youngest) is a male, and the kitty cat is a female. Although I do get mad at them sometimes, they really know how to bring joy in my life and make me laugh. ^^ I never regretted taking any of them in and I am truly glad that I did.

That's so wonderful, I love the stories where an animal is rescued and given a forever home. We did that once, my sister found a tiny little kitten with no mom and brought her home. She was a little wild, but still loveable and playful. She liked to hide under the rug in front of the fireplace, it was cute.