Identity.
I've been trying to do research on group identity vs self identity and getting nowhere. I've got a possibility to do research with a social psychologist who works with group identity and I think I want to focus on people who do not primarily group identify. The question is, who do you find them? Anyone who feels sufficiently stereotype defying or out grouped, please email me.

Every year? Ugh, that's annoying. I only had to do it for my dog once.

Yes, very stupid.

I also got a checkup reminder for our cat who died in 2010. From a clinic we hadn't taken her to for at least 5 years. Way to remind us why we didn't feel you were the best vets for us . . .

My eye doctor has me fill out the same form every year so they can be sure nothing's changed. It always makes me laugh to write my date of birth down yet again. It, sadly, remains unchanged.

Eh, at my clinic, we send a ready-made registration form to the city with every rabies tag that is given after annuals. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how many folks actually mail them in or bother. I would guess it's somewhere under 10%. I don't (and I'm as dog-protective as you'll find). Around here, if I find a dog loose that is only wearing a rabies-tag (a pet-peeve of mine, so to speak), you can call the issuing clinic with the number and get contact information. But I'm in suburubia where the doom of the dog-catcher/animal control isn't much of a threat. Does the info sheet that you send in when you register not indicate that your dog is spayed? In Dallas there was a "discount" for registering a de-sexed animal vs. intact.

ethylene, dear, I have no idea what the sweet fuck you're going on about in this particular thread.

I also got a checkup reminder for our cat who died in 2010. From a clinic we hadn't taken her to for at least 5 years. Way to remind us why we didn't feel you were the best vets for us . . .

That's an automated thing. I still get e-mails from the clinic I took my dog to in Dallas even though I moved several years ago. If the animal isn't registered as deceased in the system, it kicks the reminders out. (not saying there weren't other reasons to not use that particular clinic any longer).

My dog is licensed in NYC, and it feels like a huge waste of $8 every year. I should've never done it.

Ufez, there is a check off box for spayed/neutered vs. unspayed/unaltered pets that has to be checked each time. They know the name of the dog I have to register, because it's in their forms. So is the fact that she's spayed and yet I'm expected to provide proof of that and her current rabies shot. I can see the rabies documents, but otherwise, it's pointless in my opinion.

My friend got a summons for not licensing his dog that had died the year before. He ignored the license reminder because, well, the dog was dead. Because he ignored the reminder, he got a summons to appear in court. It cost him 35.00 with fees for not telling the township that the dog had passed away.

License fees have jumped to 13.00 a year here, and by golly they come looking for you if you don't re-license every year. I wish we'd never licensed her in the first place either, but it's part of our lease requirements.

Simple, ufez: when you hear "dog owner," do you think, "Oh, they're talking to me"? Is being a dog owner part of your identity? Or living in Dallas? Or your job/race/sex/etc.? That's group identity, your identity in relation to a group you feel you belong to.

I am not a dog person, myself. I suppose I am kind of more of a cat person, but I don't feel and sense of identity attached to it. So I'm not "a cat person," per se.

and=any
bubbly=gone
sweetie=darling

Do you have to check the box every year or provide a vet certificate? The former, no big deal, the latter? silly. So silly, that I'd call my city councilor and chat about it. I don't register my dog and haven't since the city changed it so that the price doubles Feb. 1. I'm sorry, I work a lot, and forget details. My car registration doesn't double.

My cat-loving friends chastise me for not registering the dog, since the money goes to the animal shelter. Meh, why don't they register their cats? Once I put my name & number on the dog's collar, I had no more troubles.

Once, when dear departed Dog #1 escaped and stayed out all night, I got a call at dawn about him. from the police. They fed him a breakfast sandwich while waiting for me to come pick him up. He was just a block from the house. In addition to being an excellent escape artist, that dog was a great moocher. He'd make himself look abandoned and starved, and total strangers would buy him a cheeseburger before they noticed the name and number on the tag.

That's an automated thing.

You'd think. It's actually the first "reminder" we've gotten for her since we left them.

I think they just loaded a bunch of old customer information into their data bases without looking to see if the customers were still current. Or asking for updated information from any of us. Again, it was this cavalier approach (and the eye watering prices) that makes me not miss them.

Also on the stupid pet regulation front, new rules requiring rabies vaccination for all our animals even if they NEVER go outside and our vet strongly recommends against such vaccination. I love choosing between professional advice and bureaucratic decrees.

Kaylee's dog licence fee is $15 per year. AND if you don't pay it, they send someone to your door to find out why it wasn't paid*. Yes, we found that out the hard way (we just forgot about it). BUT for the last couple years you can do it online - yay! Oddly enough, they don't care if she's had her rabies shot. We missed that one year until the vet reminded us about a year later. I don't know why it took the vet so long, she's in every month to get weighed and her nails trimmed.

*That's how we found out the first time that we needed a licence - someone came to the door. The city sends people around every year looking for unlicenced dogs.

I know a few people who get government money (woefully inadequate) for prosthetics and or prosthetic appliances. Every, I think it's 7 years, they have to go to a specialist to have a document signed that their permanent loss is still applicable. What the hell does the government think? Are there people spontaneously generating new limbs or organs?