Crazy / Amusing / Cute / Memorable Pet Stories

[applestar]

Pets are funny creatures. If you have pets you probably have stories to tell

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We have two kitty cats. My kids picked them out of 2 litters of barn cats after playing with them since before they were weaned. After they came home to live with us, they had to unlearn a few things their mom taught them.... Like "the ceiling fan is NOT a turkey vulture or eagle about to have them for lunch, and it is NOT necessary to hide under the bed when it is turning (like they used to crawl under the tack shed at first sign of the flying death)"

An ability they seemed to have come with built-in is catching mice.

They are indoor cats, but there is a lockable cat door to the garage from the laundry room, and they get to go out there, especially around this time of the year when the mice try to move in from the cold outside. And they amuse themselves by catching mice, crickets, grasshoppers, etc.

My previous cat, rescued from the animal shelter, had ZERO talent in that area. If he did catch one, he would immediately lose it in the house somewhere and humans had to move furniture and heavy appliances to locate and dispatch.

These two started out catching them live, and *not* releasing them -- only trading them for a treat -- but have sharpened their claws and have been bringing them dead or nearly dead,... And even *ate* one in front of the kids one day.

Today, the more talented of the two mousers turned up with a new trick -- she came in through the cat door mrrrwwing in a muffled way she typically announces a successful catch. When I turned around to look, she had her mouth clamped on a corner of a small Seven-Eleven plastic bag, carefully avoiding stepping on the rest of the bag she was dragging between her legs. On closer view, we realized that she was carrying a dead mouse in the plastic bag. (DD inspected it and said the mouse's neck was broken)

It was kind of amusing in a ghoulish way especially because I had gone food shopping earlier in the day, and had brought in bags of food......

[rainbowgardener]

Now THAT is funny! I have plenty of experience with cats showing up with little bodies in various stages of dead or near dead or still in pretty good shape, but I have never had a cat bag up the body. One place I lived with several roommates, we had outdoor cats that were very good hunters and would leave their catch on the back porch to show us. We had "body bagging" on the chore list as it regularly needed to be done. Nice of your cat to do it for you.

Place where I lived with a smallish living room with ceiling fan, we would tie a toy mouse on a string to the ceiling fan blade. Turn the ceiling fan on low and the cat would go crazy chasing the mouse, running along the sofa back to top of TV cabinet to fire place mantel, all around the room on the highest possible surface chasing it.

Once when I was a kid the neighbors next door got a little live chick for Easter. First we knew of it was when our cat came running in to the house with the chick in its mouth. We got the cat to drop it. Fortunately it had been handled very gently and was unharmed. When dropped it ran behind the sofa in the little space between the sofa bottom and the wall. We rescued it from there and returned it. But the cat had seen it go behind the sofa and was convinced it must still be there. For days, the cat kept watching the sofa, trying to reach his paws in there from all directions, looking for that chick!!

[catgrass]

I have always owned a cat since my first memory. I now have a cat (a stray showed up where I work as a kitten), and a miniature daschund....and a pet door. The cat brings in everything alive, or mostly alive. Throughout my house I have chased live, flying birds, lizards, snakes, LOTS of night moths (turned loose at midnight while the cat chases it around the house), flying squirrels (thank God my son was home for that one!). She brings everything in for the dog to kill. I have come home and found dead lizards lined up, like the cat was counting them. I have come home to a room full of feathers-no bird, no beak, no feet-just feathers. I know that a 6 month old cat can jump from the floor to the ceiling fan to catch a moth. Leaves the ceiling fan kinda askew. Oh, there's sooooo much more!

[imafan26]

My current cats are all from a feral colony. The feral feeders are always trying to find homes for them. Two of the cats were always fed. One was an abandoned pet and the other was born at the colony but hand fed so never learned to hunt. The last kitten I got last October, he is a rascal and loves to watch the water go down when the toilet is flushed. He also likes to ambush the other cats and me.

The cat I had from 1989-2003 was a good hunter. She was born in a warehouse and the last surviving member of her litter so her mother had all the time to pay attention to her. When I saw roaches crawling or flying (I hate that), I knew that I would find a body within a couple of weeks. There was only one roach with 5 legs that got away. One day the cat started running around the house like a mad cat. She caught a mouse. I had never had mice in the house before, just in the yard. She caught the mouse, I caught her and I took her outside and kept telling her to let it go. I did find out that the mice were nesting in the heater under the sink so when I had the kitchen remodeled, I had the toe kick hole covered. No mouse has ever tried to get into the house again. Good thing they don't know my current cats will just ignore them.

Now, if there is a roach that passes by my naive feral cats they just watch it. My new kitten( well, he's a year old now), does show promise. He does actually chase and play with the roaches but he doesn't always kill them. And sometimes he expects me to knock them out first. There are still no mice in the house, but I don't see or hear as many geckos as before.

Many years ago when I was still in school, I had a fox terrier/spitz and she was very maternal toward my cat's kittens. One of the kittens slept with her in her doghouse and I only had one bowl of water for the dog and the cats. The cats taught the dog how to catch mice. I would get up to five presents a day, usually on my slippers. There was a stray cat with one eye who always hung around. I gave my dog five or six soup bones (I didn't know better then), and she placed them spread out around her. The stray cat would try to take one of her bones and she would move it and he would move in to take a different one. When she got frustrated she would whine. I finally had to come out and take all of the bones away. She was a runner, she almost flew. My uncle would bring his German shepherd puppy who was twice her size,( she weighed 15 lbs), over when he visited. He loved that dog so much he took him to work with him and the dog spent the day sitting on a block of ice. My dog would play with the shepherd and he would chase her around the house. She would pass him a couple of times and then jump in my lap (she was a lap dog).... and then came the shepherd who weighed over 30 lbs then and he jumped right on top of us and knocked me over. That dog did not bother me, but he could sense fear and he was a very dominant dog. When we would go over to my uncle's house, my brother had to sit perfectly still while the dog stared at him, until the dog walked away.

[webmaster]

We joke that our cat Skippy is a Bad Man disguised as a very cute cat and that all the cute things he does have sinister motives behind them. But he really is a harmless little cutey cat which makes it all the funnier when he enters a room and does something cute and one of us mutters, uh oh, watch out... here comes the bad man.

Anyway, the family was watching the BBC television serial of Little Dorrit and there was a scene where the Italian guy who was in prison with Andy Serkis' character Rigaud shouts out in terror about Rigaud, "HE'S A BAD MAN! HE'S A VERY BAD MAN!" The entire family almost fell off the couch laughing, we were in stitches because that's exactly what we always exclaim about Skippy. He's a bad man! A very bad man!

[imafan26]

People who claim to be dog lovers and say they don't like cats because they are not affectionate enough don't know what they are missing. Cats can be hilarious and be very affectionate. It is just that dog people expect cats to act like dogs and they do not. Dogs are pack animals. Cats generally live solitary lives. Even in colonies cats don't really like each other unless they are related.

Dogs being pack animals have to be near their pack, that is why people are not always the best thing for dogs especially when they don't have the time to spend with them or work long hours. Dogs get into trouble when they are not entertained and anxious dogs tear things up and howl all day trying to find out where the rest of the pack went. Sure they are happy to see their owners at the end of the day and jump all over them and people call that love. But, it is the way dogs are. Your neighbors may not be so enamored especially if they had to listen to the dog howling all day, or if you can't go anywhere without the dog whining or becoming anxious when you are out of sight. Neurotic dogs are not really happy dogs.

BTW my mom's dogs always barked when someone came near the door, sometimes they were slow and only noticed after someone actually got to the door and they would bark and wag their tails and one of my mom's dogs would get her toy to get someone to play with her. But, when I went to the house when my mom was out, the dogs did not make a sound, they didn't even bother to get off the couch. So, if you think your dog is a good watch dog because she barks at everyone when you are home. Have someone test the dog by going there when no one is there.

Cats are very different. They train their people to obey their every command. Who needs an alarm clock, my cat wakes me up at the same time every morning if the alarm goes off or not.

The bathroom has an open door policy, cats wait while I am in the shower or using the toilet and will scratch at the door if they are shut out. Would a dog tempt faith by swinging her tail under your rocking chair while you are rocking? Now, that is trust or just plain living dangerously.

Then there are the cats that will race me down the stairs and then lie in my path, and if I step on them because I can't see them over the laundry basket, then of course it is my fault.

When I am working on a project or doing something for a long time, the cat will patiently wait, but when it is 5:30 p.m. she will sit on my papers and insist it is her turn to get attention.

It isn't always for food. My cats will surround me while I am on the computer. One will be on the left lying on the floor, the other on the other side of the chair and the last will be just outside the door.

You can tell a cat really considers you family when they bring you presents or insists on sleeping against you, so you cannot move. The dominant cat will make sure she sleeps on top your head.

One of my former cats used to wait every day for my husband to come home. She would meow if he was late and claw the pet screen. As soon as she heard the car, she would walk away and pretend that she wasn't worried and take her time going to him to be taken outside to chew on the bamboo.

And finally, you know your cat likes you, when you stay out late or you go out when it is not part of a daily routine and the cats are waiting by the door, sniffing you to see where you have been and following you around to make sure you don't disappear again, or sometimes get that "where have you been" meow.

[keal]

We have an indoor cat, and all my co-workers and friends have dogs, so I have no one to share my stories with. So nice to know other gardeners have cat stories, all of them so true!

I set my alarm for 4am. At 3:45am, my cat will jump on our bed and start walking all over my stomach. If I don't get up, she'll step on my head and sit above it and start clawing my pillow. I have to give her food and turn on the radio.

I tried buying catnip, she doesn't care for it. I buy scratching posts, other cat toys, she doesn't like them. But the LOVES the cardboard boxes they come in! So, I just order stuff from Amazon.com, and let her have the boxes until trash day. She practically lives in the boxes. Don't try to take the boxes, they belong to her!

I grow bitter melon and often harvest the leaves for my salad. I bring them in the house, and before I can wash them, she's eaten a good portion of it. So much for catnip!

I thought I would buy grass seeds, the kind for kitty cats. I plant them in a pot, they grow outdoors for a week, I bring it in for kitty, and in less than a minute she pulls all the grass out by the roots with her teeth. Goodbye grass plant!

I finally find a happy medium. Lettuce! A small tray for $1.50, I plant them in a pot, they grow beautifully, and when I give the pot to kitty, she nibbles on the leaves a bit. Then she gives me a look, like, "Lettuce? Really?" she shoots me a look of disgust and it's then that I realize who the boss of the house is. Time to hit to garden shop again next week.

But there is no greater joy than to go out in the yard on the weekend, planting and pruning, seeing bees, ladybugs and dragonflies, and my cat watching through the window, little kids playing in the street and someone jogging by, waving at me saying, 'nice yard!'

Then I look at my cat and her eyes tell me, 'Yep, it's MY garden.'

Haha!

[webmaster]

But there is no greater joy than to go out in the yard on the weekend, planting and pruning, seeing bees, ladybugs and dragonflies, and my cat watching through the window, little kids playing in the street and someone jogging by, waving at me saying, 'nice yard!'

Then I look at my cat and her eyes tell me, 'Yep, it's MY garden.'

Haha!

No greater joy indeed!

[imafan26]

So true, cats are the boss. I tried cat grass too, the cats did not know what to do with it. However, they liked mint even more than catnip. The cat would curl on the top of the mint (planted in a coffee can) and stay there all day long until it died. You wouldn't think a 10 lb cat could even fit in the top of a coffee can.

Boxes are cheap cat toys and scratching posts. If I have soda boxes, the cats will hide inside it and ambush passers by. I would keep large appliance boxes and the cats would scratch the corner and I would keep fixing it until it was too tattered, then I would turn it to a new corner. The box would last quite a while that way. I use cardboard scratching posts now. All carpeted posts do is tell your cat that it is o.k. to scratch carpets.

When I am out in the garden, my cat watches me from the door and follows me around the yard going window to window. I have to keep my front door closed because my cat can open the screen door and she will come out to find me if I am out of her sight for too long.

[applestar]

LOL is it that cats do more story telling things that confound us? ...this thread doesn't have to be only about cats, you know.

I was going to tell a story about my dog, but then I remembered I'd already posted it in this thread: Subject: Dog stories.

[imafan26]

To give the dogs some credit, they do crazy things too. My dog used to like to eat my plants especially orchids and bromeliads. I had to fence off most of the benches from the dog. It was pet fencing and my dog could get through it if he really wanted to. It was mostly a training aid.

All he wanted to do was play all day long. When he wanted attention he would get one of my orchids. He especially liked the oncidiums and bring it to where I could see him with it then he would rip it apart just so I'd chase him.

When I would be picking up leaves in the yard. He would pull the ti leaves out of the bucket and poke me with it to play tug. He wasn't allowed to win tug since that is a dominance game and the vet said he couldn't play tug or have any more cow hoofs because he cracked his canine tooth, but try explaining that to a dog.

My sister gave me some bromeliads mounted on a piece of driftwood and my dog chewed it up. He chewed up every bromeliad he found. I thought I corralled all of remaining bromeliads and either moved them to the front yard or had them fenced in but he still managed to find more.

I opened up my folding tomato trellises and used them as a fence around the main vegetable garden. Again the fence would not really be a challenge for a 76 lb Irish setter mix. I put it up because he always liked to lay in the dirt right after I tilled it. The fence kept him out, until he figured out that if I could remove the fence to get in the garden, so could he.

Once or twice a week we would take him to the park. He would get so excited. He would get up to the back of the truck and then put his front paws on the bed and look back for my husband to lift him in. We got a dog ramp for him. As it turns out, we did not need it. We finally figured out the dog could have gotten in the truck on his own, he was just used to being lifted in. When we started driving up the street he would start barking to let everyone know he was going for a ride. We would stop at McDonald's sometimes afterwards and he sat very quietly in the truck and when we got to the window it sometimes scared the workers since they didn't expect to see such a big dog just appear. He loved hamburgers. At first, he didn't like the pickles, but after a while, he ate the pickles too. He would always sit in front of me when he saw me with the bag. He knows not to grab it. He would just sit quietly and drool on my shoes waiting for his burger, which would be his dinner.

I never let him stay in the back seat of the car because he would chew up anything he could find. He chewed up an umbrella and his portable water bowl. I did have him in a doggy seat belt but he would turn around get between the seats and come back sans seat belt. One day, I was on my way to the dog park and we were stopped at a light and a bus pulled up next to the car. It scared the dog so much that ever since then he would growl and bark at every bus or big truck that came near him.

At the dog park he had a strong prey drive and strong pack drive. He liked to chase the small dogs around the park and liked to dominate weak dogs. It usually meant that he had to stay on the long leash if there were a lot of dogs around. Even small dogs can hold their own if they are confident. But, there was this omega Siberian husky he just had to dominate every time. There were a few dogs he could play with since they did not mind rough play. He would always be in the pack chasing the smaller dogs, but when the small dogs left, then he was the small dog, and everyone started chasing him. There were three dogs, an American Staffordshire terrier, Rhodesian Ridgeback, and a terrier mix that would always catch and hump him, and they were all girls. One day my mom brought her dogs along. She had a small dog that was a mix of beagle, Pomeranian, and ?? The small dogs left and all the big dogs came around and stood around him, but he refused to run. Instead he went and sat closer to my mom.

He slept in the house in his crate at night and we used to leave the tv on for him for company. We tried a radio, but he associated that with us not being home, but we often had the tv on most of the day and would go in and out of the room all of the time so he knew we would be coming back. When he saw a dog on tv sometimes he'd bark at it. When it rained he would not want to go outside and I had to make him go outside to pee and then he'd come back as soon as he could. it was hard to catch him and wipe his feet before he tracked mud all over the floor.

[tomf]

We had a cat chase one of the deer around they East lawn.

[imafan26]

I have seen cats chase dogs too.

[!potatoes!]

yup. when i was fairly young, i remember seeing our overweight and half-blind orange tabby chase the neighbor's german shepherd across the front yard.

[keal]

It seems to me, that along with ladybugs and butterflies, cats and dogs are an essential part of gardening? Now that I think about it, any co-worker of mine who has a plant on their desk has a pet at home!

Would it be safe to say that if you meet an animal lover, that they would be potential candidates for developing a green thumb? I could really use a few friends on the weekend to help me grow my garden. I should start warming up to everyone at work with pets