Crazy / Amusing / Cute / Memorable Pet Stories

[applestar]

Last night my kids gave our kitties 1/2 a hot dog each for midnight snack. They've had hot dogs before so they know what's what ...namely that the hot dogs are hot. But one of our kitties is what my DD affectionately calls a "Dum-Dum."

From DD's descriptions this morning, I gather that one kittie took one sniff and stepped away -- this is the clever one -- while the other one immediately grabbed it out of her plate and spit it out in a hurry... on the kitchen floor. She spent the next several minutes swatting at the dangerous piece of meat that bit her back. One of the DD's video recorded it. At one point, the kitty had paused after a thorough swatting and the hot dog rolled towards her -- you could see she visibly jumped away, startled, and proceeded to bat at the thing some more. When she finally decided it was safe to tuck in, THAT'S when the other kitty stepped up to her own half and started to munch away.

[imafan26]

I'm not a camera or phone person. I do like to keep pictures of my pets in an album. However, taking their picture is not that easy. The cats I have now are camera shy and they are both dark. Jack looks like a witch's cat black with a crooked tail. Tootsie mostly brown and black with a little bit of white on her belly. It is hard to take pictures of them against a wood floor. They blend in. I tried to take Jack's picture but when the camera flashed he bolted and all I got was a blur. I finally got a decent picture of Tootsie, but it is mostly of her backside. My other problem will be getting the photo's out of my camera since I cannot upload it to the computer. I will have to see if I can get prints made at Costco or if they can load the photos onto a thumb drive or dvd.

[gumbo2176]

We had a cockatiel for a few years before Hurricane Katrina hit and she was a great bird that loved to socialize with us. When we got her, the breeder had clipped her wings so she couldn't fly, but we let the feathers grow out and she was soon soaring through the house---------after we made sure all the ceiling fans were turned off.

If someone was on the sofa eating chips or other crunchy snack and her cage was open, she'd fly up to that person, sit on their shoulder and put her head right next to their mouth hoping something crunchy would fall out, and she'd definitely pick off any bits that fell on your shirt.

Here's where it gets interesting. I stayed when Katrina hit and our city flooded. I wound up with over 4 ft. of water in the ground floor and after 4 days, I decided to get out and waded my way to an evacuation area. I decided to leave the bird and put her in the bathroom with the door closed. She had the whole bathroom to herself. I taped the tub drain as tightly as I could, filled it with about 3 inches of water, put a couple extra pans of water on the countertop and a few pounds of bird feed in other pans for her to have free reign. It was over 2 weeks before I got back to check on the house after the water went down and the first place I went to was the bathroom to check on the bird. I called for her several times when I entered the house, but no reply. I expected the worst when I opened the door to the bathroom, but much to my surprise, she let out a very loud shriek and literally dive bombed me. I guess it was her way of expressing anger for being left behind and giving me "what for."

She did eventually get over the abandonment and live for several more years before she passed on.

Now I have a corn eating, edamame eating cat the will often scare the crap out of me with her being so quiet as she approaches and gently putting a paw in the air to just barely touch me when she wants my attention.

[applestar]

Me a couple of hrs ago -- what is that black thing on the kitchen floor? Aaarrgh it's a dead mole! One of the kitties brought it in from the garage. No idea how the mole got IN THE GARAGE.

...something is WRONG with this mouse...

[imafan26]

Jack, the cat is making himself comfortable on the living room floor. He doesn't even bother to move when I come down the stairs, but he has learned to shriek at me to make sure I don't step on him.

[Ksk]

Animals are a gardeners friend. Over 25 years my dogs have never soiled the garden area. We nicknamed our now deceased Chow Chow the "constant gardener." To my knowledge he never broke a branch or seedling and loved to go into the garden every morning to sniff around the herbs. For you cat lovers Chow Chows behave in ways that are similar to cats based upon my experience with both. Every morning he knew the routine.

I had another white lab that figured out how to break in the garden but would only eat perfect ripe red tomatoes. She spit the orange ones out and never picked a green one: Very discriminating. Imagine coming home from work to see a happy girl laying in the shade of the giant tomatoe plants. Too cute to scold her to harshly. Built a better fence. . At least she had good taste. She and our other dog would wait to be tossed the occasional carrot for their hard work.

[gumbo2176]

Well, I now have a cat after years of dog ownership and finally getting tired of picking up dog crap every couple of days. The cat is mainly a house cat, but does love to explore the yard and garden a few times a day. Unfortunately for me, she has taken a liking to my loose soil raised bed that I like to grow root crops in. Right now it is dormant due to our nasty summer weather, and if I don't keep it covered, she likes to think it's her own personal litter box. Nothing quite as nasty as weeding an area and grabbing some cat scat lying just under the surface.

When I plant seeds or transplants, the first thing I do when finished planting is to put some hog wire over the entire area so she can't get in there and that works out fine.

[applestar]

Jack, the cat is making himself comfortable on the living room floor. He doesn't even bother to move when I come down the stairs, but he has learned to shriek at me to make sure I don't step on him.

Call me mean, but I won't tolerate that. Our two have learned to get OUT OF MY WAY when I'm walking. I maintain alpha-female status in THIS pride.

I often walk around in the dark or carrying armloads of things and not able to see, and I'm not going to be made to feel bad for accidentally stepping on or tripping over and kicking them -- I don't want to hurt them -- and I will not have them loitering at the top of the stairs when someone is on their way up and especially on their way down. So they have been taught to smartly vacate the spot where I will be walking. When lounging at the top of the stairs (typical fave spot for cats I believe) and I'm on my way down, it's satisfying to see them jump up and leap down 2-3 steps then trot on down to the first floor ahead of me. Of course they are hoping I might soften and give them a treat, which I did in the very beginning, but not any more since this is an EXPECTED behavior.

If they show reluctance, I start muttering "...out of the way... out of the way... you'd better get out of the way..." and they move along. If they are deeply asleep, I will nudge.poke with my toes to wake them up and will NOT step around them.

[gumbo2176]

Jack, the cat is making himself comfortable on the living room floor. He doesn't even bother to move when I come down the stairs, but he has learned to shriek at me to make sure I don't step on him.

Call me mean, but I won't tolerate that. Our two have learned to get OUT OF MY WAY when I'm walking. I maintain alpha-female status in THIS pride.

.

That Alpha female statement made me chuckle as I recalled a conversation I once had with my then teenage stepson. He was about 16 and feeling his oats and testing the limits of my tolerance. When he reached my limit I had a sit-down with him and explained how this household was going to run.

I told him in the animal kingdom----- and make no mistake about it, we reside in an animal kingdom--- there are always going to be Alphas and Betas. In this household, I was the Alpha male and his mother was the Alpha female. And just like in the animal kingdom, when a Beta tries to step up and supplant the Alpha's role, he better be prepared to suffer the consequences.

Somehow, he never decided to test those waters because when I delivered that little bit of life's advice, I was not the least happy with his behavior and the point seemed to be received.

[applestar]

I have been taking the two Indoor kitties outside with me to the garden for Garden Patrol duty lately. I want them to leave their scent and give chase to chipmunks and rabbits to deter them. I don't really expect them to catch anything outside. They can't even catch a mole. At least so far.

Today about 10 minutes after we went out, it started to rain heavily. But for once I had not put them in enclosed garden space but let them roam, and of course could not find them. One kitty thinks she is clever and will find a hiding place, but normally the other one will come to me when I call. But this time, she wasn't making an appearance.

The rain tapered off so I decided to continue with today's ToDo tasks, but when it started to really pour 30-40 minutes later, it was definitely time to go inside. I called them again but they were still missing, and I decided to wrap up my stuff -- collecting the harvest and finished washing them...in the rain... took pictures between raindrops... I was almost done when it started to thunder and the clever kitty decided her hiding place was insufficient and came running to the patio. I shooed her in and proceeded to find the other one. I walked all over the back yard in the deluge, then did a quick stroll in the front yard. I was dripping wet, soaked to the skin. Then it occurred to me that DH's truck was not in the driveway when I went by, meaning he had gone to work at some point and I didn't notice. ...what if...?

I went inside -- I was leaving puddles in the kitchen and front hallway -- whistled up the stairs and here came the missing kitty dry as dust and still wearing her *dry* bandanna.

[gumbo2176]

See, she was smart enough to get in out of the rain and not get soaking wet enough to leave puddles in the kitchen and hallway like========OH wait, that would be you. LOL

Don't you just love cats????

[tomf]

Applestar i do not think the cats scent will keep any critters away, it never has in my yard or garden. But it is something to hear the squares scold the cat for being in the yard.

[gumbo2176]

Most likely the reason "the squares" are scolding the cats in the first place is, if anything like my cat, she thinks my garden is her personal litter box. This is especially true with my raised bed area where the soil generally stays a good bit dryer and fluffier than my traditional in-ground garden. I don't find many things less appealing than weeding the garden and coming upon a fresh pile of cat scat just under the soil.

[thanrose]

And adjacent to your radishes!

I've heard that large predator urine will deter rodents and small mammals. May be so, but I can't get any pumas to pee in my yard. Might have to see if it works with alligators. Will they pee in a garden without trampling it?

Someone gifted me with a Zoo-doo sculpture. Maybe a hippo shaped brick? It was amusing, but not as effective as the bags of zoodoo compost from the Miami zoo. Took over a year to break down, where the compost is bio-available immediately.

OTOH, animal scat can be a good attractant for some butterflies. It is species specific, possibly both the scat and the diner.

[applestar]

I don't really expect them to catch anything outside. They can't even catch a mole. At least so far.

Applestar i do not think the cats scent will keep any critters away, it never has in my yard or garden.

Did I mention my garden plants secretly check the forum to see what I'm saying about them? I think the kitties must do this as well.

Our mighty huntress seems to have accepted our comments as challenges and upped her game -- she caught a vole outside.



I see now that the critter she caught in the garage in the post above must have been a vole as well.

...oh BTW, I couldn't find her again and she wouldn't come to the patio when I called (well, obviously she had been in "stealth/stalk" mode), but, after she caught her prey, this Indoor princess brought it to the back door and was muffledly meowing to be let in (WITH her prize)