My Pet is Weirder Than Yours

[bain-druie]

I have an idea that all of us who live with pets feel that ours must be especially smart, dysfunctional, gifted, psychotic, or some combination thereof, at least some of the time.

I will explain the reason which motivated me to create this thread, and I hope you guys will add to it with your own stories!

We have a Belgian Tervuren named Mirra; if you've never heard of them, it's OK - most people haven't. Tervs are kind of like a cross between a collie and a German Shepherd. Only better.

Anyway, our Terv is one of my favorite people; she has many awesome qualities and is quite intelligent. She won her championship when she was 4, and is now a dignified lady at 9 years old.

One really friggin' weird way she shows how smart she is: She watches TV. I mean, she REALLY watches it. If a horse or a dog shows up on screen, she gets upset and starts growling. She doesn't mind cats, because having to live with ours has plunged her into the feline circles of torment already; she's immune.

At first, she really believed there was a dog or a horse there in our living room; she would growl in the most blood-curdling, deep-throated, snarling-snouted way imaginable, and if they made any sudden moves she would lunge at the TV barking furiously.

After banging her snout on the screen a few times, she decided the loathsome creature (dog or horse, doesn't matter, she hates them in our living room, no matter how polite she is meeting them in real life) was actually *BEHIND* the TV screen, and tried to flush it out by dashing in behind the TV cabinet. 'Nuf said about THAT scene.

Since she got in trouble for the mayhem involved in her deducing the villains to be behind the glass of the TV screen, she has realized it's better for her to remove herself from the irritant rather than risk our displeasure again. So she'll growl ferociously, give us looks of stern rebuke, and if the Hated Creature remains onscreen she stalks out of the room and pouts on our bed until she deems it possibly safe to return.

So I was watching Spongebob reruns, and The Dirty Bubble came onscreen, menacing the great superheroes Mermaid-Man and Barnacle Boy. Mirra started growling the moment he materialized, and became progressively angrier. By the time Spongebob confronted the spherical demon, she was almost hysterical. She would look at me, run at the TV, bark very sharply once, and run back. Sit down, quiver, growl, look at me, run at TV, bark once, run back. She HATES The Dirty Bubble.

Anything that looks like it sets her off; Scrubbing Bubbles commercials are among the worst. :sarcastic: olar: [<= this one looks more like Mirra than the puppy smiley]

 

[Penumbra]

I know a bird that is a really big jerk. He's likable, but basically he's the bird equivalent of a sarcastic mean guy. And he knows how to escape from his cage.

For example, he bends his head down and wants to be pet, so I pet him and scratch him on the back of his neck, and every once in a while he'll scream and turn around really quickly and pretend to bite me. He doesn't clamp down and make it painful- I think he just does it because he knows it scares me and he tries to see if he can "get me". Then he puts his head back down and wants more scratches, so I give him more scratches and then he waits and randomly does it again.

And, at any point, if I look at him, he starts doing this little dance. I don't really know a better word to describe it.

 

[Kathryn]

Birds are so smart - and hilarious!

My dogs also express great interest in some animals on TV - always dogs, and often lions and other large cats in the wild. Animal noises on TV also really get their attention. If dogs on TV start barking or running around, my two dogs will jump up and bark back, and they seem to LOVE dog food commercials!

My cat also perks up at cat activity and noises on TV as well as bird scenes, but he doesn't seem to notice any other sorts of animals.

Doorbells on TV REALLY confuse my dogs!

One thing that is really cute about my dogs is that neither of them seems to realize they're huge (80 and 65 pounds respectively). Since we've had them both since they were tiny, and let them sit in our laps till they were too big to do so, they still somehow think they should be allowed to chill out in our laps, and they are constantly scheming about how to sneak up into our laps without us noticing. They just start edging closer and closer and putting first their nose, then their head, then their two front paws and chest, etc into our lap, till finally they try to sneak one back leg up into our lap - which is really ridiculous.

My boy dog WhoDat is a mama's boy and my girl dog Josie is a daddy's girl. Josie is big and rock solid and always has a sad, solemn expression on her face (she's a black lab/pit bull mix) but her looks are very deceiving - she is actually very playful and mischievous!

WhoDat, a mixed mongrel who's apparently part bird dog (he points), part Australian heeler, and part some sort of terrier, has figured out that humans smile as part of their communication, so he's decided that he'll smile back at us whenever we come home - as well as when he's trying to ingratiate himself to us for some reason. By smile, I mean he actually pulls the corners of his mouth up and bares his teeth - not like a growl or snarl, but - well, like a human smile. I've never seen another dog do that!

Both my dogs also know what it means when I say - "Doggie massage! Assume the position!" They run over and stand in front of me in a particular stance which is hard to describe.

Josie, being part Lab, is great at retrieving, and will chase a ball or rope toy all day long, back and forth, back and forth.

These are the only "tricks" my spoiled dogs know. They are basically useless, except for loving and entertainment value.

My cat Cato is a Siamese and is very communicative, smart, and affectionate. He's also a dedicated small animal killer and often brings us presents via his cat door. He loves to show off his kills. Occasionally though, whatever he brings in (last time it was a baby rabbit) is not dead at all, and will spring to life and go crazy inside the house. Always unsettling...

 

[Valjean]

I have a cat that likes watching animals on TV (two, actually, but only one is really fascinated). It's especially funny when she goes around the back trying to find them.
When I'm using my laptop in the kitchen she'll follow the cursor around with her eyes and occasionally take a swipe at it. For fun I cover the keyboard and put on you-tube videos of pet hamsters or mice.

 

[linwood]

This is Ricochet.
He has a rubber fetish, anything that smells of or feels like rubber he will steal.
My wife gets up 20 minutes earlier in the morning than she would have to just to find her sneakers (rubber soles) which he has stolen and hidden in one of his stash spots.
He once stole my iPhone because it was in a rubberized case.

This is Mrs.Bojangles.
She has a foot fetish, any bare foot within a 20 yard radius of her is in danger of being nibbled, nipped, and/or bitten.
When I arise in the morning I race for my sock drawer to cover my bare feet as she bolts from under the bed in full attack mode.
I have yet to win this race.

Thank you for yet another opportunity to show off my weasels!!

 

[UmmSqueakster]

This is Squeaky. Her Royal Fuzziness is rolling around on a dirty, stinky gym shirt. Cuz that's how she rolls.

Love ya anyways you crazy kitty!

She's one smart cookie though. She wakes up in the middle of the night and wants food. So she meows. I lock her out of the bedroom. So the next night, she meows softer. I lock her out of the bedroom. Then she starts to poke me. So I lock her out of the bedroom. And now she just moves up next to my head and purrs. And I can't kick her out because she's just so freakin adorable. Dang cat!

 

[Nisou Kitsune]

This is Shambhala, Bhala for short.

She is a full blooded Short Haired Tibetan Mastiff, and she is super smart. She judges people to determine whether or not they pose a threat, she communicates pretty darn well with us whenever she wants something, she can make distinctions between people and things, she can open doors, and she understands human speech. She even saved my brother's life.

However, she was super destructive as a puppy. And when I say "puppy", this above picture was taken when she was 8 months old. She was a good four foot high back then. She has grown since then. She ate the entire wood paneling off of both outside doors, she ate a couch, a car, 14 pairs of shoes, countless stuffed animal eyes, a red Rider wagon, the four foot paneling off the side of the house, the metal crate she was kept it and the plastic crate she was kept in before the metal one, an ancient blanket, a futon bed.... We tried everything, even putting hot sauce on things, which she loved.

As for her saving my brother's life, when my brother was 3 years old, he wandered to the busy street in front of our house and a shady guy happened to stop. Bhala didnt like him and so she got between my brother and the man and pushed my brother back into the yard while fending off the man. If the dog hadnt been there, we are sure my brother would have been snatched up or hit.

There as also that one time. There were stupid teenaged kids who kept messing with her, throwing rocks and stick at her as they passed. One day, she got tired of it and jumped over the five foot fence and cleared two more feet over the bush that was growing next to the fence around our yard to chase those suckers. Needless to say, they stopped hassling her.

Here is her beside a regular dog:

 

[Kathryn]

Spoiled babies - pure D mutts. WhoDat and Josie.