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Interesting things you’ve seen pets do?

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Cowley

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Hello everyone. :smile:

I was finishing my dinner tonight and noticed something about our dog Kai (also known as The Black and White Hairy Guy).
I don’t know how much any of you ever took any notice of the amazing variety of replies/questions/statements etc that Nick Park’s creation ‘Grommet’ is able to convey just with a single facial expression or slight movement of an eyebrow for instance? But I find it extremely interesting.
Tonight I finished dinner, and the dog (having stared at us while he ate), moved himself into a closer position.
Here’s a photo of him trying to be subtle...
8238F24B-B9B5-4854-9862-EC1643CDFDAA.jpeg

Very expressive eyes.

As we finished he looked at me and somehow said (just by looking at the plate, licking his lips, looking desperately at me, adjusting his position and intensifying his stare until wisps of steam came out of his ears) “Come on. You’ve finished the food and there’s obviously still some bits on the plate that I could just lick off with my big tongue that’s only going to go to waste... The cat’s don’t need it, but it really matters to me”.
I don’t know how he did it? He only used his eyes and eyebrows...
I’ve seen lots of interesting behaviour from him and other dogs over the years.
Has anyone else got a pet in their life that makes them question their very being?
 
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Spamcan81

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My dog is another expert at conveying anything she wants with a simple expression. She’s also got me trained to perfection. :)
 

yorksrob

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When reading a newspaper on the floor, my parent's cat, feeling that he wasn't getting enough attention, would sit right down in the middle of it :lol:

They're very good at getting their point across !
 

Cowley

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It’s amazing how these highly domesticated creatures fit in with our daily lives.
I can hear a bit of agro and growling going on between two of our our cats outside at the moment (the two alpha males who don’t get on).
I should possibly go and separate them, but the last couple of times I did I ended up having half of the skin on my left hand removed.
I’ll let them sort this one out. :lol:
 

PaxVobiscum

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Please excuse the poor quality mobile phone image from a number of years ago. It shows my daughter’s pet hamster with his Christmas present - a knitted “tunnel” (think woolly tubular bandage), thus safely combining his favourite pastimes of burrowing, hiding in confined spaces and sleeping. He poked his head out briefly for the photo.


D45E6AE2-D602-4227-A155-63FDF9884FB7.jpeg
 

Cowley

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Please excuse the poor quality mobile phone image from a number of years ago. It shows my daughter’s pet hamster with his Christmas present - a knitted “tunnel” (think woolly tubular bandage), thus safely combining his favourite pastimes of burrowing, hiding in confined spaces and sleeping. He poked his head out briefly for the photo.


View attachment 55532
Hamsters are surprisingly engaging.
My daughter had one that would play dead when you walked into the room. It’d hang onto the top of the cage with one paw not moving, until it couldn’t hold on any longer and fell into its food bowl with a crash :lol:.
I used to preserve its dignity by pretending I hadn’t noticed...
 

Howardh

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Pigeon. Not deliberately, it was very young and hiding in the garage, took it in, got it better and during it's convalescence wherever I was in the house it followed me. It would even sit on my lap as I watched TV! Was really mixed emotions when it decided to fly away, hope it had a lovely life doing nice pidgie things!

Was nice though afterwards to not have to have a damp cloth with me all the time!
 

STEVIEBOY1

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Pigeon. Not deliberately, it was very young and hiding in the garage, took it in, got it better and during it's convalescence wherever I was in the house it followed me. It would even sit on my lap as I watched TV! Was really mixed emotions when it decided to fly away, hope it had a lovely life doing nice pidgie things!

Was nice though afterwards to not have to have a damp cloth with me all the time!

Ha Ha, like it.

I think there is a saying that you own a dog, but a cat owns you, you are the cat's slave. Very true in several cases I know. (Mind you, I think a few of my friend's are infact owned by their 2 dogs.)
 

PeterC

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When reading a newspaper on the floor, my parent's cat, feeling that he wasn't getting enough attention, would sit right down in the middle of it :lol:

They're very good at getting their point across !
All the cats that have lived with me (I won't say "owned") seem to have had an issue about large sheets of paper such as maps or newspapers. They would all either sit in the middle of it or attack it.

One cat did learn how to open the window and let itself out.

One kitten that I had used to follow me into the bathroom and watch me cleaning my teeth. One day I caught him with my toothbrush gripped between his front paws trying to imitate me.
 

Busaholic

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It’s amazing how these highly domesticated creatures fit in with our daily lives.
I can hear a bit of agro and growling going on between two of our our cats outside at the moment (the two alpha males who don’t get on).
I should possibly go and separate them, but the last couple of times I did I ended up having half of the skin on my left hand removed.
I’ll let them sort this one out. :lol:
I've had cats almost all my life, until about ten years ago. I'm afraid my dog, now eleven, will not accept cats' right to exist, so I couldn't risk it with him. Interestingly (to me, anyway) of all the cats, and we had four of them together for over a decade, it's been two of the females that were the fiercest and most indomitable: luckily, we didn't have them at the same time! Two of the males, who never met, were the most gentle and laid back.
The most interesting mix of animals I've had has been three cats, one dog and a large parrot, all of them long dead other than the parrot who will certainly outlive me unless he dies an untimely death. The expression on the three cats's faces on the day we brought the baby parrot home is something I shall never forget. Each of them stared unblinking into his cage for about ten minutes, their look of pure puzzlement so evident -why have you inflicted that on us?!
 

yorksrob

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All the cats that have lived with me (I won't say "owned") seem to have had an issue about large sheets of paper such as maps or newspapers. They would all either sit in the middle of it or attack it.

One cat did learn how to open the window and let itself out.

One kitten that I had used to follow me into the bathroom and watch me cleaning my teeth. One day I caught him with my toothbrush gripped between his front paws trying to imitate me.

We had a cat that learnt to open the kitchen door. Alas, his efforts were confounded when we replaced it with a door knob.
 

dgl

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My dad had a cat that used to try to catch balls on the TV when he would watch cricket and football.
Taught the same cat to use a dreamies treat mouse, my dad was not happy esp. with the then constant demand for more dreamies.
Their other/now only remaining cat lived with the dogs for 99% other life and as such will beg and quite happily eats dog food, she will even grab on to the raised dog bowls to try and get food out of them.
 

Bevan Price

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Our long departed collie dog used to take a ball upstairs to the landing, push the ball over the edge with his tongue, and then run down the stairs after the ball. And repeat the process until he got fed up.

Also, he would sometimes climb on chairs and try to ease himself behind whoever was sat on that chair.

He was also cute enough to locate and avoid any medicine pills hidden in his food - or maybe too stupid to realise that the pills were intended to help him.
 

Cowley

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About a month ago (this isn’t a pet doing something interesting story by the way) I came out to the van to drive to work and glanced up the road to see what I thought was Old Gregg, my favourite and very fluffy cat flattened on the road outside our house.
With a deep sinking feeling I shovelled him up and placed him in a bin bag behind the van to deal with when I got home.
Too upset to work I told my customer that I was going to have to do the right thing and break the news to the family.
I went home and told Mrs C, who burst into tears. She then told the our 15 year old girl who also burst into tears and our 17 year old lad who looked momentarily upset before saying “hang on, I’m sure I fed him after you went to work”.
I told him that he was mistaken and went out to perform an autopsy with photos of the paws on what was left of him (not pleasant).
It turned out that I’d scooped a fox up off the road that morning... :oops:
The cat looked confused when everyone leapt on him when he came home later. :lol:
 

Ash Bridge

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Mr Cowley, that must have been one seriously flattened fox to mistake it for a cat! Brilliant story by the way :lol:

( perhaps not for the unfortunate fox though)
 

Teflon Lettuce

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About a month ago (this isn’t a pet doing something interesting story by the way) I came out to the van to drive to work and glanced up the road to see what I thought was Old Gregg, my favourite and very fluffy cat flattened on the road outside our house.
With a deep sinking feeling I shovelled him up and placed him in a bin bag behind the van to deal with when I got home.
Too upset to work I told my customer that I was going to have to do the right thing and break the news to the family.
I went home and told Mrs C, who burst into tears. She then told the our 15 year old girl who also burst into tears and our 17 year old lad who looked momentarily upset before saying “hang on, I’m sure I fed him after you went to work”.
I told him that he was mistaken and went out to perform an autopsy with photos of the paws on what was left of him (not pleasant).
It turned out that I’d scooped a fox up off the road that morning... :oops:
The cat looked confused when everyone leapt on him when he came home later. :lol:
aahhh.. see these pet humans can be amusing:);)
 

Cowley

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Yes. Well I ended up wasting so much time that morning putting off going home.
I went shopping, I went to Screwfix, I went to my paint suppliers. I told at least ten people about it and they were all very sympathetic.
The trouble is the next time I spoke to them and even now in fact I keep getting “How’s your catfox hahahaha”.
Yeah the fox was mangled (especially its head) but its tail was remarkably similar to our cats tail.
I’m just glad that we didn’t bury it with the full funeral service, candles, flowers and sobbing children etc.
That reminds me though. I was telling someone about it recently and he’d found their black cat squashed on the road outside his house too (he also picked it up with a shovel).
That evening while they were digging the hole to bury him and trying but failing to hold back the tears of sadness, he felt the cats ghostly presence around him. He looked down and jumped out of his skin as his cat was sitting right next to him looking into the hole that he’d just dug. :lol:
It turned out that it was a stray cat from down the road someone had been feeding that had lost its tenth life and final life...
 

Busaholic

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Bought a brand new house on a small new estate in Kent (price £4,150, so you can tell it was a while back :lol:) and acquired a black cat, the first of many of our married life. One night he went awol and about 11 p.m. I spotted him on the mud patch outside that was supposed to be our garden, so I went out and scooped him up and dumped him on our sofa. Then I noticed he had a pronounced white patch, and a rather bemused cat from two door's down, that was in fact a she, had to be taken back outside.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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Our long departed collie dog used to take a ball upstairs to the landing, push the ball over the edge with his tongue, and then run down the stairs after the ball. And repeat the process until he got fed up.

Also, he would sometimes climb on chairs and try to ease himself behind whoever was sat on that chair.

He was also cute enough to locate and avoid any medicine pills hidden in his food - or maybe too stupid to realise that the pills were intended to help him.

Must be a thing with Collie type dogs, my Grandmother had one that also tried to get behind her when she was sitting in her chair too.
 

Cowley

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Must be a thing with Collie type dogs, my Grandmother had one that also tried to get behind her when she was sitting in her chair too.
Bad dog. He’ll lose points for that...
 

MTN

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2 occasions spring to mind (well, they would spring, being Springer Spaniels, I suppose.)

On one occasion one of my dogs stopped in mid run, sat down, put a paw in his mouth and pulled out a tooth that was loose.

Secondly, the last time one of my others went to the vet, who was about to give her the kennel cough vaccine (which is squirted in the nose). Not liking this, as soon as the vet went to give it to her she put her paw in front of her nose to stop it being given. The vet had never seen this before.
 

Strathclyder

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When riled up and excited, the younger of our two Labradoodles will often 'dig' at whatever surface he happens to be on at that moment (carpet, hardwood flooring, pavement etc.). Apart from being rather entertaining to watch, it also saves us having to file his front claws lol

Another thing he's taken to doing is sitting at the back door and keeping a watch out for any squirrels, cats or birds that happen to stray into our back garden. One glimpse of the intruder is all it takes for the (surprisingly deep for a dog his size) barking to start, sending whatever was brave/stupid enough to wander into his territory fleeing as if it were rocket-propelled. Doesn't seem to have any lasting effect though, as the cheeky beggars keep on coming back for more lol
 

Busaholic

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When riled up and excited, the younger of our two Labradoodles will often 'dig' at whatever surface he happens to be on at that moment (carpet, hardwood flooring, pavement etc.). Apart from being rather entertaining to watch, it also saves us having to file his front claws lol

Another thing he's taken to doing is sitting at the back door and keeping a watch out for any squirrels, cats or birds that happen to stray into our back garden. One glimpse of the intruder is all it takes for the (surprisingly deep for a dog his size) barking to start, sending whatever was brave/stupid enough to wander into his territory fleeing as if it were rocket-propelled. Doesn't seem to have any lasting effect though, as the cheeky beggars keep on coming back for more lol
My labradoodle, now eleven and a half but still thinks he's a puppy, loves 'dry swimming'. He lies spreadeagled on the carpet, or, better still, some grass or dry patch in the wood, and does the breast stroke with his front paws while moving slowly forward on his belly. We've never heard of any other dog, let alone a labradoodle, do this, and my wife has been involved with labradoodle societies for a decade and more. Strangers find it highly amusing, as do other dogs!
 

Bevan Price

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Our long departed collie dog used to take a ball upstairs to the landing, push the ball over the edge with his tongue, and then run down the stairs after the ball. And repeat the process until he got fed up.
.

Another tale about our late collie. We used to take him for walks in the local park. Sometimes he would disappear into the bushes, and reappear a minute or two later with a golf ball from the adjacent golf course. I would usually throw the ball back in the general direction of the golf course, but now I wonder whether or not the golfers would use a ball with a few teeth marks -- and also how do the golfers score for "ball removed by dog" ?
 

Cowley

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Another tale about our late collie. We used to take him for walks in the local park. Sometimes he would disappear into the bushes, and reappear a minute or two later with a golf ball from the adjacent golf course. I would usually throw the ball back in the general direction of the golf course, but now I wonder whether or not the golfers would use a ball with a few teeth marks -- and also how do the golfers score for "ball removed by dog" ?
That’s an interesting thought. Surely a bitten golf ball would behave strangely during flight?
Imagine the swerve as you launched it down the fairway after pretending that it really was your ball that you found in the rough (Ruff! :lol:).
 

Busaholic

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Another tale about our late collie. We used to take him for walks in the local park. Sometimes he would disappear into the bushes, and reappear a minute or two later with a golf ball from the adjacent golf course. I would usually throw the ball back in the general direction of the golf course, but now I wonder whether or not the golfers would use a ball with a few teeth marks -- and also how do the golfers score for "ball removed by dog" ?
My labradoodle, when a puppy, walking in the park and a game of football on would rush on to the pitch and grab the ball. He'd only give it up when it suited him, too. Luckily, most saw the funny side. I don't think he punctured any balls, he wasn't trying to eat them, just to join in.
 
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