Pet Stories Thread

[SleepingPhlox]

I love people's pet stories.  I love people who love their pets.  I never ever get tired of hearing about that cute thing someone's cat does or the funny thing their dog does.  So I thought how about a thread for everyone to share their pet stories!  Whether it happened today, or years ago, a one off event or a habitual thing your pet does, a current pet or a beloved departed pet, funny or touching or downright weird, cat or dog or horse or rabbit or lizard or fish...just any story about any pet.  My personal preference would be to keep it happy but that's just my take.

I'll start with one that just happened right now. It's not my best pet story but it's the one freshest in my mind.  My cat was eating his before-bed treat (my cats are extraordinarily spoiled, ok?) and he decided he was done. But hey, there's still a bit left on the plate.  And why let that go to waste, right?  Clever cat that he is he decided to cover it up so he could save it for later...I guess?  Either that or he very creatively wanted to tell me that he compared what I fed him to poo.    And now one of the shoes I was going to wear tomorrow, a pen, and a receipt I hope I wasn't saving for anything are now sitting in cat food.  And he looks WAY too pleased with himself.

So, any other stories out there?

[Selene]

I love this thread already! Pet stories are the best, great idea for a thread, @SleepingPhlox!

And how determiend was your cat? I admire him for being able to even drag a shoe there to cover the rest of food O.o

And your story reminded me of a cat we had a few years ago. He was such an energetic cat and had this dog-like behaviour of knawing at ANYTHING... shoes, pens, sofa cushions, whatever What we did not know about him, though, was that he also had a hamster streak about him... so when we moved the couch away from the wall one day (it's one of those huge L-shaped couches where you need three people to move it) after he'd been with us for a few months, we found loads of stuff behind it - pens, receits, all of the cat toys I've been trying to find for ages , feathers, other random little things, like a ruler, a magnet, more or less anything that was small and that he could carry there.

[Chanel_no5]

23 minutes ago, SleepingPhlox said:

My cat was eating his before-bed treat (my cats are extraordinarily spoiled, ok?)

Oh thank God I'm not the only one doing this for my felines!  

Um… so, one of my cats has a very strict going-to-bed routine. I close the door to my bedroom at night so I get at least a few hours without being climbed on by Mr Cuddleface McIntrusion, which means my cats are exiled (that's how they seem to view it) to kitchen and hallway. I can usually lure him out there with just the before-bed treats, but his sister demands that I carry her to the kitchen. In her play tunnel. And as if that's not bad enough, I have to say "weeeeei!" while carrying her.   If I don't, or if I don't sound enthusiastic enough, she jumps out and runs back and into her second play tunnel, and I have to repeat it. I don't know how this even came about, but it's easier to just humour her than take a fight in the middle of the night.  

We have plenty more of these weird little routines, but that's the one that comes to mind because it's about to happen within an hour.  

 

[Shylurker68]

Oh my goodness this is great! I don't really have one big story but a  few lil tidbits.

When we first brought my kitty home from the shelter, he hid under the blankets for a few days. When he started coming out, he would look out the window and bark at the birds. He always gets the zoomies after he poops. He loves to ride around on shoulders, and sometimes when you bend down to look in the fridge he'll come running and launch himself onto your back. If he's not in the mood for shoulder perches he might try to crawl into the fridge instead. 

[Chanel_no5]

Just because I miss her right now, as she's on vacation, I thought I'd share a fun trait that my horse has. We call it her "ding"-mode, because it's like there's a bell or something going off in her head like DING! and then she's mischievous or obnoxious for a while for absolutely no reason. She can be super serious before it happens, and then she just goes off doing really weird things, and then afterwards she refuses to acknowledge it, she's like "nope, wasn't me, I totally didn't do that." It's really funny, except when it happens when you're trying to do something serious and people are looking.  

During one of her ding modes, she stood on her own foot and pretended to be unable to move. She knew very well all she had to do was to, you know, remove her left front hoof from her right front hoof, but instead she did a couple of fruitless attempts at lifting her right hoof, which obviously wouldn't work because she blocked herself, and looked at me like "no, I can't move. I'm going to have to stand here forever." She knows very well that I don't actually buy her shenanigans, but it's her way of making jokes. This horse has a very well-developed (though strange) sense of humour. 

Another time, I had just fed her and four other horses their breakfast in the pasture. They had one pile of hay each, with some distance between so there wouldn't be any fights. She was munching away, then suddenly she looked up, ears pricked up, and you could almost HEAR the "ding!". Then she left her pile, took a slow gallop in front of the others, snatched one mouthful of hay from each pile, and returned to her own as if nothing happened. I laughed so hard at her, that about two minuters later, SHE DID IT AGAIN, and that time it was ONLY to make me laugh. She looked very pleased with herself, but when she did it a third time, the then pack leader firmly showed her that enough was enough and chased her back to her own spot.  

 

[SleepingPhlox]

Oh man you guys, these are all so great, I love them so much!  Cats are the greatest, they just march to their own tune, don't they?  And @Chanel_no5 your horse sounds terrifyingly intelligent!    That's great!

I have another one (okay I have too many stories, but here's one for now )  I have a cat that can open doors.  She leaps up on the doorknob and turns it.  Doesn't matter what shape of doorknob, she will be able to open it.  So we have to secure all the doors in the house or else.  And it means if one person goes in a room, they will secure the door behind them and then if the other person wants to go in we have to knock and wait.  And even though I know full well it's the cat, there is something VERY unsettling about sitting at my desk late at night when everything is silent, then hearing CLUNK! and the doorknob starts to slowly turn with a light creak...

[Chanel_no5]

This just happened: my cat was on my lap for a cuddle session, purring away, when suddenly he farted. It smelled so god-awful that when he caught whiff of it, he just upped and left! Leaving me to suffocate in his odour, no pity whatsoever!  

 

[SneezyHolmes]

This happened just last night, I was laying on the couch half asleep when suddenly this alarm starts going off and it startles me so I'm scrambling for my phone only to see that it's not my phone. Okay, maybe it's the laptop? Nope! Turns out it's Edgar in his cage, mimicking an alarm clock! He loves making soft noises whenever his blanket goes on at bedtime but I guess he thought I should be up! Maybe he was mad I covered him up?  I love this bird! 

[snuffle-bunny]

On 8/24/2018 at 9:20 PM, Chanel_no5 said:

This just happened: my cat was on my lap for a cuddle session, purring away, when suddenly he farted. It smelled so god-awful that when he caught whiff of it, he just upped and left! Leaving me to suffocate in his odour, no pity whatsoever!  

 

You've reminded me about the big black labradoodle that I used to have. He used to fart while lying down, then he'd get up, sniff where his back end had been then move to the other end of the room and lie down again!

[Chanel_no5]

Um, so, I woke up this morning to two crazy playing cats. One came jumping onto my bed with something in his mouth, that he proceeded to leave there before running off. I thought it was a crumpled up sock or something, because it was red and black and they don't have any toys those colours. I looked at it... 

AND IT'S A CAT TOY SHAPED AS A LADYBUG???

Let me clarify - we don't have any of those. I have never seen this toy before. I have definitely never bought it, because it's one of those big ass soft cat toys and my cats usually prefer to play with small toys that rattles. It has a little string so you can wind it up and make it move, and everything. Once I bought a mouse with that mechanism for them, but they were utterly uninterested in it, so I've never wasted money on those again. 

So where the hell did this ladybug toy come from? Like... WHERE DID MY CATS SUMMON THE CAT TOY GOD?? (And does he take human requests too?)

My pets do enjoy confusing me on a regular basis, but I think this one takes the cake.  

 

[Stimuli]

5 hours ago, Chanel_no5 said:

Um, so, I woke up this morning to two crazy playing cats. One came jumping onto my bed with something in his mouth, that he proceeded to leave there before running off. I thought it was a crumpled up sock or something, because it was red and black and they don't have any toys those colours. I looked at it... 

AND IT'S A CAT TOY SHAPED AS A LADYBUG???

Let me clarify - we don't have any of those. I have never seen this toy before. I have definitely never bought it, because it's one of those big ass soft cat toys and my cats usually prefer to play with small toys that rattles. It has a little string so you can wind it up and make it move, and everything. Once I bought a mouse with that mechanism for them, but they were utterly uninterested in it, so I've never wasted money on those again. 

So where the hell did this ladybug toy come from? Like... WHERE DID MY CATS SUMMON THE CAT TOY GOD?? (And does he take human requests too?)

My pets do enjoy confusing me on a regular basis, but I think this one takes the cake.  

 

Admittedly impressive!

[Chanel_no5]

17 minutes ago, aName said:

Admittedly impressive!

Especially since they're indoor cats, so they can't have wandered off and stolen it from a fellow feline somewhere else. I'm at a loss here, seriously. The only thing I can think about that makes ANY sense is if it has somehow attached to my laundry down in the communal laundry room and tagged along upstairs, but I feel like I should have noticed a big ass ladybug in the pile when I folded the laundry…?  

[Selene]

 

Ok seriously, that is quite a mystery...

[Chanel_no5]

I think if aliens visited our lovely messed up planet, they'd have a bit more important things to do than to graciously give my cats toy gifts. UNLESS the aliens are CATS!!

No, but seriously, it HAS to be the "laundry theory". I should put up a poster in the laundry room asking if anyone's kitty is missing a toy.  

 

[SleepingPhlox]

3 hours ago, Chanel_no5 said:

I think if aliens visited our lovely messed up planet, they'd have a bit more important things to do than to graciously give my cats toy gifts.

 

 

Are you kidding?  Why would the aliens come all this way and NOT bring the obviously superior and clearly in charge life forms a little something?  Arriving empty handed would just be rude. 

[Chanel_no5]

19 minutes ago, SleepingPhlox said:

Are you kidding?  Why would the aliens come all this way and NOT bring the obviously superior and clearly in charge life forms a little something?  Arriving empty handed would just be rude. 

Oh, well, now that you put it THAT way, it does make sense... gulp. I hope I'm popular enough among my feline companions that I won't be death-rayed when they invade…  

[Chanel_no5]

I'm sorry about hogging this thread, but I spend more time with animals than I do with people so it's only natural, really. 

My cats, while both being cuddle-addicted to me, aren't overly touchy-feely with each other - they do occasionally share a sleeping spot, especially in the winter, but that's about it. So they very rarely groom each other either; it happens a couple of times a month at most. However, when my kitty girl decides to groom her brother a bit, she always licks against the hair's natural growth, so he looks CRAZY afterwards.   I don't know if she's doing it on purpose or if she's a bit dumb, but honestly, I think it's her way of messing with him. Literally ruffling his hair. And he either doesn't mind or doesn't realise, because he just lets it be, so he walks around looking like a fat hedgehog until it's time for his own regular grooming, or until I get annoyed enough by his sloppy appearance to fix his fur so he doesn't look like a fresh-out-of-the-shower Barbabeau.  

Since they're short-hairs, it's even more impressive how insane she can make him look. She arranges his fur in all kinds of weird tufts. I don't know why he lets it be, but then again, he sometimes turns his ear inside out when grooming himself and then walks around like that until it pops back by itself, or dips his tail in my drinks or my bathwater and then walks around with a wet tail without doing anything about it. He does groom himself regularly, so it's not that he doesn't take care of his fur. He's just weird. 

Also, a funny thing that happened with horsey today. She has two smaller pastures that are connected, one with lots of more grass in it. She can't go there when the ground is too soggy though, because it turns into a full-on mud puddle and ruins the growth of grass for next season, so around this time of year I close that gateway up. Just with single plastic wire - there's not even electricity going through it, but SHE doesn't know that. I hope. Well, I went to do that tonight when I was going to take her inside - she followed me down there because she suspected what I was going to do and was NOT happy - but when I was going to close it, the damn plastic wire snapped in the middle. I was like HUH??  

Her reaction was hilarious. She gave me this smug look, turned around, bucked several times, ran around the whole pasture, then came up to me as if nothing happened, and let me put on the harness and take her inside. And she never runs in the pasture normally, she's too lazy for that. That was a full-on display of   

So I guess she got another day of grass-pasture lounging until I can fix that wire.  

 

[SleepingPhlox]

@DeVil_no5 dude "hog" the thread as much as you like, more animal stories for the rest of us to enjoy!

One of my cats has had surgery recently and was recovering, so she's been sleeping in a room with me every night instead of with the other cats.  She's doing really well now...maybe a little TOO well, she's keeping me up at night! She had snuggled up under the blankets with me, or curled up by my head, but sometimes she can't seem to decide where she wants to be and takes forever going in and out of the blanket, stepping on my face, etc.

Well, last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I was lying there with the blankets pulled up to my shoulders and she comes up, sits by my head for a while.  And I think "ok, good, she's going to sleep there tonight without all the fussing around."  Nope.  Not a hope.  She...actually starts pawing at the blanket the way they do when they're covering up a poo in their litter box, paws at the blanket like this until it's up to my ears, and then jumps down onto the floor to hang out there for a while.  She covered me up like a big ol' turd and walked off.  (I have two blankets, a thick duvet and a thinner fleece one on top.  It was the fleece one she managed to move)

Like, I'd just taken a shower right before bed, so I'm pretty sure I didn't smell THAT bad, and I've sniffed her breath more times than I care to count lately, she's not really one to be pointing fingers!

[ZakuConvoy]

I actually have a story people might like...

See, my mother picked up a stray dog a little while ago.  It was a small thing, and, frankly, not very friendly.  I think it's a chihuahua/golden retriever mix, but I'm not really sure.  She saw it wandering around the neighborhood, and started leaving food out for it.  Eventually, she just caught it in her garage and started trying to "tame" him a little.  It took some doing, but he really warmed up to her.  He plays with her, and she can basically treat him like a lap dog.  She named him Peanut, and they're basically inseparable now.  It's actually been good for my mom, too, since she's been out walking him and getting more exercise than she used to.  Problem is, he still didn't seem to like anyone else much, including me...

We found out later why Peanut was so unfriendly...apparently, it had been passed around a few different homes and we think he had been abused in his original home.  I guess even when my mom raises her hand too fast around him, he'll crouch down a little, even now.  The person we "got" him from was apparently a contractor working on fixing up the house next door, and he just decided that the dog was too much work for him and just let him run away.

Anyway, my mom has been trying to get Peanut to warm up to me, at least, a little.  She's been getting me to walk with them both off and on.  It didn't really work out too well the first few times.  He was not happy with me following my mom, and was constantly trying to yap at me and even trying to "attack" me at certain points.  Not that he could really do much damage even if he did get ahold of me, but still.  Frankly, I was starting to feel guilty, if only because it kind of seemed to wear him out a little.  We eventually figured out that if I walked ahead of them both, he didn't seem as bothered, but he still didn't seem to like having me around.  

However,  lately, she's been bringing him out to my place.  Over here, Peanut didn't seem as aggressive and seemed to enjoy having a new place to explore.  He even started to let me pet him a little.  Well, just this weekend, when my mom brought him over, Peanut just came right up to me, looked up and me, and acted like he wanted me to pet him.  So, I did.  

It seems like I finally won over this dog.  He'll let me pet him, even when I stand up!  We even brought him back to mom's place, and he doesn't seem to mind having me around anymore.  I can even walk around with him.  It's like a switch flipped.  He doesn't like me as much as he likes mom, but I'm also not around him as much. I just...I dunno, it's just nice that this dog seems to like me now.  We're friends.  Maybe not best friends, but at least on decent terms.  And that's good enough.  I'm just glad he's comfortable around me now.

[Binkyt11]

I remember a few months back, there was something outside that caught one of my cat's attention. I wasn't sure what, but she was focused on it. Now I wouldn't be sharing this story if it wasn't for what she did during the whole thing. A few minutes after it started, for no inexplicable reason she begins to stand on her freaking hind legs. I don't know why, but for about 5 (maybe 10) minutes she just pretty much stayed like that with this blank stare towards my window. She has never done anything like that since. Hell, I think somewhere online there's a photo of her doing it that I posted. If I can find it, expect an update.

Update: here is said photo of my cat doing that thing.

This moment still makes me laugh like hell, and leaves me with an haunting feeling to this day.

[MyOwnPrivateSFC]

@Binkyt11 Editing ability isn’t available at the “Validating” level, but you can always ask a staff member to help your edit your posts when necessary.