NationStates Jolt Archive

Inspired by the cat fishing thread. What tricks / quirks have your animals done / exhibited?

As well as my own pets I foster cats for cats' protection so I foster about 4-6 cats in a year.

Cats

Tinker - would move the lid of the fish tank to get her own fresh food. She could also open indoor doors and the kitchen window. She once had a kitten that she insisted on keeping in the bottom of hte wardrobe.

Claudia - didn't like her litter tray so used the toilet - she just never learned to flush.

Annie - used to walk along the curtain pole from one side of hte window to another.

Dog

Penny - did not realise she got bigger as she grew. As a puppy if she was in trouble she would hide under an armchair, when she was fully grown she still tried to hide there but only her head and shoulders would fit.

Chinchillas
Clyde would steal my watch and take it back to his cage.

I let my parents' cat, Otis, in the other day. Before he passed the threshhold though I noticed he had something dangling in his mouth. I hit him (don't worry, not hard) before he darted in, and he dropped a small, fully intact mouse in the hall.

Somehow I managed to get Otis to scram and also get the mouse out of the house without hurting it.


He's a very good hunter is Otis. The other week my sister came home to see him on her bed, as happy as Larry, covered in blood and with bits of pidgeon he was finishing off.

Pity I wasn't there to see it.

Annie - used to walk along the curtain pole from one side of hte window to another.


My other sister had a cat who, when she saw an open window, had to go outside. Even if it was several storeys up :eek:

I had a housecat commit suicide against my car the other day. Very strange. I mean, we have the term "catlike reflexes" for a reason, which leads me to conclude that this cat either had never been outside before and was just ignorant, or actually wished to die. Odd.

The good news is, I drive a very heavy old Caddilac, and was travelling at at least 50mph at the time, making it a painless end for that tabby. :p

One day a few years ago, i woke up and stepped out of my bedroom right into a large puddle of feathers. Turned out my cat had killed a pidgeon and stripped the feathers off, she was eating the bird on the staircase. Funny thing is, she was 6 months old and the pidgeon was quite a bit bigger then she was at the time.

my cat Buster used to pick up food (especially cheese) with his claws and bring it up to his mouth just like a human would... it was sometimes creepy to watch :p

Lilly- This cat will kneed her bed for about 10 minutes and never sleep in it, she'll meow for attention but not come when you call her AND run when you approach her, and she sleeps in the funniest ways (usually on my bed)!!

Chaz- He hasn't been declawed yet, so he takes his front claws and scratches the entry to the litter box while he uses it.

Baby Girl- First, I lay no claim to the name, she's my mom's cat. Second, she will lay on my mom's chest and kneed at her neck while licking her neck.

Squinkey- She loves the flower pots, she has to lay on one corner of my dad's bed, she's the queen of his house (you don't move her, she moves you), and she tends to run into things a lot (she's nearly blind). Oh, and she can open the cupboard doors, so she likes to open one a couple inches then let it slam shut, and she'll sit and do this for fifteen minutes easily.

George- He used to lay at the foot of my bed and meowed until he got a pillow to lay on.

Guinea- A guinea pig. She tears the newspaper we use to line her cage, which makes it MUCH harder to clean.

My cat figured out how to open a 4 kg bag of cat food in such a way that it now serves her as a bird feeder, albeit it's got cat food in it. We didn't bother cleaning it. We're happier this way. Since she did this she hasn't puked in a week or two... hmmm...

I have a few anecdotes regarding my horse, Meritage...

The Sorcerer's Apprentice:
We used to keep Tagie in a stall where the watering system was a big tub under a faucet. One day, he noticed he was running out of water and figured out how to turn the faucet on with his lips. Unfortunately he couldn't work out the other way...
So the stablehand was in the next stall, mucking out, and heard the water running. She thought, "H'mm, Tagie's taking a really long piss there..." and went to check. She opened the top door to a scene straight out of Goethe. The stall was flooded in 6" of standing water with poor Tagie standing on the highest pile of shavings in the corner, tail tucked between his legs and a pleading look on his face!
She laughed, he gave her a "that's not funny!" look, and she performed the rescue. To this day, he snorts at the sound of a running faucet.

The Ambulance Story:
Don't worry, it's not what you think.
A few years ago, the valley was paralyzed under a blanket of snow and ice. I know, I know, but it doesn't happen very often here. The locus where I used to keep Tagie was socked in and without power, so I drove up in my 4x4 to help around the ranch.
The main ranch house was surrounded by pastures, and a gate closed them all off. They blanketed all the horses in the barn and turned them loose in the gated-out pastures.
Now, the ranch owner's octagenarian parents were there for the holidays and one of them fell at the house, necessitating an ambulance to take her to the hospital. I opened the gate for the ambulance to go up, and the horses saw it from the forest where they were sheltering. Here they came, all 24 of them, galloping over the snowhill, and the snow muffled their hooves so it was virtually silent. They looked like a multi-coloured herd of ghost horses with snow flying everywhere.
They saw me at the gate and said to themselves, "Human! Standing alone in this cold! Let's gather around and keep her warm." And they did exactly that, except Tagie. He'd been elected as the herd's captain of the guard, so he circled the herd to secure the perimeter while the rest gathered around me and breathed on me to keep me warm. It wasn't really necessary, but I appreciated the sentiment.
And then, the ambulance came back down the hill. All the horses moved off to give the ambulance room — except Tagie. He took up a position square in the middle of the road, facing the ambulance, and said "Okay! Here you are and here you stay until I've given you a thorough sniffing over!" and proceeded to frisk the ambulance down with his lips, nose and tongue. The ambulance driver hit the horn, Tagie jerked his head a little, said, "Okay, I'm done," and sashayed off with the rest of the herd.
Gotta love those warhorse breeds...

My Siamese Amelia has a little stuffed kitten that she just loves to play with, and everyday we would find that stuff kitten in a new place in the house hehe.

She also likes to curl up next to my pillow at night and once in awhile would actually wrap herself around my hand and/or arms. She is a sweetheart. :)

This happened earlier this week:

My cat kept puking up hairballs with a little food on the living room carpet. I finally got fed up the last time and asked him to puke on the kitchen floor next time because it would be easier to clean. The next day... he puked on the kitchen floor. Let's hope this trend continues.

OH yeah my cat can also get into any cupboard in the house. We put his litter box under the bathroom sink and it's nice cuz he keeps the door closed and is easily able to get in and out.


I had a rat that would come when I called him, play fetch with me, stayed in my pocket whenever we went anywhere and loved to sleep next to me which scared me cuz I always though I would crush him.

My dogs (I have no reason to keep cats, they start fires, and won't wake you up whenever there's a flame) have many stories:

George: White Jack Russell, w/ a brown spot covering each eye and ear (looked like brown sunglasses). Slept with me every night after he turned two.
Winter: Used to jump into the snow and tunnel around (snowfall was easily two feet during winter) for a while. One time he actually burrowed into a snow fort I had built. He liked it so much, he would take dog naps in there. A good childhood dog.
Summer: We used to keep him on a rope and stake when letting him out. We had a bit of a rabbit-garden problem, and they would always stand just beyond the range of the line we had him tied on. George got tired of this, so he dug out the stake one day, and then proceeded to kill three rabbits before I could stop him. He was quite pleased with himself. My father and I built a fence soon after, enclosing my mom's garden. Very soon, there was no rabbit problem.

Daisy: Got her after George passed, she was a silky terrier. Slept in my sisters' room.
Daisy could jump, climb, and balance. She often enjoyed dog-napping on the back of a couch, or whatever high place close to where somebody was sitting. She had commandeered two blankets for her use, and put one on each of the two couch-backs she liked best. She's still with my mom, and keeps putting the blankets back anytime they get moved.

my cat Buster used to pick up food (especially cheese) with his claws and bring it up to his mouth just like a human would... it was sometimes creepy to watch :p

Just remembered Martha - she used to do that - hence her name, she was a girl so we couldn't call her aurthur

My cat Nightshade is busy giving me more kittens. I've got to learn to get these creatures to the vet a little sooner. I thought we had more time with Nightshade since she's only eight months old.

We figured she was close last night, since her behavior was a little odd. She kept insisting on sleeping in the litterbox. So I confined her to my room last night. About eight this morning I awoke to Nightshade laying on my arm, arching her back and lightly raking her back claws on my arm. The silly creature had not only decided to have her kittens on my bed, not a first, but with me in it and while laying on me.

I tried to get up and around but Nightshade kept getting up and following me, with a kitten sticking halfway out. Nightshade was determined to have me near. She had one kitten, but six hours later, nothing more. Off to the vet we went, for a shot to hurry things along.

While at the vet I asked him to look at something I had always intended to have checked but not gotten around to. Nightshade has a little knot on her side. Once there was a small wound there, but when it healed the knot stayed. The vet said it's a goddamned pellet. Some asshole has shot my cat. Confirms my views on humanity.:(

The first cat I had, his name was Boris and he was a large blue cat.

Now Boris had been in a bit of a fight, and as a result ,had an abcess on his back leg.
So I thought 'hmmm better take him to the vet and get him checked out... while I check out the cute vet :) '

So stuffed him in his box and off we went.

Came time to examine poor Boris, opened the box and he jumped off the table and went for a wander.
I said to the nurse after getting him back that he needs to be held tight while his leg is checked.
So the nurse holds him, while Miss vet bends forwards a bit and reveals her nice cleav... oopss
So the nurse holds him, while the vet checks out the injured leg right upto the point of touching the painful bit

Wowwll worrrrrlllllllll hisss spit squirms outa the nurses hands and procedes to climb up her front all claws out and sit on her shoulder.
I'm trying to stifle a laugh, the vet is saying 'he told you to hold the cat tight' and the poor nurse looks like she's just been hit with a strimmer :eek:

Boris in the meantime is sitting on her shoulder purring like a mad thing

They had a rule from then on that I had to hold any cat I wanted checked out :p

awwww fuck that pellet thing pisses me off and makes me sad.


Once when visiting my mom (when I was in grammar school - I was living with my grandparents at the time) I woke up in the morning with my mom standing over me telling me not to move. Her cat had given birth to 6 kittens on my chest. I was so glad I was covered up and a bit flattered that the cat liked me so much :p.

awwww fuck that pellet thing pisses me off and makes me sad.


Once when visiting my mom (when I was in grammar school - I was living with my grandparents at the time) I woke up in the morning with my mom standing over me telling me not to move. Her cat had given birth to 6 kittens on my chest. I was so glad I was covered up and a bit flattered that the cat liked me so much :p.Unbearably cute. You must sleep like a rock.

Stranger is a stray who adopted us... If she's in the room when you get up from your chair to do anything, up to and including going to the bathroom, Stranger will come running, doing this questioning little meow that sounds like a bird asking you a question. (kind of "purwrow?") It really does sound like she's saying "What're you doing?" It's cute.

Anastasia (one of my cats) actually figured out that the Red Dot is not a real animal, but generated by the laser pointer. Also, her mother (Chanson, one of mom's cats) will give birth to her second litter in about ten days~

I have a poor mangled box of cereal next to me. Apparently Polgar (my other cat... technically a kitten) reeeeally wants some cereal.

Polgar is only about six months old, yet she's as bid as an adult cat. If she's the first housecat to run in the Belmont Stakes, don't say I didn't warn you. >_>

Unbearably cute. You must sleep like a rock.

:)

Yeah I consider it my super power

Elmo used to wait on the back porch and when I came out to do my chores he would jump onto my shoulder and stay perched there the whole time. He liked it because when I went to milk the goats he'd get squirted with hot steamy goats milk.
Bob used to follow me into the bush when I went squirrel killing. When i bagged a squirrel he would eat it in about ten minutes flat, everything except the tail. Then he would waddle back to the house, unless he was really hungry, in which case he'd continue to follow me until I'd bagged another one, which he would drag back to the house and save for later.
The story ended in tragedy when my dad told me I had to pick which cat I liked more. (Apparently he was spending too much money on cat food? or a weird life lesson?), and he made me chose which one I was keeping and which one we were taking to the river 'hunting'.
Elmo died that day.
This is a true story, I swear.

:(

Every Christmas, my dog harasses everyone sat around the table...not because he wants the food, but because he wants to wear a party hat.

My boyfriends dog won't eat in front of anyone. If you give him a biscuit, he runs out of the room before he eats it. He does the same with his bowl of food - grabs a mouthful, runs off, spits it out, eats it, comes back for more. We walked him down to the chip shop one night, and on the walk back my boyfriend gave him a piece of sausage. He kept it in his mouth and ran all the way home just so he could eat it in private.

He also thinks its fantastic to throw noisy objects down the stairs.

My cat Max learned how to flush the toilet. Unfortunately, this particular toilet would run and run unless you jiggled the handle, which Max never learned to do. He also learned that I would scold him, rather loudly, when he did flush. If I was home and heard the toilet and I didn't move, often I would hear it again and again as he would keep playing, but if I made any noise like I was getting up, Max would tear out of the bathroom and skitter through the whole apartment and hide under my bed.

My other cat, Bond, used to hate to get into the box for a trip to the vet, so I bought him a leash and harness and he would ride all the way there (about six blocks) on my shoulder like a parrot, miaowing all the way, and he had really big lungs for such a tiny kitten. People would stop and stare at us as we passed by. Since then he has grown into quite a large cat, so the shoulder thing doesn't work any more.

The sole cat I have owned was a big cat, probably half maine coon, and had lost most of an ear in one of his fights; we first encountered him when we bought the house, which he refused to leave. Since moving in, we saw him about once every few days, when he would come bringing peace offerings -- rats, mice, squirrels, birds, the odd copperhead. He also mentored our dog, whom we obtained as a puppy; he would frequently accompany her to protect her from the neighbour's cats.

I remember one particular instance in which we went on vacation for a while and forgot he was in the house. He opened the cupboard where we kept the cat food and overturned the entire bag, spilling it out so he could eat; he did his business in the bathroom (couldn't open the toilet, so he did it in the bathtub -- it was a bitch to clean afterwards though; we'd never bothered with a litterbox); and apparently entertained himself by clawing up an old sofa which he had never particularly liked, and which he urinated upon on several other occasions. By the time we moved out he was old and no longer participated in fights and revelry; but he steadfastly refused to leave the house and its grounds. He died shortly before closure and was buried under a rhododendron.

Yeah, about the pellet and shooting your cat...

*Read only if you want a scapegoat to vent your anger on.



*Sorry about that.


*Read if you believe the hidden text


*It really wasn't me, I'm pretty sure we don't even live close to each other, I just wanted to give you a few minutes to vent/wanted to see what happened due to a severe case of Doctorus Gregory-House-initis.

Poor nightshade.

How is she now? How are her kittens?

Unfortunately lots of cats get shot with pellets. Although I can foster cats the charity I foster for won't allow me to have a cat myself because so many in my area get shot with pellets. The foster cats don't go outside hence being allowed to foster.

Tinker had her kittens on my bed - but I was at school at the time. (long time ago)

Cats can normally be spayed from 6 months, but some vets will do it as early as 2 weeks. Personally I think that is too young.

BTW fantastic name for your cat.

Poor nightshade.

How is she now? How are her kittens?

Unfortunately lots of cats get shot with pellets. Although I can foster cats the charity I foster for won't allow me to have a cat myself because so many in my area get shot with pellets. The foster cats don't go outside hence being allowed to foster.

Tinker had her kittens on my bed - but I was at school at the time. (long time ago)

Cats can normally be spayed from 6 months, but some vets will do it as early as 2 weeks. Personally I think that is too young.

BTW fantastic name for your cat.

I had Amelia fixed when she was four month old.

Well, i had a sorex cerulosa who was able to mimic other animals' noises, and even a sneeze sound i made once ... her name was Krisa. She was awesome.

Had a wolf/german shepard mix that ate jalapeno nachos and drank martinis on occasion ... his name was Buck. He was awesome.

Currently have a cat that chases moose and can turn doorknobs with intent to open doors. He also climbs into grocery bags in hopes that someone will swing him around in them ... his name is Oscar. He's a peckerhead.