Weird Pet Quirks

[NightAngel]

My goofy dog, Rio, has a new thing that she thinks is funny. (Yes, it looks like she's laughing when it's discovered...)

She opens the trash can and lifts out the used coffee filter and grounds and then dumps it in her water dish.

Why does she do this? I have NO idea- she doesn't even like coffee.

Weirdo.

What do your pets do?

[Plaidman]

You tell her to smell something, she will.

She always answers the door.

She demands a pet when anyone comes over.

She always does a HUUUUH throaty puur. IT really sounds like HUUUUH, when she see's something new, or doens't understand you.

When she wakes up, whomever she see's first, she'll yell at there name and run to them. Mom she meow "MOOOOOOM", for me she yells "MEOW WAA!!!". (Kinda sounds like William)

[Mr. Rager!]

My mom's dog, Broc, is a weird one. He's basically mine on the weekends and a few weeknights... we bond.

He only does this for me... my mom's jealous of this.

On Sundays, if there's not a football game on that looks that good to me, I'll watch CSI because it's typically on for about 5-7 hours on Sunday. Broc will sit with me and he'll lay with his back between my arm and my chest and fall asleep. He doesn't let my mom do this, and it's her dog.

My mom has tried it, and he only growls at her.

Then my cat Harley...

This might be something I taught him. Whenever I'd go out and sit on my parents' deck, I'd bring Harley with. I never let him walk out there on his own, I'd pick him up and carry him to one of the deck chairs and set him in it. Then one day, I wasn't paying attention when I went out there and he walked out on his own. He went straight for the deck chair, jumped in and layed down. He does this everytime now.

[Acolyte]

My cat, Max, has an interesting way to get us up to feed him. He'll come into the room and lay on your back/chest/whatever's flattest until you can't stand it any more and go feed him. If that takes more then a few minutes, he ramps it up to poking your face and nibbling your hair. If that fails, he'll go recruit our kitten, Mia, to tear-ass around the room until you're worried she'll brake something and finally get out of bed. Then, he goads you into moving by nipping your calf.

He's a very demanding kitty when it comes to food.

[Horsetuna]

My pet parrots, Mimi and Paulie, drink out of water bottles:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1162/1236354574_d08fa7288f_m.jpg

Paulie also will put a foot on the rim of my glasses to hold my head down so he can play/groom my eyebrows, or bite my ear till I tilt my head. Mimi (the one drinking) likes to sit just slightly under the covers of the bed in the morning and just sleep there.

They also like pasta and mashed potatoes.

[draftermatt]

My Dog Sasha yodels.
She has to be petted, like 24-7. If you touch her upon arrival at our house, she will not leave you alone.
She refuses to go in the back yard for days at a time, but will bound to the front door to go out whenever it opens.

The Cat will tear through the upstairs, downstairs, and back up.
She will sneak outside any chance she gets. Well, she did, till earlier this week when we didn't know she was out there and spent all night outside.

[tollbaby]

My cat George and I have conversations. When I get up in the morning or when I get home from work (or out on weekends), she'll meet me at the door and meow until I start meowing back at her. When I get up in the morning, she has to beat me to the bathroom, puts her paws on my leg while I'm peeing, and demands petting. Then, if I walk away from the bathroom/kitchen area without feeding her, she'll chase me and bat at my legs with her paws until I go back to feed her.

Oh, and EVERY time she hears the can opener, she'll come running, because she associates it with getting leftovers when I make the kids tuna sandwiches for lunch. LOL

[BookstoreEscapee]

Pablo drinks out of water glasses when he can reach them. Several times I have woken in the middle of the night to find him up on the headboard drinking out of Ex's water glass. He finally got smart and moved it to the night stand, and one night the dog managed to get to that one, too. I wonder how many times he's done it and we didn't wake up...:eek:

Pablo likes to flip his food dish. He used to have a little plastic bowl, and he'd just slap the edge with his paw and flip it over. I finally got him a heavy ceramic bowl with an inch-wide lip...he has yet to manage to flip that one, though at least once he got it to stand on its side and spill some food out onto the floor.

When he eats he eats one piece at a time...takes it from the bowl, drops it in the bed, digs at it a bit, finally eats it, then goes back to the bowl for another. You know he's really starving if he just stands over the bowl and eats like a normal dog. :rolleyes:

My girlcat likes to drink out of glasses, too. When she was a baby she'd get her whole head in there. She also likes peas...when we eat dinner she begs at the table like a dog, and we'll put a pea on the edge of the table, and she'll reach her little paw up and tap it onto the floor (she can just barely see over the table if she stretches)...then she plays soccer with it for a bit before eating it. Then she comes back for another.

I could come up with more, but I'd totally monopolize this thread with all the crazy things my animals do. :rolleyes:

[Gawdzillers]

My dog will try to stop me from going inside if I haven't petted her sufficiently.

[FuzzyKitten99]

my siberian husky, Buster, LOVES ice cream and loves to be vacuumed.

With ice cream, he will not eat it out of his own dish/plate. He has to be spoon fed (thanks to my mom for teaching him this :rolleyes: ). And he won't lick it off the spoon, he takes 'bites' like any other human, spoon in mouth and pulling the ice cream off.

Then we have a central vacuum system, so when I pull out the hose and the wood floor attachments, he follows me everywhere, and when I shut it off, he stands there and stares at me. It is kind of nice when he sheds his seasonal coats. I usually empty about 2-3 dogs' worth out of the canister downstairs.

[Retail Associate]

When my 19½ year old kitty (who left this earth in Aug '06) was young, he used to lie on my chest at night and clean my face. Since his tongue was rough it would start to hurt a bit after a while so I'd turn my head away. He'd then place his paw on my cheek and turn my face back toward him to finish the task. A few times he tried to suck the mascara off my eyelashes.

Another thing he did his whole life was lie on my chest, place each paw on the sides of my head and knead the pillow while rubbing his face all over mine.

The kitty I have now didn't take to me too well when we first got him. He loved my son but simply tolerated me. If I tried to hug or pet him he'd squirm and struggle to get away. I really took that behavior personally.

After he had lived here for 6 months or more, he finally decided I was worthy of his attention. The only problem was, he'd only give it to me first thing in the morning while I was on the toilet. The first time he did it I was just so thrilled that he actually jumped up in my lap all by himself, that I sat there long after I needed to, just to enjoy his company.

He still does it nearly every morning...but he will occasionally sit with me in the evenings when I'm watching TV. Very independent, he is.

.

Edited to add: One other thing my independent kitty does is buzz or bounce across the hallway to get to his water dish in the bathroom. It's as if something is there waiting in the corner to pounce on him if he walks through slowly. He'll stop right at the edge of the hall, look toward the corner, then jump/bounce/buzz across like a crazy kitty.

My other cat used to do the same thing. Sometimes I wonder if they see little gremlins hiding under the hamper.

.

[iradney]

Hopper lies RIGHT ON TTO's feet. never mine, i'm not sure why. I'll take a pic to show you :)
he also loves carrots. Sometimes I give him a baby carrot and he'll lie down and chew on it like a bone.
He also gets over-excited when I get home sometimes, and if I chase him around the house enough, he runs outside, tucks his bum in and races around the garden like a mad thing.
He also sleeps on his back.

I love my dog. :D

[reformedwaitress]

My Gandalf (who actually left the Earth this morning sometime between 3:30 am and 6:00 am :cry:) was a very quirky one. I've had him since I was ten and he was six weeks old so he was always very very much MY baby. The vet actually said once that he'd never seen an animal with "Mommy issues" like mine had.

Until I left for college at 18, no one else was allowed to touch him. Period. I could pet him or hold him or cuddle with him but if anyone else tried? Oh HELL no that was not okay. Once I wasn't there all the time, he started deigning himself to allow Momma or Daddy or, once in awhile, Sister to pet him, but that was still rare. It wasn't until I moved to Savannah for awhile and couldn't take him with me that he really started letting anyone pet him. Recently he was just an ornery old cat who just wanted to be loved.

Whenever I came home from work, we'd have the "How was your day" talk. He would meow and meow and talk to me and then sit there and stare at me and expect me to respond. I'm pretty sure he was telling me what he had done all day and then I was expected to answer. So I did. I always talked to my cat like he could understand me and I know he did.

When I was in high school and still had a land line (instead of just a cell phone) he learned that if he pressed the button on the phone, I would stop talking on it and pay attention to him. He liked that a LOT. All my friends knew and if the line just went out, they would call back and be like "Is he being an attention whore again?". And then, when my girls were having problems, and ONLY when we were trying to figure out problems, he would pipe in. He'd get right up next to the phone and mrow at it and we'd then sort out what advice he was trying to give us. He always gave good advice.

So yeah, he's a little odd. His full name is (was) Prince Gandalf the Gray Schitzophrenic Almighty Giver of Wisdom and Advice.

I miss him already. :(:cry:

[FuzzyKitten99]

i have another one. My cat Baby, is as docile with other small critters as they come. I have had a few pet birds over the years, and one pair of which were around before she was, so she pretty much grew up with them. My dad's cat had a litter of kittens and my grandma (whom I lived with at the time) let me bring one home, and that was back in 1992.

All of my pet birds were allowed to roam around through the living room area when we were home, and never once has she bothered them or tried to attack them. here is a pic of her with my lovebird "Sunshine" on her back.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p298/FuzzyKitten1999/babybird.jpg

[Princess-Snake]

My parents' dachsund is afraid of wooden floors. The only place in the house that has a wooden floor is the kitchen. The kitchen is between the den and the living room. So if we're in the den, and he's in the living room, he'll whine and whimper and pace the edge of the living room until someone comes to get him. He does this while he's on the rugs placed on the wooden floor too. The table is on a rug which is located in the kitchen. If he's stuck on the rug. He'll whine until someone comes to get him. And for someone reason, he's afraid of going downstairs. He'll go upstairs with no problem, but will whine if he wants to go downstairs.

My sister's guinea pigs have a little green "house" inside their cage. They like to move that house everyday. They'll nudge it with their nose, push it, drag it with their teeth, whatever. They always move that damn thing. One day, it will be in the corner. The next day, it will be by the food bowl. The next day, it's next to the water bottle.

When I was growing up, we had a cat with us. She loved to sleep in my bed. I'd go to sleep at night with the door open. (I was afraid of the dark.) She would come in and lay down beside my head. Then later in the morning, she would get mad when I shooed her off so I could make my bed. Whenever I coughed or sneezed, she would leave the room, but if anyone else coughed or sneezed, she would stay. She also had a special chair that she loved to lie down in. Then my little sister took an interest in that chair. She would sit in it and let the cat lie down on her lap. My sister still likes that chair and gently rocks back and forth in it as she listens to her iPod. The cat died when I was twelve. The day we discovered her dead, my mom yelled at my dad because he fed the cat without first checking to see if she was alive. I miss Sunny. :(

[ShinyGreenApple]

My Mom's Pomeranian, Meeko, is an odd one. He's the only one of our pets that lives indoors; the rest are outside. If he hears our mare, Sweet Tart, neighing in the morning, he wakes up and smacks his paws on Mom's bed until she gets up and goes out to feed the rest of the animals. He also knows that every evening around 6, the animals need feeding again. He will sit on the floor and stare at us until we go, and if we don't, he resorts to jumping in laps and getting up close and personal about the issue.

On nights when I get off late and Mom needs the car, she brings Meeko with her when she picks me up from work. Says that he sleeps the whole ride over, sits up and stares at the front doors of the store when it's almost time for me to get off, and growls at the MOD if he happens to be outside getting carts :lol:

He's another one that's funny about his food. We keep his dishes in the kitchen, just by the cabinet and sink. He'll take a mouthful, walk into the dining room/living room/even our bedrooms some of the time, spit it all out on the carpet, then proceed to eat it one or two pieces at a time. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[BookstoreEscapee]

hehe... someone reminded me...

Boycat also likes to be vacuumed. Loves it, actually. Too bad the girl is afraid of the noise, cuz she's the one who really sheds like crazy. She needs to be vacuumed but she'd never hold still for it. She does, however, LOVE to be rolled with those sticky-paper lint rollers. She sees you pick it up and she comes running. It doesn't take long for it to be covered with fur, though.

We have a central vacuum also, and there's a little thing under one of the cabinets in the kitchen where you just flip a switch with your foot and it turns on the vacuum, and you can just sweep stuff into it. One night when they were kittens the cats were playing pea-soccer and accidentally lost the pea in the opening. She tried and tried to get it out (which was fun to watch; would have been really hysterical if she had managed to flip the switch!) and finally I took pity and went to get it for her, but I couldn't reach. So I used a bendy straw to get it...and then they wanted nothing to do with the pea. All the balls and mice and bells and crinkly cat tunnels in my house, and their favorite toys are still straws, rubber bands, those little plastic bands for tying up cords, and an aluminum-foil ball. (And peas.) :rolleyes:

I had a miniature schnauzer growing up who was very much a mama's dog. Mom was the only one who could pick her up without getting bit. Well, her and the daughter of a friend of my parents. Weird. Shortly before she died we were having a Christmas party, and we had propped the back door open to get some air into the house, and she had gone outside. I heard her barking and discovered that she couldn't get up the stairs because her legs were too weak; she wouldn't even let me help her then, and I had to go in and find my mom to bring her in. She was also deathly afraid of balloons. And the first time she had a squeak toy as a puppy she pounced on it and freaked out when it squeaked at her!

When he's at my house Pablo has to eat on the recliner in the living room with someone sitting with him (blame my mom for that one). If possible, my father should also come by and reach for the bowl, so he can bark and growl at him; then he will settle down and eat. At home he eats in his bed but at least he eats on his own.

And this morning at 5am boycat was trying to get my parents' bedroom door open, and my dad finally had enough and put him in the spare bedroom. Girlcat happened to be in there at the time so they both got locked in. When I left I looked in the window and they both just stared at me like, "I can't believe you people locked us up!"

[myswtghst]

Oh, the pet stories. :)

I have two kitties, Lily and Franzia, who I've had since they were only a few weeks old. Franzia was originally my ex-bf's cat, and he was seriously disappointed when he came to visit a while after we broke up and she ignored him. They're both my babies now.

Franzia likes to hang out in the bathroom at night and meow at nothing, which is charming. If I call her to me to try to get her to stop, she just wants to be petted, but will not tolerate being held. She also gives love bites to show affection. She does know her own name though, and will come when called.

Lily loves to hunt bugs. I had a fly in the apartment last night, and got to watch her at work. She will open her mouth and make these crazy noises, some sound like clicking, others more whining, and twitch her whiskers. She also refuses to eat with anyone watching her, and gets upset if I put their food out, then need to get into the fridge near their bowls to get my own food.

Sunny is my parents 93-lb, 4yo yellow lab, who I helped raise, especially for her 1st year with us. I'm her favorite playmate, and according to my father, she can hear my car from at least a block away, and is usually waiting at the door for me. If she's on a walk when I show up, if she sees my car, she will drag the person walking her back to the house to see me, so she can attempt to tackle me.

Sunny is also the exact opposite of food aggressive--she prefers it if you sit next to her while she eats, even better if you'll hand feed her dog food. She also enjoys having you throw individual pieces at her head for her to catch. She's been known to eat anything she can reach off the counters, though the best was the time my brother came home to find her sitting in the living room with her "Who? Me?" innocent face on, with the sticker from the Angel Food cake she'd eaten stuck to her forehead. :D

The dog we had when I was little, Daisy, was a miniature poodle, and my baby. I would carry her around the house on my hip while doing things. She would jump over the baby gate that kept her in the laundry room at night if there were storms, and make a break for my room so she could stay with me. While I was away at college, if my dad told her to go find me, she'd run to my old bedroom and wait there, or go sniffing around in the closet for me. :)

[Teysa]

Over 15 years ago, a scruffy little Benji type dog named Muffet ran through the open door of my mom's and then stepdad's apartment, hid under the couch, and refused to leave. They already had a couple of cats, who were characters in their own right, at the time. The dog, though, got along great with the cats. In fact she tried to convince them she was one of them. For the longest time she even insisted on eating cat food instead of dog food.

A while later, after they had moved to a house and I had moved in with them, Muffet started doing other silly things. She loved digging out from under the back yard fence. It didn't matter what we'd put there to block her either; she'd just find a way to move it out of her way and keep digging. Of course she always came home in time for dinner. She also insisted on following me to the bus stop and waiting with me on school days. One of the funniest things, however, involved her and the church. At the time, my mom put together the weekly newsletter for the church and I was responsible for walking up there and giving it to the office. During one of these weekly trips, little Muffet thought she wanted to accompany me. This dog was smart though and knew that if she met me out front right away, I'd just put her back inside the house. So, she waited until I was close to half way there and then popped up out of nowhere. Startled the heck out of me. Of course by that time, it was too late to turn around and take her home, thus she ended up making the rest of the trip with me. Poor dog got a bit overheated towards the end and I had to carry her the rest of the way. When we got there, the church ladies were nice and gave her some water, but I lived in mortal fear that the pastor would say something in the Sunday sermon about bringing dogs to church.

Her little heart gave out last year, much to my mom's sorrow. I was close to Muffet, but she and my mom shared a special bond. Especially after the Parkinson's Disease started getting bad, that dog was great source of comfort to my mom. Mom still has other cats and dogs, but Muffet was a special one.

[protege]

My cat claimed my recliner as "his" chair. It's the only chair he's allowed to sit on. That all got started when he still lived at my grandmother's farm. She kept him outside, since she didn't walk very well, and was afraid she'd trip over him. But, I'd bring him inside on weekends. All I'd have to do is open the kitchen door and say "go get on your chair!" He'd make a beeline for the living room, and jump on his chair to watch TV and get petted. He's usually curled up in that chair most nights.

But, what's odd, is that if anyone was in that chair when he'd come in, he'd get upset. He'd actually hiss or growl at them! My cousin found that out the hard way--she was watching TV, and he growled at her as if to say "Get out, bitch!"

[Dave1982]

We have several cats. One of them - Violet - likes to have her belly rubbed, and will insist on hooking whichever hind leg is on the up side (ie, her right hind leg if she's lying on her left side) around your arm while you pat her. If you move your arm so that it's over the leg, she will immediately move the leg back. She also likes to lick people's hair (she even licked the hair of a friend of mine she has barely had any contact with) and lick soap (even resorting to licking the spot on the edge of the sink where the soap normally resides if the soap happens to be missing). She also eats wads of cat fur off the floor if we fail to clean them up. I particularly hate that, since it causes her to vomit up huge hairballs all over the house.

Violet also has a distinct hierarchy of which family members she prefers. My mother is the #1 human, I am the #2 human. Even if I am smothering her with attention (and Violet is an attention whore) she will leave immediately and go sit with my mother when she comes into the room. She will stay with my mother even if my mother ignores her.

Another of our cats - Hal - has an irritating habit of jumping on the kitchen counter and lapping up water from dirty dishes in the sink. We had to move the communal water bowl near the sink to break him of this, but lately he's been doing it again.

Violet:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5956/violettq5.jpg

[blas]

All of our pets are insane...

FatCat, 12 year old tortoiseshell.......she is known as the "shoe molester". Especially women's shoes. My mom has a horrid habbit of leaving her shoes all over the house (yet bitching when anyone else does it!), and FatCat will rub and rub and rub her shoes. Especially heels.

Bear snorts. Constantly. When she's happy. When she's frustrated. When she's sleeping. When she's eating. Once she snorted and growled at the same time. She loves to roll on her back and kick her legs in the air and snort like a piggy.

Baby is a sadistic little bitch. She will see you staring at her. She'll roll over and start to purr and coo like a dove. Basically inviting you to touch her and rub her. Once you get close enough, she then hisses and attacks! She loves Bear the dog. She will cuddle up to her and start to purr and coo and coo. That's the only time it's ok to pet her. She goes into a blind daze and doesn't realize it's a human petting her. It's weird.

Fanta doesn't want me to leave in the morning after I'm done exercising. He's a really fat old tabby cat. He will actually try to BLOCK the door so I can't open it without hitting him. I've started picking him up, moving him away from the door, and quickly opening the door and leaving. He has a sore spot under his chin from rubbing against trees. I wish he'd stop doing that.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I have a strange bunch of kitties . . . .

Miss Monkey-Monk has a bad habit of jumping up either on the kitchen counter while I'm trying to do dishes or on the cutting board.

She's also known for taking her bath either in my lap if I'm outside on the porch or on the dining room table.

Or, in the kitchen, she'll sit by the two hutches we have to keep dishes/glassware in and will out of the blue decide NOW is the time for a conversation. She'll meow and meow and she'll get louder if I start talking back to her.

Grandmama is another one with quirks of her own. She prefers being outside, but as she's getting older and (we suspect hard of hearing) she's not too particular about where she wants to lay down. We're either having to get her off the curb of the road or sometimes the middle of the road. She's staying in a lot of the time now b/c if not, she's going to be squash in the road one day.

Then there's Stan, our big gray tomcat. He cannot stand for another one of the cats to get attention - he for some unknown reason thinks HE is the one who should be the Center of the Universe (sorry, I already took that spot:p) He'll wait until Monkey-Monk is in my lap before he jumps up onto the table beside my chair and try to just barge his way into my lap.

Rover likes to stretch his claws out in people's legs while begging for attention. Can we say "Ouch?":eek:

Wendyburger (our shorthaired calico) has a bad habit of trying to follow Mom around everywhere. If Mom's out in her chair, here comes Wendy wanting to ride (and actually Grandmama is the same way.) If Mom wants to go see the neighbors, Wendy will actually try to follow her and one of us ends up having to go get her and bring her inside.

Then there's Autumn Mohair, who has always had a bad habit of getting into my lap and wanting to nuzzle. I can deal with him trying to suck on my chin, but the claws are what gets him off me quick. I don't know why he does this . . . he's done this since he was a baby and hasn't outgrown it. He hasn't offered to do this to anyone else - just me. I guess to him, I'm Mommy. :shrug:

As for the dogs, they're funny at times. If it's not Buddy Sr. trying to dig a hole to China in his lot (it's a wonder he hasn't struck oil yet:lol:) he'll literally knock you down wanting to play ball.

Then we have Xanadu and Bubba . . . these two have separate doghouses in the big lot, but insist on sharing the same one. They'll even squabble at times like an old married couple . . . she'll put him out of the doghouse and he'll sleep outside for a day or two, then she'll let him back in.

He can't stand it when my brother lets her out of the lot (she likes to lay up under the truck in the backyard.) Bubba will just lay there by the gate and watch her through the fence with a pitiful look on his face . . . . but she pays him no mind - I guess she likes the break.

Then Shallow is definitely one of a kind . . . she's gotten used to being outside now, but when she stayed in she was definitely acquainted with the cats. If we had a new litter, I'd play Hell trying to keep her out of the closet - she'd go pull them out and want to play with them. Come to think of it, Nermal (who we lost this past spring) used to drag on Shallow's tail and chew on it.

Buddy Jr. (aka Bonehead) has to be fed outside the dog lot and away from Xanadu and Bubba - he'll eat their food too if not.

I have quite a bunch here . . . right now Stan and Rover are passed out underneath a tree where they were attempting to catch a squirrel earlier. I don't think these two have figured out that the squirrel has probably already jumped onto a power line and gotten away that route. Supergenuises they are . . . they learned from Wile E. Cyote I think.

[Kara]

Our dachshund, Wags (named by our 4 year old after the dog on the Wiggles), thinks poop is some kind of exotic treat. When we take him out in the yard, if there's any that didn't get picked up last time due to it being to dark to see it (or too late to care), or rain, or whatever, he'll start wagging his tail and run right to it, then *CHOMP!* Same thing if we're walking him and he comes across another dog's pile.

Even when it's all clear, when there's none found laying around, he manages to get some. He'll be out there squatting, then look around and be like "OH BOY!" then eat it straight from the source. I have no idea how to get him to stop doing this. The best we've been able to come up with is to give his leash a quick (not hard) tug and divert his attention to something else. Hopefully he'll grow out of it.

This week, he learned something new. If he's in his crate due to sleeping children or whatever, he'll bark and prance around whining like his bladder's about to burst. As soon as he's outside he lays in the grass and looks at you like "You love me, right?"

Our bunny, Prissy (a blue mini-rex), also has some quirks. She'll back away from you and turn her butt toward you as if she wants nothing to do with you, but she'll have one ear pricked in your direction. If you start to walk away, she'll run to the front of her cage and beg. She also gives "Prissy Kisses." She loves to just sit there and lick, lick, lick you. Hands, arms, face, legs. If you stop petting her, she'll nudge your hand really hard to let you know she hasn't given you permission to stop. She glares at the dog and growls at him like she wants to kill him, but then she'll turn around and nuzzle him and lick him.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Our dachshund, Wags (named by our 4 year old after the dog on the Wiggles), thinks poop is some kind of exotic treat. When we take him out in the yard, if there's any that didn't get picked up last time due to it being to dark to see it (or too late to care), or rain, or whatever, he'll start wagging his tail and run right to it, then *CHOMP!* Same thing if we're walking him and he comes across another dog's pile.

Even when it's all clear, when there's none found laying around, he manages to get some. He'll be out there squatting, then look around and be like "OH BOY!" then eat it straight from the source. I have no idea how to get him to stop doing this. The best we've been able to come up with is to give his leash a quick (not hard) tug and divert his attention to something else. Hopefully he'll grow out of it.



Some dogs don't outgrow their taste for kitty presents. That's another quirk that Shallow (our reddish Retriever) has . . . outside of being surrogate mommy to kittens, another reason I try to keep her outside is so she'll stay out of the catbox.

Even worse is when she'd have her "treat" and then want to stick her face in yours. EWWWWWWWWWW

:puke:

[Gabrielle Proctor]

My Rottweiler, Sammy, is afraid of turtles. No joke. Regular box turtles you see crossing the road in the summertime.

Tyke, my rat terrier, is really cunning. When Sammy was a puppy, she would attack Tyke every chance she had. The only place he was safe was the couch. But he learned that everytime he barked at the window, Sammy would rush to it, put her front paws on the air conditioner and look out to see what was out there. He would do this just to get off of the couch to grab a single bite of food and then rush back before she could get him.

He also like to tunnel under blankets. In the winter time, he will tunnel under my blankets in the middle of the night. I'm so used to it, I don't even wake up. He will curl up in that little nook you make with your body when you lay on your side.

Of all my pets he's the one that really takes after me. We both hate children...although I don't bite them like he does.

My Tabby, Bean, can't meow very well. He can do a lot of trills, but never a pleasant meow. When it comes out, it sounds very hoarse. He can yowl pitifully though. If I'm walking the dogs outside, and he can't see where I am he will yowl until I yowl back at him. He can't stand me being outside without him, he will follow me wherever I go.

My black cat, Medinoche, is a bitchy, attention-whore. I will be outside on my cell phone and she will wonder up and sit next to me. She'll stare for about 3 minutes and then start meowing. Unlike Bean, she has a very sing-song, pleasant meow. If that doesn't work, she'll tap me with her paw. If that doesn't work, she'll scratch me on purpose. It will continue until I pet her.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Our bunny, Prissy (a blue mini-rex), also has some quirks. She'll back away from you and turn her butt toward you as if she wants nothing to do with you, but she'll have one ear pricked in your direction. If you start to walk away, she'll run to the front of her cage and beg.

Pablo does something like this (and he has on one occasion been mistaken for a bunny!). When he's left alone he stays in the bedroom. When I was still with my ex, we lived in an upstairs apartment - you could always hear him whining from the bedroom before you were even halfway up the stairs. When you open the bedroom door, he looks at you like he wants to be picked up, but as soon as you reach for him, he runs under the bed. If you walk out of the room and ignore him, he'll sneak up as close as he dares, and if you keep ignoring him he starts whining, and as soon as you turn around he runs back under the bed. Eventually he will let you catch him, and then the game is over and he just wants to cuddle. (When he's at my house, he stays in the kitchen, and the game is running around the kitchen table. He goes under the chairs.)

One time he didn't go far enough under and I just pulled him out. Next time, he went further, but I got on the bed, leaned over the far side and pulled him out from there. Next time he went under and sat right in the middle! And one time I left the door open just enough for him to get out and then hid against the wall. He inched his way out, and was all the way out before he realized I was there. He tried to run back in but the door was in his face and he stopped and I grabbed him. I tried it again a couple days later and he refused to come out of the room!:lol:

He also like to tunnel under blankets. In the winter time, he will tunnel under my blankets in the middle of the night. I'm so used to it, I don't even wake up. He will curl up in that little nook you make with your body when you lay on your side.

Pablo does this too. His favorite spots are either against your belly or behind your knees. I love it :). One time I woke up and bf was spooning behind me, and I looked down and the dog was laying in the same position against my chest, his little feet sticking straight out. :lol:

[myswtghst]

Some dogs don't outgrow their taste for kitty presents. That's another quirk that Shallow (our reddish Retriever) has . . . outside of being surrogate mommy to kittens, another reason I try to keep her outside is so she'll stay out of the catbox.

Even worse is when she'd have her "treat" and then want to stick her face in yours. EWWWWWWWWWW

One of the vets I used to work with referred to cat poop as "Tootsie Rolls," thanks to her black lab mix Spencer's love of the litterbox.

Another thing, and an open inquiry to anyone else who has a lab or lab-mix: is it just the labs I've known, or do they all have a fierce and burning desire to destroy their toys? Spencer and my parents dog, Sunny, both could/can not have stuffed toys, because it always seemed to be a race for a new record time for ripping out all the stuffing and making as much of a mess as possible. :p Sunny also has found new and interesting ways to completely mangle and destroy toys, including tennis balls and toys advertised as "dog-proof" and "indestructible."

Even stranger than the above, though, is the fact that there has been only one toy ever that she did not immediately shred, and it was one of mine. :D When we first got her, I picked out a stuffed manatee I used to sleep with and an old blanket of mine to put in her crate, to make her more comfortable and to let her get used to my smell. That manatee is the only stuffed toy she never shredded, and she actually used to "break in" to her crate to get it out and wander the house with it in her mouth. See attachment for a pic of me and the monster herself.

[Dreamstalker]

Our cat McGriff was basically raised by humans (long, mildly sad but cute story), so he sometimes thinks he is one. He will:

--take over one of mom's kitchen chairs at dinnertime and sit there with a look like "where's mine?". He has yet to understand that the fish in his dish is exactly the same as what we have on the table.

--paw at my mom to get her attention when she's knitting/watching TV and he's on the hassock in front of her (he will stretch one paw out while looking quizzical; it's really quite funny to watch). How he learned this we do not know, as it seems to have started in the past few years. The only thing we can think of is that when I was much younger I used to do the same thing to get her attention.

--if someone goes into the bathroom, he's always on their heels. No particular reason, just to make sure he knows where his humans are (and be in the way, of course). He takes up half the bathroom rug when he decides to stretch out.

We also think he has developed some weird time-sense. He's supposed to go to the vet every few weeks for a glucose curve. That usually happens on the day that the cleaner comes and is every month or so. On that day of the week in the mornings, we can't find him. He's usually hiding under the bed. At first it was even when he wasn't due to go (pain in the butt sometimes cause he needs insulin in the mornings).

He's also afraid of the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer or anything else that makes a loud noise. He used to run under the bed, but now he's found out that it can't "get him" if he's high up.

He loves pizza, was once spotted with his face in a bowl of sauteed mushrooms, and will stuff his mouth with dry food, then carry it to another part of the apartment and start "having a picnic" (he has very large front paws, so has also been known to pick up dry food in a paw and eat it like that).