My sister’s retriever was watching sheep herding trials on TV. When the dog ran off the screen sis’s dog ran to the window looking for it.
My old dog never got the whole television thing, but she’d go nuts to Diefenbaker’s “song” at the end of the Due South soundtrack.
My golden retreiver barks when the doorbell rings in those domino’s pizza commercials. She doesn’t really care about other doorbells though. One of my cats, Algy, used to watch Big Cat Diary on Animal Planet. I think he had a thing for one of the leopards. I’ve caught him watching Alton Brown once in a while. I think he’s tired of cat food and wants to learn to cook. The other cats don’t watch tv at all.
My aunt’s cat Rudy freaks out over the MGM lion roaring. He gets wide eyed and runs around the house looking for it.
Our kitty looooooves tv. In fact, if it’s the time of night when we usually sit on the couch and watch, she will come and meow at us if necessary. Then she will go and sit in her spot on the couch and stare at the blank screen as if to say, “I would turn this on myself, but I don’t have and thumbs ya know”.
She is picky about what she watches too. If anyone on tv is being hurt or things get too scary she will stay with us on the couch, but turn her back. Weird little kitty we have.
My kitty is usually distracted from other playing when he notices the TV…kinda like a “whoa! what’s that flashing box” when it is the same TV in the same location that it was for years. He pays more attention to the sounds, especially meows, purrs, roars, and other kitty-like noises. Animals fighting on TV require human cuddling to be endured. Oh yeah, and he is jealous of all the time I spend with the ‘other’ cat. The one that reminds me to save my Word documents…you know…Links, the MS Office Wizard. One little mew from my computer and the real cat is in a mood for hours. He is also a mouse-pointer chaser, but only if the ‘other’ cat isn’t around.
My cat has never reacted to the images. However, he has always been afraid of visitors, so when a doorbell rings on TV he freaks out as if it were a real doorbell.
My Sebastian (feline, female) doesn’t care about the TV at all, but she used to sit in my lap while I plaed Everquest and lash out at any bears, pumas, or wolves that she saw. Only when she was a kitten, though, and she shows no interest at all in it now.
My little Kero (feline, female) usually shows no interest in… well, in much of anything. Knocks on the door, people stiomping upstairs, something dropping on the ground, and she doesn’t flinch, while Bastian runs for cover. However, there is one thing she hates. Hates. Loathes. Link, from the Legend of Zelda series of video games. Hates that little sucker to death!
Whenever I play any Zelda game, no matter how good, bad, pixel-y or cel-y the graphics may be, she knows and recognises Link, and she’ll suddenly run to the television screen, get up on her hind legs and start batting at Link, then take off again. Zooom, whack whack whack, zoooom! Zooom, hissssss, whack whack whack, zoooom…
Sometimes she watches Mario, but she has nothing against him. She might watch the little characters on Harvest Moon with interest. She even seems interested in my Animal Crossing characters. But Link… she hates Link. Just hearing the opening music, and she’ll turn her head in the direction of the TV, narrow her little eyes, and wait. When she finally sees Link… Zoooom whack whack whack zoooooom…