Our one cat, Boo, is deathly afraid of pot holders. Yep, you read that right, pot holders. So we throw them in the air in his direction as often as possible. It’s fun to watch him jump 10 feet in the air, back arched, hissing as loud as he can. 
Our late corgi was terrified of measuring tapes, so we’d threaten to measure him. We’d say he was the only dog in the world who wasn’t afraid of heights but of lengths.
With Bobby, as far as I can tell it’s just because he’s old and we’re sort of slobs. If there’s something that’s mostly flat and been lying on the floor for more than half a day – a piece of paper, a plastic bag, my empty backpack – he’ll use it as an impromptu bathroom. We got it under control by keeping a litter box in the master bedroom upstairs (which I’m just thrilled about, but it’s a small house and there’s nowhere else I can put it) and by keeping the floor relatively clean. He won’t pee on carpet or linoleum, but anything else is fair game. Plus we started letting him go outside regularly. Less pee inside, but the yard kinda stinks now.
When I was a teenager, we used to have blue jays that came into our back yard. My mom would leave peanuts out for them on the picnic table out there. They were very skittish, though, so they would always swoop in, grab a peanut, and immediately swoop back out, almost without stopping.
So, one day I decided to have a little fun with them. I got a longish rubber band, cut it, and tacked one end down to the wooden picnic table. The other end I tied around a peanut. Then I went back in the house to watch.
A few minutes later, here comes one of the blue jays.
Swoop!
Snatch!
Swoop!
…
SPROING!
The jay reached the end of the rubber band’s stretch and was catapulted back into the table. No, it didn’t hurt the bird. It picked itself up, glanced around in a very annoyed sort of way, ruffled itself up with as much dignity as it could muster, and flew off.
I did this trick several more times, but eventually the jays, being intelligent creatures, figured it out. At that point, they’d swoop in and stay on the table, pecking away at the peanut shell and digging the nut out. I always let them do this and didn’t scare them away–I was proud of them for figuring it out. 
We also used to feed marshmallows to the raccoons who would come to call–it was hilarious watching them try to wash them in the pool and getting all confused when they’d dissolve into nothing.
I think the only time I’ve ever seen my dog actually express annoyance is when someone farts in his face (don’t ask me how I know this … ::smiles innocently:: ) and when there are little annoying dogs pestering him for attention the way he is accustomed to pestering me for attention.
That’s not for lack of trying on our part, tho. He has so far utterly failed to be annoyed when we pull on his lips, grab his tongue, blow in his face, bunch up the extra skin on his neck into little pigtails (we haven’t actually bound it up yet, but we probably could), put blankets over his head/body, pull his tail, stick his tail into his mouth (or ear), pull his paws, stick his paw into his mouth, flick his nose, poke him while sleeping, attempt to annoy him with the vacuum cleaner, allow him to wander into the range of one of these (although he does show more caution in the presence of garden hoses now). He also does not respond to thunderstorms, fireworks, cats, squirrels, bugs, duct tape … He simply revels in any and all human attention, regardless of its form, and when he’s not getting it he’s content to sit and wait.
Actually I take that back. The other day he ate some strawberries out of the backyard and, going by the sounds and smells that came out of him for the rest of the day, I would say he was rather annoyed indeed.
This is why you use the Cat Stroller.
My parents have one for their cat. I wish I was joking. The funniest part is, each and every time, they think that, if they unzip the flap, their cat will remain sitting there. Of course, the very second he thinks he might have a shot at freedom, he makes a break for it. This has occurred multiple times.
And no, I don’t know why the manufacturers are using dogs to advertise their product for cats, outside of the fact that cats are obviously too smart for their device.
What I found funny was at the bottom of that page, they advertise some of the strollers as being suitable for “cats up to 45 pounds.”
Next time I want to take my ocelot out for a walk…
I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s still funny, and I still do it. When the fuzzy black land shark is in reach (on my lap, next to my on the couch, etc) and yawns, I put my finger in his mouth. Not a pointy poke, I lay the finger across his mouth like it’s a bit on a horse’s bridle. When he finishes his yawn, he closes his mouth and finds my finger there. YA-A-A-WNurglkWTF? followed by GLARE.
I have a new one, too.
He has really gotten to enjoy lap time in the last couple of years (he was a bit standoffish for a while). When he’s in a cuddlesome mood, and he sees me heading for the back room, he apparently thinks: “A ha! The monkey’s gonna sit on the couch and look at the flickering square! LAP TIME!” and he dashes in ahead of me.
But, he has a similar reaction when he sees me going into the kitchen. “A ha! The monkey’s going into the room where the delicious nummies come from! Maybe he’s opening one of those silver hockey pucks full of the EXTRA delicious nummies!” and he dashes in ahead of me.
You see where this is going, I think.
I take a few steps toward the back room. He dashes ahead. I stop. He pulls up short of the couch, turns around and looks. I then move toward the kitchen. He sprints out of the back room, wheels around the corner, passes me, and skids to a stop on the kitchen linoleum. I have not followed; he turns around, confused. Then I take a few steps over toward the back room again.
I can send him back and forth half a dozen times before he starts to get wise.
I’ll just get on all fours and follow my dog around. At first he doesn’t notice; after he realizes I’m following behind him he’ll quicken his pace and go through obstacles, all the while giving me this “what the hell are you doing?” type glance.
The other one is always eager to come inside after playing in the backyard. I’ll open the door enough for him to see a way in, then shut it as he tries to scamper in.
(You don’t use Advantage?)
When one of the girlies is sitting in the laundry room (where we have all of their beds set up and a “perch” attached to the old back door we don’t use, I’ll go outside and come up and tap on the window. Maggie freaks.
Or when she’s sleeping, I’ll sneak up on her and then yell, “MMMMMMAAAAGGGIEEE!” The first time I did that, she took off, fur stuck up every which way.
Throw rocks into the ocean and watch yellow lab swim around looking for them.
Leash on a cat is great fun too. It’s like you just removed all their bones.
I notice when my toddler is feeding pigeons or seagulls there always seem to be teenagers around who run into the flock to make them scatter. It’s also fun to throw food closer and closer and try to touch the birds.
I like to balance things on my baby’s head. She holds perfectly still and rolls her eyes up…oh wait, this is just about annoying the animals, isn’t it?
When I had dogs, I would wait until they were asleep and tickle the hair between their paw pads. I had one female dog, that when I did this to her, she would turn her head - stare me down as if she was trying to send mind messages, then get up and sit in another chair. Then take a deeep breath and make a heavy sigh like she was saying, “Gawd. Can’t I just be left alone.”
Oo, I forgot this one. If you have a dog who likes to play fetch with a ball, and who also doesn’t mind being out in the snow… see how long she’ll dig in a snowbank after a “ball” you throw in. A snowball. If you’re feeling more kind, toss another if she seems too frustrated. 
Excellent!
My parents’ cat is deathly afraid of the Wii. She was fine until we first started up Mario Galaxy. At the game start up, Mario yelled in his high-pitched fake italian accent “Super Mario Galaxy!” and she bolted from the room as if someone had just set her tail on fire. Now all it takes is to simply turn on the Wii and she flees for her life, because she knows it means Mario’s coming. Of course, this means that we love closing the door and booting up the game just to watch her dash around the room in a frenzied panic looking for a hiding spot.
So last night I started throwing dirty socks at my cat. He was just sitting there innocently under the coatrack. After about the third sock he jumped op on the kitchen chair to get away. I managed to throw two more socks at him, and after a pause in the action he stood up on the chair and stuck his face out from behind the chair back… BAM! Sock to the face, totally draped over his head.
Hilarious. My husband says it is the proudest he’s ever been of me.
Be careful how and where you annoy your animals!
A noisy noisy noisy noister??
My brother swears that this works. He isn’t really too mobile, so will wait in the car while his wife does the shopping. He makes her drive around until they can park next to a car with a dog in it. He does this thing with his head: imagine you’re giving someone the “office hello” - you know, sort of looking at the person and raising your chin. Now do it faster and twice in a row, quickly. He claims that by the time his wife returns to the car, the dog in the other car is going batshit insane.
My cat hates to be pointed at. If she’s close to you, she’ll attack your finger. I learned that if she’s across the room when I do it (a la Crocodile Dundee), she will flop over on her side and make those chittering noises like when she sees a bird through the window.
That was the assumption under test. Impossible to gauge their (non)reaction.