Odd words that catch your pets' attentions?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My husband and I have been using my girl cat as a guinea pig, and we’re starting to feel really guilty. It’s not hurting her, obviously, but we can’t stop laughing at her.

So we watch the British soap opera EastEnders every Sunday night on Pay Per View through Dish Network. It’s been one of my favorite shows for years, and I got my husband hooked on it when we signed up for Dish four months ago (but we met because of an American soap opera, so that’s no surprise that he liked it). My girl cat is usually asleep next to me on the couch while we watch it - but that’s her standard sleeping place for any extended TV viewing.

There’s a character on the show named “Minty”. He’s a chubby balding guy, oddly charming. I like him. Apparently, so does Emmy.

We noticed that she was looking at the television every time she heard his name. In the words of Bull from Night Court…ooooo-kay. So we decided to try it ourselves. I waited until she was dead asleep, looked at her, and said softly “Minty.”.

She jerked awake and looked at me, wide-eyed, like I’d just asked her if she wanted dinner.

So then my husband tried it. Waited until she’d gone back to sleep, glanced at her, and said very quietly “Minty.”.

Same response.

Every time we say the name “Minty” to her, she jerks up and stares at us, eyes wide. We have ABSOLUTELY no idea what this means. We thought maybe it sounded like “eat” to her little cat brain, but “Minty” and “Eat” aren’t that similar. We’ve tried other names from the show. “Garry”, “Kat” (which, oddly enough, she doesn’t respond to), “Little Mo”, “Pauline”, and even “Sharon”. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

But even mutter the name “Minty” at her, and she’s up like a shot. The only time I’ve seen her that attentive is when I’m watching Farscape and the DRDs are on-screen.

Anyone else? Any animals that give a strange response to various words? And anyone know what the hell goes through her little cat brain when we say “Minty” to her?

E.

2

My aunt had a dog that, if you said the word “garage,” regardless of inflection, it would look right at you with its head cocked to one side.

3

Never saw a response like that. But I once knew a cat named “Sagan”. When he saw you, he’d run away. Even if you were someone he knew, and saw every day. Until you said “Sagan” to him. Then he’d turn around and run to you and be your friend. But you had to say the magic word.

Why? You were still the same person. Looked and sounded the same. What switch did the word “Sagan” throw in that walnut-sized cat brain? I’ve never known another cat to act that way.

4

What we name our cats may or may not be their “true” names. Maybe you’ve stumbled upon Emmy’s true name.
(I am joking of course… or am I? :wink: )

5

A friends dog likes to go for walks. Really likes to go for walk. Somehow, the word “walk” has morphed into the word “waffle” in that little canine brain. Now, the mention of waffles will send the dog into a frenzy of hopping and spinning, with dashes to the closet where the leash is kept.

6

My parents’ girl dog responds to “New York”: Ears pricked forward, eyes trained intently on your face.

Of course, she does also recognize the word “walk”, which is why my folks take the dogs for a “klaw” most nights. For whatever reason, she hasn’t learned to recognize klaw yet.

7

One night I asked my boyfriend if he wanted a piece of foccacia. My dog sits up and looks at me. Boyfriend ignores me. I ask again, and this time my dog comes running over to me, all excited.
It took me a second to realize she was confusing “foccacia” with her name, Sascha.

I also used to ask her "Do you want to go for a walk/ride? Now all I have to say is “Do you want to…” and she freaks out barking and running around.

8

The other day my dog looked like she wanted something, but I wasn’t sure what.

“Do you want to go out?”
*
ears perk a little*

“Do you want a cookie?”

ears stay perked, tip of tail moves a little

“Wanna play Jenga?”

ears fully perked up and tail in full wag, panting

Then there was the day where she kept getting excited when I’d say “Grandma.”

9

For some reason, my cat Khan looks up with what I can only describe as anticipatory glee whenever I say one of my favorite swear words. It’s not a verb or a command, it doesn’t even sound like anything that might be fun. But I get mad and call a recalcitrant dresser drawer a “fuckstick,” and Khan acts like I just told him all the catnip in the world was about to be delivered to our house.

10

I had a cat that would come running if you said the word ‘chicken.’

11

Our two dogs know, and react to, the words:
Car ride
Bye-bye
Get your leash (Which they will do)
Good
Bad
Cookie
Bacon
Grandma (They LOVE Grandma!)
Mommy has to get up (They’ll get up and move out of my way)
Eye-eye (They know it’s time for bed and head to our bedroom to lay down for the night)
Medicine
Candy
Bark quiet (They’ll ‘murf’ real low, rather than bark loudly)
Get 'em

And I’m almost convinced they know all the cats names, too. LOL LOL

I’m sure there are other words they know and react to, but I can’t think of them right now. I’ve currently not had enough coffee infused into my system to think clearly.

12

I can soothe my distressed cat by reciting “Jabberwocky” to her. No other poems, just “Jaberwocky.” ??

13

The word ‘squirrel’ sends the dogs into a wanton FRENZY. I forgot about that one.

14

“String!” Or more correctly, “Stwing!” Drives my cat, Baby, nuts. All he wants to do is play with String. Red String. Wed Stwing, if you prefer.

15

When I was a teenager I taught the family dog how to sniff out my weed. (Pot) The code word for her to find it was well, “Weed! find the weed girl!” which she would.

Well, one time my parents had gotten into a discusion about how the “weed wacker” broke and how they need to go to K-mart and get a new “Weed wacker”.

This set our dog into a frenzy. She kept running back and fourth from the living room to MY bedroom. (I had my door close so she couldn’t go in) Whimpering the whole time.

I just sat there on the living room couch hoping like hell the parental units wouldn’t clue in as to what the dog’s problem was.

Lucky for me they didn’t.

16

One of my parent’s cats isn’t declawed, and they trim her claws regularly. This cat (named Lady) knows what “trim Lady’s nails”, “trim her nails”, or any similar phrase means. She’s normally the friendliest cat in the world, but mention nail trimming and she’ll immediately go hide under the bed.

Also, all of the cats know what the phrase “feed the cats” means, and will congregate in the kitchen if they hear it.

17

My border collie is just flat out insane, anyway.

But, he used to get real riled up if said “back door”. He’d sprint to the back door barking. Run back to you, bark once, then run back to the back door, back to you, staring. If you twitched he’d sprint to the door again.

Anyway, it morphed. It got to the point where if you were in the living room and burped, cleared your throat or even, yes, farted very loudly. . .he’d sprint to the back door.

Ain’t nothing funnier on earth than seeing your dog flip out barking and running because you just cut a fart.

18

I used to sing softly to my oldest cat when I first got her as a kitten, a song called “Sora” from Escaflowne (the Romanian lyrics, not the English ones - not that I know Romanian, just that song).
Anyway, fast forward about a year later, when we adopt a kitten from the pound. This new kitten is very lovable and sweet, and loved nothing more than to be held and cuddled. The oldest cat is thrilled to have a feline companion, but she has left her cuddly ways behind. She’s very smart, and interacts with us, but she hates to be touched or cuddled if she doesn’t first give her explicit permission. Hey, I respect that.

So I hold and cuddle the new kitten, and the older cat is fine with this. Until I begin to sing her song to the new kitten. She begins to howl and meow and act angry at me, until I stop. Then she sulks and gives me dirty, dirty looks.

If I sit in front of her, without the youngest kitten nearby, and make sure she knows all of my attention is on her and her alone… well, first she looks at me like I’m nuts. That dirty “What the hell do you want?” look. But if I start to sing “Sora” for her, she suddenly begins to purr and rub herself all over me. She will throw herself into my lap.

That’s her song, damnit, no one else’s.

As for our youngest… well. She doesn’t seem to have any words that make her perk up, or songs that are hers, and she’s pretty easy going most of the time. But she has one arch enemy. The one thing in the world she loathes: Link, from any of the Zelda games.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the old Nintendo games, the N64 games, or the newer cel game - she hates Link and attacks the television screen when she sees him. She hisses, spits, bats the screen, and runs away. None of the other characters make her react this way. She watches Mario, my Harvest Moon guy (and son, dressed very similarly to Link), my Animal Crossing character (who you can dress as Link if you want), my Pokemon… etc etc etc - none of these characters bug her. And she seems to know if it’s not really Link, but an imposter - there’s no reaction. But when the real Link is on the screen: HSSSS! PPHT PHHT! RRREEEOWRR! batbatbat zoom

Weirdos.

19

When I say “Where’s Grandma?” to my dog, she jumps up on the nearest piece of furniture.

And one of SkipMagic’s cats, who previously couldn’t have been bothered with my mere, useless existence (unless, strangely, I was peeing, which interested him greatly) morphed suddenly into a super love machine when I one day started calling him Foofy Foofy. Now all I have to say is Foofy Foofy and there is much loving.

20

I absolutely love that you created your own K-9 unit.