This isn’t so much of a habit but - it kind of fits into the thread and is kind of funny.
I worry a little that she may have been abused before I got her. She is afraid of weird things - like the hair brush. Also, she doesn’t like to play chase. She runs from me, but will cast fearful glances over her shoulder and her tail is between her legs and she is clearly afraid. (I’ve never known a dog that didn’t like to chase.) This isn’t proof that she was abused, she just may be timid of weird things. (I hope that is the case.)
I’ve been playing with her inside and will get down on all fours and say I’m going to get you and then we wrestle and she seems to be having fun.
Today when we were outside, on a whim I said I’m going to get you and started running towards her. Instead of running away, she turned and happily launched herself at me, running at full speed.
I’m a big man, 6’ 214 lbs, and so stopping on a wet lawn is not easily done. But I didn’t want to step on her or kick her - especially since she is learning to play and not run away. I lifted my right foot so I wouldn’t kick her and of course my left went out from under me and I landed flat on my back looking at the sky. Oooof! I can’t breath, I can’t breath. This was great fun! She happily launched herself onto my chest and started licking my face. I can’t get up, it hurts so bad. Yay, she says, *I never get to lick and he is just laying there letting me! *Eventually I worked my way up and into the house. She is sleeping at my feet oblivious to how badly I hurt all over.
My Cairn terrier was adopted from the pound. We had no background info, but apparently the previous owners taight him to sit up and it’s very cute, but strange looking.
I couldn’t put my finger on just why until this past weekend, my cousin observed: “He sits up like a meerkat”. It’s true. His front legs are down, laying on his tummy.
My Himalayan cat, Marco, sleeps on his back. Or stretched out (3 feet long) full length, chin resting on paws outstretched in front of him like Supercat flying. He’s grown into his Awesome Winter Coat (has gained 3 lbs. since summer) and looks rectangular, like a sheep, with little brown feet. (The odd thing is when he sheds, his summer coat is much shorter, lighter, and thinner, and he’s long and skinny.) Right now, when he grooms himself, he often gets his long ruff caught in his lower teeth, and I have to fix that. Looks goofy as hell.
Oh, and he’s a boy cat, but he has a favorite toy, a rabbit fur kitty in a basket, and he will spend an hour, grooming his ‘baby’ until we have to take it away. He loves his ‘baby’.
One of my cats is intensely curious about water, especially moving water, but hates getting wet. I’ve watched him sit outside the curtain while I’m taking a shower, waiting to jump into the tub after I’m done, only to jump right back out shaking his now wet paws. I got a little flowing water bowl for my kitties, where the water goes down an incline to the bottom. Every night I pour a cup of water into it to keep it full. Every night he comes running to see the falling water, and sticks his nose up to it. And every night the water hits his nose and he goes running off trying to paw the water off of his face.
My Bichon Ernie loves to guard stuff. He picks mostly normal things. I can understand getting in a corner and guarding a treat or a bone. (He will let me take it away, he just doesn’t want the other dogs to get it.) But when he starts guarding socks, or empty toilet paper rolls, it gets into weird territory! He’s so sweet, though.
The other day I called and called for Ernie, but he wouldn’t come. I finally went looking for him in the backyard, and he was guarding a dead squirrel. :eek: My husband wan’t home and I had to throw it away. :eek: Ernie wasn’t happy.
I think I’m the first one to post a bunny story, so here it is:
I used to have a male lop called Aljoscha. Whenever I was in his sight and moved, he followed me. If I walked faster, he sped up too. If I let him reach me, he didn’t do anything in particular, he just stayed by my side. He was a house bunny most of the time, but sometimes my then girlfriend and me took him out and let him run free somewhere in the countryside. We were never worried that he could run away as long as I was there too. And he only followed me, not my girlfriend, although she was as close to him as I was.
Oh, and he did hump the guinea pigs he lived with, and also many objects like stuffed animals, pieces of cloth and such, but he never humped me, so it was not a sexual thing…
My cat Zaney will hold down the power button and my laptop if she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention. She’s done this to me a good dozen times in the last year; so it’s not like she’s just doing it by accident. Pester human for attention, receive only token attention, stretch out paw, push little section of the thing that’s getting attention until it stops humming, receive attention.
She also popped off up to six keys at a time if I’ve left it open when not in use.
One of my cats loves Q-Tips. I can buy him the most expensive / exotic toy known to cat, and he pays it lip service for an hour or so, then it’s back to the Q-Tips.
Now for the odd(er) part. I never knew where he was taking them. He’s grab one off the bathroom counter in the upstairs bathroom while I was getting ready, then wander off with it in his mouth…and I’d never see them laying around anywhere again. These are strictly indoor cats, mind you.
Until a recent bathroom cleaning. While mopping the floor, I picked up the perfectly undisturbed bathmat…and there they all were, about 50 of them, buried like dog bones under the bathmat.
Another Sydney-ism is her beloved pink octopus. When we first got her, my wife got Sydney this plush pink octopus that squeaked and rattled. It immediately became her favorite toy, and has been replaced with an exact copy a good dozen times in the last four years.
She will carry Octopus around, snuggle it, put its head in her mouth and suckle herself to sleep with it.
She doesn’t have any aggression if we take it away from her, but the mastiff knows if she wants to get Sydney to wrestle with her when she’s not really in the mood, all she has to do it pick up Octopus and run away with it. Again, there’s no aggression, but Syd is clearly saying, “Hey, you give that back!”
The weirdest thing, though, is whenever we have guests over, Syd will greet them, then, after everyone is settled in, run over to Octopus, pick it up, race to her cushion in the living room and hump it mercilessly. It’s like she’s saying, “Help yourself to whatever you want, but Octopus is mine.” After a good hump, she’ll snuggle it again. She only does this when we have company. We’ve come to refer to this as the floor show part of the evening’s activities.
One of my cats likes to lick plastic bags. Not like, cheap supermarket grocery plastic bags (which he is, in fact, afraid of) but nice, heavy glossy plastic bags that you get from more upscale sorts of clothing stores. What’s more, he is furtive about it. He’ll sneak over to them and I just become aware of this funny “rasp, rasp, rasp” noise of a sandpaper tongue on plastic. And if I look over and say something, he’ll practically leap away with a guilty look on his face. Weirdo.
My other cat just loves to be buried under blankets. He’s not particularly good at getting under them on his own, but if you lift them up for him to walk under, or if you just cover him, you very rapidly get what we call “the purring lump” as he settles down to doze, purring like a motor.
One of my cats loves licking plastic bags, too. Except he’s not picky at all so he’ll start going to town on any grocery bags that are lying around. He also has a knack of really getting into it when we’re trying to get to sleep. There’s something about the OCD-ness of it that just drives me bonkers.
Our other kitty loves chewing on plastic - preferably clear vinyl varieties like sheets get packaged in, but ziplocks will do too. She doesn’t tear off pieces, I just think she likes the feel of the plastic puncturing under her fangs. But anything plastic that gets left out sooner or later ends up looking distinctly collander-ish.
I had a parakeet who loved to play with his mirror. It was the standard mirror toy with a bell on the bottom. What he would do that always made my laugh was go under the mirror so the bell would be on top of his head. Now when he was under the bell it would cover his eyes so if you moved or said something he would peek out form under the bell as if to check out for danger and once he was assured their was no threat his head was under the bell again. It was so funny to see him do this because it would look like he was wearing a derby hat.
Lenny (that’s his ghost next to Mrs. Homie’s foot) thinks my earlobe is his momma’s tittie. He’s constantly trying to bite it, suck it, paw at it, etc. He’s even screeched at me when I’ve scolded him and turned away.
Jeff doesn’t meow. In fact, he doesn’t make any noises at all, save for a kind of squeak. And he only does it when he’s overjoyed-- like playing with his favorite toy.
My Mainecoon cat, Rasputin, jumps into the bathtub in the morning and paws the shower curtain over and over (luckily no claws out). He also has synced his bladder to mine so we go to the toilet the same time. He also uses my bed as the grand repository of toys. Many times I roll over in bed and discover a toy sticking in my side. He also uses a pillow like a human. As I am falling asleep on my side, he rests his head on my pillow and licks my nose good night. When I first lost my job, I came home earlier than usual and was fine until the night when I had a crying attack. Rasputin licked my face and help my hand between his paws. I swear, he is part human!
