Both of my cats do this weird thing at the water dish – hook it with a paw and yank it toward them. Sometimes they’d get it more than a foot from its proper place, splashing water hither and yon, till I put each dish (two, one on each floor) inside a heavy ceramic casserole dish. They still yank it but can’t move it very far now.
Merc (Freddie Mercury) likes to sit or catloaf at the top of the stairs, staring down as if on guard to repel boarders. When Sally’s in the litter box and he wants to play chase, he sits a foot or two away and waits till she’s done and exiting before launching his pursuit.
I bet plenty of you can top their weirdness quotient.
My friend’s dog will not eat food directly out of his food bowl. He takes a mouthful of food, carries it over to the living room, spits it out on the carpet, and eats it there.
Maybe the dog doesn’t like the smell of his dish? Or maybe as a puppy he learned to grab his share and go off with it so the rest of the litter wouldn’t steal it?
ETA: I assume my cats yank the water to make it easier to see the surface before they dip their noses toward it. I suspect most critters that do something that seems weird to us have their own – to them – sensible reason for it.
I assume it’s the latter. My friend got him from the pound, and I’m guessing that in his first home there were bigger dogs that would fight him for a place at the food bowl. But he’s been in my friend’s home with no other dogs for over 10 years and still hasn’t gotten over this habit.
Hey, it’s worked for the dog so far, right?
My senior cat does not simply lower her face to the water dish, she drinks by dunking a paw and licking it off.
I live about a mile from a dog park, and I walk my black lab Nash there every day. When I hook him to the leash, he keeps looking at me like “do we really have to?” It takes a few tugs and cajoles to get him motivated, but once we get going, he gets excited. He’ll start to loop around me with this solemn look on his face.
I’ve gotten to where I count out loud each loop. I’ve also had to define what an actual loop is. If he waits for me to catch up then runs behind me, I don’t count it. If he moves before I catch up, I count it. When we get to the cul de sac next to the park entrance, he’ll get in about 8-10 loops. He usually averages 15 loops per trip. The most he’s done is 31. I can’t really see a meaningful pattern to these numbers. I keep meaning to use a loop-counting app to see if the loop number corresponds to some kind of astrological event.
I don’t know if it’s weird or not, but it’s so cute I can’t stand it: when the cat wants attention for any reason, which is often, he races ahead of where you’re walking then THROWS himself to the ground right in front of you. It makes a huge thump and sometimes a small tremor. Do a lot of cats do this?
I’ll say one thing: that’s a doggone trusting cat. Have you ever tripped over him?
I’ve been watching Stupid Pet Tricks with Sarah Silverman and trying to figure out what my animals can do to get on the show. Every night, my four dogs are dead asleep…but if I tap a wine glass they all jump up, wiggle around, and act like assholes. Could work, but it would be hard to get them to sleep on stage.
My husky washes his front paws in his water bowl.
[squints] Are you sure there isn’t a raccoon in his family tree?
Yes, repeatedly, and, I’m afraid, inadvertently kicked him pretty hard. He’s getting better at monitoring whether I’m fully aware of him or not; it’s so clearly a “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME” thing that he doesn’t do if I’m not up to looking at all (like on the 3am trip to the bathroom.)
Also not sure if this is weird: he drinks out of the toilet, exactly like a dog. Not from a delicate perch: he throws both arms over the bowl, and makes slurping sounds. Also jumps into the shower right after I’m out, and licks the delicious warm soapy water off the tile.
I don’t have any pets but visiting my sister I saw one of her cats had an interesting way of eating. He wouldn’t eat out of the bowl: He’d lay next to his food bowl, reach in with his paw and scoop out a few scoops of dry food onto the floor in front of him and eat. Repeat as many times until he was sated.
Ha! I had a cat many years ago that liked to get into the tub right after I’d showered, lick, and lie down in the still-wet tub.
We have a Maine Coon. Keeping that idiot OUT of the water is a constant battle. Their kitty fountain has been banished to the catio because we got tired of mopping the kitchen floor six times a day.
VBC has four large plushy toys. She brings them to me every day and then brings them to bed every night.
When Molly, one of our two cats, wants to wake me she’s started sitting by the side of the bed and quietly mewping at me, and this can go on for a minute or two. It’s like when you want to ask somebody if they’re asleep, but if they are you don’t want to wake them up.
Molly also loves to carry her toys around while meowing at the top of her lungs. I’ve done some editing on the clip linked below, but from start to finish it all happened over a half hour or so:
(Note, unfortunately the sound comes through on only one side.)
Molly Has A Busy Evening
Heh. When wee old Greybeard was alive, he had a favorite little plush teddy bear, and he would march around the house with it in his mouth, mewing with triumph.
ETA: Maybe the four plush toys are her imaginary kittens?
Does anyone else’s dog react badly to the theme from Law & Order?
Pluto alerts as soon as he hears it and quickly progresses into full-throated howls of seeming distress, snout pointing at the ceiling. Even if the theme plays faintly in the background it’ll set him off.
This reaction may be related to a toy he had as a young pup - a Fisher-Price giraffe that when jostled would play classical tunes. Then (as now) that got him howling too.
Some dogs just aren’t musically inclined.
That’s actually what I thought because before she got her toys, she would open hub’s sock drawer and put them in front of the door every day.
When we put 12 week old Gormless George in front of her, she was the happiest cat in the world. They still cuddle and groom each other and he is still submissive to her despite the big size difference.