STORM2K

Please post your pet's (dog, cat, etc.) personal quirky habit or what they're afraid of. I'll start.....

Our dog is afraid of her food bowl! We bought her a standard plastic stand, two blue bowls. She drinks fine but when she would take bites of her dry food, it would shift or her tags would hit the bowl and she'd jump back. Our kennel uses steel bowls and she just about went w/o food for one of our trips. Finally, the kennel said bring your own bowls, they didn't want to see a dog go w/o food! Our goofy dog...anyway, she had anal surgery once and couldn't bend over to eat. Crazy dog owner that I am (luv that mutt to death) I fed her out of my hand, like you would a horse. This went on for 2 weeks. Can't quite remember if she went back to eating out of her plastic bowl or not. Finally, I just started dumping the food out onto the floor. We all just thought nothing of this habit until we had overnight company, he shouted out - hey, look at that, your dog won't eat out of her bowl! So last New Year's one of my resolutions was to break of her this habit. Here is it August and I just implemented it. Yeah, I know I'm a proscrastinator. LOL Long story short, the kennel (who bless their hearts fed her off the floor for her two stays this summer) suggested buying heavy pottery type bowls, since they won't sound hollow or move. Hope hates when her stand even just moves a hair. Stop laughing - there's no hope for our Hope....he he I ordered a non-skid rug/placemat from LL Bean for the bowls. One morning she ate off the floor and by dinner, the old stand was whisked away, new bowls in place with new mat. And oh boy, did the barking start. She comes up to me and practically drags me into the kitchen - hey didn't you forget something there Mommy....Last night we left her food out for a few hours but dumped in the garbage, with her watching (she did have a few brave bites). She went to bed on the hungry side.

Well, this morning she finally ate her breakfast out of the bowl, after some coaxing and leaving her alone. We all praised her like nuts. Hope - LOL - this continues!!!

Crimeny, never thought I'd go thru all of this for a dog - who, BTW, I call my third daughter. Did I mention I luv her like crazy? LOL She's in our family photo here in the gallery for anyone wanting to see what this picky dog looks like! She's a Golden. I swear I didn't want to raise a finicky dog!!!

Next....I know we must have some pretty peculiar pets, since well, we have some rather peculiar members (I'm not mentioning any names!!!)....

Mary

I have a cat that sometimes likes to jump on my chest if I am lying down reading or watching TV and he starts kneading it or my size 34 stomach like it's pizza dough with his paws, or as if he were still nursing with his momma cat..and he's frigging 7 years old.
The 11 year old likes to hang out in the litter box if you yell at him or if he gets stressed out. P.U.!

ledzeplinII - the litter box? Bet you want to cuddle with that one, huh? You probably don't lie down on the couch much either. When we went on vacation we ordered in pizza one night. A few of us ate on the floor, with plates in our lap. Didn't take long for one of us to say - we could never do this at home (dog was at the kennel). LOL

Mary

All my cats are scared of my bathroom rug. When they walk close to it they start sniffing it. When I move it a little bit they jump high in the air and then run.

My Pomeranian is scared of my ice chest. She barks and barks at it when I bring it into the house. She growls at it from a distance and struts around it.

One of my horses is scared of a fern. If you pick it up and show it to him he runs away. LOL!!

Wasn't somebody famous supposedly afraid of ferns? Freud or Hitler...I don't remember which one.

I'd like to know what possesses cats to dart to another room or area of a room...out of the blue! I remember a stand-up comedian talking about how cats must always be late for stuff -- "Darn! It's 5:42!! I'm supposed to be in the living room!" ZIP! "Ahh...made it, just two minutes late."

Everytime I let my poodle, Buster out back he runs to the maple tree and jumps up on it 3 times while circling the tree....peers out at you from behind the tree with a big grin on his face and his little poofy tail wagging as hard as he can wag it! I tell him "Good boy" and he jumps 2-3 times more!

Quirkey habits??? LOL - my dog has a long list
of those! For starters, #1 - she eats
hickory nuts like the squirrels......don't mind
the CRUNCHING in the background......
#2 - thinks she's a boy - I walk her and have to
pull her off of the flower beds where my brother's
male dog has "marked" his territory! She tries to
mark HER territory, too!
#3 - eats weeds like they're going out of style!
My Dad always said a dog had stomach upset
when they ate weeds/grass - for Alex, it's been
an every-day thing, all of her 10-year-old life -
gotta have her daily "salad" of greens!

Poor confused dog - I had NUTHIN' to do with
raising her......

Whenever I go down to the basement and then start up the stairs, our 4 yr old pit bull Beauty starts barking and carrying on like I'm some tv movie monster coming up from the lagoon. I turned it into a game by bobbing up and down, weaving back and forth and feinting forward and back as I slowly make my way up. (you did say wierd pet behavior, right?) By then she is totally bonkers. As soon as I get to the top she jumps up and licks me to death.

Linda - LOL at the fern!! Rug too. When you say ice chest you mean cooler right? If so, ditto there - Hope's afraid of our cooler. Especially if it's upside down, drying - OMG, she freaks out!!!

Kathy - hope you never lose that tree in a storm! Buster would miss this little dance huh? LOL

Breeze - Alex thinks she's a male, and a squirrel. How'd you manage that? And oh a vegetarian!!!

Ed - yes I said weird behavior. LOL Even though your dog Beauty freaks out when you go to the basement, I imagine if you stopped this game, she'd miss it.

Dogs - they want it, then they don't.

When Hope was a puppy she wouldn't walk past a fire hydrant unless I petted/touched it first. I know I must have looked a sight, petting a stupid fire hydrant, encouraging Hope to smell it. Another time she was lying on top of our register (summer), and when she got up her tags got caught in the register. She pulled it up out of the floor in her frantic fight to free herself of this thing, that was her size then. Nina was home alone with her and could not get Hope to sit still. Finally she took her collar off, prying the register apart from the tags. Ever since then, Hope inches up towards any register in the house. All we have to say is boo and she runs away.

Mary

I have a Pomeranian who hates the vacuum cleaner.. Whenever I use it, she attacks it like its going after her... She hates it!
I also have a Mini Doxi, and a Great Dane, and the Great Dane has a dog house (the size of a shead).. Well the Doxi gets in it, and wont let the Great Dane in... The doxi looks so stupid in it cause shes so small! And the Great Dane is stupid enought cause she lets the doxi get her way!
The other night my cat got my show stuck on his head, and he looked like a pinball hitting up against everything.. He was zooming around the house running into walls, table legs, and the couch.. He finally got the shoe off... I wish I had a video camera, it was so funny!
My other cat hates the rug on the floor in front of the toilet, she likes to pee on it... If you leave ANYTHING on the floor in the bathroom she will pee on it... Its a good way of getting the kids to pick up after themselves!
When I think of more, Ill let ya know!

Lisa

Lisa - those are hilarioius. You should get that mini doxi and great dane scene at the dog house on tape. Send it into the pet video show on Animal Planet! I think you'd win. But chances are if you got that video camera out, they wouldn't do it. Pets are just like kids. Toddlers to be more exact I say. It's like having a perpetual 3 year old in the house!

Mary

LOL Mary, "ice chest" means "cooler" I am from the South, remember??? hehehehe

Linda - LOL back at ya!! Up here we call soda - pop. I'm sure there are other differences...we could do an entire thread on this subject alone!!! Regional slang/terms!!! To prevent embarrassment when traveling, ya know....

Mary

All the cats my family has are afraid of the vaccum cleaner. It's like whenever I turn on the vaccum cleaner to clean the floor, they would just run away from it.

I also like to add that a cat named Allegria cries and begs for food everytime I walk in the litchen. My mom was tempting to get a baby bottle for him.

Miss Mary wrote:Linda - LOL back at ya!! Up here we call soda - pop. I'm sure there are other differences...we could do an entire thread on this subject alone!!! Regional slang/terms!!! To prevent embarrassment when traveling, ya know....

Mary

I was called a "hopeless country bumpkin" last night in teamspeak by a member who will remain nameless. I am still trying to figure that one out.

Linda - you a country bumpkin? Nevah!!

Check out Shawn new topic, regional terms. It's a good one.

Mary

PS - and what is it with vacuum cleaners? Pets hate them! The only time Hope feel brave enough to run up to our upright is when it's unplugged, cord is wound and I'm wheeling it to the closet. That is the only time she's ready for battle. But turn it on and she's in our powder room, no windows in there, her spot for storms. Too funny.

Naaah, she's a Southern belle.

I am from the north, but I live in the south now and all of my in-laws call a cooler an icebox... they also call the fridge an icebox too... Kinda confusing when they tell ya to get a beer from the icebox?

Also I noticed in the south, every kind of soda is called a Coke... I dont like Coke, so when I want a soda I specify what kind I feel like... Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Etc... lol...

But of course there are silly northern words as well.. I remember when I first moved down here they put me in speech cause they couldnt understand what I was saying.. I also got in trouble cause I called a "water fountain" a "bubbler"... Go figure!!

Sorry to have changed the subject to Northern and Southern words.. lol...

My horse (http://students.ou.edu/R/Laura.M.Reuter-1/Blazewhip.jpg) is DEATHLY afraid of cows. She knows what they hear and smell like, and if she can sense one nearby, she will FREEZE at full attention. When she sees one, she turns around and flees in the opposite direction. She has even taken so far as that she is afraid of pinto horses - with patterns like cows... What a wierdo...