those crazy pet stories

[Valhson]

I have a parrot, Quaker Parrot to be more accurate.I call him the little green chicken though he has a real name. Flight or fight but he is a little more flight than others birds I have seen.

It is annoying now especially when guests are around, but was all the rage a year ago. The little green chicken (LGC) takes a lot of road trips when I go to see the family etc. He loves to travel by car and will sometimes sing to the radio.

Well on one uneventful trip to NW PA, my brother, LGC and I are in the car. We are listening to NPR and after a really nice lunch my brother ends up with gas. Being the 12 year old in a 26 year old body he is, he is laughing when he says he is sorry and keeps rolling the window up and down. Laughing to the point of coughing... So the bird starts coughing and laughing. We thought it was funny but didn't think anything of it.

Fast forward to later that week. The parents’ dog has gas, walks past LCG's cage and the bird starts coughing and laughing. We all wonder what happened as we weren't catching on yet. Then someone gives the baby nephew a raspberry or zerbert... Now it all makes sense... Any time someone has gas either noise or particularly strong, the bird coughs then starts laughing! It was funny at first but now it is just too much.

 

[dhermann1]

Wonderful stories!

This is making me remember so many animals I've had over the years. But there's nothing like an idiot cat for pure entertainment.
Not so long ago my late wife and I had our own animal welfare system going, with 7 cats in the house and 14 strays in the backyard, all being fed by us. We spayed about 7 females and had a couple males fixed as well. I'm a firm believer in the neuter and release approach to strays. Over the years we had several litters, and managed to find homes for about 25 kittens. We got all those mommas spayed afterwards!
About 7 years ago we had one youngster, I called him Rocky because he was fast as a rocket, in the house (among several others). His mother, named "Mama" (very creative, I know) was TOTALLY ferral. You couldn't get near her. But she was smart and canny. We fed her and she appreciated it. She would show up at the back door from time to time with a carcass of a bird or a squirrel, and set up a loud meowing to announce that she had brought in a fresh kill to the pride, and that we were all to come and partake.
One afternoon in August I was upstairs, my wife was in the basement, and we suddenly heard Mama yowling away outside. Oh, no, I thought, another mangled corpse. I went out back and found a very disturbed Mama walking around meowing in a very worried manner. Then I heard a tiny kittenish "Meeow! Meeow!" a few back yards away. Mama had been signalling to us "Kitten in distress! Kitten in distress! Come help!"
I went around the corner to that yard, and found a tiny maybe 10 week old black and white kitten, yowling its little head off. I picked her up, and after a one second moment of panic, in which she inflicted deep claw wounds into me, she curled up happily in my hands and started purring her brains out. I took her home. She was classic tuxedo, almost all black with white belly and little white bib. VERY cute. My wife said "We're not keeping her! We have enough cats!" I didn't say anything, but I already knew she was staying. She did. She turned out to be a very adorable, very lovey dovey little idiot, with a talent for getting herself into pickles.
I've moved from that place, my wife passed away 4 years ago, and now I'm down to three cats, good old Rocky, the little tuxedo, which my wife named Paloma (after Picasso's daughter) and Mama. Mama slowly, through steady application of gentle handling, has become a great indoor cat. I've always said she's the only real grownup in the house. She enjoys her snuggles just as much as the other two.
So now we're heading for the Bronx. My guys will no longer be outdoor cats, which breaks my heart. But they will remain well loved.

 

[BeBopBaby]

Fast forward to later that week. The parents’ dog has gas, walks past LCG's cage and the bird starts coughing and laughing. We all wonder what happened as we weren't catching on yet. Then someone gives the baby nephew a raspberry or zerbert... Now it all makes sense... Any time someone has gas either noise or particularly strong, the bird coughs then starts laughing! It was funny at first but now it is just too much.

Parrots are so smart - freakishly so. My friend had a parrot that would imitate the phone ringing perfectly and if you would pick up the phone to answer it, he would laugh at you. He would also imitate the cats meowing in distress and if you went looking for the cats, he would laugh at you. He also loved the Star Spangled Banner. Anytime he heard it, he would dance and sing along. He wouldn't do it to any other song.

 

[RondoHatton]

Parrots are so smart - freakishly so. My friend had a parrot that would imitate the phone ringing perfectly and if you would pick up the phone to answer it, he would laugh at you. He would also imitate the cats meowing in distress and if you went looking for the cats, he would laugh at you. He also loved the Star Spangled Banner. Anytime he heard it, he would dance and sing along. He wouldn't do it to any other song.

Fast forward to later that week. The parents’ dog has gas, walks past LCG's cage and the bird starts coughing and laughing. We all wonder what happened as we weren't catching on yet. Then someone gives the baby nephew a raspberry or zerbert... Now it all makes sense... Any time someone has gas either noise or particularly strong, the bird coughs then starts laughing! It was funny at first but now it is just too much.

My Senegal (given away to me for being vicious), heard a gas attack of my evil ex and instantly imitated it, making us laugh, which reinforces it positively to the bird, who to this day a decade later will give me a raspberry as I say goodnight and turn off the lights.
My late Lory would look at you and sneak backwards to confuse you - a very cute trick (one of a whole bag I miss).

 

[Nashoba]

My dear sweet Maverick

Miss Melly that was too much. I laughed for a while on that one. We took a couple of those calls when I was a dispatcher and i was always happy to say.."please hold, i'll connect you to the fire dept".....

Maverick came to me quite by accident, a little boy found him on a street corner with a note around his neck that literally read 'free'. He wasn't able to keep the 9 week old chesapeke/rodesian/shepherd/pit (yes he's a mutt but we've been able to figure out of what) and for some reason brought him to *my* police department. I was working in evidence at the time and my office was in the basement, but our department was an old converted house with paperthin walls so hearing the comotion I went upstairs. He was so small that I wrapped him up in my field jacket, sat him on my lap, called my husband (my boyfriend at the time) and said...there's this puppy....he's really adorable....I'm bringing him home...nevermind that I lived in a one bedroom apt that didn't allow dogs....he lived at my mother in laws for a year.
We still have him. he's a crazy psycho dog, but i love him. He has countless ridiculous stories because he goes back and forth between being a genius and a complete idiot.
He chases and growls at his tail. then he catches it and gets in a tug of war with himself looking thouroughly confused the whole time.
He love to play fetch. He also loves to play tug. And he adores keep away. The main problem is that he'll try to play all three at once. You'll throw somthing, he'll fetch it, then he'll refuse to give it up dart away when you reach for it, and when you finally manage to grab ahold of it he'll tug and refuse to let go. we've learned that when we play ball we have to have two. if we show him the second one, he'll drop the first.
He has a duck that doens't leave his sight...he sleeps with it, carries it everywhere at least until he rips it to shreds. we have to replace it every couple of months.
He loves to play chase with other dogs...the problem is he want's to be chased. he will chase a dog until he gets close enough to nip the other dog in the rear. his goal is to anger the other dog into chasing him. or he'll run past the other dog and look behind him to see if the chase is still on. it's rather ridiculous to watch.
his biggest claim to fame though was when he saved our lives. we had just moved in to a new place (a tiny 2 bedroom 1930s house) which an old wall furnace. my idiot brother was sleeping in the living room and i told him before we went to bed to move the trash bag full of newspaper. which of course he didn't. in the middle of the night maverick came to my side of the bed and literally took the covers off of me. i told him no, cuddled back up and he got more insistant. jumped up and started pawing at me and pulling the sheets back. I figured he had to go out so i put on my robe and opened the door. He rushed past me and the first thing i see him do is run to the furnace and knock the trash away from the furnace with his head as it was beginning to ignite. All while my idiot brother is sound asleep 3 feet away. good dog...bad brother...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

it is late so i will only tell you about my cat steel.
when i found Steel, january first, 2002, 4 in the morning, he was all of 8 weeks old hiding underneath the tilted bucket of a front end loader. i was working my first graveyard shift in the garage at US Steel gary works. i didnt know what to do with him so i put him in a new air filter box with some paper towel, & proceded to leave work at 7 am. i then went to the ICS, Idependent Cat Society. well, at 7:30 in the morning on new years day, they were closed. so what i do i do? i panic & bring him home. i show him to my Mom, & we deciede that we can keep him. so she puts him in her bathroom with some food & closes the door. later that morning, my sister comes home to visit & go to visit this litte brownish gray cat. she starts petting him & her hand becomes brownish gray. well, my Mother & sister bathe this little cat, & three washings later he is a little black cat. yes, there was so mush dust from the mill on him that it took three washings to get him clean. so fast forward nearly six years later & that little kitten now weighs 19 lbs, however it is all muscle. this cat has no neck!!! he weighs nearly twice as much as my older cat Felix, who is going on 14. i will tell you about him tomorrow...

 

[epr25]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

This has become almost a nightly routine at our house. This is Bailey. My husband found him at his job site int he middle of nowhere. He's the only cat I've know that is totally unaffected by water.

 

[dostacos]

we have two rescue cats male and female {Amalie and Nino] Nino is a year younger, always is trying to escape outside {Jeanie won't let either one out} and he does not like to be held ever, but will sleep on us.

Amalie on the other hand MUST be in somebodies lap at least 2 a day, also sleeps on us.

She has a small beanie baby my wife calls her "baby" once a day she has this very plaintive cry while carrying the "baby" in her mouth we really wonder what is going on in her head....

 

[catsmeow]

we used to have a rat that was always dragging stuff under the couch, anything was a potential target even a record cover. He'd also know when I was cooking and hang on my foot waiting for treats to drop to the ground. Poor little thing is in rat heaven now.