Lewis Luminos

My dog is pretty smart but right now, her "dumb animal" side is showing. We're having a bit of a heatwave in the UK at the moment and she's been going out in the garden but sheltering under the picnic table in the shade.

Now the sun has moved and although it's still hot, the whole garden is in the shade, but she's still gone and hid under the table to try to keep cool.

What daft things do YOUR pets do?

__________________
Club Noir - 24/7 Jazz and Swing

Isabeau Imako

I once had a mouse which I kept in an aquarium on top of the fridge. I had taken it down to change the shavings/clean and placed it on the kitchen table, then was distracted by something on the television. After having watched an entire movie I came back to the kitchen to find the aquarium now housing two creatures: Both a tiny little grey mouse, and a fairly large fluffy cat. They were both sitting on opposite sides, staring at each other.

Not sure if this qualifies as an example of a dumb cat, or simply of one that wasn't hungry enough (or squeemish about blood)?

Joy Honey

Roscoe, my somewhat elderly Basset Hound, sounds like he is tap dancing by the door to go out. We get outside and he has no idea why he wanted out. He even looks at me like "why are we out here?" Darn dog.

__________________
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a bad example

"Mom, why is your eye twitching?"
-my 7 yr old son

Maggiedoll Alter

My ferret seems not to be afraid of fire. When we had the fireplace going we had a heck of a time keeping her out of it.

Actually Tink isn't afraid of much of anything.. Except Peter Halfalump, the baby opossum.

Beebo Brink

Back when I was living in Brooklyn, one late night I noticed my cat hunched by her food bowl in the kitchen, staring intently. Her head swayed from one point to another then back again, over and over.

I took a closer look and there was a very small mouse with very big ears running to the food bowl, lifting out a single kernel of Meow Mix, then running under the radiator to eat it. My cat was simply watching it run to and fro, never moving, but rapt nonetheless.

__________________
Noob: "okay.... im in a house with cages and people in gags and the door just locked and i cant get out :c"

Allana Dion

Since moving into this new place, our dog Lucy has figured out that anyone walking past our window is coming to our door, not just walking by, because of the way the entry is set up. So anytime she sees a shadow pass that window, she's up and barking her little head off.

Well yesterday my daughter's boyfriend stopped when he heard her barking and stuck his face right up against the window and growled back at her. She flipped and leaped* straight at the window like she was going to go for his face, and ... bonk! Face plant right into the glass.

Feeling sorry for her didn't stop any of us from laughing our asses off, naturally.



*is it "leaped" or "lept"? My brain says it's "lept" but my spell checker says it's "leaped".

__________________
You don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.

Lloyd Newman

"Leapt", but it seems to be going out of fashion like a lot of irregular (in this case, meaning anything that doesn't form past tense by adding 'ed') verb forms. I think I can blame it on the Chicago Manual of Style (or maybe the AP Stylebook) that most of the news outlets use. I've been noticing a lot of things like that lately.

Ah, like the one that really pisses me off... "pleaded" instead of "pled"... as "The defendant pleaded guilty" instead of "The defendant pled guilty".

Maybe the CMS/APS is in collusion with ink and toner manufacturers?

(Don't rely on your spell-check to verify this - look in a real dictionary.)

__________________

Eliza Wrigglesworth

My cat Dexter loves to hunt. He's pretty good at catching mice, moles, and lizards. When it comes to birds though, he hunkers down and sneaks in real close....then meows at them.

D'oh!

Darnk Yun

my cat has performance anxiety when it comes to his jumping, I've seen him line up a jump and ALMOST do it 50 times over before, he normally just says screw it and asks me to pick him up.

but if I'm not in the same room he seems to be able to jump up anywhere.

he also drinks out of the toilet even though he has fresh water 24/7

__________________
Ahaha, such a simpleton. It'z so much fun playing jokez on you. I waz only here to see how she waz doing, but I had fun while I waz at it. So long, Sere, au revoir, mon ami! Pleaze dream of moi every night! Oui! ~ Harle

http://leechmouth.deviantart.com/

Lloyd Newman

I watched a neighbor's cat stalk two birds for half an hour a couple of weeks ago. He'd creep up on them to within about 10 feet, then the birds would just walk calmly away... the cat would follow, the birds lead... over and over again. The cat never got up the nerve to actually attack.

Of course, the fact they were Canada Geese and each twice his size might have had something to do with it.

Chandra Masala

My dog does a few things. First, he insists on chillaxing on his heating pad, even if it's 90 degree's outside.

He *hates* doors. HATES them. He attacks the bottoms of doors and tries to bite them, even if they're completely stationary.

And whenever I feed him (whether it's scraps or dog food), he insists on taking it, dropping it, and running to bodyslam the door to the room we're sitting in at the time. It never fails.

Mind you, he's a 4 pound chihuahua, but a 4 pound chihuahua body slam can be pretty loud.

Beebo Brink

One of the funniest sights I've ever seen was while driving home from the grocery store. We passed a cat sitting in a yard, calmly grooming itself, while 4 or 5 squirrels gamboled about on the lawn. He seemed totally oblivious to them and they obviously weren't the least bit concerned by his presence.

There's got to be a story behind that.

Chalice Yao

This soooo reminds me of this: Hyperbole and a Half: Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving

Which is totally worth a read. A little story about moving, and having two dogs.

__________________
"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin

Shiloh Lyric

One of our cats, Gregory, loves to be petted. He will stalk you for attention. However, as soon as you touch him, he completely collapses, and rolls on his side or back. Mind you he HATES his stomach rubbed. So, although he's hounding you to be petted, he then makes it impossible to pet him in the way he wants.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beebo Brink DO NOT LINK THE CLUMP!!!

"There is no problem so large that it can't be solved by brute force and ignorance."
~Siggy Romulus (11/13/12)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/shilohlyric/
http://shilohlyric.wordpress.com/

Aliselia Aeon

One that irritates me is "shined" instead of "shone".

__________________
"Push 100cc of Social Skills, stat!" ~Casey Pelous

Lloyd Newman

That's one of those that's even trickier...

"He shined his shoes", but "The sun shone brightly". IIRC those long-ago grammar terms, it's active vs. passive voice. If I don't, well, then... nevermind.

Joy Honey

We had a tomcat a long time ago and I was taking him to the vet for some reason. We did not have a cat carrier, so I've got him running around loose in the car. He tried to jump out every window not once but 4 times. Each window! It was the funniest thing I ever saw. Meow. Jump. BANG! repeat x12 (for some reason, he didn't try to go out the driver's side... )

Aliselia Aeon

The one that makes me crazy, is "the sun shined".

Loraan Fierrens

Ok... I was resisting being a grammar nerd as long as I could, but I can no longer resist. "To shine shoes" is transitive ("to shine" takes an object) whereas "the sun shines" is intransitive. Past tense of the transitive verb is "shined," and the past tense of the intransitive verb is "shone."

Gah!

Now I feel dirty.

Aliselia Aeon

Yet I hear and read "the light shined on...*insert noun here*" frequently, now. I especially hate it when I hear newscasters say it.

Maggiedoll Alter

You feel guilty for getting all nerdy??
I'm officially offended. *pouts*

Sea Warcliffe

I have a 20 lb fuzzy grey kitty who is super smart and has a funny sense of humor. He gently feels around on the bed to find the lump that is the 10 lb terrier under the blankets, then backs up and takes a flying leap on the poor dog (who wakes up screaming). He also thumps the wonder terrier for barking too much sometimes.

He loves to paddle about in about 4 inches of water in the bathtub after I take a bath - he will even remind me to leave it for him.

But the funniest thing he does is lie in wait in the hall till I go by and leap up and play grab ass with me - never with claws but its a bit disconcerting when his fuzzy paws go up the back of my shorts...

__________________

Loraan Fierrens

True, but language changes. In a sense, English is just a collection of mistakes each one of which must have annoyed the hell out of someone back in the day.

"Imagine the nerve of it, Sextus! Using the same word for both direct and indirect object! Why, you can't even tell what people are saying anymore!"

"Too true, Antonius, too true. Why, in my day, we knew how to use the locative and were fiercely proud of it!"

Guilty for not resisting the urge. I am so weak.

What were we talking about again? Oh yes, pets. Bingo isn't dumb... smartest damned rabbit I've ever met. You can tell because all he has to do is wiggle his ears just so to get whatever he wants. Strange power, that. I wonder how he does it?

Void

running water has a higher evaporation rate and is cooler and more aerated than standing water... the porcelain in the toilet also leaches heat, cooling the water...

I used to use a small ceramic dish fed from an inverted glass container... they don't hold heat as well as plastic, an since the dish is smaller, it refreshes more often.

__________________
- These eyes can do more than see

Lewis Luminos

My dog does the same with her eyes. One look and I'm powerless, I'll give her anything she wants. I call it the Big Brown Eyes Trick.