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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/21/2010 6:21:00 PM

gungadin09

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Further to my original post, are we teaching creatures or are they teaching us ?

My cat has trained me to
... to open the door whenever he scratches.
... to give him fancy wet cat food when he jumps on the counter
... to make a "lap" for him whenever he walk by where i'm sitting
... to understand that HE is the center of the world
... to see that sleeping 18 hours a day is perfectly acceptable

i have trained my cat to
... to come when called
... to get down from the counter when i yell "get down"
... to not drink out of the toilet (when i'm there to see it)
... to fear cars
... to trust that i will always take care of him

pam

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/21/2010 6:32:54 PM

PeanutTigerinBox

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My cat was...well, not depressed....more unhappy...

the problem was she was a scardy cat so the two boys enjoyed to be outside 85% of the year and she had to be inside when I was at work and uni and placement as she simply freaked out outside once I dared to shut the door or window...needless to say she was extremely clingy once I got home and at some point I decided I have to do something about it as it wasn't fair on her....following which my birman cat summer moved in (needed a pedigree who isn't too keen on going outside as with a "normal" cat I would have the same situation again once that one would love to go outside just as the boys)...and once summer moved in peppers clingyness reduced by about 90%....so it was certainly the right decision to take on another furball...

do we learn from them???

certainly...

I learned recently NOT to leave my jacket on the floor or the table as curry might decide to pee on it...I never ever hanged a jacket as rigorously onto a hook as I do with that one since I observed that just a few weeks ago

(that happened just after I washed it to get rid of a previous accident on that one already

)

I also learned...if I want to make sure to be able to wear my currently one and only jeans trouser I am having for work...I better also put it up on the hook...because if my cats are overactive at night time with using their litter box that could also be misused as their next choice of toilet

I have trained my cats that if a bunch of keys is making its noises that I am at home and if they want to come inside into the warm they better hurry up NOW...I love signal learning

Pepper and the two boys thankfully always feared the cars and the two birmans I doubt will ever manage that one alive so I don't risk it in the first place and they stay a lot inside apart from the occassional stroll in the garden...which...is pretty much enough for the lazy birman anyway...

< Message edited by PeanutTigerinBox -- 11/21/2010 6:36:24 PM >

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 7:26:17 AM

LaTigresse

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Using fast reply. Just a FYI, coffee is bad for both cats and dogs....... much like chocolate is.

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 8:29:55 AM

Aneirin

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And milk, that one found out when I had to scub it out of the carpet after it had exited the cat rapidly from the wrong end.

But a treat for my cat is my hair product, just unscrewing the lid one hears purring, for the cat knows it is in for a treat even when my intention was not that. I have now learned if I need to use the product, I must feed the cat off my finger, else the little sod will take it from my hair when I am sleeping, quite odd it is to wake and discover warm soggy sand paper rasping your hair.

Oh hair product in case anyone is reading in alarm, is pure organic coconut butter, apparently recommended for pet consumption as well as human use.

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 11:03:41 AM

DesFIP

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Further to my original post, are we teaching creatures or are they teaching us ?

Both, optimally. A dog can understand about 200 words and has the intelligence of the average two year old. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810025241.htm

As to what we learn from them? Hopefully I will someday learn to be the person my dog believes me to be; someone worthy of the unconditional love and trust they give us.

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 2:26:42 PM

soul2share

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Cats are just as intelligent as dogs....I don't know how many words they understand, but I do know that I can talk to them about things, and they seem to get the general idea. And of course, like dogs, any food related term they know...."treats" being a biggie!

KB has yet to find a cupboard door he can't get open, and he can actually open doors with the lever style handles, and understands you have to walk them backwards to get them to open. He knows to check all grocery bags to locate either cat food or catnip....when he finds the nip, he grabs it and runs off to tear it open. I am glad, however, that I don't speak kitteh......I'd really rather not know what they are bitching about! I bought them a new toy, a battery operated spinner thing under a canvas cover that they are supposed to chase and catch.....well, it took KB all of about 35 seconds to figure out that if he just stepped on the canvas, it would stop, and he could catch really easy! Cheater!

My dog Shiloh had a pretty good vocabulary. When we'd go out walking, he understood and obeyed "this way" meant to the left, "over here" meant to the right, "wait for me" when he'd get too far ahead of me, things like that. He knew McDonalds, even recognized the golden arches.....there was one in a rest area we'd go by when I'd go home to visit the family. Shiloh would be sleeping in the back of the cab of the truck, but he'd wake up about 2 miles away from it, and when he saw the "one mile ahead" sign, he'd start making these little "ffffffftttt" noises. One day, I'd gotten him a burger while we were still at home, so I was just going to blow on by the rest area...well, he woke up, I drove past it, and he sat there looking out the window as the McDonald's receded in the distance. I reminded him he'd already eaten, but that didn't stop him from laying back down with one huuuuuuuge "AWWWW MOM" sigh. He also knew that if he got any food or goodies, he had to eat it on "his" rug. He had a habit of taking a mouthful of food, going to his rug, dropping it there and eating it one piece at a time. Once we were at my mom's, and she picked up all the rugs to wash them, and after she did, she gave Shiloh a goody....well he went running to his rug, but it was gone....he stood there holding the goody in his mouth looking all cunfusticated because his rug was gone.....my mom told him it was ok to eat there, only then did he plop down and finish the dog biscuit. Poor guy!

< Message edited by soul2share -- 11/22/2010 2:27:45 PM >

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 8:26:54 PM

bestheadyet

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cat expired sadly.....humanely euthanized

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/22/2010 9:21:42 PM

CynthiaWVirginia

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Further to my original post, are we teaching creatures or are they teaching us ?

During the time of my second chemos, I was living in a FEMA trailer after the floods...and had a shower. My cat, Cyrano, a white and orange (not orange tabby, just...orange, with the bone structure of a Siamese because he is part Siamese), trained me to take him into the bathroom...set up a chair outside and to the back of the shower curtain, and leave the shower curtain open about a 2 feet at the back of the tub so he could watch me. Otherwise...he went hysterical with fear, like I was some drowning kitten, lol. If he watched me, he was puzzled over why I was trying to drown myself, but was patient with me until my insanity passed and the water was turned off. Yes, he chewed me out thoroughly afterward, lol. My house has no shower upstairs (just a creepy shower in the basement), and I use a bathtub. He's cool with that and doesn't bother me.

I taught mine to never drink out of the toilet by...making a rule in my home that the lids are always down when not in use.

Someone mentioned the dangers of coffee for dogs and cats. I wonder if decaf is exempt. Anyway, it is either stolen and the loud slurpylicks alert me and I have it dumped out into the sink, or else I take one teaspoon full (1/6 of an ounce) and put it onto a saucer on the floor at my feet, maybe once in a week. Griz seems to have no problems arising from this. He does try to steal chocolate candy, like M&Ms or Hersheys, so I have to watch him carefully. I heard that chocolate is poisonous to dogs but I don't know about cats so I try to err on the side of caution. I did let him swipe a piece of chocolate covered caramel once, and laughed my butt off while he made faces while trying to get it unstuck from his teeth. It was more fun that watching a dog eat peanutbutter...

Some of my cats are not allowed to wander around outside, as my street is a freeway exit. Mom bought a cat baby carriage from Foster and Smith, a cammo green color that she decided she didn't like with her all white cat, Beauty. The company came out with a soft pink one, so she bought another and gave me the green. When my son and I went for walks, we pushed some of our kitties. Did I train them to do this? *snorks* Nick and I would be watching tv and hear this insistent mewing...at the front door, three kitties were shoving each other in the open cage of the stroller, demanding to be taken outside for a stroll. Some people we passed on the street commented what a terrible thing we were doing, forcing poor little kitties into a catbabycarriage...the poor little squealing dears must be terrified...

Nope, they wanted to eat da birdies and bite down hard on car tires...

I have been trained to turn on the bathtub water on "command"...so Griz and Willow can drink or just play in the water stream for a while.

I have been trained to let the two boys in and out the front door whenever they want.

Two of our cats were trained to play "go fetch". Salem used to prefer medium sized pom poms, and Anyanka prefers toy mousies with noisy small balls inside that rattle. Yes, they brought the toys back to be thrown again, dropped at our feet, just like dogs do.

When I lived in California, I had my cat trained to walk on a leash. It was tricky at first and was nothing like training a dog. She had to learn to stop at street corners while I looked for moving cars and other stuff.

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/23/2010 2:39:12 PM

soul2share

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Cynthia, my boys are leash trained too, but taking all 3 out at once is a nightmare.....they go 6 different directions at once! They will walk as long as I go in the direction THEY want to go.....otherwise, it's like dragging a dead body. Squeaks wore a harness while we were in transit from AZ to FL, as did the boys, but I didn't use leashes then, I had carriers for each of them. Which took Squeaks all of about 30 minutes to figure out how to unzip....I hear "vvwwwiiip" and her head is sticking out of the thing. We traveled in a Budget truck.....it had bucket seats instead of the bench, so there was a space between the seats. I pull over when I can, and swap her out into the hardsided carrier with the locking doors, and put Smooch in the soft sided carrier......and in about 15 minutes......."vvwwwiiip", and HIS head was sticking out of the carrier. I pulled over yet again, said the heck with it and took them all out of the carriers and let them loose in the truck. They all found their spots in the cab, and simply went to sleep...no yowling, no hollering, just blissful peace! The only problem I had was that Squeaks and Smoochie wanted to see out the window, and of course, it HAD to be the driver's side window....I snarled up traffic whenever we passed thru a city...people would go by, see a cat in the window and just feel compelled to slow back down and make sure they saw what they thought they saw. And then there was the couple of times that Boo thought it'd be cool to walk across the dashboard in Atlanta's traffic.....at least the harness worked like a handle.....I just picked him up and plopped him in my lap.

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/23/2010 2:43:45 PM

pahunkboy

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My other brother had a cat... that saved his life.

His place caught fire. the cat licked his face til he got up- in time to deal with it.... no battery in the smoke alarm....

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/23/2010 10:35:41 PM

NuevaVida

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quote:

ORIGINAL: 81song

I have one cat and he is as white as can be with one blue eye and another kind of yellow. Do have some great photo's of him, he's a trip.

This totally describes my little guy, too, and he has just the cutest personality.

I think we learn from each other. We saved each other, actually, but that's a whole other story.

Picture came out tiny. Can't really see his eyes in it.

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< Message edited by NuevaVida -- 11/23/2010 10:36:15 PM >

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RE: The pets we live with ? - 11/24/2010 12:02:48 AM

LadyHibiscus

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As a former cavyslave, I can assure you that they train us to serve them.

I have a grey parrot. He has given me grey hair. He is about as smart as a four or five year old...and always thinking of ways to get what he wants, even if it's not what he is supposed to have. He's domestically bred, but he is a wild animal, and of course it's been my job to learn his ways and needs, not the other way around.

He has decided that under my bed = nest. This does not please me. Hard cheese for Hib. It's at the point where he has to be locked in his cage (he has an enclosure) when I'm not there, or Mr Explorer is doing his thing. He turns 13 on the 28th. Twenty more years of very smart bird with nothing to do but plot world domination...

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