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I have a book to finish by tomorrow, and I’ve been working lots of hours to get there. Many of them in the kitchen, where I keep the dog food and cat food. And I realized something … my pets have some interesting habits. I have two Labrador Retrievers, pictured below with my two sons. The dogs are Ranger (yellow) and Nick (black).
We keep two large bowls full of water for these guys (the dogs, not my sons) and I noticed that when one goes for a drink, the other one does, too. Every time. And they’ll stand there for several minutes, emptying one of the 2-liter bowls.
They get a little dab of canned food with their dry food for their evening feeding, and so they’ll often skip their morning meal and wait for the good stuff. (Hey, if they were hungry enough, they’d eat it, right?) If they hear the word “walk,” they make a mad dash for the back door, practically knocking down anyone in their path. They leave the cats alone for the most part, but if one of the cats moves suddenly, or runs, both dogs pounce. Not viciously at all – they just can’t resist a smaller critter that’s moving fast.
Nick is a thug, but Ranger is a little bit shy, sometimes nervous. He’s wary of visitors to the house. He’ll bark at them for maybe 3-4 minutes (really annoying!) but then warm up to them. Totally. Like he will lick their hands (or their legs if they’re wearing shorts, which is really popular!) But Ranger is also nervous about the toaster. I don’t have a lot of counter space, so we keep the toaster in a cupboard. When it comes out, Ranger heads for the basement. He has connected the toaster with the smoke alarm (long story and we have a new toaster now, anyway). Ranger doesn’t care about that. It scared him once when he was a puppy, and he refuses to be anywhere near a toaster any more.
The cats have just as many foibles. They hang out outside, but only one of them on our porch. The other will sit on the next-door neighbor’s because they don’t really like to be together. When I pull up in the car – even if I’m parking across the street – they start “talking” to me and rolling around on the ground to… I guess, to welcome me home. But do they recognize my car? Do they know it’s me before I even get out? Or do they do this for every car that happens to pull up and park across the street? I’m going to have to check this out.
We have a cat door, but neither of the cats like to use it. I have no idea why – it gives them all the freedom they could possibly want. But as I write this blog, Bob is sitting in front of the door, staring at the door knob as though it might open itself and let him out. (This is, of course, right after Bob came up and draped himself over my keyboard. I think the only reason he left is because my laptop is too warm).
The cats each get a dollop of canned food at night. They know it, and they come in and start swarming around the refrigerator at about 8:00. I guess this is more an issue of training than habit, although it’s turned into a habit for them.
What habits have your pets developed? I would love to draw one of your replies and send the winner a copy of Wild, my January release. Anyone?
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Jun 29th
2009
5:33 am
Frana Said:
Hi Margo!
)
Those two a pretty gorgeous (the dogs, of course, humph
Anyway, I had a Shih-Tzu who would start carrying his bowl as soon as I started packing my luggage. I had to put it in the bag with my clothes! not with his other stuff (like leash and basket).
).
And my cats do the same thing as yours when they spot me coming from work. They are so loud that now the whole neighbourhood knows when I’m coming home (even if it’s in the middle of the night
I already have Wild – thanks to the very generous author (who may that be, I wonder
)
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Jun 29th
2009
6:21 am
Emmanuelle Said:
Hi Margo,
You do have beautiful sons !!! erh I mean dogs
As for dog habits, mine really has this thing with dirty socks (not anyone’s though, just my husband’s). If dh leaves one on the ground even for a few minutes (or hours… he’s a man after all) my dog finds it, go to a nice quiet spot and lay there with his nose in the sock…
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Jun 29th
2009
8:09 am
Laura Said:
I so want to hear the toaster story. LOL
I have a black lab that I got as a puppy. I would crate him up when I went to work because I didn’t trust him to be unchaparoned while I was at work. But, I felt really bad about doing it. So, every morning when I would leave the house, I’d slip him a treat through the slats of the crate. Then, when I’d come home, I’d give him another treat because he’d been “such a good boy”. I’d come home at lunch and give him a treat when I got there and another when I’d leave. Then another when I got home at the end of the day. All because I felt bad about crating him up so he wouldn’t tear my house apart. Now, here it is 8-1/2 years later and while he hasn’t been crated in probably 8 years or more, I cannot leave the house without giving him a treat and when I get home, he runs to the kitchen and will not leave it until I give him a treat.
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Jun 29th
2009
8:28 am
Shana Said:
Thanks! I just realized I haven’t fed my cats yet this morning.
My cat Roxie is very spoiled. When we had the hurricane in Houston last year, we evacuated, and the stress made her stop eating. Then when we came home, the only thing we could get her to eat was canned chicken (no electricity, so this was dinner for my husband). Now she expects that every day. She follows me around and meows until I feed her the chicken. I’m just glad she’s eating again!
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Jun 29th
2009
8:58 am
kristan higgins Said:
When Digger sees my suitcase come out of the closet, he lies near the car. If I leave a car door open, he gets in and curls up in a tight little circle, as if he’s trying to make himself invisible, and I won’t notice a 50 pound black lab in the back seat. Once he got in the trunk (I noticed before I drove off, mercifully). He comes with me whenever I go to our place on the Cape, but obviously I don’t bring him to writing conferences or to NYC when I have to be down there. He also has an incredible internal clock and knows exactly when it’s suppertime. Cute little bugger…
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Jun 29th
2009
9:18 am
MJ Said:
People who don’t have pets don’t know how different animal personalities are. I’m a bit overloaded with cats (I always say my limit’s 4, but then I find a stray who needs a home.) My oldest cat, a grey tabby, isn’t really a cat. She looks like one, and she sleeps like one, but she sits at the dinner table with us. She doesn’t eat people food, she just wants to be with us. And she hates going outside. HATES.
Then there’s Princess YaYa, who mostly likes to cuddle.
And Mama Kitty (the most recent addition) who hates every other cat but loves to chase shadows. I thought she wasn’t very old, but the vet said she’s 5.
My boys, Napoleon and Skippy are as opposite as can be. Napo is aloof cat, and Skippy is an attention whore who believes everyone should love him. Everyone does, except Mama Kitty.
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Jun 29th
2009
10:38 am
smile0303 Said:
I can’t have pets (due to living in an apartment and working 2 jobs) but my parents have 2 dogs a beagle mix and a ?(have never figure out what Zoey is) but everytime they go into their cages they get a treat. It’s really funny when they come in from the last potty break and they go straight to “Jail” so they can get their treats.
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Jun 29th
2009
10:52 am
Amy Enyart Said:
Having several cats, we have our fair share of eccentricities in the house.
Lil’ Man is a very fussy white and orange cat with a q-tip obsession. When we use one, we have to be sure to secure it in a way that keeps him from finding it loose in a wastebasket, as he will play with it and put it in a bowl of dry food if he gets the chance. He knows where we keep them and would take them from the box if he could.
The “top cat” of the bunch is very demanding when it comes to getting attention from his daddy. He meows and flops over for his belly rub.
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Jun 29th
2009
11:19 am
Debra S. Said:
Your dogs are so cute. I love labs but I have two Shih-Tzus. My girl, Susie, has recently developed a habit of requiring fresh water in her bowl when she’s thirsty. She’ll lay down in front of the bowl and bark. I guess the water that was placed in there not too long ago isn’t fresh enough for the Shih-Tzu princess.
Debra
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Jun 29th
2009
1:38 pm
Romantic Girl Said:
We have two cats that are all about feeding time. Their internal clock starts going and they walk circles around us, meowing loudly until they’re fed. We also give them a little bit of food before we go to bed and since my hubby and I are usually on the couch with our laptops as soon as my husband closes his lid our cat jumps up and heads to where the food is kept.
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Jun 29th
2009
4:41 pm
Emily McKay Said:
We have a new rescue dog. She’s about 6 months, so still very puppy-ish and she’ll eat anything. Seriously. She keeps eating firewood from the porch. And anything plastic she can get her paws on, she’ll eat. I swear I’ve seen her out on the porch with things that I’ve never seen before. There must be a take out service that delivers plastic to hungry dogs. We can’t get pizza delivered out here, but apparently some one will deliver old rubbermaid bowls straight to the door.
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Jun 29th
2009
5:56 pm
Quilt Lady Said:
We really don’t have any pets right now other then fish in a Koi pond in the back yard. All of the fish have names and Spotty the oldest one will come up and suck on you finger if you stick it in the water, they will also eat out of you hand.
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Jun 29th
2009
11:02 pm
RachieG Said:
She also is big on taking a big bite of her dry dog food, dragging it into the front room, dropping it on the carpet and then eating one piece at a time. I try to yell at her but she always manages to do it about once every night!
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Jun 29th
2009
11:11 pm
Lyoness2009 Said:
My dog Scarlet passed away a few years ago, but she was my heart. Such a sweet cocker spaniel. She had a weird habit and kind of gross, but here goes.
She loved to smoosh flies with her nose. She’d stalk them and then suddenly whosh, there she is and she would smoosh it with her nose and then eat it.
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Jun 30th
2009
2:25 am
Mary M Said:
I became very concerned when my first cat stopped eating dinner. I made a vet appointment and was carrying her out the door when I met a woman who asked what I was doing with “the little stray cat”.
This woman was a gourmet chef who had rented my neighbor’s house for a couple months (my neighbor didn’t tell me anything before she left for her vacation house swap) And this woman had been serving “the little stray cat” gourmet fish dinners. No wonder she stopped eating at home!
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Jun 30th
2009
3:38 pm
catslady Said:
I have 6 cats so where to start lol. My now oldest cat (male) always picked on my older cat (female) when it came to eating. He always tried to stop her from eating before him but I started spraying him with water to give her some peace. In the morning they all get a dollop of canned food (all have their particular spots) but some always try to get the others food if I don’t pay attention lol. I also feed ferals and they too go to the same dish every time and one will only eat out of her dish even if there is food in the others which is very strange lol.
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Jun 30th
2009
10:51 pm
TerryS Said:
My black lab closely monitored me when I vacuumed and I mean closely. She had to be told to move out of my way half a dozen times every time I vacuumed. Maybe she felt extra responsible because the other two dogs disappeared as the vacuum came into the room and didn’t help monitor me. She passed last month and the hardest thing for me to do now is vacuum without her.
Thanks for sharing Nick, Ranger and your cats stories with us. Pets are the best!
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