Quirky Pet Habit

Yep, we have 2 greyhounds.  When we fix the food for them (mixing canned, kibble, and mix-ins together) one of our greys has to get a toy and "kill" it.  She'll kill the toy while her food is getting prepared and then eat when we put the bowls down.  I guess she feels she needs to work for her food.

The other one sucks her thumb.  She'll sit there and pacify by licking a particular spot by her paw over and over again for several minutes.  As a joke we've tried pulling her head away while she's licking, but she won't let us.  She just gets in the zone.

One of my Ridgebacks moans when my DH and I are in bed either reading with the light on or talking.  We always joke that she's saying enough it's time for bed. 

I know mine has some issues when I read these two.  Hes does them both.  He let's me know he's ready to go to bed by walking to the bedroom door until I finally go.  I think I should seek counseling for him.

betsybromley - 2005-12-17 8:18 AM my golden licks a spot on her foot til it bleeds

I wonder why dogs do this.  One of my greys chews her nails.  She tugs and pulls on the nail like she's trying to rip it out of her toe.  That has to not feel good.  When she's done the nails are sharpened into little hooks.  We keep trimming them to try to keep her from doing it, but it hasn't worked.  The crunching noise she makes when she does it drives me nuts!

Murphy (see avatar) HAD a habit of figuring out how to get out of his kennel.  He beat the spring that came on the kennel (took a year from when we adopted him for him to have the desire to do that).  He beat a clasp, a spring from the hardware store (I thought it was a stout spring).  He's only beat the cable tie (zip strip) once and that we figure was because he pawed at the cage so hard he popped one of the clamps on the frame.....then if he had enought to get a head through the body will follow.  After a lunchtime walk (and only a spring on the cage) after going out the front door I looked through a window and saw him lubing up the cage by licking it...the biting at the door hooks till he popped one...then the head was out and the body followed.   Otherwise, cable ties are the only thing so far that works.

With the biting at the cage door I just noticed today that he broke one of his long pointed teeth. 

So....he's an escape artist.

Oh yeah, he always thinks he's going to get some of our food.  Coming up on two years of having him and it hasn't happened yet.  Gotta love persistance. 

Oh yeah, take two:  When he hears the garage door, he gets excited and runs to the laundry room door...stares at the door for a few seconds...BOLTS to the front window to look out for a few seconds....BOLTS back to the laundry room door...REPEATS till he hears my wife come in the house and he stands at the closed laundry room door and stares at the light coming through the bottom.  I assume he does the same for me. 

Our lab Scout might be the most neurotic yet!

1. He plays "ball" on the treadmill when I run.  He stands beside me and drops his tennis ball on the 'mill and watches it fly off the back, into the wall, then he retrieves and repeats!
2. He goes under the covers with his nose to lick Christian's feet so that he will get up and take him out. 
3. He lays on the bed at night until Christian brushes his teeth.  Once he turns off the water, Scout bolts off the bed, out of the room, and into the guest room.
4. If we are having movie night, he curls up around my neck by climbing up the back of the couch.  He sits, all 70 lbs of him, on my neck and shoulders, with his tail on one side and his head on the other.
5. He loves popsicles and suckers and assumes the aforementioned neck curl in order to get primo billing next to my mouth.
6. If the ceiling fan is on, he immediately goes comatose on his back with his legs spread wide (typical man).  We call the fan the "private cooling device" or PCD in his honor.
7. When I blow-dry my hair in the morning, he runs into the dressing room, lays upside-down and begs for a good blow-dry too!

There are numerous other eccentricities   But we love him to pieces!

 I had a dog so well potty trained, he ramboed out of my 2 1/2 story condo to do so.  He opened a window (nudging up a cracked window until he could squeaze out of it), jumped out onto the outside ledge of the porch (where he left the evidence of the potty break), then jumped into a cherry tree, breaking branches as he fell to the courtyard below.  He was about 10 years old at the time, and was sore but not broken! Also, he used to play ball while I vacuumed by taking it in his mouth and throwing it at the machine, running after it where it bounced.

My cat will only drink water from a glass, not a dish.  And she likes wine. She also likes to climb up and sit on the highest surface she can reach, watching her domain.

<<<thinking either you have a damn big cat or you live in the Shire>>>

Chance has a stuffed bear he carries from room to room and takes to bed at night.  Some days, he and bear kinda ... get it on.  You can't touch him ... he squeeks and growls at you.  I went a bought a few more bears, just in case this one gets lost.

Chance is also unavailable for comment between 10 am and 2 pm when he siestas under the couch.  To date, he's dragged a fluffy (12"x12" - multi day event) purr pad, a ball, a jogging top and half a pair of tanning glasses into his 'nest'.  Last week I heard a strange thumping sound.  He was dragging a Bloomingdale's catalogue under there.  He'd better be doing some Christmas shopping for me and not reading it while on the can!