Scaredy Cats--and Dogs
People have frights, fears and phobias, and so do their pets. What are your pets scared of?
Peanut is simply timid by nature. Always the follower, never the leader, my Little Man Wussy Man. I guess I would say the thing he hates most is having to go out in the rain. He simply won't go if he hears a hard rain. I'm lucky, though, in that none of my dogs are fearful of thunderstorms. Some dogs are really traumatized by storms. Thankfully, there are meds for such madness!
Scooter, the bossy bully, is afraid of human nail clippers! Not the clippers themselves, but the sound! If he hears them, he jumps up and goes to the door! It's similar to another sound he hates: the air purifier. When it's time to clean the filter, it sometimes makes a snapping noise. That sends him to the door too!Like many bully boys, there is often underlying fear of something! And if I have the throw rugs up off the floor, he won't jump up on the bed--I guess he is afraid of the slippery wood floor and not enough traction.
Catfish, pictured above, was rescued by Cats Are Us from the river area, where he was living in a drain pipe. People reported seeing him, because he had a fishook stuck in his mouth. He had to be trapped. When I first brought him home, he hid for three weeks! Every little sound sent him diving into hiding. Now he's okay, but he is the most vigilant listener ever! He'd make a great sentry!
Tarazn used to be afraid of the TV as I said yesterday, but he's an easy-going boy that is well-adjusted. He's just afraid of his food bowl being empty.
And what are YOU afraid of? A lot of you mentioned snakes. They don't bother me as much as the bother The Boss. I hate big spiders MUCH more. Remember the Brady Bunch episode (if you are old enough for that to have been one of your shows as a kid) when a big tarantula crawled up on Peter's chest? That would send me through the ceiling in about half a second! I'm not a screamer type woman who shrieks at mice and such, but a hairy huge spider would get me wailing like a banshee!
Hope to catch up on your other posts this weekend! I've been sneaking reads when I have time, but haven't had the time to comment much!
posted by Sandy at 2/16/2007 07:21:00 AM
Pet People
23 Comments:
Sandy, what a pretty oh I mean handsome boy Catfish is! Poor baby, having that fish hook in his mouth! He was probably just trying to find food. That hurts my heart but I'm so happy to know Catfish now has a wonderful Mommy and loving home!
As for what scares my cats, different things at different times but always hearing a plastic bag being shaken. If I want to scare them away from something all I have to do grab a plastic bag and they run like the devil is after them. Courtney is scared silly of a sneeze. She can be all cuddled up in then chair with me and I can do the ah ah ah part and she takes off like a shot!
I think I mentioned this before but Penelope hates the sound of loading and unloading the dishwasher. She gets up on the counter and watches me and every dish and piece of silverware I take out she makes her little noises and fusses at me. It's funny. They all 3 perk thier ears up and start looking around when they hear a doorbell on TV. Courtney and Penelope hate hairball remedy and Courtney runs when she sees the box. I may think of other things later, if so will tell you. They are used to loud music and like heavy metal as much as Opera just like us,ha.
Cheetah is scared of the wind, her shadow, a doorbell, etc. In other words, that cat is scared of anything but her cat mommy, Sheba and her human mommy, me! She can be in my lap when I sneeze and it never fazes her. Hubby can be in another room and sneeze and that cat goes into orbit! Not much scares Miss Sheba. She is my brave girl! She did go ballistic one time when the Rhodesian ridgeback from next door ran into the house between my legs one day! She was expecting one of the other small doggies that come to visit us and then this huge brown thing came flying in the door with his big puppy attitude! I am not so sure she was scared that day but more surprised then anything... That got her to spitting and screaming but I have never seen anything else scare her... She does not run from the hair clippers either, she just does not like the part where we have to hold her. She is a free cat and do not try to hold her down or you will have a fight on your hands! Then she gets cricket legs and wiggles herself out of any hold…
Well Sandy, How was your first week on day shift? How did the babies do without mommy around to bug them???
Oh Skeeter, I'm sure that was a typo!! You didn't mean to say that Mom bugs them, you meant to say that she smothers them with overprotective love, right???
As I mentioned before, Reb is one of those dogs that is afraid of thunder. Any loud noise similar to thunder--firecrackers, backfires, artillery coming from Ft Campbell... You name it. He's not terrified like he was in his youth. He has learned over the years that he just needs to go to his safe place and he will be fine. He will either get in his kennel or under one of the end tables in the living room.
I think it started from some neighborhood kids doing things they shouldn't have been with fireworks years ago. Back in the day when I would leave Dixie and Reb out in the yard when we weren't home sometimes. He wasn't always scared of the noises, it happened literally overnight. That was my thought at the time anyway.
Lucy is just very timid. She never has gotten over that in the couple of years she has been with us. She doesn't like crowds or strange places very much. When we went to the demonstration at the courthouse before the county commission's vote on funding for the shelter, her tail stayed tucked the entire time we were there. She doesn't freak out or anything, she's just not comfortable. She loves people and attention though.
The cats aren't really afraid of things, but Ranger and Pumkin won't come out when strangers are there. Not even for food time. They have to get accustomed to the voices first.
Unfortunately mine have a few phobias. Stella doesn't like loud alarms or loud popping like gun shots. When the smoke detector or the oven timer goes off she runs straight to the door and starts whining. I guess it's a good thing. Mattie freaks out during thunder storms and wants to up under me the entire time. It’s when I tend to step on her and then I get frustrated that she’s right there. She also hates baths, having her nails clipped, her teeth brushed, her tail brushed and any other type of brushing you can think of. If she even thinks that's what you are up to she runs and hides. It’s amazing how hard it is to get a 15 pound dog out from under a bed or out of a closet. We always have to do her first. This is how she got her nick name, princess b**ch. She struts around when she's clean and pretty, it's just hell getting her that way. Oscar doesn't like men. I took him to a groomer in CO and something bad happened to him there. That’s a whole other story for another time. It still makes me mad! So now he runs from any man who tries to pet him, But if they ignore him when they meet him, he wants to be there best friend. Jazzy doesn't like sneezing or coughing. He always runs when it happens. Oh and he HATES the squirt bottle. That's what I use to get him to stop doing something like clawing the couch. All I have to do is show it to him now and he runs. I know it sounds mean, but it’s better than my moms suggestion of hanging set mouse traps (don’t ask), plus you can get him from a pretty good distance with a good bottle.
The only thing my cats are afraid of is each other. 3 cats who hate each other under one roof. My Tennessee dog, Bennie, is afraid of everything he will yelp if you merely brush up against him, yet he has no fear of loud noises, thunder, or the vacuum....it's obvious he was abused by a human.
My fear? TENNESSEE and the monstrous bugs that come out at night there. Just ask Sandy about the night I left her front door open in the summer and woke up at 2am to the sound of all kinds of buzzing in the bedroom. Kinds of bugs I'd never seen before, crawling on the walls and flying around like a horror movie.
I had a pet snake, LOVE snakes. Love rats, love any critter, except bugs.
The only thing good about this Pennsylvania snow and ice is that it keeps the bugs away!
My cats hate getting thier nails clipped and they act like they're being tortured when I trim them. I have a time ot two cut too close and nipped the skin and made them bleed. I know bad bad Mommy, but you can't make me feel any worse than I've made myself! Since I am very careful! Doesn't matter they think it is torture. They also ahte baths which they've had twice in thier lives but will get at least once a year from now on. They smell so good after. Helps get rid of the stinky butts we talked about before. Too abd it doesn't last.
Bring on the bugs, spiders, lizards, whatever exsists in the world big or small but don't be bringing no snakes around here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, ya gotta be careful when clipping those claws! I always put my reading glasses on before clipping so as to get a closer look at what I am doing.. I always clip those claws before hair cut too. I found that out the hard way...
Our girls had one bath and that was their first and last bath! They somehow got fleas. We think that we may have brought them in on our clothes from the yard and all the wildlife. Well out came the flea baths. Hubby ended up in the bathtub with them while wearing his sweat suit and they still clawed the dickens out of him. You would have thought we were killing those two cats with their screams! It was an awful experience that we all will remember for a long time to come! We know use flea drops because those fleas were something else to try and get rid of…But with the haircuts, it seems to keep them smelling good. The last time we went for our check-ups, the Vet kept saying how nice they smell. Hubby and I were kind of wondering what kinds of nasty smelling pets he has to deal with for him to go on and on with how they smelled good! Well, we are in the rural area of the county so I am guessing a lot of farm pets that play in cow and horse poo… Anyway, I was a proud mommy for him to praise my babies like that…
That brings up a question…
Do any of you go to the doctor as regular as we take our pets to the Vet? My girls go every year and in between if anything out of the normal comes up. I had not been to see a doctor in 6 years until recently…. How crazy is that???
I wish I had time to read all of these blogs!!!!!
This one caught my eye of course because Sandy as you know I have neurotic pets.
My old girl flossy used to be afraid of Thunderstorms...pretty common. I would find her inside the closet in the smallest hole you can imagine nad she was not a tiny dog! She would even pee right outside the closet or hole and then crawl into it nad not come out. My old cat Zoe used to be afraid of them too and would sleep under the covers shaking.
Now...Lacey takes the cake. She is afraid of....everything.
She has shown fear of: Men, her treats being given on a "hard surface" floor, the beep of my watch and the beep of the fire alarms, the best one...she is afraid of her water bowl on a non carpeted surface.
She is NOT right.
:)
We have a scaredy cat dog. I call him the sissy (with some colorful metaphors) dog. I think he is psycho in the head. I have never seen such a muscle bound dog, that looks like he would bite your arm off, to be such a sissy. Mostly when it thunders he would shake uncontrollably. Wifey pooh would go hold him and try to comfort him. He would hide under tables, bed, where ever. He didn’t get better. At night when a storm came though he would jump on the bed and shake. I ended up having to do the tough love thing so we could sleep. We would go somewhere, while the puppies were outside, and a storm comes up. He would bust out of the fence and go hide in a big drainpipe. I finally convinced wifey pooh to quit encouraging the sissy dog to be a sissy. He has since gotten better.
Skeeter, our vet is a family member and I spend more time on the phone with his office than we do socializing,ha. Our girls get regular check ups too and as you in between if needed. They lasugh at me at the vet clinic because I am such a worrier. I guess I do tend to go a bit overboard at times. And girl, coming from a medical point of view get yourseld to a doctor pronto for a full check up. It's better to have preventative care than havaing to treat a serious condition. That goes for everyone on here, macho man included. I have seen what can happen when people neglect thier heath untill it's too late! You've got to take care of yourselves, if not for yoourself, then do it for your loved ones! Ok health lecture from Nurse Pammy is done.
Dragon, please don't leave your doggies outside when it is storming. I don't think they can be conditioned to the storms like a person. They can't reason or understand why you are doing that. They'll think you are punishing
them and it could make them worse.
Hey everyone, Go to MSNBC online and look at the three stories there. One is about a Mama cat who has adopting and is nursing a puppy that was rejected by it's mother. Then there is the story of Hurcules the fat cat that got caught in doggie door because he wanted to steal food. He'd been getting away with it till he got so fat he got stuck. Poor baby was just trying eat, he was a stray. Then the other one is about a puppy who was thrown from a truck and abandoned in the cold and is still waiting for a home. They are all goood stories since the animals are now being taken care of till they get homes.
I am so behind! Between 2 daughters hogging the computer and the other one with strep...I have missed ya'll!!
Pam, I am so glad you are all better. Now didn't we talk about the hazards of drinking the beast and then trying to walk? Haha..just kidding-very glad you healed quickly.
Daisylouu..you would have loved the huge flying cockroaches we had in lower Alabama. The first time I saw one I thought to myself that it was the biggest cockroach I had ever seen. Then the dern thing started flying and I was truly freaked out! Myself, I am terrified of those horrid, huge bumblebees that waddle thru the air. Yikes, gives me chills just thinking about them. If they get too close I scream like the girl I am and run-doesn't matter where I am or who is around.
My dogs have the common fears you have all mentioned..the storms and the fireworks. When I was growing up we lived in a rural area of NC. I had a dog that was absolutely terrified of hot air ballons. There was some kind of ballon club that regularly landed in one of the fields around our house. My dog would go bonkers and hide under the house when he would hear the loud "sshhhhh" of whatever it was they were doing to either go higher or lower.I think it was the sound of them doing something with the flame-sorry-don't know what it was and never will due to my silly fear of flying in anything haha-but it was really loud and very easy to hear.
Well, I guess my allotted 5 minutes of computer time is up. I am being beckoned. We are babysitting my daughters little rat terrier "Petie" today and it is time for him to go out. I think he has a bladder the size of a thimble. Stay warm everyone!
Shannon, welcome back, I missed you! I sure hope your daughter with the strep is feeling a lot better. Unfortunately I've got something now. I started feeling kind of yucky Thursday night but dismissed it then yesterday after noon my throat started getting all scratchy and sore and my ears are itchy. As the day has gone on I've felt more crappy. Hope I didn't pick something up at the doctors office but it wouldn't be the first time. I'm hoping it is just sinus crap but not a infection. I've had these symptoms before and that was it.
I think me and Petie have something in common. After I have some Beast I'm fine till I go to the bathroom the first time then it's every ten minutes after that.
I wish I had had some Beast before my fall then it maybe it wouldn't have hurt so much. I certainly had some later on. Well I had to have my pain medicine,right? ha.
Well gonna go check the other blogs. Talk to you later.
My sister needs to know that Pennsylvania has the SAME kind of bugs that would come in the house IF YOU left the front door wide open like you did here for an hour at NIGHT in SUMMER.
You all need to know that when my sis was little she creamed like she was being murdered when she saw a little ole FLY. She hasn't changed much when it comes to bugs.
Now, South Carolina had these huge cockroaches they called "Palmetto Bugs." Those Southern manners--even the cockroaches are given sweet names. No telling what they call them behind their back though. As a Yankee I'll never be priveleged to that. LOL.
I never cut my cats nails because they are good and only scratch on what they are supposed to, and get to scratch on wood too--so they maintain them themselves. I tried to cut them once, but after the first one, they knew what was coming and protested.
Sandy,checking in here during the race and saw what you wrote. you lucky girl you! I can't believe how lucky that your cats don't scratch what they aren't supposed to. I guess my girls are just too stubborn. Penelope likes to scratch on the tops of some of the cabinet doors and drawers so she gets to scratch on wood too. Brittany and Courtney just like the carpet and furniture. I guess they must like to get yelled at.
And I can't believe how daisylouu is so afraid of little ole cute bugs and even big old ugly bugs but likes horrible awful terrible (to quote from Dragaon)evil demon devil snakes!!!!! Well snakes really did become the devil, remember in the bible? I guess it just does have to take all kinds of us in the world to appreciate all creatures.
Sandy,
Yes, here in GA we call those cockroaches Palmetto bugs ever since hearing that on the horse buggy ride in Charleston a few years ago! The Savannah River separates us from SC, so we feel we are close enough to get away with using the same name. I prefer Palmetto Bug over cockroaches when I find them around our house. Thank goodness, the ones around here don’t seem to fly! The first time I ever saw those flying things was in Shreveport, LA. I swear I thought you could put a saddle on them and ride those suckers! Daisylouu would absolutely go ballistic over seeing them buzz around! Okay, back to my Sunday Classic movies on cable...
Sandy, if daisylouu saw the kinds of bugs my husband has seen she would sh-- blue ribbons! He said in some of the countries he has been in the insects are literaly about 12 inches long!!!!!!!!!! That is nt a exageration I promise! so tell her to be thankful for what she deals with. And I have to agree with you all states including PA has bugs and if you leave the door open they are gonna come in.
Here is my theory as to why my cats only scratch on their carpeted cat tree inside. Catfish came from the river, then the shelter. At the shelter, all he had to scratch was "proper" cat-scratching things, like a carpeted cat tree. There was no furniture there for him to practice on! Tarzan was in the wild too at first and lived outside and scratched on natural wood I guess.
Now they can go outside in their yard topped with the cat fence. They have a little tree in the yard they scratch on as well as the porch railing--natural wood. So they have no need to scratch on furniture--not used to it, don't need to when they have wood and the cat tree.
I heard you can keep a cat from scratching a couch or whatever IF you catch them in the act and can spray them with water, then redirect to a scratching post, but I know this doesn't work for everyone! I consider myself lucky!
you're right Sandy, di that and it didn't work either. I say what the hey I just ahve to scream and yell and let Jon call them bad names.
OK The couch now has sticky tape on ALL the corners. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Sandy, I keep a gun under my pillow to shoot the cats when they scratch the bedroom carpet, ok it's a water gun to shoot them with water and it works for the two seconds they get sprayed then they go right back to thier scratching. Penelope is the worst about it. We had to keep them in the bedroom with us during the Christmas holiday because Brittany and Penelope tried to eat the little glass lights on the tree, I'm telling you I have some rascals here. Towards morning Penelope decide she did not want to be in there with the door closed so would scratch the carpet under the door. I'd shoot her with water, a few seconds later we'd repeat it all. Jon had to go to another bedroom a few times because he wasn't getting any sleep. There wasn't any other place to lock them up where they wouldn't scratch. I'm hoping as they get older they will lose thier desire to eat the Christmas tree lights.
Pam, You do have your hands full with your babies! My mom uses a water gun on her Maine Coon, Pepper when he gets into the flowers on the screen porch. He turns it into a game and he usually goes back into the house (with the help of mom) when the water gun is empty! Dad just sits and laughs his head off at them. This year they have a new kitten that seems to be going to put Pepper to shame with her antics. She is a handful for sure!
We were able to leave our cats alone in the house with 4 decorated Christmas trees while we were gone for 3 days without them! My babies are fairly good girls! Two years ago the sunroom tree ended up toppled over though. Nothing breakable on it that year! The new problem we are having now is… they have discovered some fake plants that I have in an antique German wagon! The plants have been in the same spot for 2 years and they are just now finding them! I will catch them in the act of nibbling occasionally but usually just find the barfed up plant somewhere on the floor! Yuck!!!
Skeeter, how I envy you for being able to leave your babies home with the Christmas trees. Wish we could and maybe someday the lights will lose thier tasting appeal,I hope.
And as for fake plants that is the only kind I can have in the house. When Jon gives me flowers I have to put them up high in a place where they ca't jump or climb to and when we go out and at night I have to hide them in the bathroom or bedroom with the door shut.
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