Rather than counting sheep so everyone who wants to can fall asleep, I’ll start you off with a question, which you can absolutely ignore and instead talk about whatever you please.
Do any of you have an incorrigible pet?
And a bonus late-night Henry. My little Henry has taken to being very mischievous when I leave the house. And by mischievous, I mead bad. He started out chewing on a cardboard box, then moved on to pulling food out of the kitchen cabinets and making a total mess on the floor – which I solved by buying a very tiny cat collar and making it as small as possible, and looping it through the cabinet handles.
Then Henry escalated to breaking into the dog and cat food tins , the ones that no pet had tried to break into for probably 20 years. I tried putting the really heavy book (gift from my sister) on top. That wasn’t enough, I came home to find the Henry – allergy boy! – had eaten probably a fourth of a bag of cat food. I had to up his meds for a week. Not to mention cutting back on his food for a week so he could return to his regular girlish figure.
Next, I added painters tape on the cans, which you can see below.
I didn’t worry about pretty – it was just proof of concept.
When I returned, the cans and the book were in place, and no food on the floor!
“Good boy, Henry, you’re such a good boy!”
And then I looked down, saw this, and laughed!
Maybe not quite such a good boy, after all!
Open thread.
War for Ukraine Day 624: War on the 85th Anniversary of Kristallnacht
Ruckus
He’s obviously hungry!
OR
He’s a mischievous _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Fill in the blank using the given number of letters. It’s not a 4 letter word but it is close enough…..
Maxim
My Chloe is very eager to please — except when it comes to food. She will ignore and disobey any and every rule if it means she gets to gobble some contraband. (She is so eager to please that she will actually bring me non-food contraband and present it to me instead of immediately chewing / eating it.) Such a good girl, but …
Steeplejack
I read something today with the interesting term “behavioral insomnia.” That is, it’s not that you can’t sleep, it’s more that you’re not making the effort to go to sleep because you’re caught up in surfing the Web, streaming video or doing some other mildly addictive behavior. Hmm. Something to think about.
What I have seen as a retired person with few fixed commitments is that it’s easy to become unmoored from a “schedule” and to drift into bad “sleep hygiene.” (Funny/cringe term I read somewhere.) And all exacerbated by the disruptions of the pandemic. So you end up sleeping or (not sleeping) at odd times of the day or night.
Jay
Sugar (Rottie Lab Shepard mix) suffered from separation anxiety for a couple of her early years.
Ate a kitchen floor and some drywall.
Settled out after she turned 2, and I started taking her every where with me.
When the ex and I divorced, and the ex got custody, (dumbest thing I have ever done in my life, and I have done some really dumb things) she started peeing at the door anytime anyone came over and ate the interior of the ex’s Honda Civic.
J. Arthur Crank
Just redefine all his actions as being “good”. After that, Henry is always a good boy!
Maxim
@Ruckus: I somehow don’t think this is what you had in mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1a-oCbYt4w
FastEdD
The rescue doggo I have has bitten all of his previous owners but I’ve had him 10 years and around me he’s just fine. Doesn’t even mess up the house, wouldn’t dream of taking food from me. We are so close I start to think of him as almost human. We have entire conversations where he responds with facial expressions or movements to answer-Australian Shepard so he is really really smart.
Then on a walk yesterday he saw a big pile of some other dog’s poo and ate it. Stunk up the car. He’s still a dog, and I shouldn’t forget it.
VeniceRiley
Are you me?
Reggie has done all this, and more. He’s 1 1/2 and we tested going out for dinner with him and Kilo on nanny cam. He knocked that over after we spoke through it, then pooped.
Our neighbour gave us his gate code because he jumps over a fence and through a hedge to get over there.
Anotherlurker
After adopting 3 Golden Retrievers and one good boy who looked like one, I adopted a Cocker Spaniel puppy. My sweet, wonderful Golden, Addie left us on November 8, Election Day, 2022. She was a brood dog who was rescued from the meat trade in China and she was the perfect dog. Calm, sweet and very loving of humans and other dogs. I shared my grief here with the jackels and you folks were very kind to me.
Well, I lasted 1 month of deep, dark depression and I adopted Lucy, a 6 month old black Cocker Spaniel. My oldest friend in the world and his wife had adopted her brother and Addie and I would baby sit for him. His name is Jack, named after my friend’s late father. I chose to call her Lucy , after my late mother. We decided that it would be a fitting tribute to our departed parents.
Lucy and Jack are very sweet and loving pups and they are the delight of our lives.
Lucy, aside from being and typical, rambunctious pup, is incorrigiable in one way: she is a flirt! When she sees someone she likes, if she knows them or not, she breaks into an adorable dance. She falls to her belly in a full sploot position, wags her stubby little tail in the most enthusiastic manner and does an army crawl on her belly to the object of her interest. She then goes into a sweet, loving enthusiastic greeting. Very often those she greets are very beautiful women who respond with unbridled kveling and affection
!
At 71 I am a pup’s wing man. If it weren’t for her, I’d get a lot less attention from women.
beckya57
My Scribbles and Rocky (ginger Manx and Maine Coon) regularly harass our older cat, Chicago (tuxedo). Other than that they’re perfect angels HA HA HA HA HA HA HA no.
NotMax
No pet for many moons but any I had in the past were quite corrigible
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Any hour sleep chooses to come to the fore isn’t odd, it’s welcome with open arms.
;)
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
I would agree with this as a retired person. I don’t think it is age so much it’s that when you work you have a schedule, and most of the time, most of the people that is a rather fixed schedule. When you are retired the only schedule you might have is appointments. Now some will be able to maintain a somewhat set schedule, some will be less able. I find that if I go to bed around the same time I will get up about the same time every day. I’d bet you can see the problem, as in I don’t go to bed at the same time every day….. Some days it’s 11pm, some days it’s 2am. But then as well, the vast majority of days the time I get up is about as important as when I go to bed.
Ruckus
@Maxim:
Can’t get anything past you!
NotMax
[open rant]
Attention modern small kitchen appliance makers. Why can’t we have an OFF button instead of having to unplug the dang things every time?
And the power cords are too damn short.
[/rant]
Jay
@Ruckus:
My sleep has been messed up for decades.
In the late 70’s, worked nights at a Crane Factory, (cranes, steel work, not toilets). Then shift work at a tire factory. 2 weeks day, 2 weeks afternoon, two weeks night. Then what ever job I could get for almost a decade, sleeping mostly on buses between jerbs. Then night shift for a decade.
After that, a “real job”, real pay, 9 -5 sort of, (crap loads of OT, and then the whole Milwaukee/Boston thing). Then two other 9-5’s with massive OT, then “Independent Contractor” for two decades.
After that, retail. Open at 5 am, close at midnight, one day up at 3am, the next sleep until 11am.
I don’t sleep well at all. I don’t go to sleep well. I don’t wake up well.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
True. I take sleep when I can get it, most of the time. One odd thing I have found is that my afternoon sleep hours are worth 2-3x of my night sleep hours. Go figure.
wjca
I’ve always been what I think of as a true morning person. As in, left to myself I will stay up reading until 2 AM (I.e. the earliest part of the morning), and then sleep until 10. Unfortunately, I haven’t been “left to myself” since I got morning, rather than afternoon, kindergarten. That includes college, when STEM classes routinely got scheduled at 8 AM. Sigh.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Our Chuckie is quite often a little shit to his Uncle Morty and Stewie, but he is an orange cat so that explains why. Just fucking with them by pouncing in their faces when they’re not looking and the like. I’m starving Stewie right now as it’s no food from 8 PM as he has a dental (cleaning) appointment at 8:30 AM.
He just turned 12 last week so if we divide the cost into 12 years it isn’t as much of a shock…lol
eclare
Huh…my cat Jacy is fascinated by a door in my bathroom linen closet, through which she can get to the basement. Only bad thing is that the basement door is stuck and I can’t open it. So if she gets into the basement I hear a good hour of pathetic mews before she realizes she has to get out the way she got in.
So now I keep the door to the bathroom closed.
My dog eats everything, but is pretty predictable. Although I hate she took my latte yesterday. I should have known.
eclare
@Anotherlurker:
Oh that is so sweet! I remember Addie, that was so sad. Glad you got another. My rescue, on my lap, is also named Lucy. She stole my latte earlier today.
Joey Maloney
Patrick, my ornjboy cat, was such an asshole. I still have literal scars from the time he got lost. I found him a few blocks from home and was carrying him back and he just freaked the fuck out and clawed the shit out of my arm. I carried him the rest of the way home dripping blood. He hated my other cats and would beat them up for no reason. He peed on my computer monitor. One time he hopped into my lap, turned around and very deliberately peed on ME.
He could occasionally be affectionate, just often enough to keep me thinking he was starting to mellow. But I loved him and it was very hard when I had to euthanize him at a young age – he developed a lung condition and there was nothing to be done.
I still miss him.
Betty Cracker
My dogs are pretty good, but Pete has two irritating habits. He’s weirdly fixated on the laces of a pair of my hiking shoes, so I have to keep those out of reach or he’ll gnaw on the laces. He leaves all the other shoes alone — it’s just the laces on those shoes that he finds irresistible.
Also, when we play fetch, he brings the ball back and drops it in front of me, but when I reach for it to throw it again, he snatches it back up and runs away. That’s part of the game for him, me taking the ball away, whereas Badger drops it and waits for me to throw it like a normal dog.
Badger is also very brave, as was confirmed the night before last when he confronted a raccoon in our yard. He didn’t attack it, but he steadily backed it up to the property line while dodging its feints and barking melodiously. Pete, who is considerably larger than Badger, ran away like a chicken!
Odie Hugh Manatee
It looks like we have a furry little guest in the shop tonight, a little Maine Coon named Neko. While he belongs to our neighbors across the street, we took pity on the little guy when he kept sneaking into our garage to get food and pick up scattered treats our cats would leave. Tiny, filthy and barely weighing anything when we first found him outside our place, we thought he was abandoned as we saw him at all times of the day and night. He was eating some treats in our driveway when his owner saw and told us that he was her son’s cat and that he was a year old. I told her that we thought it was a stray and that was the end of the only conversation we have ever had.
The poor little guy’s rear end is all pissy and has crap stuck to it. He needs mowed and cared for. I finally slipped him a Revolution flea and worm treatment because he was constantly scratching and biting himself. Another one is ready to go too. If he was a year old when she said, he’s been mostly outside since he was about 5 months old. I befriended him with Churu treats and with our care he is a fine looking, albeit dirty, little guy. I pull crap out of his fur but he needs a salon day. This has been going on for over a year now.
He walked into the shop for the first time tonight, ate some of the food and then hopped up on one of the cat perches around the shop. I’ve been talking to him but leaving him alone. I have made up a cat box and will set it out after I close up the shop. The door is only up about a foot so it’s a quick drop and he is in dry and warm for the night (it’s raining and in the mid 40’s).
Here we go again…lol! At least this cat gets along with our three guys.
sab
My little black ringtail cat is sitting on my lap right now, purring. My
pitmixAmerican staffordshire terrier is snoring next to me in bed, and plotting in her dreams how to roll me out of bed so she can have bed to herself.mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack:
Thanks a lot! Now I have to stay up and think about this!
mrmoshpotato
Oh Henry, you mischievous pup!
mrmoshpotato
@J. Arthur Crank:
Do dogs have the ability to wish humans into cornfields?
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Practicing his scales no doubt.
sab
@Steeplejack: One of the major joys of retirement is you can sleep whenever the fuck you get tired and feel like sleeping.
mrmoshpotato
@sab:
Hehe!
VeniceRiley
In Reggie’s defense, he’s super good with other dogs, animals, and small children. He gets down on his belly if they are small, so they won’t be scared. Actually belly crawled over to a toddler at the vets. BFD = big friendly dog
Here they are if you want to see. https://instagram.com/veniceriley?utm_source=qr&igshid=MThlNWY1MzQwNA==
sab
I always thought Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Cars” was one of the best songs I ever heard. That CMA thought so too astounds me.
ETA But if you like country music, which I do, Luke Combs is a very fine singer.
eclare
@sab:
So true.
I also like that he respected the lyrics, keeping “checkout girl” because he said he just would not change lyrics.
Central Planning
We have an orange tabby that loves being around people that she knows. When we were getting our kitchen remodeled, she would run and hide under the covers of our bed when a contractor shows up. She still does that. Yesterday the annual furnace cleaning happened. Sure enough, she was there.
Years ago, we bought a couple nerf guns to shoot non-lethal targets at squirrels that were eating all our birdfood and leaving the poor little birds hungry during the winter. The aim on those things suck, so we maybe only hit one in ten. It did get to the point where the squirrels would scatter when they heard the window open.
Anyway, the darts were kept in a big bucket on the first floor. While my wife and I are sleeping, the cat will pick up a dart from the bucket, carry it up to our room, and drop it on the floor. Sometimes she leaves it on the bed. It only happens at night, and she averages 10-15. EVERY. NIGHT. Every once in a while she will drop one in her water bowl and then bring it to the room/bed. The orange tips are hard plastic and almost like stepping on legos in the middle of the night (except there are no sharp corners)
She trills and meows while she’s carrying them. She’s perfectly happy doing it… tail is straight up with the little curl at the top. Maybe she thinks it’s tribute, but then why would she do it when we’re sleeping? Morning surprise? One of life’s mysteries I guess.
Mousebumples
@WaterGirl/OP – Reading through this made me think you need help baby/puppy-proof o your house! I haven’t had pets in awhile, but we totally have locks and latches on doors and cabinets to keep little people out.
WaterGirl
@FastEdD: Laugh out loud, literally!
WaterGirl
@VeniceRiley:
My second laugh of the morning, and I’ve only been up for a few minutes!
Slight rewording, but I think this could have potential as a rotating tag. :-)
Another Scott
Good morning.
[engineer-hat] Is Henry still upset that Tucker is gone? Does he want a doggie friend?
😔
How about a fish toy to distract him and keep him occupied for a while?? [/engineer-hat]
Sorry.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Cheers,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
@Central Planning:We have a “gift and trill” kitty too; her sister doesn’t do it. She only brings her toys (there’s strict you ownership rules that they worked out) but the trilling is some kind of mighty hunter fantasy because I’ve watched it happen. We were recently gone for a week and we’ve been back for a week; every night she has several mighty hunter fantasies and puts her toys in a pile by my husband’s head of the bed. Until this started, it would be the occasional single toy. Cats have their own internal logic apparently.
kalakal
I have no need for an alarm clock. I have a cat that every day at 6am will jump on the bed and headbutt me until I get up and feed him
evodevo
@NotMax: Because if it’s unplugged from its power source, it can’t spy on you….
beckya57
@Jay: may I suggest checking into CBT-I (Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia)? Has good evidence for improving sleep.
Cathie from Canada
Two words, Watergirl – crate training!
A crate gives your puppy his own home plus keeping him safe. Highly recommend!
WaterGirl
@Cathie from Canada: Generally a great idea. Henry is Houdini; he can get out of his crate, where he sleeps at night.
I think this is an “I need a brother!” cry for help from Henry. So he’s what I call making his own fun.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott:
That is my theory, too. I only get dogs in the spring and the fall, because it’s no fun to go out a zillion times in the winter while they are being house trained.
We missed our window this fall because Mr. Bear had his health crisis, and there was no way I could stress him out by introducing a new pup.
Sis
Hey, he gets an E for effort!
I can relate. I adopted a sweet little girl back in March after my little Angus passed away. For the first time, I’m having to strategize about keeping a pet away from the Christmas tree, because her credo is “If I can reach it, it’s a toy!” I’ve had four cats in this house (I’m now down to three), and every last one of them has just lolled around under the tree enjoying the lights and the sparkle, even when they were kittens. Not Amy, I’m afraid.
I’m considering a couple of baby gates with vertical slats. (She can climb the other kind in no time. She’s only seven pounds, but she has a lot of Chinese Crested in her, and from what I’ve read, they’re amazing climbers.) Or maybe a small table that would put everything above her reach. I’m hoping she’ll figure out that Santa watches the tree very closely and would be unhappy if it came crashing down.
Another Scott
@Sis: Our doggie Colleen would go nuts when the mailman came and was tearing up the sidelite sheer curtains. She hated the vacuum cleaner, so we started putting it by the door… It worked!
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Sis
@Another Scott: Thank you!!! Honestly would never have occurred to me.
Misswhatsis
I have a tiny poodle cross whom I have never successfully housetrained. He’s 11 and we’ll go months without an incident and then I’ll come home to tiny poops in the front hall.
It’s mortifying and disgusting and I have no solution.