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01 Nov 99 - 05:54 PM (#130604) Subject: Animal's response to food noises From: TheMuse Being an animal lover to the "n"th degree I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the thread "Animals response to music" (especially about Schooner). I wanted to post to it in the worst way but, alas, my two cats seem to be insensitive to music. They never "help" me play the piano and are no where to be found when I am attempting to play. Wait, maybe I should rethink this . . . that may be a clue. . .they are probably holed up in a closet somewhere with their little paws covering their "sensitive" ears. Anyway, I wanted to start this thread because one of my cats, K.C. (short for Kitty Cat, of course) is definitely a junk food junkie. She sleeps about 23 hours a day off in a corner somewhere but always knows the moment the munchies come out. Rustle a package of crackers and cut up some cheese and she is there meowing for a treat. And it's not just any package rustling, never a ceral box or other "normal" food, just crackers, chips, pretzels, you get the idea. She also can distinguish the difference in the noise made by a can of tuna being opend and a can of anything else. The one thing that really baffles me, though, is how she knows when the bagels and cream cheese come out. It's not like bagels are a "loud" food and make much noise when being sliced, but before I can get the thing cut in half she is there waiting for her portion of cream cheese. She's not greedy, just wants her fair share. Once she gets it, off she goes to sleep again. I don't usually add much to the postings and when I do it's "short and sweet", well, short anyway, so I appreciate your time in reading this. Now if I don't get at least one response, even if it's, "Cute Muse, but boring", I'll be devastated. From one of few words - :-) TheMuse |
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01 Nov 99 - 06:23 PM (#130614) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Magpie I used to live with a fellow who was really into dogs, and mushing, you know tobboggans, Iditarod and all of that. Well anyhow, we had 35 Alaskan Huskies living right outside the kitchen window, and every time I opened the fridge, they'd give me a grand concerto AAOOOOOOHH OOH OOH OOOOOOOOHH. It really puzzled me, 'cause they were never inside the house, and they had no fawking idea what I was going to eat. I don't understand why they should react so madly to the sound of the fridge being opened. They did, of course, react to cooking smells coming out of the window, although not all food was considered howling-material. But I tell you, cooking mutton stew- well that made them go crazy. They'd all but yank their chains right out of the ground. They'd go on for ages in ear-deafening paroxysms of howling and barking. We lived way out in Bally-way-beyond, and didn't have any neighbours to worry about, but for Christmas Eve, having parents over for a traditional dinner of cured ribs of mutton, pinnekjøtt, well, that was another story altogether. No conversation was possible until the mongrels had had their share. Magpie
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01 Nov 99 - 06:31 PM (#130617) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: margaret okay, Muse, here's your response, equally tedious i'm sure to readers without cats. in fact sometimes i even bore myself with my own cat stories, but there it is. . . so the thing with my cat is that not only does she know the rattling sound of the bag of junk food, she knows the sound of which chip i'm going to share with her. it all started with smart-food popcorn, the mere whiff of which could cause her to stick her big paws deep into the bag given half a chance which we never gave her of course. however, when we would give her a piece, we didn't want her to choke on the hulls so we would customize the piece by biting off the hull and giving her the rest of it. something about that careful surgical sound was readily identifiable so that now (although smart-food never enters the house anymore due to my absolute inability to not eat the entire bag in a sitting -- what drugs are in that cheese coating?)any time i make a similar noise with a tortilla chip or other crunchy item she figures it's hers. i know just how pathetic and bizarre this must sound to non-cat owners, and in fact i'd like to blame my sister, who helped me raise the cat with bad habits ("doing the doberman" was one of the tricks she taught the cat) and then insisted i take the cat with me when i moved out of the apartment we shared. plus my sister never ever visits the mudcat so i can more easily make her the scapegoat. |
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01 Nov 99 - 06:47 PM (#130627) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: katlaughing LMAO! "Doing the doberman"??? Tell! There are TONS of us on here who have cats and dogs, so never fear, sisters dear, you'll get plenty of responses! I will post some when I have more time. katwhoisacatafterall |
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01 Nov 99 - 07:20 PM (#130640) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Bert When we lived in the mountains we had two dogs and two cats. We discovered that it was a meaningless exercise to give them individual names. A call for any one of them 'Here Pepper', 'Here Sibby', 'Here Ginger, or 'Here Irish' would get them 'all' arriving on the run. They weren't going to miss out on the goodies whoever was called. |
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01 Nov 99 - 08:00 PM (#130661) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Malcolm Douglas My cats just assume that anything in a tin must be catfood. I have to show them that it's soup or whatever; even then they seem to think that it was catfood really, and I've switched it when they weren't looking... Malcolm |
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01 Nov 99 - 08:41 PM (#130679) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: MMario Our animals all seem to assume that if we are feeding it to one, it MUST be something the others want....thus our goldfish have consumed alfalfa, the cats eat horse pellets and fish food, the horses have eaten cat and dog kibble and the dog will eat anything he can get in his mouth, but prefers sponges and foil wrapped butter over just about anthing, except green grapes and peas. |
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01 Nov 99 - 09:33 PM (#130693) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Mbo My cat Boo has been known to eat junkfood too. Once we gave her a "Chicken in a Bisquit" any she picked it up in her front paws, and while standing on only her back legs. she began to munch on it! Once, after a Marine Corps unit Christmas party my father arranged, he brought home some of the leftover goodies which the cat found unresistable. Every time we'd open the big canister of garlic pretzels, she'd come running, hoping someone would give her a piece! By the way, I just saw a TV show about cats on Saturday...there were these wild cats that live as a group in the Coliseum in Rome. There was a nice Italian woman feeding the starving felines a bowl of spaghetti! They were going mad over it! --Mbo (from one pisano kitty to another) |
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01 Nov 99 - 09:37 PM (#130696) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: catspaw49 My son Tristan went through a stage at about 3 years of age where he thought that somehow the food was better if it was on the floor. Hence, he would sometimes throw stuff on the floor and THEN eat it. Don't ask. Conversely, most of our cats have been regular residents of the counter and table since time immemorial. So a friend calls during that time and asks how things are going. I looked around and said, "Well the kids are eating off the floor and the cats are eating off the table, so I'd say things are about average." Spaw |
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01 Nov 99 - 10:46 PM (#130717) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: sophocleese Years ago I saw the cats at the coliseum devour fish and chips that somebody gave them. My brother and I started thinking about lions, but, since we missed our cats at home, we ignored the grandeur of our surroundings and watched the cats instead. I used to work in a book store which had two cats. One day the brother of one of my co-workers came by with his three young sons. I came up out of the basement to see all three boys eating the cat food. It just LOOKED so good. Then we got them each a glass of water and they were okay. The cats were a little offended however. When I was a teenager we kept goats. There was one very large black cat, Othello, that would watch me milking them. When I was done he would walk along the bench where I was straining the milk, put one paw on either side of my face and give me a kiss and a hug. Needless to say he always got some milk. At all other hours of the day and night he avoided humans as if we had the plague.
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01 Nov 99 - 11:11 PM (#130731) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: DonMeixner If you will recall the Recipe thread and my Daughter and I and Oreos and Cheezwiz. We had a dog named Reilly then who would go to his bowl, get a mouth ful of dry food and bring it in and eat it on the floor with Bekka and I while we watche Dr Who. If I brought in the whole bowl he wouldn't eat it. Don |
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02 Nov 99 - 12:51 AM (#130762) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Escamillo Gimenez and Julieta (our two dogs) are always particularly noisy whenever they are eating something, and I always respond. I can immediately recognize when it's only bones or bones with something, for example. Their dishes are plastic, so it's easy to know when they have just started to eat or they are finished, because the noise of the dishes being pushed by their tongues are very different. If they steal or somehow get a bag of junk food I immediately know which kind is it and how many chips are left, but they are too fast for me, when I get there, nothing remains and all I see are their happy faces, as if they were saying "rowf! so good!" Thank's God, nobody gives them my beer 'cause it's dangerous for dogs. Yours, Andrés Magré
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02 Nov 99 - 01:19 AM (#130765) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: sophocleese I guess this is a human's response to animal food noises. I just remembered one night when I was about twelve being woken up by a regular clanking noise. We lived in the country on a dirt road and late night clanking wasn't normal. I looked out my window to the back steps and saw two cats sitting on the steps staring at two raccoons. The raccoons had come to eat the dry cat food we put out. A third cat, Ursa Minor, was bravely facing up to the raccoons and startling them by banging on her side of the tin dish so that it clanged on the concrete. Each time she did this the raccoons backed up a couple of steps. I watched until they disappeared into the trees and then I went back to bed and sleep. |
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02 Nov 99 - 04:01 AM (#130784) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Llanfair Our three cats, Polly, Bramble, and Towser, are fitted with internal clocks which tell them when it's time for breakfast and tea. They all just appear at 4pm for their tea. (Breakfast is easy, they hassle me when I get up, never Jim, though, they recognise early morning unconcious) They don't acknowlege Greenwich Mean Time, though, so start gathering at 3, now. The dogs, well, Tess, really, play mind games with food, like everything else. She will ignore the food put out for her, and forbid Benson to touch it until she thinks we're not interested any more, THEN she will pick the best bits out of both bowls before retiring, and allowing Benson to eat. She is a collie cross, and it's fascinating watching her pick up tiny signals and act on them, but that's another story. Hwyl, Bron. |
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02 Nov 99 - 12:35 PM (#130913) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Liz the Squeak My two cats can hear a fridge door opening four gardens away, even with the back door closed. How do they do it? And why will the tabby never touch milk but the white one will, and why will he only drink it when it has been spilled or poured on the floor or surface, and never out of the traditional mismatched saucer? Why does one of them go mad for brocolli and cauliflower, going so far as to knock it from the fork poised halfway to your mouth, and catch it before it hit the floor, and the other ignore it completely? And why does my daughter prefer cat biscuits to chocolate? And what is this furry thing draped over the monitor, eyeing up my bag of crisps....... Why does a certain brand of cat food make one cat fart like the breath of Hades, and not affect the other? And how does the damned cat know the difference between my getting up to go to the loo, and getting up to go to the fridge...... Liz the Squeak |
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02 Nov 99 - 02:06 PM (#130932) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Mudjack My wife's black cocker spaniel Mandy who never liked me and the feedback feeling was 10 fold, got into the presents under the Christmas tree and helped her self to a 2 lb. box of See's chocolates. She devoured every peice of it leaving only the wrappers and box. I had heard where chocolate is like giving pets poison. Damn her anyhow, she didn't die and lived for many more years to make sure I knew she did'n't like me. Mudjack |
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03 Nov 99 - 02:53 AM (#131211) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: roopoo My dog knows the sound of cheese being silently cut from 2 rooms away! (Meat being also cut silently is an obvious draw). When we first had her she nicked off with a quarter pound of best stilton. My mother's dog eats fruit. I got her to eat papaya and banana the other day! mouldy |
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03 Nov 99 - 05:12 PM (#131414) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Bill D Had 2 cats...brothers, and both 'outdoor' cats....one day it was time for them to be in, and one was nowhere to be found...calling did no good,. Knowing the cat, I said to the family, "watch this"....and I stepped outside the backdoor with a pop-top cat food can and pulled the popper,,"pop"...and there was this thrashing in the weeds over the next-doors fence and this orange blur came streaking thru the yard and into the house...Had never tried it before, I just knew....*grin* |
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03 Nov 99 - 07:35 PM (#131485) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: margaret you all are making me laugh! Mmario, my childhood dog preferred his butter sticks in wax-paper. . . okay, kat, i'll explain "doing the doberman." have you ever seen footage of attack dogs being trained? you know, some crazy person who has actually selected this as a career has his forearm all wrapped up in impenetrable padding, and at the given command the dog leaps up and bites the guy's arm like mad and won't let go. heck of a job, eh? so my sister, who like mudjack's beloved pooch is named mandy, used to hold out her arm at a particular angle and tap on her forearm while growling sort of pirate-like so that the little kitten would hurtle herself across the room with fiendish glee and leap into the air where she would wrap her four legs around mandy's arm and gnaw assiduously with her little harmless kitten teeth! an astonishing sight, and one to amuse the houseguests, but you may well imagine that it became less charming as she put on weight (the cat, not mandy)and her fangs got sharp (the cat's, not mandy's). ten years later, madeline weighs in at around fourteen pounds. most of my friends are afraid of her, and in fact i usually call her BADeline, not madeline, because she is quite naughty (she ate my thesis photos). the doberman lurks quite close to the surface, i'm afraid. but even as i type this, she is purring on my lap, so i suppose it wasn't a total pet-rearing fiasco (i just can't make any fast moves. really i'm a prisoner in my own house). no animals were harmed in the making of this posting. sorry kat -- you asked! margaret |
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04 Nov 99 - 07:38 PM (#131917) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Ely Our old dog, Ootek, would have done back-flips for celery. Our cat, Razz, loves pancakes. Whenever we make them, we make a dime-sized one for her ("razzcakes" is now in common usage in the family for very small baked goods). We adopted a dog from a shelter in June. Diamond was so feral that she didn't respond to ANY household sounds--not voices, not cars, not the television, not even the refrigerator (how many dogs don't respond to the refrigerator, for God's sake?). She didn't know how to eat out of dish; we spent the first week feeding her dog food and dipping water for her by hand. She raided the trash several times and climbed up on the counter to eat through three bags of liver treats; she was clearly used to fending for herself. |
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04 Nov 99 - 07:51 PM (#131921) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Dave Swan We've got a wacko cat (is there another kind?) named Possum. Gray, ugly, long tail, pink nose and here long before M'cat. Anyhow, Possum will sit, sit up, or roll over for the little plastic pull tab which secures the top of a fruit juice container. It's her favorite toy. Possum knows the sound of me shaking up the fruit juice before I open it and comes running and howling in anticipation of her toy. Sometimes she's interested in licking the top, but she's usually too blissed out murdering plastic to care about food or drink. |
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04 Nov 99 - 08:58 PM (#131941) Subject: RE: BS: Animal's response to food noises From: Bill D Just remembered! I guess this is the place for this story... Used to have a dog and several cats...the dog was a little black & white mixed breed..terrier/collie...he was a fly-catcher! He would eye 'em till they buzzed close enough...then *SNAP*.....then he grew older and need some pills. If you are like me, you HATE trying to stuff pills down a dog! So we tried putting the pills in a bit of ground meat...nope...he would grab the meat...wallow it around in his mouth, cross his eyes and..POP! out would come the pill! So, I set to thinking..he was also VERY jealous of the cats, and hated to see them fed anything unless HE got some too....adding this to his fly-catching abilities, I tried an experiment. Got some chicken scraps and called the cats to the kitchen...began tossing bits of chicken to first one kitty, then the other. The dog came up to the edge of the circle and practically SHOOK with greed to get some too...so....when he was totally beside himself, I simply tossed one of his pills in the air toward him....*GULP*...then he got that LOOK in his eyes..."I've been HAD!"...we used that trick a dozen times...he ALWAYS fell for it! |