Animals are fascinating creatures, in part because we haven't quite figured out how to fully understand them. The more we get to know them, we realize they are much more like us than we originally thought. They care about each other, they often care about us, and they find ways to make life more enjoyable every chance they get. They even find ways to utilize our technology. Still, it always seems to leave us in shock and awe when they express just how intelligent they really are.
105. That's So Raven
I spend a lot of time in the local mountains, and had summited one of the higher peaks enough times to establish a bit of a relationship with the ravens that lived on it. One summer, I was up there on a day that turned out to be much hotter than forecasted, and one of the ravens approached me like usual, but this time came right next to me as I drank from my bottle and threw his head back, beak open, mimicking the chugging motion. I asked if he wanted some, he croaked in agreement, so I poured some in my hand and held it out. That was still a little too close for comfort for him, so he walked away, and proceeded to walk around and inspect the surface of all of the rock until he found a large enough indent to hold some water. He croaked at me and pecked at the spot for me to pour some in, drank it up, and then walked back and bobbed his head happily before flying away. I've always known how intelligent they are, but it still strikes me how human their interactions can be!
104. Santa's Little Helper
I was setting up my Christmas tree and was putting up the ball ornaments. They were in a box by the tree.
My dog came by and tried to take some of the balls. I said that she couldn't, they were for the tree, and did the "no" sign with my hands and pointed at the balls and then at the tree as I said it.
She went on her way and a few minutes later she came back with her little play ball. She put her little play ball in the box along with the other ornaments and pushes the box towards me.
Then she laid with her belly up expecting belly rubs.
103. Fishing Like A Pro
Once, when feeding bread to ducks (I know, I know, this was a while back and we know better now), a heron came up, took some bread, threw it in the water, and grabbed the fish that came up to eat the bread.
102. A Living Doorbell
I had a cat that somehow knew when I switched off my cochlear implants. Whenever my doorbell would ring, she'd come up to me where I could see her meow at me.
Then she'd walk up to the door looking back to see if I was following her.
I never taught her that.
101. True Decisiveness
Whenever I let my dog dictate the walk (the 'go sniff' command, where I let her lead and give the full extent of the leash), she will walk me to the local pet store 100% of the time.
100. This Parrot Is Fancy
I have a Senegal parrot, and if I put a plastic bottle cap in his cage, he’ll put it in his beak, scoop it full of water out of his water dish, and then sit on his perch and hold it in one claw and sip out of it like it’s a cup of coffee.
I have no idea where he learned this!
Youtube
99. Turn That Thing Off Already
My mom was in her bedroom reading one night and her cell phone started ringing in the other room. Our dog, totally of her own accord, got up, went into the other room, picked up my mom's ringing phone, brought it back to the bedroom, and dropped it in her lap.
98. Charlie’s Long Con
I had a pet Sun Conure a little while back. Wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl, as I never got it sexed, but I named it Charlie and generally referred to him as him. For some reason, Charlie hated women. Perfectly fine with all dudes, but would basically do the bird version of a growl any time a girl came too close.
My girlfriend of the time was desperate for Charlie to like her, and for the first year of our relationship he generally acted towards her the same way that he acted towards all women. Then one fateful day, we were sitting next to each other on the couch with Charlie on my shoulder. Charlie crawled his way down to my knee and did a little head bob and chirp that I generally associated with him being in a good mood. He then hopped onto my girlfriends knee and continued his displays of contentment. Head bopping, chirping, grooming, etc. Over the course of the next hour, he would move up my girls legs and torso and find a new perch and continue to be his jolly little self. My girlfriend was paralyzed with excitement that Charlie was finally coming to accept her. Eventually he made his way to her shoulder and, again, sat there being happy. My girlfriend is staring at me overjoyed. Then, out of nowhere, Charlie turns and bites her face as hard as he can, and immediately launches himself across the room to perch on our cabinet high up.
He had meticulously planned tricking the girlfriend just to get close enough to bite her face. I'd like to think that was his thought process anyway.
Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash
97. Today I learned dogs can smell how thick ice is
I was crossing a huge frozen river in the winter. The ice was about 1.5 foot in thickness, but some areas had low density.
It was my dog, myself, my friend, and my friends dog. My friend crossed first and had one of her legs break through the less dense ice, but she made it. I then watched her dog cross very nervously and carefully in roughly the same path and not crack the ice.
Then came my turn. I actually sent my dog to go first. He sniffs the ground and goes to cross, but he takes this weird-scribbly path instead of going just straight. I ended up following him and noticed that the ice was the most dense there. I crossed without a problem.
Photo by Ellie Lord on Unsplash
96. I Just Really Missed You
I lived in the same apartment complex as my friend, but in different buildings. I lived on the first floor, he lived on the second. The buildings were designed so that you had to open a door to go inside to the central hall, where the front doors of the individual apartments were located. Additionally, the apartments had glass patio doors, which had hanging blinds.
So my friend brought his cat over to my apartment one time, carried the cat from his building, across the parking lot, into my building, and through the front door. And then later carried him back home. That was the only time the cat was ever in my place.
Some time later, his cat managed to get outside, presumably because my friend is a bit of an idiot. I didn't know this, but I started hearing a weird squeaking noise, and in trying to track it down I moved the blinds on the patio door to look outside. There was his cat, pawing at the glass door, who somehow figured out how to find my apartment from the outside, despite the fact that he couldn't even see in, or had ever been through the patio door.
Photo by KiVEN Zhao on Unsplash
95. And That’s Why They Are Called “Retrievers”
When I was about 10, I was swimming at the beach in NC and got pulled out by the riptide. I was swimming mightily, but losing the battle and was rapidly being pulled out to sea while being simultaneously dragged further down the beach. I remember screaming for help as my arms started to fail from exhaustion and I was struggling hard to keep my head above water.
I remember seeing my mom running down the beach from one direction yelling for me while a stranger was running from the other direction, alerted by my cries. I was panicking at this point, my mom seemed so far away that I knew she wasn't going to make it. About the time my ten year old brain goes "and this is how you die", I hear splashing. I turn my head and there is our faithful dog, a golden retriever. Apparently she had heard me screaming earlier than the humans and had started swimming to me. I just hadn't noticed her due to the waves and my panic. I grabbed her collar and she towed me back to shore. I promptly collapsed, crying and exhausted in my mother's arms, but alive thanks to my dog. 25 years later and I've had several dogs since that old girl, but no other has been able to hold a candle to her.
Photo by Caleb Fisher on Unsplash
94. That Will Teach You For Taking My Spot
My Jack Russell would come into the living room, see our large mutt dog in the prime laying area, calmly walk over to the door and ask to go out. Large dog would leap up and run excitedly to the door. Jack Russell would wait for a human to head to the door and ask out again, all the while the large goofball was getting more excited. Someone would open the door, large dog would barrel out and bound around the yard before looking back at the door where the Jack Russell would stand long enough to make eye contact with him before smugly walking over to the prime laying area and kicking her feet out behind her to relax. If the mutt came back in he would go stand by her and just look heart broken before going somewhere else to lay.
Photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash
93. I’ll Take Cat Sense Over Spider Sense Any Day.
I had a cat that was very shy and peaceful. He never bit or scratched anyone except one time. I woke up in pain. He was biting me hard and scratching me with all his strength. As soon as I woke up he stopped, looked at me and ran away from me. I was curious and kinda upset so I followed him to my brother's room where he was getting ready to go to work. He saw me and then... he fell to the floor in an epilepsy attack. That's why my cat woke me up.
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92. Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Uncle and Aunt used to shut their cat and dog in the bathroom at night. Every morning they would be roaming the house getting into everything they weren't supposed to be doing.
Finally my Uncle got sick of this and slept in the tub one night. Around 1 am he woke up to a sound and witnessed the cat jump from the counter to hang on the door knob. The dog would then swing the cat back and forth with its snout until the latch clicked and the door was able to be pushed open. To this day best example of animal teamwork I have ever heard.
Photo by Alexis Chloe on Unsplash
91. Big Guy’s Big Job
Several years ago I had a cat named Big Guy (he's since gone to kitty heaven after living a full kitty life). We also had a cat named Skitty.
My husband bought a 3 piece meal from KFC. He sat at his desk, while Big Guy and Skitty sat side by side a couple feet away watching him intently. He ate a piece, then got up to get a drink. It was just a brief amount of time, but when he came back he only had one piece of chicken left. The mind blowing part is that both cats were sitting next to each other, in the same position they were in when he got up.
A bit later I saw some movement behind the living room drapes. It was Big Guy, chowing down on the stolen piece of chicken. This cat snagged a piece, hid it for later, then rejoined the ever clueless Skitty to look innocent.
He had pretty much finished it by the time I noticed him, so he was well rewarded for his cunning. I still remind my husband that Big Guy successfully outwitted him. I really miss both of those cats.
Photo by Nathalie Jolie on Unsplash
90. Thinking Several Steps Ahead
My old apartment had a very narrow driveway for cars to come into the yard from the street for parking in front of the house. So one day I noticed a dead hedgehog on the driveway and nudged it to a nearby bush with my foot.
As I came back later, the hedgehog was in the middle of the road again.
Puzzled, I lay in wait to see what happened once I had put the carcass back in the bush again. And then I saw it. Crows pulled the carcass from the bush into the driveway to the exact spot where the cars couldn't swerve around it. They did this so the tires would mush the hedgehog for the crows to pick.
Obviously, the crows didn't like the spikes.
89. Rats Are Basically Tiny Dogs
When it was cold out and my bare feet were exposed, my rat would drag a blanket over my feet, aggressively tuck it in all around the edges, then fall asleep on top. I didn't train him to do it, he just figured it out. I'm not saying he was a smart rat, just very kind.
Most social animals will play fight for fun, and if one animal loses all the time, the winner lets the other animal win a percentage of times (usually around 30%) to keep them wanting to play in the future. Same rats would intentionally and dramatically lose fights to a toy stuffed mouse so it would want to play with him in the future. He also lost fights to paper towels.
Most animals also have a "safe word" for play fighting which means "please stop". With rats it's a certain type of squeak. A short quiet squeak means "please slow down and don't be so rough" while a long loud squeak means "Ouch! Stop now!" For some reason the same rat was really into gently biting noses. My girlfriend was annoyed at this, so I told her to just squeak at him and he'd stop. She said it didn't work, he just paused, looked at her, then much more slowly and gently did it again. She squeaked again, and this time he looked her in the face for a long time, then went even slower and more gentle. This kept happening, with the bites becoming comically slow. I asked her to squeak so I could see what was happening. She was accidentally using the squeak for "please slow down and don't be so rough" instead of the right one. He did it again and I used the "Ouch! Stop now!" squeak. He startled and looked at me shocked, then ran over to her to give her kisses, and didn't bite her anymore on the nose.
88. There’s A Pun Here Somewhere
So everyone was in bed and I woke up to some weird noise. I went into the lounge where the computer was and saw my cat sitting on the computer chair, with the computer and printer on, just printing paper away. I walked up to her and I swear she freaked out and ran off like I caught her watching compromising videos. Also no one else was up so I don’t know how it happened.
Photo by Antonio Lapa on Unsplash
87. Clever Girl
A group of seagulls walked towards me and distracted me while another one swoops in from behind and hits me in the back of the head causing me to spill my fries for the entire squad to feast.
Photo by Holger Link on Unsplash
86. A Feast For Crows
My buddy lived on a sailboat at a marina. He had some local crows trained to clean the dock for him every morning. His slip was at the end of the dock and a local otter would leave crab shells and other shellfish shells on the dock every night. After trying all sorts of methods to keep the otter away he started feeding local crows peanuts. He would sit at the cockpit and toss a peanut or two on the dock. The crows would come down grab the food and fly to a nearby vantage to eat it. They would patiently wait every morning as he drank his coffee to get some peanuts. Once he had that association with the crows worked out he would get up and clear the shells off the dock before tossing a peanut. It took about two weeks before the crows would have the dock cleaned off before he came topside in the morning.
Photo by Qurratul Ayin Sadia on Unsplash
85. Anything For Some Table Scraps
Growing up we had three cats, two sisters and a stray boy. My girl cat was notorious for dropping horrific stench bombs in the litter box and leaving them uncovered. The litter box was in the bathroom right off of our dining room. One night she does this in the middle of dinner. Our boy cat was a beggar, so he was sitting right by the table. My mom looked at him and said, "Go in there and cover that up,". He promptly got up, ran into the bathroom and covered up her mess. My parents and I were dumbfounded for a moment.
Photo by Chen Yi Wen on Unsplash
84. Pranked!
I had this mutt beagle mix. One time I was making a sandwich, and he was begging for food, I promptly told him to go away. With a defeated look in his eye, he starts to walk away. All of a sudden his ears pop up and he starts barking at the door and sits in front of it. He always did this if someone was at the door. I put my sandwich on the counter and go to the door to unlock it. Once I get to the door he bolts across the room, jumps on the counter grabs the sandwich and runs and hides.
I wasn't even that mad I was impressed
Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash
83. Science Cat, Science cat, Friendly Neighbourhood Science Cat
I have a weirdly intelligent cat who I’ve seen perform experiments.
We have an automatic litter box on a timer and every time it triggers she runs over to watch it and stare into it. Fair enough, right?
But recently she’s started “testing” it. She’ll just put a paw in, back out and watch for five minutes. Or she’ll go in and stand there and not use the litter, then leap out and watch. She threw a toy in once. Maybe I’m just anthropomorphizing her but it sure as heck seems like she’s testing the conditions for the rake to trigger, and it’s fascinating.
Meanwhile her sister walks into walls, desperately claws at the side of an open-top laundry basket begging to be let in, and keeps getting stuck behind cabinets, but hey. They can’t all be geniuses.
Photo by Raul Varzar on Unsplash
82. If Only It Was Always That Easy
I had a blue-crowned conure that would say "I want out" when he wanted out of his cage. It was the first thing he said. He wouldn't let us stick our hand in the cage, so I sat on the couch every night and said "I want out" until he said it. When he did, I opened his cage and let him come out on his own. After that he said it every time he wanted out. He loved beer too. Every time I opened a beer I'd say "Mmmm, beer". I'd let it dribble out of the corner of my mouth and he'd drink it. So when ever I opened a beer, he'd say "Mmmm, beer", and climb on my shoulder for sips. He had a big vocabulary for a conure.
When he'd see me pick up my keys he'd say "Bye bye, be a good boy".
Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash
81. Be A Jerk To The Dog, The Dog Will Be A Jerk To You
I had a roommate who was a jerk to my dog. He would regularly walk by the dog and without warning, jump at him and yell.
One day said dog was lying by the front door when my roommate came home. The dog got up, walked into the kitchen and hid to the side of the doorway.
He waited for my roommate to walk in and then jumped out from behind the door and barked at him, scaring the crap out of my roommate.
Good boy.
Photo by alan King on Unsplash
80. I Need A Mail Cat
Our cat - a big Maine Coon - delivers the mail from the letter slot to where I'm sitting.
He grabs each piece of incoming mail in his teeth and proudly delivers it. If it's heavier, he bats it with his paws until every piece arrives at my chair.
(If there's a piece that just too big, he sits at my feet, looking up, and "MROW's" to notify me that there's something else at the door that "requires human attention.")
Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash
79. But They Are Crows, Not Chickens
While unintelligent in action, it takes some kind of intelligence for an animal to know how to “play games”. I witnessed two crows perched up on the light post outside my house playing what I can only describe as a “game of chicken”. They both would jump off the light post simultaneously and free fall towards the ground, and fly off at the very last second. My guess is whoever got closer to the ground won that round but who knows. Well, on one of their attempts, one of the crows waited too long and smacked right into the ground lol. It got up and flew back to the top of the pole, but to this day it’s the funniest damn thing I’ve ever witnessed, and it was one of those things I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes.
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash
78. Dip, Baby, Dip
I saw a crow throwing a piece of stale, hard bread in a puddle. He waited a few seconds, and then ate the soggy bread.
Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park Birds
77. A Game Of Cat And Magpie
I was watching a pair of magpies and my neighbor's cat interact in my garden last week. One magpie was in front of the cat pecking at the grass and one was behind doing the same. Every so often after the cat's attention was on the one in front, the one behind would nip at the cat's tail and jump away, and then feign pecking at the grass again. They kept this up for over half an hour. The cat got fed up and wandered off. It didn't even try to catch them.
76. Reverse Psychology
A raccoon used psychological warfare against me and almost won. A raccoon found its way in to my pool somehow. There were no tears in the screening or anything, so I have no idea how he got there. But when I went outside to kick him out, I opened the screen door to the outside and told him to scram, and he just stared at me. He was not fearful or aggressive, just... disappointed? I finally got a broom and sort of scooped him towards the door. About halfway there, he stopped for a moment and glanced over his shoulder at me, like maybe I’d have a change of heart, before he finally left. Then I started questioning myself. Should I have let him stay? He wasn’t hurting anyone. And he looked so sad!
75. Listen When I'm Speaking To You
My daughter was watching a friend's cat. The Cat NEVER left her room. My daughter was at work, but the cat peeked in the room I was in and meowed and left. It did this three times. Finally I said to him, “Okay Lassie, Timmy in the well again?” I followed the cat. My daughter left the iron on, sitting on the floor in her room. Good cat.
74. Problem-Solving Like A Pro
A coworker of mine had a pet pig that was scary smart. Two things I know about this pig: he was extremely food-motivated and terrified of non-carpeted surfaces. We decided to tease the pig by putting some apple slices in the middle of the dining room floor, which was hardwood. He stood on the threshold of the carpet and wood, grunting excitedly, sniffing at the apples, but too scared of the slippery surface to go get them. Then he had an epiphany and disappeared for a second, came back with a blanket from his bed, and built himself a blanket bridge to the apples. I now have a healthy fear of pigs. I don’t much care for problem solving creatures.
73. We All Have Our Vices
There was a study on Guereza Colobus monkeys which shows that the monkeys created a prostitution ring complete with a rudimentary financial system. For example, a male will present a female with fruits which are hard to get and the female will let the male have sex with her. The length of the act also seems to depend on the quality of the fruits. In this system, there are also monkey 'pimps' who will intervene if the act seems to take too long and pull out the male monkey's penis. The monkey pimp then does this gesture with his hands like a basketball referee, signaling a cancelled score. Some male monkeys protest this by waving the fruits at the monkey pimp, which seems to indicate the monkey is telling the pimp they paid good fruit for the intercourse. The monkey pimp usually doesn't care and sends them away.
72. Real Monkey Business
There are monkeys roaming around free in certain parts of India. My family and I went to some tourist spots to explore. When we got there, a food cart guy said “make sure you take your sunglasses off or the monkeys will take them." We laughed it off.
Well, we were taking a selfie, and next thing you know, monkeys appeared and they took my sunglasses off my face, and another slipped the phone right out of my brother's hand! Then they kept making noises, and we were freaking out because we wanted our stuff back obviously and it was just a scary scenario.
Then, a local passing by said, "you better give him food if you want your stuff back," and we laughed it off no more. So we ran to the closest food cart, bought some Indian snacks (peanuts I think it was), and the local said, "now give him the food." So as I extended the food, the monkey extended his hand with my sunglasses and then took the food while returning my sunglasses (and my brother's iPhone) before heading out.
That was the craziest five minutes of my life that I’m still trying to process.
71. Exterminators
Beekeepers see a lot of strange insect behavior.
The weirdest by far was one of my hives taking care of an ant infestation. Every time I opened this hive, ants would flee. They were living on the outer cover, the lid of the hive.
So, one day I walked past and saw my bees corraling a spider into the top of the hive. There was an opening there for them.
About a week later, I opened the hive up to see no more ants and a fat but scared looking spider. It booked it out of there once I gave it an opening. I never had an ant problem in that hive again.
70. Horse Etiquette
I was once driving on a rural road and came upon a few riderless horses walking in the road. As there was no room to try and pass them, I slowed and settled in for a longer-than-anticipated trip. To my surprise, as soon as there was a turnout, the horses walked off to the side, waited for me to pass, then continued their slow journey.
69. Better Than Smoke Signals
Once my Labrador wanted to go outside to take a pee, but nobody noticed him sitting at the back door. So he walked into the bathroom, grabbed some toilet paper in his mouth, and brought it to us. He used to watch my mom and sister on the toilet, so he must have figured out that we use toilet paper when we go. He was a genius.
68. Ditching The Cone
My old cat had a cone on his head after being de-sexed. He hated it. He figured out that he could jam the whole cone in between the wall and the bedside table, then pull his head downwards, getting the cone stuck between the wider part of the bedside table and the wall, then pull his head out, leaving the cone behind.
Public Domain Pictures
67. The Language Of Barter
A crow tried to barter for my chips. He brought me an acorn and kept dropping acorns on me until I figured out that he was trying to trade. He earned his chips with six acorns.
I used to have a slightly evil Eclectus parrot who would call the names of my Boston Terriers, and then when they came within range of her cage, she’d dump her water bowl on them, and then laugh. The dogs fell for it every time, also demonstrating the most UNINTELLIGENT thing I’ve ever witnessed an animal do.
65. Dachshund 1, Human 0
My wiener dog knew how to defeat the invisible fence. She would stand where the first warning beep was then waited for the battery to turn off inside the collar. She figured it out by accident while waiting for a neighbor dog, but after two or three times replacing the battery, she figured it out, and you could regularly see her just sitting by the warning beep.
64. Sweet Tea
Living in Brisbane, Australia, I watched a bird (I thought it was a Myna, but I could be mistaken) fly down the side of a dining hall to the one open window, glide in, and land on an empty table. It then picked through the sugar packets, discarding the artificial ones, and picked out one of the raw unbleached sugar packets and took off. I have no doubt that he was taking it to sweeten the tea he just made.
63. Bending The Rules
When I was a little kid, we lived on a farm. Our dog was only allowed inside if she stayed on a big rug in the entryway. She loved to watch me play, but knew she had to stay on her rug. One day, she came around the corner to where I was with the rug in her mouth and sat down on it so she couldn't get in trouble.
62. Big Dogs Aren't The Only Smart Ones
My sister accidentally left my six-pound Min Pin out overnight in a really bad snowstorm. The dog figured out where dry leaves and sticks were, and built a shelter/igloo directly underneath the window of my bedroom and yelped periodically throughout the night. I heard her at about 6 AM, and she was left out at about 10 PM. This fort/igloo she built was significantly more complex and organized than anything I personally would have built for shelter; it was pitch black. I’m taking heavy snow and ice. I have never looked at small dogs the same since finding her that morning.
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61. The Princess And The Pea
During my teenage years when my dog would sleep in my room, she would try to wake me up by crying at the door so I would let her out. When that didn’t work because I was a teenager and loved sleeping in more than anything, she would walk under my bed (it was about a foot and a half off the ground) and arch her back to push up my mattress to make me get up. I always rewarded her and let her out immediately because it was so smart.
60. Who Fooled Who?
In southern Florida, I was catching a bunch of crabs and putting them in a five-gallon bucket. A raccoon walked up and stuck his right paw straight in the bucket. I was watching, waiting for him to get pinched. I thought it would be hilarious.
He did get pinched and proceeded to lift my crab out of the bucket and slam him on the concrete, cracking the shell and killing the crab.
The little dude then ran away with my big blue crab. He went fishing with his own hand. He came back a few a few minutes later with his gang, but I wasn’t allowing that business twice.
After I had major surgery last year, I had to sleep on the living room couch/recliner for two weeks in order to stay somewhat upright. We have a motion sensor nightlight at the bottom of the stairs, and when it's the only thing on, it casts a bit of light into the living room.
One of my dogs, not typically known for being a genius, decided that she had to sleep on the couch with me while I was recovering. She figured out that she could walk over to the nightlight to see and be able to jump on the couch with me after the other lights were off.
This would not have impressed me had it happened once. It's the fact that she did it every night, and sometimes returned to the nightlight to trigger it if she didn't jump onto the couch fast enough after the first time.
58. This Dog Will Definitely Go To Heaven
I was jogging with my two dogs in the woods behind my house. We live in a rural area and the two dogs are well behaved, so I let the dogs run free. When I got back, neither of the dogs were with me. A minute later, one dog, let's call her Juniper, came running up to me with her hackles raised and her eyes wide. She ran towards me and ran away toward the neighbor's house before coming to a full stop and looking back. She did the same thing again while looking very tense, which I took as a signal to follow her. As I headed in the direction she indicated, she rushed ahead beyond my line of sight. I heard a deep growl and ran as fast as I could to her.
Then I saw Juniper standing between my other dog, Lady, and two big dogs that I hadn't seen before that day, her hair standing on end and looking ready to fight with the two much bigger dogs. I saw that Lady's back leg was bleeding, and inferred that she must have been on her way home when these two dogs ambushed her and bit her leg. I ran up to Lady and Juniper while yelling at the two other dogs to go away. Juniper stood her ground while I picked up Lady and carried her to safety.
Fortunately, Lady's bite was not too serious and didn't require stitches. All thanks to Juniper who got the hero's treatment of as many snacks and tummy rubs as she wanted.
57. Does He Also Recycle?
My tarantula designated a corner of his terrarium for his trash. He used his web to make a basket in the corner and wrapped his food scraps with a web before putting it in the corner. So organized and truly a genius.
56. Full-Time Sitter
I have a diabetic cat and she's not allowed outside unsupervised. I also have dogs that will go out to wander the yard and do their business and the cat will occasionally sneak out with them. One dog somehow got this understanding that the cat is not supposed to be outside. He'll consistently track her and if you ask him where she is, he'll run off and find her. It's one of the most amazing untrained things that my dog has done, and also the most useful. I never have to worry about where the cat is because he's always able to track her down and bring her back inside.
55. If You Don't Like The Heat, Get In The Freezer
I have a Maine Coon and we lived in a ghetto apartment in Georgia. In the summertime, it gets very hot, so my cat started jumping on top of the fridge and using his back foot to kick open the top of the freezer door, jump down inside the freezer, and take cool naps. He's a clever little one.
54. True Companionship
I had a Chihuahua/Terrier mix when I lived alone. I often ate dinner after work while watching TV on my couch with him, and I usually fed him when I ate.
He eventually started to pick up food from his bowl, hold it in his mouth, carry it over, parkour onto the couch, then sit down and eat his food while facing the TV with me.
I'm pretty sure he didn't understand what the TV was, but he sat there and pretended to watch Netflix with me because he liked being included.
Occasionally he'd look over at me to make sure I was still there, and sometimes it almost looked like he was surprised by the plot twist on our TV show, or he wanted to see if I was at shocked at the TideToGo commercial as he was.
53. A Friend In Need
When I was 15 years old, I would regularly go on deep sea boat rides with my dad. My dad owns a speedboat, which would go incredibly fast. One day the waters were choppy and we were about three miles away from the coast. After we hit one big wave, I was propelled out of the boat, and my dad didn’t even notice. He just kept driving as if nothing had happened. I tried to remain calm as I saw the speedboat get further and further away from me. I tried to slowly and calmly swim my way back to shore. About a quarter of my way in, I started to feel something at my feet. I was really, really scared. This is the Pacific Ocean, so the water isn’t clear enough to see what it was. I was convinced it was a dangerous fish, such as a shark or something. I didn’t know what it was. I was incredibly scared. Eventually, I started to feel more fish around me, bumping into me. I didn’t feel any pain though. Eventually, I came to realize that they were dolphins. I thought they were cute and tried to ignore them, hoping they weren’t out to hurt me. Eventually, I started to realize what they were doing. They were pushing me back to shore. The dolphins were bumping into me and making circles around me as they got me closer and closer to the coast. It was the most amazing experience. A swim that would’ve taken me about an hour or two ended up taking around 20 minutes. It was by far the most amazing experience I’ve ever had with an animal.
52. They're Smarter Than We Think
Our patio door lock does not work so we use a big stick to keep the door from opening. One time I left my keys inside the house and my cat moved the stick so I was able to open the door.
51. No Humans Needed
I worked at a pet store. We had a guard dog, a mean-looking pit bull.
When customers would show up before the store opened and bang on the door to get in, the owner would say "Sic 'em Butch," and the dog would run out of the back barking and snarling, and slam into the front door glass until the customer went away and waited for the store to open.
One day, I was in the back of the store, and a customer came rapping on the front glass to get in early. Nobody was in the retail area of the store. The dog was in the back and didn't hear the rapping. But, the store mascot parrot was on his perch in the front of the store, and suddenly, called out, "Sic, em Butch!"
The dog came running, snarling and chased the customer away.
No humans were involved inside the store. I just sat in amazement as I watched the whole thing.
Yelp
50. A Little Help For His Friends
My horse knows how to unlock gates with his nose. Most of the stalls have a slide lock that the horses usually just leave alone. Not Rex. We had to put a bottom lock on the door that he couldn't reach.
One day, one of the newer people locked him in his stall, but forgot the bottom latch, then walked away. Rex unlocked his door and then went to the other stalls and let the other horses out. Then he led them on a charge to grassy freedom.
49. He Takes Breakfast Seriously
When my big orange tabby cat wanted me awake to feed him breakfast, he got into the habit of coming into the bedroom and meowing loudly around 5 AM. I soon cured him of that by getting up and quietly locking him in the bathroom for an hour or so while I got some more sleep. Sure enough, after a few times, he stopped waking me up with those loud "MEOWS!"
But I found I still would wake up early for some unknown reason, with the cat on the floor by my bed staring at me expecting breakfast. It wasn't until one morning when I woke up really early and was just lying in bed thinking of getting up when I heard the smallest meow you could ever hear. It was just a little tiny kitten-like "mew." He then waited a minute or two and then repeated. He basically did this non-stop at irregular intervals just within hearing range so I wouldn't know that he had woken me up.
Smart cat.
48. Crossing Guard
I was once walking from my grandparents' house to the shop, and accidentally went the very long way, which happened to go past a creek and a park where ducks liked to live. I saw two ducks walk towards the road, and at the edge, one duck put its wing in front of the other duck to stop it, looked both ways, waited for a car to pass, walked to the center line of the road with the other duck, and repeated. I have never regretted not bringing my camera more.
47. An Elaborate Showdown
A few years ago, there were a few slices of bread in the middle of the street for whatever reason. Some crows kept flying down and treating themselves, but whenever they did, one of the neighborhood dogs came and chased them off. One crow tried about three times to eat in peace, but the dog chased it off every time.
So the crow then decided to land a little bit away from the slices of bread and the dog ran towards it. The crow then flew off and landed about a meter away from where it just landed. The dog followed again. The crow repeated this until the dog was on a different street, and then the crow came back and chowed down.
Wikimedia
46. Whatever Gets The Job Done
There was a crow who would drop walnuts on the road waiting for cars to run them over. It would then wait at the crosswalk with people for the light to change. Then it would walk over and eat the broken walnut.
Youtube
45. Sweet Revenge
When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I was with my family on a beach. There was a seagull there that had stolen a sandwich from our beach blanket. It had grabbed the sandwich, flew away and landed about 100 feet from us.
So I picked up a racquetball and tried to hit the seagull with it. I missed but was close enough to startle the seagull. It flew into the air, swooped back down, picked up the ball, and proceeded to drop it like 200 yards out at sea.
44. A True Criminal
My grandfather used to keep pigs. As kids, we were allowed to get into the pig pens to play with the pigs, except for one. This pig was criminally insane.
I watched one day as he worked a little patch of mud with his snout and feet, carrying water over to it in his mouth from his water drip. This went on for maybe half an hour until he had the consistency just right. Then he carried some grain from his feeding trough and dumped it into the center of his little mud pit, before going back up to his covered sty to hide and wait.
Maybe 20 minutes later, a chicken flew into his pen, and as it went to eat the grain, got stuck in the mud. The pig barrelled out and chomped down on the chicken.
This was one of many devious schemes the pig had cooked up to catch the chickens. Eventually, my grandfather had to build some wire mesh over his enclosure so the chickens couldn't fly in.
43. Outsmarted By A House Dog
I was eating a bagel on the couch and my dog was sitting on the floor next to me, just eyeing me down. You could tell he wanted some, but I wasn't giving in to his cute persuasions.
He calmly walked over to the mudroom door and rang his bell that let us know that he had to go to the bathroom. So I got off the couch, put my bagel on the coffee table, and walked into the mudroom. Well within the time I got up and walked to the mudroom door, he ran around back through the kitchen and had snagged my bagel off the table. I didn't even try to get it back from him. He deserved his prize.
I realized who was the smartest being in the house that day.
42. A True Hero
I had a cat that was ridiculously smart. He was allowed outdoors but always slept inside at night. We had recently found some abandoned kittens, which we fed, and they made a home in our backyard. One night, our indoor cat came up to my room meowing incessantly and left, so I ignored him. He came back again a couple of minutes later and then left, so again I let him be. The third time he did this I decided to follow him, and he led me to the sliding glass back door and just stood there. I turned on the light and looked outside, and these poor kittens were cornered by some raccoons. The confrontation had not become physical yet, thankfully, and I managed to scare the raccoons away. I am still amazed to this day by some of the things this cat did.
41. Pug Turned Architect
My oldest dog (a pug) constructed a staircase from moving boxes to get on our pub-height dining room table. The boxes were in the same room but not near each other.
40. The Strange Innerworkings Of A Mama Raccoon
Working at a summer camp, we were sitting around outside at night, planning out the next few days, eating snacks, and chatting. We heard a noise by a tree nearby where a friend had left his backpack. Shining a light on the pack revealed a large mother raccoon and three small babies. The mama, without breaking eye contact with us, used her tiny, creepy, human-like hands to unzip the backpack zipper, remove a bag of Cheetos, pass it back to her babies, and ZIP THE BAG BACK CLOSED. A few moments went by in silence before my friend whispered, "but why did she zip it closed...?"
Youtube
39. A Civilized Beast
My ex noticed one day that his cat hadn't used the litter box at all during the day while he was at work. He thought it was odd, but nothing to be concerned about at first. A few more days went by, and he started to get concerned. The cat didn't seem sick or uncomfortable, but he rushed it to the vet, who found nothing wrong and sent them on their way.
That night, we were watching a movie on his couch and heard the toilet flush. Nobody else was in the apartment, except the cat. We turned to look and the cat casually strolled out of the bathroom. Apparently, the cat had learned to use and flush the toilet without having been trained to do so.
Youtube
38. Just Call Him Iago
I babysat for a woman who had an African Grey parrot and two dogs. The parrot would say, "Wanna go out?" As in, do the dogs want to go outside. Then they'd get all riled up and excited to go out. The bird would "laugh" and say "suckers!" That thing was evil.
Youtube
37. What A Dog Will Do For Some Peace And Quiet
I used to live on a farm with a bunch of dogs. The oldest, smartest one, Gabe, could open and close the front door. Sometimes when the other dogs were annoying him, he would perk up like he had heard something (though he couldn't hear because he was deaf), and then start barking and head to the door. The other dogs would get excited and bark along with him. He would then open the door and they'd all run out to see what was up. He would then close the door on them, trapping them outside, giving himself peace and quiet and all the best napping spots.
36. Role Reversal
One time, my dog was chasing my cat. The cat usually would just run to the basement, but not this time. The cat simply ducked behind the first stair. My dog assumed the cat had just run down the stairs and very nonchalantly turned around. As soon as he did, my cat gave me this look like, "Watch this." He jumped several feet in the air onto my dogs back and scared the daylight out of him. Clawed him pretty good too. Seriously, that was the last time the dog harassed the cat.
35. Chimps And Their Tools
I worked at a chimp sanctuary, and one chimp tied bamboo sticks together with dishcloths (both provided for enrichment) to pull the fire alarm outside of the enclosure.
34. A Counting Cat
My husband was playing with our cat one day. At one point, my husband peeked around a corner at the cat, who was hiding behind an object. Once my husband saw the cat was looking, he hid behind the corner again, then stuck his arm out from behind the corner three times so that the cat could see. One, two, three. Then, he peeked back out and saw that the cat was looking at him. The cat gave him a direct look, hid behind the object, and stuck out his paw three times. One, two, three. Then, the cat looked back at my husband.
33. Calculated Warfare
We used to have birds and a cat, and all the time we would find worms on our floor and couldn't figure out why. One night, we were all sitting around, and we had the front door open because it was a nice night. The cat walked in with a worm in its mouth and went and laid the worm on the carpet in front of the bird cage. The cat then went and hid under the coffee table to wait for his chance to strike.
32. Generosity In The Wild
I once saw a dominant male kangaroo squeeze under a fence, and whilst halfway under, it stopped, arched its back, and then let the other kangaroos in its troop slide under the fence. It waited until roughly 15 other smaller kangaroos went through until it finally went through all the way itself.
31. Imitation Goes A Long Way
I had pet rats for a while and had raised my first two from babies. The two girls heard me hiss at the cat when it got too close to their cage, and one day as I was watching the cat creep up to the cage, I got ready to hiss. Then the rats took over. I watched as the girls started puffing air to make hissing noises and lunge at the cage edge to scare off the cat. I never had to hiss at the cat again. They did it for me. I loved my rats. They were so clever.
30. Humans Are Not The Only Ones Who Know How To Fish
I saw a bird do some fishing. It was in Kinabalu, Malaysia, and we were walking by the edge of a harbor. The bird had a crust of bread that it dropped by the edge of the water. It repositioned the bread several times until a fish came along interested in eating the bread. Then the bird caught the fish. I thought it was a crazy intelligent fluke of a bird but have since seen the same thing again happen in Perth, Australia.
29. Problem Solved
I was at a zoo and saw a monkey with its hand on its brow shielding its eyes from the sun. I came back five minutes later. The monkey now had a trash can lid on its head. Instant shade. Problem solved.
28. A Great Consolation Prize
When we were younger, my brother and I were fighting over a video game controller. He'd played too much and I wanted my turn.
I lost the fight and was extremely upset. My St. Bernard noticed, and figured, "Hey my chew toy is pretty cool!"
He brought it over and sat it in my hands. Clearly, it was better than the controller.
27. True Love Will Find A Way
I have two black labs. I took them for a walk up to the usual pond where they'd go for a swim. One day it was frozen over.
The youngest of my two ran over the ice, but fell through, getting stuck under the ice. The other one calculated the shortest distance to jump from the edge of the pond and broke the ice nearest her, allowed her to swim to the edge.
26. Safety First
I had a hamster that was a master of escape. We used a fairly large aquarium tank for him instead of a cage. At first, we didn't use a lid, but he quickly learned to climb the water bottle to get out, so we got a mesh cover for the tank. That didn't stop him from climbing the water bottle, then using his nose to lift and move the mesh cover over little by little until there was an opening. So then I started placing some textbooks on the corner to make it heavier. He then learned to push the hamster wheel to the opposite corner, then shove the wood chips under it until it wouldn't rotate. Then he would climb on top of that wheel so he was up higher and had more leverage, and therefore enough strength to push the mesh off. I actually sat there once watching him shoving the chips under the wheel, then test it, add a little more, test it again until it wouldn't rotate anymore.
25. A Serious Aversion To Pills
My Labrador had to take a course of antibiotics. He wouldn't take them wrapped in cheese or any other goodness, so I'd have to put the pill at the back of his mouth and sort of massage his throat so he'd swallow. We did this every morning until the meds were done. A few weeks later, I was cleaning. I moved the throw rug where he'd sit for his meds, and I discovered a stash of his pills. The little sneak cheeked his pills then spit them out and hid them when I walked away. He was a great dog.
24. Patience Is A Virtue To Pigeons Too
I once watched a group of pigeons forming a line in front of some outside plumbing that was leaking, and the droplets of water were falling down one by one. The first pigeon was drinking, and every other was patiently waiting in the line. Once the first pigeon was done, the line shifted and the new first in line started drinking.
23. Not A Quirk After All
My old roommate's dog would, for the longest time dip, his whole snout in his water bowl and then hover over his food bowl, letting the water drip off his snout onto his food. We always laughed at it, thinking it was just some quirk he had. Finally, it dawned on me. He was softening his food. Maybe it was just too crunchy for him. We started sprinkling a little water on his food for him and he stopped doing it. Smart little guy.
22. Teamwork Of An Unlikely Pair
My cat (a Maine Coon) will jump onto the counter and push the bag of bread off of the counter and onto the kitchen floor. My dog will then tear open the plastic, and they both chow down. He's done it three or four times, so now I have a fancy bread box.
21. That Little Sneak
My girlfriend has a rule that her dog is not allowed in the kitchen. Whenever he tries to break this rule, she puts him on the carpet right outside the kitchen with a stern talking to.
The second she turns her back, he will slide one paw forward like two inches to barely touch the kitchen floor.
My friend told me a story of a raven his family kept as a pet when he was younger. He said the raven tried to copy him and his friends going down a small metal slide, but couldn't figure out how to squat correctly, despite trying several times. It flew into the house and brought back a plastic lid, placed it on the slide, and used the lid to slide down.
19. Killing Three Birds With One... Cat
I was watching my cat one day. He climbed a tree and grabbed a baby bird out of the nest and brought it down to the ground. He put it underneath him and stood over it. Some time passed with the baby bird chirping, and the parents came to save it. My cat wanted this. When the adult birds swooped down, he killed them both.
18. Psychopathic Dog
I used to find dead mice in my dog's water bowl. I couldn't figure out why these stupid mice kept drowning themselves. Then, one day, I was watching my dog stalking a mouse on the back porch. She caught it in her teeth, brought it to the water bowl, and held it under water with her teeth until it drowned. Then she walked away like it was nothing. Scariest thing I've ever seen.
17. I Mean, That’s One Solution
Momo the corgi is a rescue from a puppy mill. She had no idea how to be a dog when we got her. At age 3, she still did not know any commands, and she was not housetrained. She decided that the living room carpet was the best place to pee. So we used a baby gate to lock her and the other dog in the kitchen. Momo's only option when she had to pee was to go outside...or so we thought. The baby gate in question was pressure mounted; screws controlled the tension. Momo unscrewed the damn thing so the bottom would swing free like a dog door, pushed her way through, then peed on the living room carpet.
Photo by Brianna Santellan on Unsplash
16. Simple Click Of A Button
I was riding in the car one day with our dog on my lap. I guess he wanted to stick his head out the window. By watching us roll the window down so many times, he must have caught on that the button on the door rolled it down. I watched as he placed his paw on the button to roll the window down, then looked up at the window. His paw wasn't strong enough to push the button and roll it down. He then did several back and forths between the button and the window before finally looking at me as if to say, "What am I doing wrong?"
Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash
15. Few Things Are Too High
I didn't see it, but there was enough evidence that it happened.
We went away one weekend and left our two cats with plenty of food, water, and litter. They decided it wasn't enough for them and got into the cat treats. But we keep the treats in a cabinet above the pantry, so in order for them to create the scene we returned to, they had to:
1. Stand on the counter alongside the pantry to reach up and around to open the cabinet door.
2. Jump up to the top of the refrigerator.
3. Leap across from the fridge to the treat cabinet.
4. Bring down one container of treats.
5. Go back for six more containers.
https://unsplash.com/photos/aYHgchNOsGY
14. I Could Rip It To Bits
My dog LOVES to rip the fluff out of his toys. He doesn't really play with them beyond that, just gut the things and destroy any squeakers inside. Because I hate cleaning up the mess and money's been a bit tight lately, he went through a dry spell without fresh plushies to destroy for a few months.
A few weeks ago, I was watching a movie and he brought over the sad, deflated corpse of one of his toys, then another. He then sat, staring at me for a minute with the two fuzzy shells stretched out right in front of him. Just. Stared.
After 10 minutes or so, he left and returned with this specially stuffed cow of my husband's. It has sentimental value and is kept on a shelf, where we thought it was out of his reach. The dog sat down with the cow, right by the remains of his retired toys, dropped it on the floor, and while maintaining eye co tact, stretched his mouth open and slowly lowered his head over the cow, clearly showing he could destroy it, but was being merciful.
I bought him a cheap toy the next day, and when Zuul had finished gutting it, he rolled around in the fluff as if it was the best cocaine money could buy.
Photo by Justin Veenema on Unsplash
13. Love Hate Relationship
My previous roommate had a mischievous Doberman (call him D)who was HATED by my German Shepherd (GS). D would frequently take my roommate's shoes and chew them on his bed for which he would get punished by my roommate. Sitting in my room one day, I notice my dog peeking into my roommate's room where the D is sleeping on the bed. After about a minute, GS goes downstairs and comes back with my roommate's shoe in his mouth. Looking around to make sure my roommate is not around, he quietly goes into my roommate's room and carefully places the shoe next to D's face (who is still asleep) and then goes into my room as if nothing happened. My roommate comes back and nearly goes crazy on D for an apparent attempt to chew his shoes...(I stopped him and told him the whole story TLDR: My dog attempted to frame his mortal enemy
Photo by Blake Barlow on Unsplash
12. Cricket, Turtle Surfing
This won't ever see the light of day, but a cricket rode around on my turtle's back for over 24 hours. If he's that smart, the cricket deserves to live. We set him free to propagate his genes.
Photo by Joel Magenta Mathey on Unsplash
11. Charlotte's Web
I used to have a spider living in the corner of my front door. It would spin its web across the door and I'd take it down when I went to work. By the time I came home, the web would be back up, so I'd take it down again and go into the house. This went on for some time until, eventually, the web wasn't there any more.
I looked in the corner of the door, the spider was still there and it was still alive. I blew on it and it moved. For weeks, no web across the door or anywhere else I could see. I was starting to get concerned. The wee thing didn't seem to want to move on, but at the same time it was still alive.
Then, one night, I was keeping odd hours. I was throwing out trash at 2 AM and, the web was across the door. The spider would wait for me to get home from work, put up the web, then take it down before I left in the morning. Same thing after I left for work.
Photo by Andrew Rate on Unsplash
10. Monkey See Doggy Do
My old house has a huge garden and we had all sorts of tropical fruit trees planted in the garden. I had two family dogs. Whenever it's durian season the monkeys from the mountain nearby would travel to my house via the telegraph poles. They couldn't really enter the garden when my dogs were guarding the place. But because occasionally the durian fruit would fall outside the fence, the monkeys would pick the fruit up, dig the durian flesh and start throwing it at my dogs to bribe them. When we weren't looking my dogs would start ignoring them and let them enter the garden. It's funny though as soon as my dogs see any of us family members they'll start to bark at the monkeys, just to put on a show that they are good dogs.
Photo by Lewis Roberts on Unsplash
9. A Mother's Protection
One time my father sprayed a baby crow with the hose to try to get it out of the way of some yard work he was doing. For that entire summer the mother crow dive bombed him every time he left the house, and would follow him tree to tree when he would take bike rides around the neighborhood.
Photo by Qurratul Ayin Sadia on Unsplash
8. Delicious Soggy Bread
This summer we had a couple of weeks where it was really really hot, and no rain; so I put out bowls of water for the birds in the garden. I saw this magpie fly into my garden with a whole slice of stale bread, put the whole slice in the water, wait, then take it out and eat small chunks. Clearly not soft enough, it put the slice of bread back in the water for a bit and ate the rest.
Photo by Viktor Kern on Unsplash
7. Just Horsing Around
I've worked with horses for several years. One day I took a mare out to be worked and she took a few funny steps so I got off and checked her and nothing was hot, no injuries, nothing. So I lunged her (chased her in a circle on a long rope so I can see her move) and she was limping on one leg. I figured she pulled something so I took off her equipment and put her back out to pasture.
The second I let the horse go, she goes tearing off. She goes prances by and looks absolutely fine. I mean nothing looks wrong at all. I swear she was gloating.
Next day, she tries again with another girl. Other girl falls for it and lets her out in pasture where she again goes galloping off, perfectly fine.
So I take her out the following day, she tries for 10 minutes to convince me her leg has fallen off but I just ignored it and she eventually gave up.
Surprisingly not uncommon in the horse world!
Photo by Alberto De quevedo on Unsplash
6. I Don't Like Being Bothered
I had recently moved in with my girlfriend and was adjusting to living with her cats, which was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed messing with the alpha cat.
One day he was sitting on the back of the sofa and I got down to eye level with him and I started blowing in his face repeatedly to annoy him. He let it go on for so long, then he looked at me with an intense stare, then grabbed my face with his paw, claws extended. I stayed still. He brought his open mouth to my check and slowly pressed his teeth into my skin, taking caution as to not break the skin. He then held his teeth there, with my cheek between his jaws for about 20 seconds while I was remained frozen. He could have seriously bit my check, but he chose not to. He slowly backed his mouth away from my check, then took his paw off of my face and resumed sitting on the back of the sofa.
I never blew in his face again after that.
This was the cat version of "I could bite you, but I'm choosing not to. Quit messing with me, ok?"
At that moment, we came to terms on a gentleman's agreement and I respected him. We had an amazing bond after that incident and we had a great relationship after that.
Photo by Krystian Tambur on Unsplash
5. A Deadly Smart Horse
A couple of years ago I went to catch my horse in the pasture. I called and he came running, and as he got to where I was standing, he started rearing up and pummelling the ground next to me over and over. This from a sweet horse who wouldn't think of biting or hurting a person. I look down and he's in the process of killing a mole. Most calculated and single-minded (and out of character) thing I ever saw him do. Another time I was riding him down a muddy, deep, slippery trail and it was getting dangerous. He stopped, I urged him forward. He took another step and stopped. I asked him forward again and he turned around, looked me dead in the eye as if to say 'Lady, if you wanna go down there you're going alone, because this big, black horse is done.' We turned around. Smart horse - he'd even fetch for me like a dog.
4. Cat-Like Reflexes
This is one of my favourite stories, so I'll tell it even though it probably won't be seen.
I grew up in the desert in Australia. We had this cat. She was a mongrel born under our house who we kept. All day she wandered around in the nearby scrub and did what she wanted. At night she would come home, eat her cat food and then let herself into the house to be scratched on the head and drool all over the carpet. She was also a keen hunter.
One day, I was about nine, I was sitting in the paved area of our backyard. I looked up by coincidence and saw a brown snake moving towards me. I was so afraid I couldn't move. Out of nowhere appeared the cat. She wasn't even normally in the yard at that time of day. She looked at me, then the snake, then me again. Then she darted forward and just coolly swiped off the head of this snake before it could even react. She meowed at me, then took the snake's body off to wherever she went to eat her spoils, and left the head there.
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
3. The Mimicking Master
Grandfather had an extremely smart parrot, who learned to imitate my step-grandmother's voice perfectly. The parrot would manipulate my grandfather (who was a drinker and not always on his game) into doing stuff by imitating her tone of voice. Want granddad to leave the house so the parrot can attack the cat? Shout at him to go fishing out back. Want to hitch a ride on the dog? Calmly ask for the husky to be let into the house. But the best was he loved certain foods and would suggest them to my grandfather from the next room. More than once my grandfather would leave and come home with pizza to the bewilderment of my step-grandmother, insisting she had asked him to go get it. Damn clever bird.
Photo by Benny Kirubakaran on Unsplash
2. An Eye For An Eye
When I was young and stupid, I would grab my doberman by the snout and fart on her nose...which typically resulted in her sneezing or some other insanity. One evening while watching TV, my dog walks right past me, stops with her butt in my face and lets one rip. She turned back to look at me. I swear I saw her smile.
