*sigh* I'm loosing my touch. (Warning: Hi-jacked by Em)

[Alaskan]

A house is so much cleaner if it has no indoor plumbing!

 

[Bunnylady]

A house is so much cleaner if it has no indoor plumbing!

Yeah, but the things that may live in that outhouse . . .

One of the horses didn't want to come into the barn, he was so rattled. The barn owner had just put a couple of new horses in a nearby pasture, and when this horse saw them looking over the gate, he locked up and stood there snorting and blowing with his eyes on stalks. I laughed at him, and told him, "Mo, those are horses. They aren't bears; they won't eat you. They won't explode, either. They are just horses!" Eventually he decided to trust me. We'll see if he still believes me when I take him out of the barn this morning.

 

[Bunnylady]

Well, he did and he didn't.

When I opened his stall door to feed him, he nearly ran me over trying to bolt through it. When I led him out later, he walked along well enough, but he was huffing and puffing fit to blow the barn down the whole time. I reckon it's going to take a while.

 

[sourland]

A couple of weeks ago I was working a young dog when a major thunder storm came up. Really loud thunder spooked him badly, and he decided that it was me making that noise. Until just recently he was skittish and kept looking back at me certain that I was 'going to make that noise again'. I'm still not certain that he is completely over his scare. Animal psychology.

 

[Bunnylady]

Years ago, we had had a house cat for a couple of years when someone talked us into taking a kitten. We didn't want a fight between the resident cat and the "invader," so we put the kitten in a spare bedroom. We figured we'd give the kitten a few days to get comfortable with "his" space, and introduce the two of them with limited, supervised visits. Snicker (the "cat in possession") knew there was another animal behind that door, of course, and he kept sniffing at the crack beneath the door. One time, I was in the room with the kitten, and I heard Critter say, "Snix, you want to see what's in there?" and he opened the door a couple of inches. The kitten was near the door at the time; I was a good bit further away. I don't know what Snicker thought he saw, but he hissed explosively and took off down the hall as fast as a cat can run. My husband found him behind the couch, every hair on end and growling so wildly that Critter was afraid to touch him (did I every tell you how Snicker got his name?!). Introductions between the two cats went reasonably smoothly, other than the fact that every time the door was opened, Snicker took off for fear the "whatever" was going to come out rather than the kitten. For months afterward, if we left the door open, we'd see Snicker peeking around the frame, wide-eyed and nervous. (BTW, this is the same cat that demolished the Christmas tree).

 

[sourland]

OK, how did Snicker get his name?


Mike the 'transient' cat demolished our very first Christmas tree.

 

[Bunnylady]

Well, one definition of snick is, "a small cut." Have you ever heard the sound a cat claw makes when it's ripping through your flesh? Sounds like "snick" to me.

It was the first sound my husband heard when he caught Snicker. The next sound was a cat shriek of pure terror, followed by a yell from Critter as the kitten's claws continued to rip up his hand. In Snicker's defense, Critter had just chased him down and grabbed him. It was a rather rough rescue; Snicker was one of a litter of kittens that had been born to a feral cat at a local historic site. The site was closed for the winter, nobody was feeding the cats, and he was the only one we could get our hands on. When I caught up to Critter, he was still holding the little guy, and he had blood running down his wrist from the claw damage.

 

[Tanichca]

My baby brother just managed to get up on his hands and knees. soon, he won't be a baby anymore.

 

[Alaskan]

Tani, that sucks.

I don't like it when they get mobile either.

Of course, it is kinda cute when they are old enough to crawl into an older sibling's bed, and then pee.

 

[Tanichca]

Tani, that sucks.

I don't like it when they get mobile either.

Of course, it is kinda cute when they are old enough to crawl into an older sibling's bed, and then pee.

Or spread the more solid contents of his diaper around, as was the case with the next brother up. You'd think with seven younger brothers I'd be used to it all.