Animals Behaving Badly, Again?

Not a week goes by when someone doesn’t ask how my critters are. My pets are Penny, my mini-pin, Nuts, my shy cat rescued from the woods, and Holly, the cat rescued from a Sallisaw alley who wouldn’t come out of my bathroom for about three years. My critters are fine. Pen is like me, getting a bit older and a big wider in the hip. Nuts, who is over 13 years of age the best we can figure, seems to have reached some sort of life crisis and romps around the house like a kitten. Holly has come out of the bathroom, but likes to dig around in the potted plants in the window and has been caught lately sneaking around the counter tops in the kitchen at night, and who knows she’s not supposed to, cause when I surprise her and yell “Get Down!” she runs like crazy and hides for hours. She knows she was behaving badly. Can’t tell me that critters are just “dumb” animals. Mine are not dumb at all.

Penny has also developed a new habit, which may be a part of getting older too, just like me. She seems to have lost her patience. Patience is not a part of a mini-pin’s personality. Mini-pins are high-energy, go-get-em dogs. Penny’s just the opposite. She lays around all day, sleeping, until she thinks it’s time to eat. And she lets me know. She have begun to bark, and bark, and bark. It’s maddening. And yelling “Shut up!” at Penny does not work. She sort of gives me a “What? Me?” look, and continues on. Last week I gave her a blast of water from my plant water spray bottle. The barking stopped. Penny was shocked. Couldn’t believe I had done such a thing. Hid under the bed all day. I felt guilty. Penny continues to bark when she thinks it’s time to eat. I put the water bottle away. I’ll just live with it. Ugh.

Since everyone knows about my badly behaving animals. So to broaden the topic, I checked out the internet. Hum. Found cat tearing up the last toilet roll in the bathroom. Well, yes. I had to remove all tissue from Holly’s favorite abode. She thought pulling all the soft facial tissue out of the box was fun, then she could mound it up and sleep on it all day. No more facial tissue for Holly. Not much different from badly behaving animals on the internet.

Hum. Critters breaking into the fridge for a snack. Mine haven’t figured that out yet. However, I began to suspect something was going on when I found door between laundry room and family room was opening every day, apparently on its own. I began surveillance. Caught him. Nuts the cat is trying to escape the house via the family room which also has a loose window. Not going there cat. Door now has extra lock. Not much different from bad cats on the internet.

I love OETA, and just this week they re-ran one of my favorite programs, “Animal Odd Couples.” It’s about critters from different species who fall in love with one another. Uh. How do I make mine watch that show? They are not paying one bit of attention. Penny and Nuts still have those standoffs over Penny’s food bowl. Don’t know what the cat prefers the dog food, or, on the other hand, why the dog prefers the cat food. Given a chance, Penny picks up the cat bowl and runs off to hide with it so she can eat Nuts’ leftovers in peace. Doesn’t make since. Holly refuses to have anything to do with either Pen or Nuts. For a while back there in the coldest part of the winter, Holly loved curling up with Penny on a cold evening. And Penny didn’t seem to mind. Holly has thicker fur than Pen. But now they are ignoring each other totally. However, Nuts still thinks he needs to take a swipe at Holly every time she darts by on the way to supper or wherever. Safe to say, I guess, my critters are not animal odd couples. Well, they are odd, to say the least. As I surfed the net looking for examples of animals behaving badly I noted some folks didn’t like that. It was as though the critters should have been placed in a time out like little kids in trouble. OK. We concede some animals should be punished for some bad behaviors, but let’s not ignore the personalities of our beloved pets. So Penny, Nuts and Holly have odd relationships. Hey, it’s their lives, and our entertainment. Let the critters be. I love my critters. Their antics enhance life.