what kind of strange animal antics have you witnessed?

[wally wonder]

today, i was working out on the shore of the big lake. lunch time, i was sitting in my truck eating a sandwich, the front of the truck pointed at the traverse river. i guess the salmon are running, or about to, but that's not the point. so, i'm sitting there in the cab of the truck eating a sandwich and the river there had wood planks set into it, almost like a quay wall along that particular bend of the river.

on the other side, there was this red squirrel running back and forth along the wood plant quay wall. the planks are old, water-logged, and they're set into the river's edge, like a quay wall. there's some buildings along the water's edge and some curious reflections in the black water. anyway, this red squirrel was going back and forth and i thought it'd be neat it they ran a commercial, you know, w/squirrels.

line em up like at the olympics. they're all standing there, shaking out their paws, extending squirrel leg back, getting out the whatever, like mark spitz and those germans. germans are big swimmers i guess. so what happens next! the squirrel dives off the quay wall and makes for the other side.
no splashing about, just a v-line for the other side. i forgot about my sandwich.

i wondered, how's he doing it? tail action? doggy paddle? five seconds. he was across. about 20 yards. never saw a squirrel swim before, thing is.
so, he climbs up a post on my side and i watch him. he ran up alongside a garage--this garage has a ton of books in it, by the way--guy i'm working for. he gave me another conan book to read, too. as the squirrel is heading up alongside the garage, i check him out. he's not wet. asked the guy i'm working for if he ever saw a squirrel swim. nope. lucky a pike didn't get him, was his thought.

so. you ever see an animal do something that you didn't expect? post pics!

[Sugar Marie]

I once witnessed some serious animal antics in the bathroom of a club I bartended in. The female was one of my waitresses.

Couldn't post pics even if I had any.

[Jaedpact]

I have a Maine Coon Cat named Charlie Fuzzbutt McGhee, He is a HUGE cat. The fur makes him look biger than his 28 pounds prove him to be. He was running around in a cat frenzy one day and decided that he was talented enough to jump from various pieces of furniture through out the living room. Couch to chair to tv to mantle, you know the usual Look-at-me-I-am-an-agile-feline type of stuff. Then he stops suddenly and spins in a counter clock wise circle exactly three times, then bolts for the back door and jumps full force into a pane of the sliding glass door! I laughed uproariously and Charlie skulked off to sit under a big chair and lick his nose repeatedly. I kinda felt bad for him but it was really the funniest damn thing i had ever seen!

After that I started to try to make him do flip in the air by raising a cat toy higher and higher out of his reach, eventually her learned it and I had a HUGE sorta kinda leash trained cat that could turn a flip if properly motivated. I wish I had pics of some of these things!

[wally wonder]

i saw something the other day. thought i'd share. involves a red squirrel, again. anyway, i'm sitting in a hemlock, up about twenty feet, snow cover, about twelve inches. squirrels like to use downfalls, blow-downs, tops from logging, branches of all sizes lying on the ground as their highways. but everything is snow-covered. didn't stop this squirrel. i look down and see something that looks like a scene from tremors, the snow on this branch being plowed up from below. squirrel, on the branch moving along, she sticks her head up one time, looks around, goes back to it. kinda like bugs, that time he took a wrong turn at albert-quirky. i think the squirrels are trying to psyche me out. would be a real hoot if it was the swimmer...nah, couldn't be.

[PatInTheHat]

I have a Maine Coon Cat named Charlie Fuzzbutt McGhee, He is a HUGE cat. The fur makes him look biger than his 28 pounds prove him to be.

(Part one, this is a long one, sorry..okay, not really.)

Wow, talk about your catty coincidence, kitty karma, Ka or whatever it is that blows ones dress up!
I was just having a conversation with our kitteh lovin' Purrrrtricia, about my 'ol pal Badger, who's cruisin' bruisin' weight was 28 lb's, and was I think a Maine Coon, but was told he might have been a Norwegian Forrest cat...whatever..big freakishly freakin' friggin' cat is what I'm sayin'!
(and some serious clowns too I might add..okay, so I just did)
Told her I write a story about my bud, if I saw a thread that would accomodate, make sense & where I could do him justice..Abra Cadabra Walla & Shazam, here 'tis...thank you!

I was telling Pat how he once almost killed me (well, he seemed have his little heart set on it, and I do remember thinking, How embarrassing, I'm going to be killed by a house cat in a hallway...yeah I know!
I had somewhat of a rep to protect back then afterall, and being slaughtered by a pussycat, no matter how gianormous, wasn't something I cared to contemplate (oh, my hard core running mates at the time, would have made the dying part, the easy part...but the getting killed part (seriously), wasn't all that appealing either!
I should say, all I did was pick the rat moiderin' bastid up, like I had a thousand..okay maybe a couple of hun...a hundred times before.
Good lord did he ever tear me a couple of new ones, shredded me like I was hard cheese, put holes in me full inch deep that spouted no oil, but took months to heal!
We weren't, shall we say, friendly, for quite a while after that..years is still considered quite a while in feline/human realtionships, right?

Okay, so it's a few years later. and I must explain at the time of our encounter, Badger lived downstairs from my Mama, but not long after our "incident", she opened her door one day, and there he was with his luggage.
Now he came to visit her on occasion like I did, as Mama is cat people, but this time he decided this would be his new mailing address (he actually did get mail...totally different story..but Mama did get him a change of address card...I'm serious), and no one (and I mean NO ONE) was going to do anything about it...nor after what he'd done to me, was anyone willing or wanting to try, besides Mama wanted him to stay too.
Mama was getting on in years, and it was becoming apparent she couldn't be on her own anymore, an assisted living facility was sooo not an option, and she doesn't care for strangers telling her what to do..nix that, she won't have anyone telling her what to do...but I have a certain way with her (I'm the favorite..yeah, you know if your one as well, you kinda love to rub it in too..don't lie to me, I know things about people).
Beside, I'm the one in the family who was always tap dancin' & piddle fartin' on the road most of the time, justa terrorizing the countryside and doing whatever I pleased, and plus no one else wanted the gig...did I mention she's stubborn as a stump?
Again, nix that..a stump has a certain give, plus you can't be prosecuted for taking an ax to it, to coerce it into something resembling cooperation...I'm just sayin'.

On top of that, her neighborhood was becoming a giant crack alley, and my brother who owned the house (he was the one that badger did live with) had by that time moved, and rented it to some crack ho's.
(watching Badger keep a crack dealer from getting in his car was an absolute hoot...sunbathing on a sweet fresh white landau roof on his street was nothing less than a birthright..oh those stupid common folk!)

So, here I come into the picture, and wouldn't ya just know it, Badger, who had avoided me like the plague for all this time on my subsequent visits for years, greets me like a long lost brother, of course I'm bearing tuna & shrimp (He loved his shrimp I'm here to tell ya) no less...hey, I ain't totally stupid, cut me some slack wouldja...sheesh, Gunther Gable the big cat grand poobah I'm not!
He helps me unpack (and promptly sprays my stuff..yeah well, bonding..you know how it is..or perhaps you don't), and later, when we all settle down in the living room, he jumps right in my lap...a little apprehension at this turn of events, I'm sure you may well imagine.

I'm sweatin' bullets doesn't begin to describe it, and I've done some rather scary stuff, been in way scary places, seen some things that still give me pause, but my sphincter has never been tighter before or since..the big 'ol boy starts rubbing my chin and purrin' like a boat motor (seriously, he sounded just like one of those 20 hp putterin' boat motors when he purred), and falls asleep in my lap..my whole lap..itsa big cat, remember?
I just sat there, and wish I could say enjoyed the whole experiance, but come on, I'd been hoodwinked before, and the score was: Badger - How many ya got...Me - I can't even whistle through my butt!

Butt time it goes on, and we do in fact become best pals.
He sleeps with me, hangs out with me, falls asleep on my lab almost every night after his supper (now he doesn't ignore Mama, we're all a team, but when it's really early or kinda late, we're with-it when Mama's asleep or doing her Mama thang.
He gets me up so I can get coffee on before Mama wakes up...see Mama ain't allowed to do kitchen stuff.
If she goes downstairs, he hangs with her, and if anything bothers him (like a crack 'ho talkng to her), he comes and fetches me.
When she tripped and fell by the mailbox, he went absolutely ballistic (I thought here me & him go again...man did I feel like a heel..he got sauteed scallaps that night)...she was okay by the way!

[PatInTheHat]

So we got a pattern going, a schedule, everything is in synch, life is oddly blissfully boring, until...
Yep, there's always an until ain't there?
Until I got sick, real sick and I'm sure there is one person here (I know there's more) who can appreciate when your gall stones ya...and attacks you like the coward it is!
I didn't know what it was exactly, but I had to suck it up...thought is was indigestion, then something I ate...then I passed a stone and it blocked my duct work in my pancreas...one thing duct tape isn't worth a hoot in hell for is this particular duct thing, I here to tell ya..they should work on that down at the duct tape labroratory is what I'm suggesting...word!
My sister (who was one seriously kickin' diagnostician, that and plus, she'd gone through it) filled me in on all the poop, but having no insurance, I was medically, in a word, screwed.
That kind of cash I did not have, so it was grin & bear it, do some research, and work in a diet that would hopefully help.

In the mean time, as much as I didn't want to admit it, I was going downhill pretty fast.
My gut swelled...oh gee whiz did it swell, I couldn't lay, sit, stand, kneel, nothin' for more that a few minutes.
Standing in a shower with hot water as hot as I could stand blasting that area, and eating acetaminophen like M&M's was all that helped, Mama worried, & Badger never left my side.
After a few days of practically no sleep, I finally passed out..I think was feverishly delirious by this time.
I had weird dreams, really weird, with me, Sandra Bulloch, and that guy(?) in that Hemingway movie they did...I have never even seen the movie!
I was dying in the movie..uhh, dream (& in a boat, go figure), and I liked it...yeah, I know.
Now 'ol Badger slept by my side, or at my feet, or over my head, wherever he stayed out of the way that didn't cause me pain, but he just watched, constantly keeping an eye on me, until that dream..I think I was slipping away.
Well he decided that just wasn't in his plans (pushy bossy bastard that he was), afterall, who would sautee his scallops, and by that time prepare his sushi (well hey, sometimes fresh yellowfin was on sale), so he starts licking me.
Licks me all over my face, no matter how much I push him away, he licks me till I'm awake, I sit up and he puts his paws on my shoulder and keeps licking me until I get up.
Now he meows (more like GGRREEEowwow's, he was a a baritone/bass, y'all should heard him do doowop..infreakincredible is all I'll say!), and meows and circles & head butts my legs until I start moving, and just won't leave me alone.
Now see, in my family, we're all grumpy when sick, and insist on being left alone, but at that moment, he'd have none of it.
Not long after, I had a coughing fit (Oh My Holy Smokin Gee Whiz, what excrutiatingly delicious pain..indescribable), and I actually felt something POP...kinda scary to tell the truth.
Oh but the pressure started to go down immediately, and my gut started to commence to gurgling (I hadn't realized it had even stopped)..I wasn't great, but the worse was over, and I know without any doubt right down to my bones, that Badger, my buddy, my amigo, saved my life that day (well it was more toward evening..let's say dusk for the sake of argument)!!!
Whether it was because he knew Mama needed me around, or I because make a pretty mean shrimp & scallop scampi, that's the story of my best pal Badger, the wonder brat..uhh cat & life saver of goofballs extraordinaire!

[Bryan James]

My squirrel routinely sticks almonds down the back of my shirt.

Today she put a pistachio in my ear.

~BJS

[Mary Strickland]

We are in a rural area and depend on a watch dog because (North Texas) people do not get out of a vehicle when they drive up. Being a "big city" person most of my life, this is peculiar to me. Nevertheless, we have depended on dogs thus far. Most have been normal dogs (like one of the family, etc.) until the present dog. Baxter (my husband names the dogs) has no clue. If someone comes and is welcomed into the yard or the house, he does not assume that person is "OK". I have never thought an animal should be killed outright because of worthlessness until now. I can't do it, but I need a good dog. Recommendations anyone????????

[Spideyman]

Great story PatInTheHat- can relate

Here's the story of my Black Lab/ Blue tick mix - Scotty:
He did save our lives. We had just moved into a new mobile back in 1989. Kept the old one as a storage place. About three months in, Scotty starts barking like crazy, scratching at the window for dear life. This is something he had never done. It was about 1AM mid July. With sleepy eyes, I looked out the window. Very wooded area, no yard lights. Noticed a strange color in the windows of the old mobile. The electric had been turned off when we moved out. The place was ablaze inside. My son, who lived on the same track of land, was awake now. As I called the volunteer fire company, hoses where hooked up and we started to both spray my new place down, as well as attempt to put the fire out. A neighbor came and helped with an additional hose. The fire company arrived, let it burn to the ground, saving my new place instead. It it had not been for Scotty, I fear to think what may have happened.

Seems a group of kids out of school for the summer thought throwing bottles filled with gasoline at structures was a nice game. Was very thankful fro Scotty that night.

[Patricia A]

This is a great thread! It's amazing how much animals add to our lives.
And Pat, I actually got choked up reading your post. Good old badass Badger! Thanks for giving me the blame... I mean credit for asking you to share it LOL.