Cats and Colours
I recently noticed something funny. Cats seem to prefer their own colours. For instance, one of them, who is orange, absolutely loves the colour orange. It doesn’t look that great to me, but she insists on lying on a surface that clashes the most with her own colour. Pink (and similar shades) are ok too, as far as she’s concerned. I keep wanting her to lie (read pose) on something white, grey, blue or green. No such luck. Besides, getting her to pose for the camera (read lie still for a few seconds at a time) is more or less impossible.
Another of my cats – grey this time – adores (you guessed it) the colour grey. In this case, I wouldn’t say that grey clashes with grey, but in my book, another colour, like white, red, blue and so on, would look a lot prettier. That is if I ever got her to stay in one place long enough for me to get a few pictures of her.
Oh, well, I’ll have to commit the images to memory and maybe, once in a while, I’ll be able to snap a few shots of them before they take off…
Irresistible seeds
Today I noticed that my cockatiel, Alexander, had pecked a hole in a bag of bird seeds I’d bought for him. He was sitting there, eating seeds, looking pleased with himself. And so he should. He’s such a smart bird. I was so impressed. He wasn’t too happy when I poured the contents of the bag into a glass jar though. Oh, well. He’ll get it all, in time. I only wish I’d been able to take a photo of him. Maybe some other time.
Animal research meaningless
The author of this article
makes some good points. Note the snarky comments below. Everyone’s a self-proclaimed expert these days…
Sh. Don’t look now!
Stalker cat
Stalker cat
Stalker cat
I think I have a stalker.:) My sister and I were walking back from the store. We’d bought a few things, among others, cat food, and it seems this little cutie knew that from a distance. She (I think it was a she, though she was quite big, but definitely young), saw us, ran through a hole in the fence, and came to say hello. Once the ice was broken, she sniffed the shopping bag, and began to tag along. We were quite concerned that something would happen to her. She crossed streets and just followed us. Two other people walked by and wanted to say hello, but she only had eyes for us. Me really. When she noticed that we had noticed, she began to get coy. She wasn’t following us. No way. She was just checking things out. Removing a thorn that had become stuck in her paw. Climbing a tree. Finally, when we got to the cemetary, she really stopped and turned back. It was a relief. We didn’t want her to get hurt. But I have a feeling that she’ll come and say hello again, the next time we pass by.
The brown puppy
Today when we went to the store to do some shopping – it’s a holiday today, so among other things we had to get something nice for this evening – we saw a cute field spaniel puppy. He was brown and playful and had this really endearing way of looking at you. Of course, just like all spaniels he was wagging his tail. Unfortunately, his owner was extremely strict with him. She couldn’t seem to tolerate any expression of joy. Why get such a sweet breed, if you intend to crush his zest for life? It made me sad. Poor puppy, all he wanted was to have some fun.
Dogs refuse to play ball if they have been treated unfairly
This article describes a series of experiments. The experiments show that dogs, just like humans and primates, have a sense of justice and will react to being treated unfairly. Of course, this is no surprise to me. We’ve had dogs in my family since I was five years old and they definitely seem to be envious of each other and demand justice in their own ways.
The other day I read that another scientist claims cats don’t ‘care’ about their people. I wonder on what she bases that assumption. We’ve had cats since I was nineteen, several of them, and most of them definitely seem to care, but there are some who seem to care less. If no cats really care, and only put on shows to con us into believing they do, why bother, if other cats get fed and sheltered and taken to the vet if necessary, without faking affection? I think that would be overestimating their acting talent a bit.
Dogs
Today, when I was out walking my sister’s dog, I ran into a girl walking her two dogs. One of them especially, was really sweet. A little dachshund. Lhasa apsos are my favorite, and I also like the other Tibetan breeds, but I am very fond of dachshunds too.
Unlike most dog owners we meet nowadays, this girl actually let the dogs meet and sniff each other, but strangely enough her male dog, a longhaired chihuahua, didn’t like my sister’s dog, and the girl assumed she was a male too. I guess she isn’t familiar with keeshonden. This one is actually quite small even for a female.
So I guess, from my point of view and my sister’s dog’s this was quite a good day.
Smart Dog
The other day Fiammetta, my lhasa apso, and I were going into my room. To get there, we have to go through a couple of other rooms first. Fiammetta’s eyesight isn’t 100% and sometimes she sniffs doors and furniture to be able to tell where she’s going. I noticed her hesitating about the direction, even though we walk around the house every day, and I said ‘a little to your left’.
(She might not have been hesitating as much as thinking or considering whether she needed to sit down and clean up or scratch herself. She tends to stop and ponder matters a lot, which can be irritating at times.)
Guess what she did? She did turn left and walked into our room with no trouble at all. Of course, she hardly ever has trouble, but she usually doesn’t get there quite that quickly, mainly because she has so many other things to do, even if I’m in a hurry. I mean, what does human business concern her, right?
