Gone to the dogs, and cats, and rabbits: TOLT

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

I’m Thinking Out Loud about animals today. Animals fascinate me; they always have. Sometimes I think I may have missed the boat — it never even occurred to me to become a vet when I was a kid. Except I don’t think that’s my calling; you have to deal with the humans (the good, the bad, the ugly); you have to deal with the not so nice animals; you have to put animals to sleep without becoming a blubbering mess yourself.

Prepare yourself for cuteness.

Nothing to do with the post, just a cute Lola pic

Lola & the M&M
Mr. Judy got a shipment that included M&Ms and apparently that particular bag burst in transit (he takes them to work). He assured me that no M&Ms escaped the box.

Keep in mind that on more than one occasion, Mr.Judy has had chocolate in his work backpack and Lola has gotten a hold of said chocolate. Yes, honey, I am throwing you under the bus with this one.

What did I spy with my little eye later? A single M&M on the floor, indeed.

I was quite shocked that Lola hadn’t scarfed it up. Chester certainly would have!

Make up your mind
Lola does not like getting her feet wet. She doesn’t like to walk in the rain or when the road is slushy.

So explain to me why she always seems to deliberately seek out the tallest tuft of grass in the backyard to pee on?

10 year rabbit cycle
This week I spotted the first rabbit I’ve seen in a while during Lola’s morning walk. I know Mr. Judy had been talking about a rabbit in the backyard lately but I hadn’t seen it yet.

When we first moved here, rabbits were everywhere. Not so good when you have rabbit poop loving dogs. I didn’t know I signed up to scoop rabbit poop when I got dogs!

Then they seemed to disappear. And then a friend mentioned that they die off every so often. And yes, apparently, that’s true (at least the Internet said so): Truth to the 10 Year Rabbit Cycle?


101 Things to do with a box
I’ll bet you never heard of 101 Things to Do With a Box. Gizmo certainly has!

The gist of it is one way to get animals used to the clicker is to put down a box, and click and treat any way they interact with the box (even starting with just looking at it).

Way back in the day we did this with Gizmo. And thus was born his love of playing with a box flap. We call it his OCD behavior.

Above he took it up a notch and got into the box and started playing with the flap (usually he plays with it from outside the box).

I knew he’d fall for the tissue paper

Then I put in some paper from another package into the box. Yesterday morning there was packing paper all over the floor — I knew he was going to get into that! Does he look the least bit guilty or like the cat that ate the cream?

Lola wears a bra
I have this all-in-one step in leash/harness. We bought it years ago, before we got Lola; we used it with Chester. And we haven’t used it in all those years because we had two dogs and a double leash.

Lately I’ve been using it with Lola. It’s lightweight, and it cuts out one step (you don’t have to put on the harness and then attach the leash; feel free to insert an eye roll here).

The only problem is she hates getting into it. I don’t know why. She’s fine once it’s on, but she’ll circle away from you the minute you come at her with it. She’s not like that with her harness (although there’s still some circling, just towards you).

I showed the harness to Mr. Judy, who’d forgotten all about it, and mentioned how she hated getting into it. He said “it’s like an underwire bra for her”.

 

What odd behaviors do your kids/furkids entertain you with?

Do you ever think about what career you should have pursued?

I’m linking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons for her:

Thursdays are for thinking out loud

20 thoughts on “Gone to the dogs, and cats, and rabbits: TOLT”

  1. I could not be a vet for just the reasons you cited. Callie loves to chew on cardboard and has destroyed many boxes. Both she and Malika love to play with the paper filler from packages.

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  3. I did consider becoming a vet at some point, but then I learned that you’d have to put animals down and that was the end of that. I love animals, but I have a hard time seeing them in pain and suffering. That and I’m not great with the whole medical atmosphere thing. And I’m thinking we might have to get a little harness for our dog now that she’s older and possibly more frail? I’m not sure she’ll be too thrilled, but I’m guessing it’ll be better for her.

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  5. I love cats. It is dangerous for me to go to a shelter or a pet store. I want to bring them all home. My hubby has said NO MORE. And I agree. It will be freeing to have none someday (though lonely).

    My cats do lots of funny things such as 2 that only enter the house through the window on the SECOND floor.

    Maybe someday, I write about my pets but right now it’s my running blog and I’m pretty much sticking to that stuff.

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    1. It’s your blog & you can write whatever you want to write!

      As much as I love my furkids, I also know my limits. I volunteered at shelters for years — and I never, ever brought any animal home. I had promised Lloyd I wouldn’t, and quite frankly, 4 animals were plenty.

      However I don’t forsee a time when I don’t have cats. Or dogs, for that matter! Yes, it means that I’m not as free as I’d like to be sometimes, but it’s worth it to me.

      Although after doing a lot of traveling with Lola and rain, potentially, I might sing a different tune!

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  7. Talk about cuteness!!!!

    I never knew rabbits dies off..interesting fact. You learn something new every day!!

    hmmmmm…something to think about…what other career would I have chosen…I will have to get back to you on that one!

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  8. Funny Gizmo. All cats seem to have OCD or bi-polar like behavior at times lol
    my cats will stuff themselves into any size box…and sometimes wrestle over who should be in the box at any given time.

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