Can your pets tell the time?

It's not just our cats that know when it's breakfast time. We have pheasants waiting outside every morning. They know what time we fill the bird feeders and they always have some too. We had 17 yesterday!
Also, a herring gull seems to have taken up residence on our chimney and hammers on the window if we are a bit late getting up!He was encouraged by my sister-in-law who fed him everyday on a recent visit and all attempts to discourage him have failed. As we live in the country he's not being a nuisance to anyone else and he likes "left over" cat food.

Mr P refers to Oliver Sprout as "The Liability" as his clumsiness (especially with his tail is legendary.

He refers to Digby as "A fat bastard" with short "a" in the "bastard". We also both refer to him when not present as "Squeaky Fatarse"

However, we do both love them muchly!

PS Remind me of that next time an ornament gets broken/muddy pawprints are left throughout the hall and kitchen/various unidentifiable parts of rodents are left on the doormat/carpets and curtains get damaged (Oliver Sprout, we know it's you!) and various other things happen.

Hahaha phoenix your Oliver reminds me of my daughter's cat, who as a kitten would leap about with no thought of where he would land. He once leapt from the back of the sofa on to the TV, skidded straight off the other side and crash landed in my SiL's plate of fish and chips. I don't know who was more shocked. My daughter laughed like a drain!

I'm surprised all your pets' internal clocks keep such good time. Those in my animals' tummies always run fast, so they start asking for each meal up to an hour early. They're supposed to have supper at 6 but they've shifted it forward so many times that it's currently at 4.
They get a snack at bedtime, to get the cats in as I don't like them out at night, and they pester me remorselessly from 8.30 on. I'm often in bed by 9.30 just to get some peace.

Our old dog (rip) would go to the top of the stairs, so he could see out of the porch window just before the school bus dropped the girls off. He also seemed to know about 10 minutes before their dad arrived home from work, usually different times each day. He'd sleep all the way to the south coast then sit up as we drove into nannies road. Our current dogs are creatures of routine and tell us when it's walk/food time. The older dog adores my husband and goes to the door just before his car arrives. Odd isn't it.

shysal Oliver Sprouts latest "trick" is getting on top of the kitchen cupboards, in the gap between the sort of pelmet and the ceiling. (His previous one was walking along the banisters looking like a furry gymnast on a balance beam, but it all went horribly wrong when I had left a silky jumper over them to dry, and there was a rather undignified scrabbling, followed by a period of suspension with the back legs dangling into the abyss of the stairs, whilst the front legs hung on for dear life. We did pretend not to notice the resulting soundless plummet, but I think the damage was done)

Problem is, I hadn't realised he had moved his acrobatic endeavors until I was trimming some meat on the work top and was suddenly assailed by a large tabby feline descending from above in the manner of a particularly gung ho paratrooper. I nearly wet myself had a heart attack.

My Bengal cat, Saffron, launches herself onto my bed from the top of the wardrobe! I have to make sure my legs are out of the way as I am afraid that she could break a bone on impact.

No cat flap here, joanna, just the full concierge facility!

We didn't dare have a cat flap before as Maurice wasn't chipped and had the habit of inviting chums in for a bit of breakfast/lunch/supper. He was particularly friends with Fluff Gordon from next door. Sadly neither of them still alive.

Our cul de sac of 7 houses has more feline residents than human!

I should add that Digby is quite happy to wait for his brekkers, as long as the biscuit bowl is kept topped up he's happy.

Thick, I grant you, but happy nonetheless.

And clearly all have their owners very well trained !

Aren't bloody predictive text. It's snowing hard here on the Weald of Kent. Big fat wet flakes.

Went they all just wonder and a simply perfect addition to our homes.

I bet you're like me, though,phoenix and get up to get their breakfast and open the cat flap, anyway!

Similar story here, joanna. Oliver Sprout launches himself from the window sill (that is once he's battled through the curtains) and as I sleep closest to the window, I get landed on. Starts general poncing about, followed by a bit of headbutting. This then becomes cold wet nose placed against face, with additional volume purring.

If I still have the temerity to be in bed, he walks across my head, and takes up position on the bedside table, and chooses what to swipe to the floor first. It is usually my Vick put-it-up-your-nose-and-sniff thing. The favoured second weapon is a tub of moisturiser, followed by my glasses. If none of these work, he then swipes the bedside lamp, but not onto the floor, oh no, this gets swiped SIDEWAYS on to my pillow, or on occasion my head.

I get up then.

Every morning at 7.30 our fat cat takes a flying leap from the top of our chest of drawers onto our bed, usually landing on me, not DH.
Occasionally she misses and lands with a crash onto the floor, waking us up even more.
Our rabbit, in her hutch indoors at the moment, then hears all this noise and thumps her feet to be let out.
A relaxing start to our day.

One of my cats would be always waiting for me (or coming up the garden to be ready) by the garage at whatever time of the day I was coming home.
I can only assume he heard the car but I could approach the village from various directions. It was quite uncanny but so nice to have the welcome home !

Our dog always seemed to know when DH was about to arrive home from work even though the time varied. Way before the car arrived in the drive, he would be sitting at the front door looking expectant - I used to wonder if he had exceptionally sharp hearing and could hear the engine of that particular car from way up the road. Or telepathy - DH always said the dog greeted him more enthusiastically than anyone else in the household
DM had a sun lounger which she always used when she came to stay with us. After she died the dog (who was never allowed on chairs) jumped onto this sun lounger in the garden and absolutely refused to get off it.

DD's friend's cat was always sitting out on the pavement waiting for her to come home from school.

Like clockwork are our three cockers.
Quarter to lunchtime on the dot each and every day they begin reminding us and carry on doing so until the food arrives.

Dogs do pick up on the way we do things. Our two Labs always know when I am about to take them out whatever the time even though I think I am not giving any clues. They certainly let me know when 5 p.m. come around as it is dinner time for them.

I think our pets are too clever to let on how clever they are !

Sorry didnt think it went first time

When we came home from school, our beloved boxer would be sitting on the front windowsill (it was a wide one) waiting for us.

I'm so glad my dog does not conect with the postman as he comes anytime from 9am till 5pm

Our Jack Russells bark at 7.30am on the dot if we haven't already woken up. It doesn't matter whether it's summer or winter, they are never a minute late. I feed them at 5pm and there's no chance they will let me go a minute over.

It's fascinating when you understand the power of scent for dogs, especially scent hounds like my basset. If anyone has been in my car she won't get in straight away until she's smelt around and will wag her tail when she recognises recent scents that the grandchildren must have left. If one of my sons has been in the house when she wasn't there (out at daycare), she'll go straight to her treat tin because he always leaves a gravy bone by it, to see whether she'll look for it. My son says it's like having the SOCO team checking the path for evidence when she comes through the gate. This morning, there are pawprints in the snow and a line where her nose has been sniffing around.

I'm so glad my dog does not conect with the postman as he comes anytime from 9am till 5pm

We had a cat like that Glamma. She used to meet the bus I came home from work on - sitting on a garden wall near the bus stop then running down the garden walls near me as I ran down home. She could also open the latch style front door by patting on the handle till it opened. (She never learned to close it after herself though!)