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Animal Antics - We Love Them

(61 Posts)
Magenta8 Fri 17-Oct-25 07:39:51

To lighten the gloom of impending winter and the depressing world news, I am inviting GNs to share stories and pictures of the animals who share and enrich their lives.

I was at a house party once and the host told me that their cat had learned to use the loo. I was intrigued so when the host called me upstairs to witness the cat using the loo I dashed up but I was too late as the cat had finished and I just saw her jumping down. There was, however, solid proof that the cat had indeed used to loo.

I expressed my surprise and admiration and the host shrugged it off and said "The cat never thinks to flush when she's finished."

Ktsmum Sun 19-Oct-25 17:02:41

My dog ran off when out for a walk, he came back with a sandwich in his mouth, there was building works nearby and he had gone into the builders cabin and 'procured' it 🤭 hope the builder wasn't too hungry 😅

Moonwatcher1904 Sun 19-Oct-25 17:28:58

When I was with my ex we had a cat. The letterbox with its rapper was at the bottom of the front door and she learned that if she pawed at it to knock the door would be opened. She would also follow me to the little shop down the road but no further.
I love your stories about your pets especially the dog that stole the builders sandwich....lol

Nandalot Sun 19-Oct-25 17:55:20

DH left the loft hatch open while he took something downstairs. Molly the cat decided to check for mice up there!

Magenta8 Sun 19-Oct-25 17:57:55

I am really enjoying the stories and pictures. It all just goes to show how animals enrich and brighten our lives.

yogitree Sun 19-Oct-25 17:59:14

When our kids were very young, we took them and our gentle giant, Zoko, (who was a Pyrenean Mountain Dog) to the beach to play.

Anyway, we chose a quiet part of the beach to park our blanket and supplies and while we were organising, Zoko decided to go for a stroll. Imagine our mortification when we turned around to see him further along the beach, installed on top of a very huge and beautifully-crafted castle, where he was depositing a very large 'offering' to the family concerned who were all standing about 20 metres away. OMG! Finding the words to apologise was awkward - we tended to forget that others were unaware of his gentle nature and yes, we even removed the 'offering' although I didn't see them going back to the castle!

yogitree Sun 19-Oct-25 18:07:35

I had a cheeky pony called Saladin when I was young. One time when the farrier was bent over attending to Sal's feet, Sal kept playing with the farrier's jumper with his lips. The farrier just carried on, being used to cheeky ponies.

When he stood up he realised Sal had ripped out half of the back of the jumper his wife had just knitted him by repeatedly tugging at the loose end of the wool!

No carrot for being good that day! The air was blue!

WithNobsOnIt Sun 19-Oct-25 18:27:18

I have heard of a few cats over the years who used the household toilet.

And cats who know how to open various household doors by jumping up and knocking open the door handles.

Remember you don't choose Cats they choose you. So, it is you who are just really a guest in their home.

Would be lovely to see photos of Gransnet Pets just. as they are.

None of this horrid dressing them up Tik TOK nonsense.

Have a good day Girls
😻😻😻

escaped Sun 19-Oct-25 18:40:49

Lovely thread.
The funy cats in those photos all have *c*attitude!

Ladyleftfieldlover Sun 19-Oct-25 18:49:34

Milo and Ripley having their daytime nap.

jocork Sun 19-Oct-25 20:43:34

Many years ago I had a kitten who could jump up and press door handles to open doors in my flat. When she was left alone during the day I tied the door of my living room to the slats of the airing cupboard door in the hallway to prevent her escaping so she had access to just the living room and kitchen where her food and litter tray were.
One day I came home to a scene of devastation. At first I thought I'd been burgled, then realised the door had still been tied shut. Turns out the now somewhat larger kitten had climbed the curtains and having got heavier had pulled the rail off the wall at one end. The pastic rail, with floor to ceiling curtains still attached had whipped round the room taking everything in its wake onto the floor. A beautiful hand-blown art glass decanter was smashed, plants were upturned and a water filled bottle lamp had spilled its contents over my TV! I couldn't really be angry with her as it had probably happened hours earlier and she probably wouldn't have known why I was so cross. My own fault really for not tightening the rail up properly on the supports as I'd put it up myself when I moved in! It's the only time she ever damaged anything. She was a lovely cat!

Galaxy Sun 19-Oct-25 20:45:13

My dog is currently refusing to come into the sitting room as I have had the temerity to put up some balloons for a birthday tomorrow.

jocork Sun 19-Oct-25 20:51:21

The above cat also used to follow me around in the flat, including when I used the loo. One day she followed me in and took a leap towards my lap just as I got off. Unfortunately she landed in the pan! She needed a bath as I hadn't yet flushed! She never did that again - cats hate baths!

petra Sun 19-Oct-25 21:21:43

WithNobsOnIt

I have heard of a few cats over the years who used the household toilet.

And cats who know how to open various household doors by jumping up and knocking open the door handles.

Remember you don't choose Cats they choose you. So, it is you who are just really a guest in their home.

Would be lovely to see photos of Gransnet Pets just. as they are.

None of this horrid dressing them up Tik TOK nonsense.

Have a good day Girls
😻😻😻

Cats and toilets.
This made me laugh 😂

www.facebook.com/reel/1079794474133951

sankev Sun 19-Oct-25 22:03:32

Another dog we had a very large German shepherd was very friendly. One very stormy night, my DH let her out to do her business, not realising the high winds had blown open our back gate. A few minutes later there was a knock at the front door. There sat looking rather bedraggled was our lovely dog. Seems like she’d escaped through the back gate but decided the weather was too wet and decided to rattle the front door letter box to get back in the warm!!!

CariadAgain Mon 20-Oct-25 07:32:18

Not got one of my own - but the one thing I miss about neighbours that moved out recently is one of their cats. They have two long-haired cats and both of them never wanted to go that far - as the poor things had been "house cats". When they were finally allowed their freedom they spent a lot of their time in my garden (wilder than their own barren patch). They both lived in hopes of catching the birds they could see here - but neither of them ever did. The most they managed was one of them caught a butterfly one day - probably to her astonishment - and sat there eating the poor thing.

One of them was a bit "temperamental" and sometimes she wanted attention, sometimes she didnt. The other one though had realised I'd clicked they didn't look as if they ever got combed or brushed and had bought a little comb for them. So she worked out a routine where her visits often consisted of her creeping up behind me if I was in my garden, brushing up against my legs and waiting for me to make a fuss of her. That would then be followed by she'd walk up to my conservatory door and look up at it - obviously asking me to open the door for her. She'd leap up on the windowcill and look hopefully at that comb I kept for her. Cue for giving her a good comb - as she sat there twisting and turning to make sure I didn't miss a bit. That was followed by walking up to her little corner of the windowcill she'd adopted as her sitting place and spending time just having a little sit and able to look out the window. I learnt to leave a window open for her to let herself back out when she'd had enough and decided to go back to her home.

I did get people asking me if the two cats were mine - as they hung around visiting me so frequently. They were obviously hoping to be "adopted" and move house - as I didnt dare leave my house doors open - or they'd shoot straight in. The trouble for them though was they'd get their claws straight out and use them on my sofas - so they weren't in luck there re moving house.

It used to amuse me that there'd be times where I'd come back down my road and there'd be a greeting committee waiting for me - both of them sitting there waiting to say hello to me..

I don't miss the neighbours one little bit - they were badly-behaved and their antics even included stealing a bit of my garden!!!! Yep....they had it taken off my title plan and put on theirs instead!!!!! But I do miss their cats - it was nice to have a couple of little furry bodies often waiting to greet me.

Sadgrandma Mon 20-Oct-25 08:28:20

When DH and I first married I had a cat and he had a dog. The first time they met she hid behind the sofa peeping out at him, until suddenly leaping out and batting him on his nose to his astonishment. From then on she was the boss. He would allow her to sleep in his basket while he slept on the cold floor and would give up his place in front of the fire to her.
She would come for walks with us down our country lane and would delight in running on ahead and hiding until we passed by then dashing out and hitting us on the backs of our legs with her hard little head. However when we sadly had to have the dog put down (he was very old) she stopped coming for walks, so it was obviously him she wanted to accompany not us.
By far the funniest thing she did was to wait for my DH to get start getting dressed in the morning and, when he bent over to put his pants on, she would leap up on the bed and bite his bottom. I’m sure she did it because she enjoyed his yelps and me howling with laughter!
She did so many other funny things and I still miss her dreadfully after twenty odd years.

AuntieE Mon 20-Oct-25 08:42:30

My two cats, a black female, called Trubel, and a ginger male, called Tigger, because he bounces, like to go for walks with me, in the park behind our house.

There is no traffic there, and some tall trees that they climb. There is also a fair amount of bushes and trees where they can disappear if they see a dog being walked on a lead. They don't approve of dogs, or small children with shrill voices.

They come when I call them (if they are within earshot, that is), respect that they have no business on tables or the kitchen counter, and both realise that I appreciate being wished Good Evening, when they come in for the night. Tigger does sometimes "forget" this when he is playing at being the Cheshire Cat and is invisible.

Trubel has earned herself the nickname of "ma wee black bogle" as like all black cats she adores sitting in dark places with her eyes shut, then suddenly reappearing.

2507C0 Mon 20-Oct-25 08:51:55

TheWeirdoAgain60

I'm laughing at various hilarious animal antics here!

Years ago, I used to have 2 pet corn snakes named Beady, because of her beautiful little eyes and Sparkle, because of her glorious scales.

Every night, Beady insisted on lying on my lap for a gentle all-over massage and wouldn't get off until I'd done her from to-to-toe!

She was so lovely and would lie around my neck and press her little face against mine!

Sparkle just liked a gentle head massage!

I love this! 💖

madeleine45 Mon 20-Oct-25 09:20:21

I love many kinds of animals, but because of travelling abroad didnt have one of my own for a while. I also love the birds, so once I had a decent garden I erected a bird table well into the lawn, away from fences or hedges that a cat could hide in. It was a smooth pole with a table with a roof on it and four little poles holding it up at each corner. One day my husband dashed in grabbed his camera and dashed out again. He is a great photographer and has won prizes for them. Well, this was a great one. The black and white cat from next door had somehow climbed this smooth pole, and managed to wedge itself inside the bird table with his tail hanging down outside at one side and he puffed out at both sides and his face looked out of the 4th side.

I presumed he was waiting for his lunch to arrive. It made me think of "I tort I tort a puddy tat a creeping up on me" from some disney thing years ago, but in this case it was pussy cat waiting for lunch to come to him. We never knew how he managed to get there and he never did it again. I later had a british shorthair blue exotic, so that is a bluegrey like a persian but a shorter coat and very large orange eyes like an owl. She of course, knew that humans were there to provide her with all her needs and wishes. If I came down in the morning and went to put the kettle on before feeding her she would walk with her tail up and then sit very close to me and stare very hard until I remembered my duty and got her food ready first!!

Magenta8 Mon 20-Oct-25 09:23:11

Following on from Weirdo's reptilian experience:-

I had a friend who rescued a lizardy thing from an animal shelter that took in any pet animal that needed re-homing.

I really don't know what he/she was, maybe a gecko or an iguana and he/she was called Spike. Anyway, when Spike was first rescued they appeared thin and miserable but after quite a bit of TLC they seemed to double in size.

Soon Spike, who had the run of the house, worked out that my friend liked to watch soaps so whenever they heard the Eastenders or Coronation Street theme tunes they would appear from nowhere and snuggle contentedly on my friend's lap.

Tizliz Mon 20-Oct-25 09:37:50

sankev

Another dog we had a very large German shepherd was very friendly. One very stormy night, my DH let her out to do her business, not realising the high winds had blown open our back gate. A few minutes later there was a knock at the front door. There sat looking rather bedraggled was our lovely dog. Seems like she’d escaped through the back gate but decided the weather was too wet and decided to rattle the front door letter box to get back in the warm!!!

One storm took down part of our fence but I didn’t notice when I let the dogs out. Did a count of dogs and realised one was missing. He had gone through the gap and was waiting at the gate to be let in!

AskAlice Mon 20-Oct-25 09:56:51

We lived a few doors away from the local butcher's shop. He had a walk-in freezer in the back garden and would often have to chase our large ginger cat out from there when he had left the door open briefly.

One morning, I opened the patio door curtains to see our cat sitting on our lawn with a large lump of something next to him. When I investigated I found it was a leg of lamb, still frozen!

On another occasion, there was a queue at the butcher's and one customer had left her very well-behaved German Shepherd dog quietly sitting outside the shop. Our cat saw it, immediately made a beeline for it and chased it inside the shop. Chaos ensued, with customers trying to avoid being bowled over by the terrified dog grin

TwinLolly Mon 20-Oct-25 10:36:53

These are hilarious!

Our cat that was semi-wild or abandoned, adopted us (we asked neighbours and did vet checks) has loved our sofa from day 1 he's loved our sofa and then it to shreds. I wanted to spray him with water to stop him but hubby said no. So now we have a tatty sofa that needs replacing!

Frenchgalinspain Mon 20-Oct-25 11:29:56

Flippinheck

Looks so innocent. That toy behind him does not belong to us.

Flippinheck,

Absolutely a precious little one.

Frenchgalinspain Mon 20-Oct-25 11:36:30

Our male French Bulldog (fawn with black mask) ..

Chilly this morning 9 degrees dentigrade, and now 17 degrees however, blue skies and sunny.