11.
My rabbit feigned illness to get attention.
There were so many times throughout her life that my pet rabbit would pretend to be dying that I’d stay home from work or trips, shower her with love and treats, etc. that my boyfriend began to notice a pattern: She was “deathly ill” each time we’d start packing for a weekend away. Not eating, lethargic, refused her favorite treats, when I shook the bag when normally she’d come running, etc. I’m panicking and stop packing, getting ready to call the vet when my boyfriend pointed out, “she always does this. Just leave the room for a bit”
So I left the room and nervously kept getting ready when I hear a shuffle from her cage. She sprinted to her food dish where I dumped the treats and ate them in 2 seconds, sprinted over to her fresh pile of hay and started shoveling that into her mouth. I called out her name from the door frame and she greeted me with a thump of her foot while still eating.
Another time, once the “oh you’re leaving? I’m sick” trick wasn’t working anymore, I noticed she wasn’t hopping at all. She… walked, with her back legs. She walked across her whole play pen, walked into the litter box, walked out, then settled awkwardly in her bed. I tried picking her up and she was just dead weight. I panicked because here was my 6 year old rabbit with a dislocated hip or something so I shook her treat bag because that’s all I thought of doing and she sprinted normally over to me, stood up on her back legs with her front legs in the air, bright eyed and bushy tailed waiting for those sweet, sweet dried peas and carrots.
She actually just passed away last weekend at the age of 9 1/2. She suddenly stopped eating and it took half a day of me syringe feeding her for my now fiance to actually believe something was seriously wrong. It’s the reason I always allowed myself to believe her tricks because there’d come a day when it wasn’t a trick. Unfortunately she was just old, and even syringe feeding wasn’t enough to keep her going. Rest in peace you little trickster. I sometimes think you were more dog than a rabbit
12.
With my old cat, who died a year or 2 ago, we had a game.
We called it Gun.
The game involved shooting him, in the face, at point-blank range, with a NERF gun. Now this on the surface sounds cruel… but he loved this game. If I cocked that NERF gun he would literally come running from anywhere in the house. He’d then hunker down directly in front of me… bracing for impact. Then he would give a short meow. I (And others who played with him) specifically waited for the meow. That was his “go” signal. And we’d let fly, aiming directly at his nose, usually from around 3 feet away.
Sometimes he would then bound after the dart, sometimes even fetching it. Sometimes he would hunker down again and meow, asking for more. If you were willing, he would play this game for as long as you’d keep playing… although I usually stopped after unloading all 6 rounds.
In the end we buried him with a NERF dart.
13.
My old cat Star could tell when I was suicidal and would lay on my chest and go limp so if I tried to move her, she wouldn’t be able to be moved without making me feel worse. She would purr and purr while giving me kisses until the moment passed.
I miss her more than anything.
My 9month old kitten will treat me like a playmate and not like a regular cuddly person. She will wait around corners to jump out and play. She will run at me sideways all POOFED up to initiate a chase. High fives with no treats and sitting when asked to do so.
Torties are the best!
14.
My cat loves having her teeth brushed and will cry if I don’t brush her teeth.
15.
My dog demands I read to him. Whenever I’m sitting reading something he’ll come over, put his head on pages, and paw at me until I start reading to him.
16.
My dad had a male cat years ago. He was an indoor/outdoor cat and one day when he did not return home for the night, my dad went to look for him and found him injured somewhere after what looked like a dog bite. So he got bandages and stitches on his leg and had to stay indoors because he was injured. Then he gradually healed and had a limp on the injured leg so my dad didn’t let him outdoors fearing he might be attacked again. The vet said the limp should go away soon. But it didn’t. My dad believed the cat was faking the limp, so one day he watched him from the corner of the kitchen door as the cat walked perfectly without a limp when nobody was around. He just did not want to go outdoors because he feared dogs now.
17.
My cat is extremely territorial. My new boyfriend didn’t believe me until while we were making out on my couch, my big ol’ main coon went behind him and when he went to look to see what my cat was doing, my cat sucker-punched my boyfriend on the face three times with his paw, ran away to my kitchen, started opening and slamming shut the lower kitchen cupboards, and then ran to his litter box to take a massive s**t.
He also would get in between us in bed, put his back to me, stretch all four legs out and slowly put his claws into my boyfriends back and then retract them again. When my boyfriend told him to stop and turned over to go back to sleep, five minutes later my cat did the same thing with all four of his paws, but would only put *1* claw into his back.
They are bffs now because my boyfriend is a morning person and I am not, which is something very useful to my cat.
18.
My childhood cat burglarized our neighbors. We found swimsuits, sporting equipment, and even one time caught him dragging a kids backpack through the kitty door. What happened to the kid, I wonder.
19.
My childhood dog had a weak rear right leg, so anytime he wanted to hike his leg on something off to the left he would just do a handstand rather than try to support his weight in the bad leg.
But wait… there’s more. When he started getting older we brought home a puppy who absolutely idolized his big brother. Within about a month he had worked his way up to also doing handstands when he peed, but for this dog it was EVERY SINGLE TIME. I guess he thought that was just how you were supposed to do it.
Nothing like having two dogs pissing down their own chest several times per day.
20.
My husband is a roofer and our first dog would climb the ladder and sit beside him. Almost caused 3 cars to crash and a runner to jump in a ditched when she barked at him we’ve had great dogs since but she was special.
