Monday, March 7, 2011

Quirks

We all have quirks/faults.  My blood sugar tends to run low, and as a result, I can get extremely irritable if someone gets between me and a meal.  I also snore, and under the right circumstances, usually if I learn that an animal or child has been harmed,  have a hair-trigger temper. (No, I don't beat people with bricks or anything.  I'm much more civilized than that.  But oh can I rant.)

Our animals are no exception, and anyone who has an animal could probably list a TON of quirks... hopefully mostly benign, but probably some less so.  I don't mind my animals' quirks for the most part.  It's just part of who they are.

1.  Charlotte will flip over onto her back while using the upright scratching post, showing me her round belly.

2.  Bit tries to sharpen her claws on my leg.  (This one less benign than others.)

3.  Bit is the only cat I've ever had that lets you hold her on her back, cradled in your arms like a baby.

4.  Annie tries to lick Vicks Vaporub off of you if you've recently applied it.  If you prevent her, she will just wait until you go to sleep before making her move.  I'm serious.  She's relentless.

5.  Argos would seriously rather be with us than eating his meals.  I think that he would happily starve himself into a skeleton if we didn't intervene.  He makes me play a game, in which I scoop up a handful of his food and pretend like I'm eating it.  Then he'll become more interested in eating.

6.  Charlotte likes plastic bags.  She will roll on them, stick her head inside of them, and lick them, purring like a crazy lady the entire time.  (No, I don't leave her unattended with them.)

7.  Bit comes to tell me whenever there's something strange going on in the house.  Now, this is Bit's definition of strange, so she might just be telling me about a fat stinkbug lying on the floor in the hall.  But she did come to "tell" me that my husband had left in the middle of the night once.  (The IDEA was that he would sleep on the couch and quietly leave so that I wouldn't have to wake up.  Bit had other ideas.)

8. Argos will stand and stare at someone, even a guest, if they're sitting on "his" spot on the couch.

9.  Romeo doesn't suffer an empty food dish gladly - and if you do not move quickly enough, will start shredding and eating paper products instead.

10.  Bit hordes things in little stashes throughout the house.  Usually these stashes contain my slipper socks.

9 comments:

  1. Vicks Vap-o-rub? I've never heard of such a thing. Nor have I heard of a dog turning down a meal just to be with a human. Animals are nothing if not strange and wonderful. Too funny.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hehe your household sounds very similar to ours! Velvet flips upside down on the scratch pole too, she hunts down any new bag or piece of clothing to sleep on and make HER bed. Anything extra soft, gets sucked! Arrow and Snoopy would both rather have cuddles than eat their food, we've had to train them to an "eat your food" command and reward with praise!
    Where would we be without our 4-leggeds?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I tend to have low blood sugar, too!

    *snicker* I can just picture some of the things you mentioned happening! Yeah, we get the staring at people if they sit on the couch, too. Bunny will actually push my husband off the couch if he sits on it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great post! The quirks make our pets even more endearing. My cat Belle will also let me cradle her like a baby, which I'll admit I love. And I too have a feline paper shredder in my house. He ignores the inconsequential documents, however -- preferring instead to munch on only the papers that really matter to me!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll have to think of a list of all the dogs' quirks. Casey has more of them than Layla. For example, if he's in the yard and she upsets him, he'll lie down and start eating dirt. Or, if someone (Layla or a person) takes one of his toys, he'll eat the feet off of it. I think he figures it'll prevent it from "leaving him" again. I thought it was just a fluke, but then he got a stuffed airplane toy and ate the engines off. If it was just an affinity for protrusions, he'd have eaten the wings.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets cranky when I don't eat. I'd like to blame my blood sugar, but I think that's just me being cranky. I also get super cranky if I get tired. My brother slept over a lot this past summer and made the observation that 4 year olds have temper tantrums when they're tired. Since I'm 24, it's about 6 times as bad of a temper tantrum. I wish I could defend myself, but he's right.

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL! Yeah, we all have our weird little things, don't we! Lily swipes her feet on the floor relentlessly to get humans' attention when she wants to play. Trixie tries to stand on her head when she's happy. And Sammy-Joe, who is a cat, can play fetch!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've heard about some cats liking Vapour Rub before! Who knows why?

    Sid would pretty much rather be with me than doing most things, but I think he wouldn't starve himself. He might be apologetic about it, but he'd need to take time out to eat!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh boy do I ever need this post today (March 12). (Note to self: Remember Carnivores March 7.) As soon as I can find the space & peace of mind to deal, I will give you a shout-out on mine. ARGH!!!

    Vix vaporub. I ask you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. And here it is, with my great gratitude:

    http://catself.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/a-sense-of-safety/

    ReplyDelete