How To Annoy Your Dog
Posted on September 28, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 14 Comments
Keep her securely in the house while these three creatures are wandering about the yard.
Yes, she wanted to make friends with them, very much. However, it was reasonably certain these three would be fine not spending any time with her. Charlie is sulking about it. She will get over it, I’m sure.
— JS
they are not just in “the yard” they are in Her Yard
I have annoyed my cats in a very similar manner when there were squirrels or other wildlife on the patio.
Somehow they’ve survived each and every instance, although they’d likely tell you that it was the cruelest of tortures.
We have seven deer who live in our yard part-time and they have much the same effect on our Beagle, Scout.
Funny, the flock of urban turkeys who go stalking through our neighborhood each day have the exact same effect on our cats! I live in a fair-sized city half a block off the main route into downtown and these are wild turkeys, not domesticated ones, but the urban environment doesn’t seem to faze them. They’re out foraging in the yard every afternoon, to the immense and noisy frustration of the family clowder.
Colonel S – And when the turkeys and deer are both in the yard along with the cats it becomes a free-for-all. FWIW, the tiny cat seems to be the alpha in that group.
Given that publishing and Hollywood seem to happen in two big cities on two coasts, where all the adventures seem to happen, folks might forget that in America it is “normal” to have creatures bigger than squirrels around.
Also, in contrast to New York City, I daresay that folks in Scalzi’s neck of the woods see themselves not as part of a subgroup but as “just regular.”
Our deer and our dog have a compromise agreement. Dog is permitted to bark at them from the back porch, and the deer are permitted to ignore him.
All parties are satisfied with this arrangement. We humans are happy to have a pane of glass between us and the alarum.
Yeah, our dog goes nuts when the deer are munching around the gravestones in our yard too! :)
My dog wishes to request you not to teach his human how to annoy, because the human is quite capable of doing enough of that already.
Two standard poodles and a blue tick hound, and lots of deer and elk who like to wander about and nibble on things in both the front and back. Not to mention the kitties that like to violate our territorial integrity.
I’m very familiar with canine excitement.
Roving tick motels.
Cats and squirrels can be a lethal combination – so can cats and deer in the other direction, because cats always seem to think “I can take that REALLY big mouse!”
Our late rescue Wubbie likes to hunt squirrels, which was one reason why we finally grabbed him and brought in inside. Once he got over the indignity he settled in pretty well, actually, especially once he saw he was in a home with lots of laps to half-lie in and get pets from.
Deer regularly wander through our neighbourhood, including out back garden. My cats seem to ignore them completely (and vice-versa).
My current theory is that the cats have figured out that, as the deer are definitely not other cats or dogs or birds, they are not worth noticing.
lucky you… should beef (&chicken&pork) prices skyrocket further there’s fresh animal protein delivering itself to your door…