Amazing Animal Stories

Dec 6 17:10 UTC 1996

   This is the item for amazing animal stories.  Stories about the strange
and wunnerful things your animals have done.  Or animals that you know
about.

When I was little, we had this german shepherd.  One December we moved to
a place in a new town where we couldnt have pets for one reason or
another, and we had to give her away to our neighbors.  Which we did and
we moved to another town that was maybe an hour away on the highway.  

Our neighbors in our old neighborhood called up a few days late rto say
the dog was missing.  A week or so after that, in the middle of a
snowstorm, the dog showed up at theback door of our new house.  She had
wandered down the highway for days and finally found us!

After that we kept the dog, we didnt care what the lease said.

response 2 of 19:

Apr 21 22:49 UTC 1997

well my story isnt' nearly as good as you all's but here it is:

<Once I had this golden retriever named Duke and My freind lefttwo of his
goldens to stay with us while we were on vacation.  One morning we woke up
and the dogs were nowhere to be found.  We got a call later and it turned out
that all three dogs had runabout ten miles away from our house.  they had to
croos a major interstate to get there so  I am still amazed to this day that
the three made it that far.

response 4 of 19:

Aug 25 02:03 UTC 1999

Buttercup is such a good kitty.  When I go to bed she ususally jumps
up in bed and snuggles up with me within 3 minutes of the time I get 
in bed (sometimes in just seconds.)  She didn't one particular night.  
After a few minutes I called her: "Buttercup!"  She gave one of those 
vocal-type purring noises, sounding kind of concerned.  "Pdrdr."  
"Buttercup!"  "Mrewo."  "Buttercup?"  "Mmpurdrdr."  So I went to see 
what was wrong.  She was sitting on the very top step on the staircase 
that leads to the basement.  "What's wrong?" I asked.  "Prdrdr," she 
told me.  I turned on the light to see what going on.  She stepped onto 
the main floor and walked about 4 feet over to where I had put my bag 
down after work.  She pawed under the bag a bit, so I lifted the bag and 
found a big roach!  So I left her there to keep an eye on it while I 
located a flyswatter and paper towel. "OK, sweetie, move."   She stepped 
back and let me wack the thing. I picked it up with the  paper towel 
and disposed of it.  Of course I gave her a kitty treat after that.
Her job done, she sat and looked out the window for a while before
jumping into bed.

response 6 of 19:

Aug 26 03:19 UTC 1999

Buttercup does that, too.  She doesn't like to get under the covers,
though.  She just jumps into bed and pushes her face into mine.  She has
a snooze button, though.  Usually if I just pet her once or twice and then
stop, she'll leave for about 10 minutes.  When I sleep in on the weekends
she typically gives up on me around 9:30 or 10:00 :-)

Like you said, this does have an advantage.  Even if the power goes out
I don't have to worry about being late for work.

response 8 of 19:

Aug 26 21:44 UTC 1999

Buttercup keeps a pretty accurate internal clock, and always gets up before
I do.  She sleeps with me until about 5:00 or so and then she gets up to do...
well, whatever cats do at 5:00 in the morning.  The really funny thing is
that if she's out of the room when decide to get up, she hears me move the
covers and comes running into the room and leaps onto the bed.  Apparently
she doesn't want me to think that she's slipping at her job of waking me up.
She also comes running (if not already in the room) when the alarm goes off
and I smash the snooze button.
 
For all her silliness and early-morning wake-ups, she's the best roommate I
could ever have.

response 10 of 19:

Aug 27 01:17 UTC 1999

Definitely.  I think she understands me better than any human ever has.

response 12 of 19:

Aug 28 04:27 UTC 1999

Harlis licks my hands if I am crying. He also lets me hold him when I 
need to... if I hear some story on the news about animals being hurt or 
whatever I have to pick him up and hold him for a minute. I explain that 
mommy's seen something bad on TV. He seems to understand. :)

Harlis also wakes me up, usually by poking his head around mine. 
Sometimes he kisses me. This is annoying on weekends though... I have 
to nudge him away about 10 times before he gives up. 

response 14 of 19:

Aug 28 22:21 UTC 1999

That was very good of you. :)  Skunks are really quite pretty, as
long as you don't startle them. ;) One night when I was living in the 
dorms I was sitting on the hill by Palmer Field and this skunked walked not
five feet from my feet. I didn't move, just watched it walking around.
Was very cool.

response 16 of 19:

Aug 29 18:38 UTC 1999

They "waddle". They are also like cats. We had a pet skunk when I was
in high school, and it would sit on your lap, purr, knead its claws
like a cat, and it used a litter box like a cat.

Finally caught my 'target' species last night - a woodchuck. I transported
it this morning, came back and reset the trap, and have just caught another!
Anyone want a woodchuck?

Some years ago I also undertook to reduce the woodchuck population and
ended up transporting seven woodchucks, two skunks, three racoons (two
caught at the same time!), and one opossum. 

response 18 of 19:

Sep 12 23:03 UTC 1999

Wow. Wonder what motivated them to bury the condenser? Noise?