Pet Debacles

[Marelo]

Injuries, shenanigans, what have you.

I had a cat named Mr. (yes, the abbreviation) who was uncannily adept at avoiding death and sickness. Mr. survived:

1. Being shot by a three-inch long, thin, metal dart, which embedded itself completely in his chest.

2. Having four inches of tail lopped off by a door, and then playing with it for a few hours before we found out.

3. Getting into so many fights with other animals, including opossums and a freakin' skunk (no idea why it was so deep in town), that its ears resembled the absence of ears more than anything else.

Unfortunately, this miracle cat was felled by a mundane car.

Got any stories?

[TopHatAssassin]

Nothing too spectacular with our cat. The worst kind of trouble he could get up to was crapping in our tub when my uncle brought his dog over when visiting on a few occasions. Drove my parents nuts. The only other thing is that he had this terrible habit of leaving his tail in the middle of a high-traffic area and it would inevitably get stepped on, causing him to jump up and run off whilst throwing the stepper into a confused, off-balance panic.

God, I loved that cat.

Then there were the goldfish my siblings and I had for a number of years. My sister's was the fatass of the group. The damn thing just ate, I'm pretty sure that's why the other two died. They just couldn't get enough food. We had to resort to distracting the one with food so that we could feed the others, but I guess it just wasn't enough.

[TDK]

2. Having four inches of tail lopped off by a door, and then playing with it for a few hours before we found out.

That is AWESOME.

...And slightly disturbing if you think about it.


Well, when I was little I had white cat named Buttercup. My dad has a big old green truck from like 1970, which has an open bottom and is rarely used.

...The stray cats and, unfortunately, Buttercup who was outside at the time, liked to climb up into it for warmth.

The truck was started at one point, with the cat inside. The fan in the motor span, and you can imagine how that ended with the cat in close proximity...

-_- She was pregnant. The image still haunts me.


What's odd is, we've had two white cats, her, and one we still have called Cocoa. The SAME THING happened to the latter. Though he survived it.

The truck just doesn't like white cats.

[guyy]

Then there were the goldfish my siblings and I had for a number of years. My sister's was the fatass of the group. The damn thing just ate, I'm pretty sure that's why the other two died. They just couldn't get enough food. We had to resort to distracting the one with food so that we could feed the others, but I guess it just wasn't enough.

A mostly identical thing happened to 3 goldfish my family had a while back. Two of them died within a week, but the third, which swam a bit faster than the other two, grew to an enormous size and lived for...I don't even know, at least 5 or 6 years.

We also (still) have a cat that is a master of vanishing. Whenever anything slightly out of the ordinary happened, like some unrecognized human coming in the house, she would just disappear. I found one of her hiding places by mistake once; I watched her crawl under a couch, then looked under, and she wasn't there! It turned out she had found an empty space in the back of the couch and had climbed up inside it, somehow holding herself up there by digging her claws in or something. I still can't figure out how she can stay in there for hours without getting tired.

[42PETUNIAS]

1. Being shot by a three-inch long, thin, metal dart, which embedded itself completely in his chest.
You should not be allowed to have pets.

[katiuska]

A mostly identical thing happened to 3 goldfish my family had a while back. Two of them died within a week, but the third, which swam a bit faster than the other two, grew to an enormous size and lived for...I don't even know, at least 5 or 6 years.

We had a goldfish like that, only it eventually started eating other fish. The thing just kept getting bigger and my dad finally sold it off. That was about the time I stopped paying attention to things that went on in there; it was just too depressing.

[Sithdarth]

When I was in high school we had some mice. Unfortunately for these mice they were in a room no one really went into and so we forgot about feeding them almost completely. So one day I finally remember and go in the room to check on them only to find them alive well and even a few extra mice.

Turns out they had been getting out of the cage and getting food from the bag that was right next to the cage and then bringing back into the cage. We of course couldn't allow this so we sealed up the cage. A few weeks of regular feeding went by again and we inevitably forgot about them again. Only this time when we remembered one half had eaten the other half and then promptly died. We had the same problem with the white mice we raised in my High School biology class too.

[Marelo]

You should not be allowed to have pets.

I didn't say that I did it...

My house was in close proximity to another, large house which had been divided up into apartments, and it tended to be occupied by really disturbed assholes. We were pretty sure it was them, but we had no proof, so we couldn't do anything about it.

To think, you'd accuse me of doing that? Sheesh.

[Loyal]

We also (still) have a cat that is a master of vanishing. Whenever anything slightly out of the ordinary happened, like some unrecognized human coming in the house, she would just disappear. I found one of her hiding places by mistake once; I watched her crawl under a couch, then looked under, and she wasn't there! It turned out she had found an empty space in the back of the couch and had climbed up inside it, somehow holding herself up there by digging her claws in or something. I still can't figure out how she can stay in there for hours without getting tired.One of my current cats does - or rather, used to - do the same thing. The underside of my bed is an unrecognizable mess of grayish lining because he kept climbing up into it and gradually tearing it down beneath him.

This one time he decided to hide on the inside of one of those couches that unfold into a bed, while it was unfolded and my sister had her boyfriend over. We folded it back up later, not knowing he was inside, and it wasn't till the next morning when I heard his droning cries for help (He had gotten stuck inside, you see) that we figured out when he went.

Also, everyone knows how some cats like to kill rats and bring the bodies to their owners, right? Well, my other current cat does something slightly different. He has no mice to work with, so he makes do with teddy bears, loose socks, and the like. And instead of dropping it at my bed, he just leaves it between the living room and the kitchen, and meows his head off, in the middle of the night, till someone (Read: me) gets out of bed to appraise his "kill".

[phil_]

Pet debacles, eh? Lemme try.

My cat Hunter had a deep, pussy hole in his back from a dog bite of a chain link fence or a BB gun or something a few years back. He also has a torn up ear and several scars. He's doing fine. Hunter's awesome.

Another cat, Hailey, has been on the brink of death for about two-and-a-half years now. I wouldn't say she's fine, but it's amazing that she's still alive, since at the beginning of her decline she was unable to walk for about a year. It pains me to think about putting her down, but it's gonna have to be done. She isn't suffering now, but it's only a matter of time before she gets worse again.

Foxy, a short-legged Beagle, had a massive stroke when she was... damn, I guess about 14ish. She lived on, completely blind, for several years after that. Also, she had a whole butt-ton of cancerous tumors even before that. Foxy was a champ. She just kinda died one day. I was a little anticlimactic.

Bruin, a chocolate lab, ate an entire broom then threw it up down the entire stairway to the basement. He punctured a can of Cheez-wizz, causing it to spray all over the living room walls and ceiling. He would eat anything put in front of him. He was the stupidest thing I've ever known. Big boy talk: he couldn't even hit the proper hole to have sex. He didn't even hit a hole.

I miss my pets.

[Marelo]

Oh, man, I just remembered about my girlfriend's pets.

She has a parrot named Gizmo who learned to imitate the microwave timer's beep. It took them months to figure it out, because whenever he did it there was either something actually in the microwave or they just wrote it off as something else.

She has a dog named Titan, who chased a car, ran into it from behind as it was moving forward, and knocked out all the teeth on one side of his mouth... Then got up and continued running and barking.

Titan also managed to impale himself with a stick in the yard, just running around. I'm not even sure how the physics on that one work out.

She has another dog named Zuki, a rat terrier, who will jump up and lick your face even if you're standing on a table. He runs around so much that he's learned some rather impressive acrobatics off the furniture, including flips and springboards.

[Krylo]

he's learned some rather impressive acrobatics off the furniture, including flips and springboards.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Video is also acceptable.

[mauve]

When my sister and I were younger, we had miniature horses named Two-Speed Diesel Thunder and Sprocket's Rocket. Thunder had the amazing ability to dig a hole under a wire fence and shimmy out underneath so he could go eat our lawn. We ended up selling him to a ranch who had five minis of the same color and markings, who pulled a cart together (We had Thunder trained as a cart horse-- I used to show him when I was a wee nerdling. I have pictures around here somewhere). Apparently he still has that ability, cuz those people are mad at us now.


Sprocket loved to chase cats. Our cats HATE him. Anyway, Sprockie would chase cats out of the pasture by prodding them with his nose until they took off running.

And then one day we looked outside to see his entire face coated with porcupine quills. He stopped at that point.



Oh, and my cat, Nero, likes to hunt rabbits. Like, rabbits half the size of his entire body. And he and his brother, Norf, like to tag-team attacks on snakes.

[Marelo]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Video is also acceptable.

You are in luck. My girlfriend managed to capture video of some springboards a while back... Let's see if I can dig it up.

You will either laugh in amazement or laugh at me for failing to produce it. Win-win!

[42PETUNIAS]

I didn't say that I did it...

My house was in close proximity to another, large house which had been divided up into apartments, and it tended to be occupied by really disturbed assholes. We were pretty sure it was them, but we had no proof, so we couldn't do anything about it.

To think, you'd accuse me of doing that? Sheesh.

Just of letting your pet near disturbed assholes, other animals it would constantly fight with, and someone who slams doors without looking.

[Marelo]

Just of letting your pet near disturbed assholes, other animals it would constantly fight with, and someone who slams doors without looking.

Have you ever owned a cat?

They like to move around, you know. That sittin' still shit, they don't have none of that.

I hope you're not serious, because if you would honestly call someone a bad pet owner because his cat got into shenanigans while it was out, I'd have to come to the conclusion that you're a loony.

Next you'll be accusing Brian of being a terrible person because Charlie likes to gobble string.

Edit: Oh, and Krylo, you are free to laugh at my miserable failure to produce evidence; the closest I got was a video of him dashing about at a breakneck pace.

[DarkDrgon]

my dog, a shiba inu was the runt of her litter. She is insanely territorial, and we have to physically pull her off my neighbors pitbull whenever he worms his way into our yard.

also, She has killed several deer.

[Marelo]

my dog, a shiba inu was the runt of her litter. She is insanely territorial, and we have to physically pull her off my neighbors pitbull whenever he worms his way into our yard.

also, She has killed several deer.

Hubba-wha?

The largest animal my pets have felled, to my knowledge, is a largish rabbit.

A deer? For serious?

[42PETUNIAS]

Have you ever owned a cat?

They like to move around, you know. That sittin' still shit, they don't have none of that.

I hope you're not serious, because if you would honestly call someone a bad pet owner because his cat got into shenanigans while it was out, I'd have to come to the conclusion that you're a loony.

Next you'll be accusing Brian of being a terrible person because Charlie likes to gobble string.

Edit: Oh, and Krylo, you are free to laugh at my miserable failure to produce evidence; the closest I got was a video of him dashing about at a breakneck pace.

All I know is if my pet goes out and nearly gets itself killed several times, I stop letting it go out.

[Victus]

After owning more than enough suicidal cats, I can tell you that if they want to get out, they're going to do it. Somehow.

[TDK]

My cat, ten years old at the time and a large orange tom, was very territorial. And all the other animals we had, including several dogs, saw him as the alpha male. The other cats would go away when he came to eat from the food bowl. We had two german shepherds who did the same thing if he chose to steal their food.

Hell, he drove a rottweiler out of our yard once. I loved that cat, he was so badass.

[Marelo]

All I know is if my pet goes out and nearly gets itself killed several times, I stop letting it go out.

What Victus said.

How do you think its tail got lopped off? It darted out the door as the door was already in transit to the closed position. You just try keeping a cat indoors while a family of six use two different doors to go in and out... And put it on YouTube, for hilarity's sake.

What would you have us do, follow the cat around every second of every day, making sure it doesn't get so much as a kink in its fur?

That cat, and every animal my family has ever owned, have lived excellent and comfortable lives. But you know what? Things happen, especially when curious animals are involved; that's something you should know if you've ever taken care of one. So don't even try to tell me that I "should not be allowed to have pets."

Now, to stay on topic, I share the story of another cat of mine.

Violet is a Manx, which are just about the best kitties ever. Violet also happens to be very adventurous. Violet managed to get herself locked in a garage across our neighborhood for a few days. She lived by thieving that family's cat food, and it was several days before we managed to hear her yowling by chance. We hadn't gone to look for her, because she comes and goes as she wishes, often absent for several days at a time.

I have no idea how, exactly, the occupants of the house did not discover her. We heard her from across a flippin' lake, but they somehow managed to be ignorant of her presence until we knocked on their door.

My cat, ten years old at the time and a large orange tom, was very territorial. And all the other animals we had, including several dogs, saw him as the alpha male. The other cats would go away when he came to eat from the food bowl. We had two german shepherds who did the same thing if he chose to steal their food.

Hell, he drove a rottweiler out of our yard once. I loved that cat, he was so badass.

Hehe, I had a German shepherd named Bob who was absolutely terrified of Violet for no reason at all. Eventually, they started buddying up, but, for the first couple of years, if the cat were in the room, Bob was not.

Here's another story about Mr. I was always his favorite, and one time, while I was in 3rd grade, he followed me 16 blocks to school... And just stayed there for a few days. Someone fed him while he was there, and we think he was waiting around to see me and follow me back. One of my fondest memories is seeing my cat walking around outside the classroom and asking the teacher if I could retrieve him. Eventually, my mother, then the librarian, snatched him up herself.

[CelesJessa]

My big cat Oreo is a pretty big goofball. (http://fc41.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/070/8/0/Oreo_cat_take_2_by_CelesJessa.jpg) I remember one time. We were all sitting at the table for one reason or another (I think we were playing cards) and Oreo jumped up onto the table. There was a candle lit and he just stuck his tail right into the flame. He didn't even notice. He looked kind of annoyed when my mom yanked his tail out of the flame and put it out though.

Oreo's always snuggled with my mom and dad all of the time, but he would rarely snuggle with me (only when he wanted food) but ever since our other cat died (my cat), he's been really nice to me, and snuggles with me just like he does to my mom and dad. <3 D'aww.

[Victus]

seconded on th <3 D'aww

I've had my fair share of cats and dogs (Not to say I don't take care of them, but I usually get dumb / spazzy / adventurous types). I remember my dad's irish setter, Bosco (He lived until about 18~) decided to take a jump out the back door glass window while we were away at a bbq or something. We were all hella scared because of his cuts, but he acted like they weren't there XD.

And I shit you not, one of my cats (He was a grey-striped one) took the tv as his territory. If he wasn't on top of the tv (Chances are he was), he would be on the couch, sitting on the remote, and would let no one touch it. XD

[Loyal]

And I shit you not, one of my cats (He was a grey-striped one) took the tv as his territory. If he wasn't on top of the tv (Chances are he was), he would be on the couch, sitting on the remote, and would let no one touch it. XDMy larger cat (who has no name. :\)does this whenever catnip is involved. He will spread his body as far as he possibly can to envelop all bits of catnip in the area and deny the smaller cat (named Petey) from having any.

It's cute, but it makes a mess of his already messy fur.

[Lady Cygnet]

Have you ever owned a cat?

They like to move around, you know. That sittin' still shit, they don't have none of that.


You obviously haven't met my cat, Sisko. He does his insane dashes on a very RARE basis; however, my cat is so inclined to pick a place to sleep and stay there FOREVER that I once had to make my bed AROUND him because he refused to move...I even have pics to prove it.

[h4x.m4g3]

I once had a dog that we posthumously renamed Houdini, because he really deserved that one more then what my 5 year old niece came up with when he was born. Anyway Houdini got his name because he could get out of anything. He was probably a foot long and 8 inches off the ground, but somehow he could jump/climb our 6 foot high fence. So we installed a runner, but everyday he would slip out of his collar and hop the fence again. So we hooked him up via a harness, which he somehow managed to pull off. Then finally my dad got tired of this and put him on a choke chain (as the god runs away the collar gets tighter, returning to normal tightness when the dog stops pulling on the chain) despite my protest (we had one dog that wrapped his leash around a pole and hung himself with one of those) and he figured out its mechanics, slipped out and jumped the fence. Unfortunately this was his last escape as this time he was hit by a car.

Houdini also had a great love for table scraps, so long as they weren't vegetables. I once saw him grab a scrap a lettuce that had fallen off a burger lick all the barbecue sauce off it and then spit back out the lettuce whole.

[Marelo]

You obviously haven't met my cat, Sisko. He does his insane dashes on a very RARE basis; however, my cat is so inclined to pick a place to sleep and stay there FOREVER that I once had to make my bed AROUND him because he refused to move...I even have pics to prove it.

Very clearly a devil in disguise!

[DarkDrgon]

Hubba-wha?

The largest animal my pets have felled, to my knowledge, is a largish rabbit.

A deer? For serious?

yup. we were shocked. my tiny dog just tore the poor thing to pieces. (note, it wasn't a big dear, If I were to guess Id say it was young'in.)
EDIT: Mayber I should clarify, I have a large yard, and all examples happened during birthing season. only 1 was a confirmed kill (said youn'in, the first one) but the others were so mangled by the time my dog let go, there was no way they could survive.

[Sithdarth]

The newest cat type addition to our family happens of be the devil:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v641/Sithdarth/233933.png

Notice the blurry face and the two extra toes on her front feet attached near the ankle instead of on the paw with the rest. This peculiar deformity gives her something approaching a primate type grip. Seeing as she happens to be the absolutely most energetic kitten of all time this can be a bit of a problem. Seriously she will stalk and otherwise ambush absolutely anything that moves and somethings that don't. When you go to the bathroom she'll lie in wait on the arm of the coach nearest the bathroom door and leap at you the instant you step out.

I have absolutely no idea what went wrong in this cat's head. Heck she even insists on meowing as loud as possible right before and right after using the litter box for no apparent reason. This wouldn't be such a problem except she manages to meow louder than our Rottweilers can bark. I have yet to figure out how something this small produces a sound that large.

[phil_]

I think you should let her breed as much as she can in order to further the feline species, Sith. Cat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_(Red_Dwarf)) had to come from something.

[EVILNess]

I was putting out some roach gel in an apartment my friend had just moved into and my dog Hershey walked behind me and ate a 10 foot line of it before I noticed what she was doing. We were going to the vet anyway to get her fixed, so yay for that I guess. Vet said she was fine and she has never even got sick from it.

[Marelo]

I was putting out some roach gel in an apartment my friend had just moved into and my dog Hershey walked behind me and ate a 10 foot line of it before I noticed what she was doing. We were going to the vet anyway to get her fixed, so yay for that I guess. Vet said she was fine and she has never even got sick from it.

Hershey... Clearly it enjoys eating things which are potentially poisonous, since you named it after a chocolate company :P

[Flarecobra]

At home, we got a bluepoint siemese named Blue (Don't ask. I didn't name her) that we nicknamed "Miss Priss". She is scared of the dark. She'll actually stand outside a dark room and meow until someone turns on the light for her. I have also seen her open a door by turning the freaking knob, and she doesn't drink water like a normal cat. She scoops up water with her paw and drinks from her paw. She also enjoys drinking water from the glasses of family members.

Another cat I got, Flash, he can be...special at times. As in "Short-bus special". He headbutts table legs, he falls off of chairs that he sleeps on, and he once slammed headlong into my legs. That one kinda hurt. He's also known for swiping food off of the table. The last Thanksgiving dinner I had back before I joined the Marines, my aunt got up to get herself a drink, and Flash jumped up onto her seat, and started eating some of the turkey that was on her plate. All we did was just stare and laugh when she came back. And when she tried to shoo him off, he then dunked his tail on her food as he was jumping off. I guess that was his way of going "Fine then, here's my gift then."

And then there's my little kitten, Excel. So named for 3 reasons. She excels at being cute, excels in getting into trouble, and reminds me of the main character from Excel Saga, because she jumps around everywhere, and I think is a bit insane.