The Geek Forum
Main Forums => Anarchy => Topic started by: 12 on October 11, 2011, 02:31:26 PM
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Mowmow the cat came running full speed into the studio room, hooking a claw in the carpet to make a sharp, fast right-
handpaw turn.
Disappearing behind a cabinet with a short "Mow!", he crept up to the opposite corner and peeked out from behind it. I blinked at him; a
cat sign meaning "Yay!" or "awesome!" or "Its all good" or just a general, positive acknowledgement of his presence. He responded by
trotting out from behind the cabinet with his tail straight up and hopping up onto my lap. As I was petting him, the thought crossed my
mind that I should give him his meds now. AS SOON AS I thought that, he stiffened, crouched, and looked me in the eye, pupils growing huge.
I tried to pretend I hadn't thought of his meds, but he wasn't buying it. He wanted to get down, and NOW. When he hopped to the floor, he
ran straight to the doorway and stopped, looking back at me. He seemed to be studying me from this safe distance. I called to him and moved
towards him, and he made his decision - RUN! He took off.
I must mention at this point that he *never* runs from me. Never has. These meds, though, apparently taste unspeakably horrible. This is
the first time he's ever actually ran from me; once he tasted the foul concoction I was forcibly squirting in his mouth.
What just amazes me though is how he, quite literally, read my mind. All was perfectly fine until I thought about his meds; and BAM! He
was onto me and my nefarious intentions, and intent on GTFOutta there. Non-human creatures just fickin' amaze me; constantly.
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As a person who has at present 4 cats I find this story entirely believable.
What are the meds for?
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LOL. I love cats.
Except the one I presently own. Can't stand her. I don't think she can read my mind though. Otherwise she'd know why I don't like her.
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What are the meds for?
He wasn't feeling well, vomiting and not pooping. They checked him out and couldn't find anything, so she prescribed an antibiotic and some sort of gastric coating/reliever. The antibiotics are tiny pills cut in half; and the gastric stuff is a pink liquid; administered via a plastic syringe.
He is fine, now, though. He only has one more dose of each and he's done. He's back to his old self. : )
BTW- my dog Princess is doing the same thing right now. Not running from me, but hiding. Her meds are up next. Rimadyl, Benedryl, Pepcid, Glucosamine and fish oil. She just had surgery last Thursday to remove a mass on her belly, and the vet called just awhile ago to say it tested as a "grade 2 low"... She explained that everything looked good and since they got it all; there was no need for chemo, etc. (which I dont think I would do anyway). So I expect her to be just fine. The incision is healing up nicely, too. Also, she made me control their diet more. I used to use a big oval bowl piled high, and they ate whenever they felt like it. Turns out both my dogs were overweight; especially her- the German Shepherd. Once I controlled their diet a bit better, she lost 9 pounds in two weeks. Which helps her a lot with the chronic pain in her lower spine.
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Pets. :roll:
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Heh. They're not even the ones who started it all. The first one was my dog General. I came home one morning to find he had a serious puncture wound just under his jaw, and several smaller wounds all over the side of his face and head. I suspect it was a local stray cat trying to cut through the yard. At any rate, he was the one to met the vet first. And like kids, computers, and cars; once one gets sick. . . the rest soon follow.
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It's always nice to hear about someone taking proper care of them though. I have known so many people that treat their pets like they're simply disposable.
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I blinked at him; a cat sign meaning "Yay!" or "awesome!" or "Its all good" or just a general, positive acknowledgement of his presence. He responded by trotting out from behind the cabinet with his tail straight up and hopping up onto my lap.
I think I'm mostly impressed with the actual communication that preceded the mind reading.
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Cats ignore rooms full of people and walk directly to me when all I'm thinking is "Stay away cat, I'm allergic to you" so I can believe that they have some mind-reading abilities and are also total assholes.
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Cats ignore rooms full of people and walk directly to me when all I'm thinking is "Stay away cat, I'm allergic to you" so I can believe that they have some mind-reading abilities and are also total assholes.
That's how I became a cat lover. They pestered me into submission.
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Resistance is futile? Normally my response is I love cats but I can't eat a whole one.
if Mister Massacre and I were in a room poor kitty's head would explode trying to decide who cling too.. smart little twits.
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I think I'm mostly impressed with the actual communication that preceded the mind reading.
Oh man, they..."we" have a whole language. I can understand them and they usually understand me pretty good. At times it's almost as easy as communicating with people.
Cats are especially tuned in to facial expressions. Dogs, not as specific on the facial recognition, but they read body language and scent like nobody else. They all recognize
happy, sad, angry, alert, afraid among others. If I sit to eat, they all come to gather around and see if I'm in the mood to share. I can simply gaze at them with a certain look on my face; and they move away to leave me alone. I don't have to say "No." or "Get down" or anything.
Which is good; cos they dont actually speak English anyway. So telling them in English words would be sort of silly; unless the word is a sound I use as a command that they already know.
They know a few sounds that aren't commands; like "Hungry". If you say that word, they know you are asking if they want food. But mostly they go on my facial expression, body language, scent, and (lastly) voice (tone first; specific wordsounds secondary).
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Actually, a dog may store up something like 500 human words and a cat can store up to like, 1000 or so. So speaking English to them isn't as far fetched as some believe. A horse can have a human vocabulary upward of a 1000 words as well and I've even experienced a horse get annoyed with me for talking about them like they weren't standing there.
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Well, they know the sounds and the associated meanings. You can use a similar sounding word - or even just a non-word sound that's similar- and get the same results. "Gray COW!" gets the same results as "Lay DOWN!" "Creee" produces the same expectations as "hunGRY".
Not sure what I was trying to say, but...um...yeh.
OH! - yeh, so they understand human vocalizations; not necessarily the English 'word'. Or German, or Russian, etc.
The also know when you're talking ABOUT them - like you mentioned.
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Ours will look at you funny if you use the word "supper" in most contexts.
But they won't react to it in any meaningful way unless you say it in the right tone. THEN you get a serious "OMG FEED ME!" reaction.
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Our dog responds to the word "walk" regardless of tone or placement in the sentence. I'm pretty sure he knows the word "walk". If you say, talk, hawk, stalk, or pop, in the "right" tone, he'll just look at you funny, but say "walk" and you get a reaction. We can't even use it normally in a sentence around here.
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What does it say about us that one of our cats responds to the words "cocktail hour"?