I would like to share with you an interesting thing that makes my dog Link unique. Aside from his name. "Link?" Yeah. We had a hard time figuring a name and my family and I are Zelda fans ( a video game where Link is the name of the main character/hero you play). Is it his breed that makes him unique? Not really. We adopted him at the tender age of 1 and a half months old from the pound and were told he is an Australian Cattle Dog ( Kelpie). We doubt he is pure bred and have no way to figure out what might be in his mix. So what is it?
He is a cat dog.
WHAT?
Keep in mind that I have several cats ( who adapted well with him and one that even befriended him) so it would be normal for him to imprint somewhat on those feline aspects. By some I mean the whole "I'm going to try and sleep on the couch" bit or his arching his back and stretching like a cat when he wakes up. I guess he imprinted more than we thought though.......

• When he barks he tries to meow. I'm waiting for him to hiss or purr. I'm serious. It's the funniest thing to hear when he is "talking". It's a throaty growl bark merrrrrgrowl noise.

• He plays with his treats as if he were a cat hunting and stalking it........

• This is the one that got us.......he actually twined around my husband's leg, including the famous sideways close body cat tail hug bit. I didn't even know dogs could bend their tales like that! LOL!

I have heard of dogs who were raised with cats taking on feline behaviours but nothing like that last one! LOL! And that is what I think makes Link unique.

Don't worry too much though about his figuring out his species. He is very much a dog with his playing and energy. We also have a friend who just adopted an Australian Sheep Dog ( though a couple of months younger ) and she brings him over to play with Link quite often.

So what traits make your furry companion unique?

 

 

 

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I have many pets all of which are special in their own way.

Fuzzy one of my cats and my oldest pet has an air about him like he is a king. He rules my parents’ house (we can not have him at my place where I live right now so he lives with my parents still) He beats up on my dad's full grown boxer. HE also wakes my mother up each morning by meowing under her door. He also is one of my oldest pets, I got him when I was 9 and was going through chemo (I had cancer, Acute lymphoblastic leukemia to be exact) and he was there for me through that. He was found up a tree at a local store (the store was looking for a home for him after removing him from the tree) and then my mother wanted to bring him home but my dad said no (I was not told this till after the fact) and so they brought him to my grandma's house cuz she owned a farm.

The next day he was stuck up a tree there and my mother took me to "help" (read as stand by and watch) my uncle get him down and then said something about taking him home and I jumped on it, Dad finally fell for the cuteness and then mom gave him a bath and tried to scrub the black spot off of the poor cat's nose only to find that it was part of his nose. (He didn’t like water AFTER that, b4 he liked it)
He is ummm 16 now (I'm 25 in feb) and still as royal like as ever.

I also have Demon who is my out doors cat who true to her name is psychotic and evil. She is a ruthless killer and has killed a whole litter of her nieces and nephews, including some that were old enough to fend for themselves. (She hates other cats) HOWEVER every time she sees a human she wants to love on them and sit on their lap and roll around. Also she has a small (1/2 inch) kinked tail (was born that way) and is missing an ear due to an infection she had a year or so ago.

I also have Ziggy (the only animal that lives with me and my GF besides our fish) who is totally stupid/insane. She kicks herself in the head, attacks her tail, runs dead into walls, eats EVERYTHING she can, randomly attacks people (she is a very rough player) and generally causes chaos.
We got her because my GF found her hanging off the drive through at Dairy Queen where she used to work (literally hanging off the window)
She brought the cat home to me like an hour after she left for work (her boss didn't want to see it get hurt and we live a block from the dairy queen and I love animals,) and even though our apartment does not allow pets we kinda fell for her. (First day she spent actually watching X-Files with me, not just sitting there but looking interested and watching the screen)

I also own a Bird named Buddy, he is a cockatiel and he just plain loves to be loud. He also loves people (especially males) and once chased my brother's friend around the house just to land on his shoulder. Buddy loves to sing the tune from the Andy Griffith show (though he never gets it right, he prefers his version) and any time he hears loud noises he will start singing. I also think the wants to be a dentist because he loves to pick at teeth. He will eat anything and prefers spicy foods. Oh yeah he likes the echo from singing in small places and prefers to sing with his head inside someone's mouth.

I also own many fish, 2 guppies (well those r my GF's but yeah I take care of um) named lemon slice and orange peal (they are yellow and orange colored) who love to fight for certain areas of the tank, they cant seem to stop chasing each other out of the area they were in. My Plecostomus, named Pelco, is a recluse but loves to come to the front of the tank when I am near it.

I have also had many other pets, a rabbit named blaze that was albino (he was the product of a wild rabbit and one of my Holland Dwarfs that had gotten loose. me and my cousins caught all of the bunnies cuz the neighbors were mad that their gardens were being torn up. After we caught blaze I kept him and he was the best rabbit ever, you could set him anywhere (even outside without a fence or anything) and I could make this little rubbing motion with my fingers near the ground and he would come to me.

I used to have a gerbil (for a week) that would cling to the top of its cage and crawl around, sadly it fell on its bowl and broke it back.

I had a hamster that was psycho, she would put whole chew sticks in her mouth and chew them by spinning them like a rotisserie and nibble them from the inside, she also made fuzzy afraid of rodents, he got up near her cage once and she opened her mouth and made the most god awful sounds ever. That scared the cat and I didn’t see him for a day, since then he hated rodents and ran from them.

I had a water dog (slimy salamander/tadpole thing) named Elric that loved to wrestle worms (his food)

I had a dog named Bear that we had to make an out door animal due to her destroying the house, she took down the Christmas tree 3 times and that bathroom we left her in when we left the house to this day has marks up the wall and on the door handle. She also learned how to open doors. She also was the best mother dog ever, she would allow me and my brother to play with the pups and do anything we wanted even when their eyes weren’t open. (I spent long hours outside in her dog house when she had pups)

The best animal I ever had was Torey, he was my parent's dog that they had before I was born. That dog was the most loyal loving animal ever. I have pictures of him guarding me while I was on my blanket as a kid in our front yard. He also would not let anyone hurt me, if my dad had to spank me (yes I was spanked and honestly I'm better for it) he had to put Torey in the other room or the dog would grab his hand and gently but forcefully move it away from me. Torey lived to the age of 17 or so I believe, he died when I was in my mid teens.

 

 

 

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LOL! It sounds like you have a vertiable zoo at your house! Hey no worries I'm no better. Aside from Link the wonder cat/mutt I own six cats. Well six point five that is.......

Hoody - age 7 - pretty white and orange and black short hair calico :
This gal I found under the hood of a truck when I lived in Arkansas hence her name ( I am terrible naming pets or things). She is so funny. For starters she is afraid of heights. Yup. Anything above 3 feet in the air and she is not at all happy. However she shows her courage by willing to scrap with dogs and anything bigger than herself.....save her family in the house ( I'll get to that in a moment). Even though she is an indoor/outdoor cat her favorite thing to "hunt" are Q-tips. When she was younger she used to steal our pens. lighters and small change so we used to joke about her having raccoon somewhere in her lineage ( the fact that she cleans her paws in the water dish only adds to that theory).

Hoodlet - age 6 - clone of her mother Hoody with only slightly different markings :
She is a fun one to have around the house especially if people do not know I have TWO clone alike calicos. Hoody is her mom hence the name Hoodlet. We also call her "Princess Pearbutt" since that is the shape she has become after being fixed. Hoodlet is not the brightest bulb in the package around here however we do forgive her due to a head injury she had as a kitten ( one of the reasons we kept her). She has a very short memory ( guppy sized we think). A good example would be when she got herself stuck in the neighbor's trailer one day. I found her and got her in safely. She had been missing all of 24 hours and yet when she got back in she was surprised and offended to find other cats in the house. *sighs* Another interesting trait to Hoodlet is the way she asks to be let in from outside. She literally throws herself at the door. You can here the "thuWHUMP" and you know it is her. Heck sometimes Hoody will just wait for her daughter ( Hoodlet) to do her thing and they both get let in.

Esque - age 4 - black and white cow looking short hair ( litter one from Hoodlet):
His full name is Turvey-esque as his looks took after his uncle Turvey ( full name Topsy-Turvey as he was a breech). Esque is in his own way special. For starters his meow sounds broken. Seriously broken. Like I should oil him with some WD- 40 . Secondly he inherited his mother ( Hoodlet) brain cell capacity. He has managed to light himself on fire without noticing and he has a licking fetish with light bulbs. The kind that have been on ALL day. His weakness is catnip and I do believe he would sell his furry soul for a pinch.

'Manda - age 3 - muddy looking short hair calico ( litter two from Hoodlet) :
'Manda takes after her grandmother Hoody. She is full of spunk and spitfire. She also owns me. Some nicknames my husband and roommate have given her are "Fatal Attraction Cat" and "Venom". These refer to her obsessiveness of having to be near me at almost all times and her ability to halve her face when she screams and hisses. Link ( our dog) absolutely adores 'Manda because she is the only one who will haul after him and attempt to slaughter him when he annoys her. Keep in mind he is about 20 pounds and she might be 8 pounds..........

Prissy - age 3 - grey/brown short hair tabby ( 'Manda's sister) :
She earned her name by her compulsion to clean. And clean. And clean. She cleans herself 25 hours a day ( where did she get that extra hour?). She used to be pretty timid until she got fixed. Then she grew some....guts and will whale on anything near by if she is in a bad mood. Her special talent is the "pet-o-meter". Regardless of where a person is in the house and what they are petting ( another animal or say giving a massage) she will appear magically to be pet. She also assumes that if you are calling any of the other pets in the house you mean her and want to give her attention.

Felicia- tenttively age 2 - beautiful short hair Siamese :
My son found her and brought her home. She is smart and stupid wrapped up into one adorably cross eyed cat. She taught herself how to get to the roof via our crisper cupboard and also taught herself how to get off the roof by ungracefully throwing herself down the large holly tree in our neighbor's yard. She has no depth perception. She thinks that when you open the fridge you are offering to feed her no matter how many times she is turned down. She is also the most relaxed cat I have seen. Picking her up is like holding warm silly putty. She literally oozes and melts as she lets gravity just do its thing.

And then there is my point five cat.......

Bop - age - who knows - Prissy's obvious father as he is the same make and model:
He found me one day and he had no home. We think his owners packed up and left him behind ( this theory was strengthened when we moved as he flipped out when he saw all the boxes). He has a tendency to "bop" up against you for greetings and attentions. I would describe his quirks but they are inappropriate to post. Let's just say I have NEVER known a cat to do such things! And why is he my point five? Because since we moved ( that was almost three years ago) he has found himself another family or two and only sporadically comes back home to us. Even less now since we have gotten Link. His coat is shiny and he has put on weight so I know he found someone(s) who spoil him.

And that is my feline petting zoo.

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Sad news, one of my GF's guppies died yesterday, I believe one of the other fish beat it up but I am unsure which one so I am watching them closely. The one that died was Orange Peal. Lemon Slice seems kinda lost but I think the will be fine after a few days.

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I am so sorry to hear that one of your fish had died.
Did you ever catch the culprit?
Is Lemon Slice doing any better?

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I've got a LARGE Red mixed breed dog and 10 cats, mostly solid white.

Rusty has a couple of the cats that he really likes to play with but he loves to chase them all as his favorite game.

He's got a bit of cat in him as well, sometimes when i pet him he has this low growl that sounds for all the world like he's purring

I've never been able to obedience train the big baby because for all his size, he still cowers when you tell him no. But he seems to understand when I just talk to him so we get along pretty good!

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Hmm. We have 5 cats. Almost all of them are completely crazy. The one attacks anyone that walks by too near to her. With her claws. Or teeth. She's evil I tell you. One of the others are completely addicted to food in a bad way. Whenever my mother (who feeds him usually) only even starts in the direction of the kitchen(where he is usually fed), he will rush to the kitchen and wait for her to arrive, despite the fact that she might not even be going there. =P

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Umm, I have lizards and snakes, as well as the usual dog and a few cats. Thing about the biggest lizard is its a shingleback. Google it. It looks like they have a head on either end of their body. Bout 2 foot long. He just has free roam of the house, and is toilet trained to poo in a cardboard box, (with a hole cut in it of course, lol), and the cats dont bother him. Amazing creatures. I got a couple of pythons too, but theyre pretty temperamental. If they dont want you to touch them, they'll let you know.... But most of the time theyre alright. Cant post pix of mine cause Im away at work at the moment. But all non-aussies should have a look at a shingleback. Theyre very unusual.

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Oh how cute! You are so right in how a shingleback looks like it has two heads. It took me a moment to figure out which one was the decoy. I know, I know....the one WITH eyes...DUH! Still though quite a convincing bit of work!

Link is now almost 7 months old and has gotten HUGE! How can something so small grow SO rapidly?? And I fear he is not done growing yet. He weighed in the other day at 45 pounds and he still has those cat like traits. For instance he tries to cram his whole body onto my lap. I am not a very wide person so my lap is not very acomodating. This just seems to confuse him. Also when we are sitting on the couch he will try to clamber behind and over our shoulders. I think if he could perch and rest on them he would! Instead this just ends up with us being mauled and licked ferociusly ( the mauling usually gets a shriek out of us which he thinks means we want to play so hence the licking and tail wagging).

We have the kitchen partitioned off with a baby gate so Link canna get in there and eat the cat food ( which is kinda unfair as 'Manda has been putting on the pounds by visiting Link's dish). Well last week he was so excited in seeing me ( I had been gone for a couple of hours food shopping) that he bounded over it with no problems. I thought we were going to have a regular problem of him doing this but he seems to have learned that the kitchen is a "No Link " zone.

Just thought I would update.

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My dog "Cujo" likes to eat fire XD

Whenever we have a fire in our fire pit outside, he will try to get close to it and bite it. He'll chase after the smoke, etc. Its pretty funny and very entertaining to watch. Sometimes he'll even pull burning logs out of the fire and chew on them, etc.

Hmmm... another thing he does is carry logs around .... I mean big logs.... like.... 1 foot and a half at least in diameter.... at least..... it looks hilarious....

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