I love your stories! The image of your dog pushing bark on to his pee is endearing and sweet! A tidy dog! Who knew!

Our two cats are five years old and we adopted them together when they were ten weeks, from different litters. They are entirely bonded and are getting pretty stodgy as the years go by. There is a lot of snoozing together, washing each other and occasionaly games of thundering cats. Otherwise, they are disturbingly normal.

For about the first year and a half, their favorite game was playing with boxes. Big boxes. For all that time we had five-six large shipping boxes in our dining room. They became part of the decor and I never thought to explain them when people dropped by. I would put the boxes in the LR when we needed the dining room table for guests. Anyway, the cats would play endlessly in and around them - jumping in and out, chasing each other in and out, pushing the boxes around the room, tipping them on their sides for a new game, generally rearranging them every day. They would carry their toys in and bring them back out. It was hilarious.

One thing that has sort of worried me is that for the first few years they loved playing with those little gray mice that you get at pet stores. Our male would growl when he "caught" one and our girl would sing out a mournful cry. Now the mice have disappeared. I never threw a single one out, none ever went into the washing machine, they never ate them - and yet - no mice? Where are they? It's like losing a sock in the washer. Is there a place in the guts of the house where the mice are gathered?

I am fearful of rubber bands, because our female eats them. Every rubber band that comes into the house goes straignt into the trash can, and the same with string. There are no tassels or fringes on anything, because she will chow down on them.

We are nutty about our cats. Besides being adorable, they stand in for DGS, who lives in another state. But mainly because they are simply sweet and loving!

Cute story! Do your dogs have their own toys and the long rolled Rawhides? We have a 5 yr. old big English Pointer and has her own toys since she got here, and I still buy them for her.

She especially likes the stuffed animals that squeak and destroys them within a few days, then chews on the material for a couple of years. lol. And she adores the rolled Rawhides which she can chew on for hours at a time & they last forever...Sometimes!

She chewed on furniture when she was a puppy but quickly outgrew it once she realized she had her own toys.

My dog watches TV! He's particularly likes sports - football, hockey and golf are his favorites. Although he's been known to sit and sat a good nighttime drama. He just sits there staring at the screen - he'll watch for 5-10 minutes at a time...he's distracted easily, but we are amazed how he likes to watch TV. He must have watched us stare at that box for so many hours, now he's doing it!

My cat insists on drinking only out of the bathroom sinks with extra cold water. The sink can only be filled 1/2" with water. He likes it shallow and a small puddle.

Our feral kitty, Buddy, has an insatiable appetite. We thought he had worms, but the vet concluded he must have an overactive "starvation" gene in him. He licks all the dirty dishes the kids leave in the sink, eating salad, spaghetti, goldfish crackers, etc, etc. He jumps on the kitchen counter to chew on the top fronds of the fresh pineapple I buy. I stupidly bought him a big planter of "kitty" grass to nibble on, thinking he'd like greens since now he an indoor cat, and he never ate it, just dug up all the dirt like he used to outside. I am worried that his appetite will get him in trouble, though. I have caught him chewing on rubber bands, my kids' gimp/lanyard string from camp, their iPod wires, and phone charging cords that are plugged into the socket. Our vet says he has had to operate on pets that get intestinal blockages from rubber bands, tinsel, and dental floss. Our other cat is totally opposite. She will not eat any "human" food except for tuna. She had a very weird fetish, though...she gets absolutely looney (like catnip) about glue on envelopes and that gummy-type of adhesive they use in mailings. I love them, though....Pets keep our lives interesting!

Oh, these stories are hilarious!

My parents had a dog, Rudy, who would eat anything that didn't eat him first. He'd eat entire loaves of bread. Once my mom chased him around the house until he gave up the huge cucumber he had absconded with, straight out of the bag of groceries she was attempting to put away after just bringing them home. He ate rat poison, which entailed an emergency trip to the vet to have his stomach pumped. He ate an entire bag of rubber bands - this unbeknownst to my folks, who only discovered what he'd eaten after seeing him poop in the backyard and thinking in horror that he was infested with countless worms. Um, those weren't worms.

Rudy the Wonder Dog. There was never a dull moment when that boy got it into his little brain to consume something.

hmmm where to start?? The tale of two goldens. When Cooper was 1 year old and Bailey was two, one or both pups got into a bottle of ibuprofen. My DS had come home from a trip and left his suitcase on the floor. He came home at 2am to a chewed up bottle on the floor and quite a few pills misssing.Result-trip to emergency vet at 2am for stomach pumping and two dogs on stomach meds and push IVs for two days. You don't even want to know how much that cost. But so worth it.One or both would have died.
Then there was the time one ate a pumice stone- and again I didn't know which one. So off to the vet who sent her tech to a pharmacy to buy a pumice stone to check to see if it would show up on xray. The vet came in and showed me the xray said it was Bailey. They made her barf. Nope no pumice.The vet came in with ziploc of small rocks. Bailey had been eating rocks! She gave them to me all clean and shiny in a ziploc and took Cooper in the back. The pumice didn't come out so he had to have barium xray series to watch his intestines.

And then there was the time when one or both snuck and ate corncobs out of the kitchen trash can. I Googled 'my dog ate corncobs" and found out how deadly they are. Called emergency vet and was told to give them hydrogen pyroxide to make them barf. Took until 2 AM waiting on a hot muggy August night, waiting and waiting until they barfed. Thank goodness we found out in time. Then they had to have a barium xray the next morning and be followed to see if there were any in the intestinal track and if so then surgery would be needed. Bought stainless steel self closing trashcan for about $100 and we keep it in our mud room with door that now has automatic closer.

And then there was the time Cooper wasn't acting right and had another barium xray that showed a possible partial blockage of something that didn't show up. Ta da! knee high pantyhose came out on its own.
I asked the vet when we would qualify for a doggie diner discount card for the xrays!
Once when I was getting ready to bake I took out a stick of butter, put it on the counter and when to the other side of the kitchen to get out a bowl. Turned around, no butter. gone. paper and all. Bailey had eaten the whole stick! butter breath! I didnt hear or see a thing!

BTW hairspray removes ball point ink from Karastan carpets-don't ask me how I know... Miss Bailey likes to eat pens. Now they are carefully put away.

Cooper found an old deflated leather football, that he carries around and tosses in the air. He "leaves it" for later at the bottom of the steps before he comes in. And he picks it up from where he left it when he goes back out. They regularly find golf balls, baseballs or lacrosse balls on our daily off leash walks at the high school and they take turns chasing each other to get the ball from the other.
If you are ever behind an SUV with two goldens hanging out the windows and a green tennis ball bounces down the road- you might be behind us! They have balls when we leave and sometimes they are gone when we arrive!
Cooper carries around my socks and brings them to us when we come home. He will dash off to find a treasure- dish towel, napkin, whatever is handy and dance back up to us with it. We admire it,say thank you and then give it back. If you drive by my house you may wonder why there are purple or hot pink socks lying around in the grass on occasion.
Last night as I sat in the living room, Cooper brought me a roll of toilet paper!
Now that they are older and we are much wiser in the way of golden retrievers it is very tame around here!

Howard has a variety of tricks. He has always 'hiked' rocks between his legs like a football. When he was younger he'd hike rocks that were nearly as big as he is (he's a standard schnauzer) Now he can only do small ones (softball sized) and then only for a couple hikes. But he still loves doing it.

He used to ride on the bike with the kids. He'd position himself over the center bar and cross his paws over the handlebars and go for rides.

He also used to 'dig' on carpets, the bed, whatever. He'd digdigdig until he fell over then he'd stand up and dig some more. He'd do this till he'd fall over out of exhaustion then dig while laying on his side.

Our cat Bob loves corn nuts. One time he got into a bag that someone left on the desk. Bob somehow pushed the record button on the answering machine and recorded himself digging into the bag of corn nuts and crunching them.

Our late cat Poof was a demon for angel food cake. He'd tear open the grocery bag to get to it.

Our old German Shephard Smokey used to get the containers of margarine off the table, open the lids off and lick out the entire contents. He'd also do this with peanut butter jars. One night he got into a large bag containing all the chocolate candies my kids had sold as a fund raiser for school. He opened and ate every single one but the mint chocolates. He did not get sick either.

Another night he polished off a roast beef I'd just removed from the oven. I set it on the counter to cool off and set while I got the family to come in for dinner. In less than 60 seconds that dog scarfed down a steaming hot 5 lb roast beef.

But the best Smokey story was when he was riding in the backseat of my car. The windows were down and I came up to a stop sign. Next thing I know, I see Smokey sliding down the street toward the intersection. He's on his back, legs straight up in the air and he's sliding on the slick street, eyes rolling like crazy. My car was a stick shift that I'd just gotten, so I couldn't figure out how to put it in 'park' so I could get the dog. I somehow managed to get to him before he slid into the intersection, but I tell you, that dog never leaned out a window again!

My basset hound, Hound Dog/Snooper/whatever we said that day, used to eat crayons. Only the colored ones, never the black and whites. He would poop speckled. Our house burned halfway down the day after easter 1975. He layed downstairs in the hallway as the firefighters tried to move past him to put out the fire. He would not budge. They took all our stuff they could grab out onto the lawn, easterbaskets and all. Dog went out next day and ate all the candy and eggs.

Brother's beagle did not like his lawyer friend. So one day the guy left his briefcase open on coffee table. Dog jumped up and peed on the contents. Another time my bro came home to find his entire 45 collection chewed to bits. Oh yeah, he took pics of that, it was a keeper. Also ate the sofa.

I had a cat years ago that I caught trying to attack the thanksgiving turkey that was sticking out of oven while I looked for a potholder. I did not tell the guests. Another time she walked by with something hanging out of her. I feared a worm and tugged on it. It kept coming out and she screamed like one of those dolls with those cords you pull to hear them talk. Turns out it was some string that was tied around a chicken. She must have got it from the trash.

The other day I kept finding little pooh balls on the floor. Thought maybe doggy stepped in a pile and it was falling off his feet. No, feet were clean. DS said to check his butt- ds is 8 so that is exactly what he told me to do. So I lifted the tail and saw a black hanging thing. Yuck. Well I could not leave it there. So I gave it a little tug then realized it was a pc of yarn off a throw. Fearing I could harm his insides I left it alone. Moments later he really had to go outsider really really bad. I must have stimulated an urge because he ran as fast as he could and took a dump. Out came the rest of the yarn. When dh came home and I told him what happened he asked me "why I let the dog eat the throw", like I would do that.

My dd has to do a presentation on the word Humiliation. She did a powerpoint with a video she made of someone being humiliated. Then she had another idea to show how sometimes we do things that are humilitating. She took a picture of our shephard eating the cat's food out of her little itty bitty cute kitty bowl. Her caption is something like "don't humiliate yourself". We are hoping for an A.

When doggy is a little frisky outside and decides he does not want to come inside and would rather run around and terrorize the yard, he will literally run up to a freshly bloomed daisy and look up at me, then rip off the flower and spit it our in defiance. Little brat. Tonight he liked to reach down into the flax plant and bite a leaf and pull up on it, running it through his teeth. Little brat.

My daycare lady has a mutt puppy girl. She loves to watch tv, particularly animal shows. She freaks whenever zebras and other animals run around. When commercials come on that have animals on she will run into the room and start barking at them. Sometimes lady will play animal planet to keep her occupied. Once people come on the screen she stops watching.

My first dog never cared for tv, our new pup does woof a little an look around when Marley and Me was on but not too bad so far.

Oh these stories are so fun.

He just wandered off and I caught him with a sports watch in his mouth. Just before dinner he had a paper towel.

oh, just remembered this one...
When my dd was in diapers, maybe 1.5yrs she walked by with her diaper hanging by one tab. The batch had defective tabs. She turned corner and came right back naked! My shephard ran by with diaper in mouth. He ripped that thing right off her as she passed by him. He could down a diaper in seconds!

OMG, there are more crazy pets out there besides mine!!!! Shannon, you're stories are hysterical, although I know from experience how frustrating it can be to have things chewed on and destroyed by our furkids!

My last dobie, Turk, ate ANYTHING he could cram down his throat. Half a chile ristra (string of dried chile peppers). THAT one was a nightmare to clean up after . . . for days! He chewed on the arm of a hand-carved chair, ate the arms off a wicker chair, ate a wicker basket, rocks, firewood, etc. He chewed up and destroyed 6 dog beds before I bit the bullet and ordered him one of those very expensive ones, billed as "indestructible/ for problem chewers". It had a money-back guarantee with it. He chewed that one up in one day. We got our money back, thank goodness, although it caused a partial intestinal obstruction, as did many of the things he ate. He ate a door mat. That gave him a total obstruction. $1200 poorer, after his surgery to remove 12" of intestine, we got rid of all the doormats and bought trash cans with lockable lids! Turk taught himself how to open doorknobs with his mouth. He just clamped on and turned his head and then walked the door open. He would also "skate" on his Nylabone. He'd put one front paw on it and slide all over the house (which has brick floors) on his bone! Our sweet Turk died last November from his 34th (30 partial/ 4 total) intestinal obstruction. Our vet calls these dogs, "Garbage Gut animals". Like someone else here's already mentioned, he believes that many are just born like this and it's virtually impossible to break them of it. Nothing we did ever changed Turk's behavior, unfortunately for Turk.

Our new dobie, Ronin, covers his poop (using his nose)in the kennel with the gravel there. Why? I have no idea, but it's good to know that he's not the only one that does this weird thing! He also absolutely refuses to poop in front of anyone. He'll stand there for 30 minutes if you don't move away.

My sweet little Tibetan Spaniel, Chloe, is much more "normal". The only thing she does is refuses to drink her water if there's a bug in it. But, heck, I wouldn't drink it either, so I'm always keeping an eye on it for her.

Lynn

Smidge, my little Pomazu, doen't eat anything she isn't supposed to. Her strange thing is she goes nuts when she hears the word "cat". Our neighbors cats sit outside our bay window and teases her, I swear. We always say, leave that cat alone and I guess that is where it came from. One day DH was talking politics and said something about a Democrat and she freaked out, I told him she must be a Repupican. Everybody we know has to ask her about cats to watch her flip out.

I have a story, but it isn't funny. We have a little yorkie-poo. She was less than a year old when she got sick. She had a few stomach issues and they did a poop culture (sorry!), and found some type bacteria. Treated that but within a couple of weeks, she started vomiting one evening. She had never done this and after a couple of times I called our vet. Because of her small size (she's only 9 lbs. now fully grown) they had us bring her in so she wouldn't get dehydrated. They examined her, pumped her full of fluids and suggested we watch her closely overnight. The fluids and some meds helped with the vomiting but by early morning she was vomiting again. We got up, dressed and ready to get her to the vet their opening time. They did an x-ray and showed us that something was showing in her digestive track. Something she had ingested. I remembered that she had torn one of her little toys and although I never saw any stuffing out of the toy, I knew there was stuffing and we just assumed she had eaten that. They had to do emergency exploratory surgery. I bawled my eyes out. The next day when we were allowed to *visit*, the vet showed me the PLASTIC MEAT WRAPPER that she had eaten. It was to a pretty critical point, it had started through her intestines. The vet was wonderful, even took our little baby home with her overnight to keep a close eye on her and the pup came through the surgery with flying colors. And a nice little *zipper* down her belly.

Hubby and I both felt awful. We didn't know she had gotten the wrapper. We figured that she had quickly grabbed it out of the garbage (which was behind a closed door, but if she saw us put something in there she'd jump up to investigate) and gotten away with it without us seeing. The stick on label on the plastic wrapping was what we were seeing on the x-ray. Alot of tears and $$$ over a meat wrapper! She's not interested in the garbage anymore (she was just a puppy then) thankfully, but we are even more cautious when throwing something away! I never throw away a meat wrapper now without putting it in another bag and tying it up first.

Our pup too watches tv. It's hilarious. There was an M&M commercial that she didn't like. Now she doesn't like the Weight Watchers commercial where they have the little orange monster (hungry). She knows by the very first sound of that commercial that it's THE ONE and immediately starts barking. She barks at most dogs she sees on tv, other than cesear. Maybe because he's little like her.

tina

another Cooper story. Once in awhile Cooper watches tv, usually when there are dogs barking in the scene or wildlife running. He cocks his head and looks and then sometimes he gets up and walks over to look behind the tv!
Bailey runs to the front door and barks if someone rings the doorbell or knocks on a door on the tv.
I have a couple of photos of Cooper holding a flashlight in his mouth like a cigar and Bailey chasing the light on the floor. She chases reflections off of watches, glasses, etc.

Dogs- ya gotta love em,they always greet you when you come home from work, eat whatever you give them,ready to hug or play when you are. You can leave them alone when you go out and the best part you don't have to pay for college!! If we only knew this before having kids.....

We once had a dog that ate a plastic bag. I caught her doing it and tried to pull it out of her mouth, but she swallowed it quickly. I called the vet and they told me to pour hydrogen peroxide down her throat to make her vomit. Ugh. What a nightmare. She weighed at least 80 lbs and DH was at work. Finally got enough down her that it worked. But we both ended up covered in hydrogen peroxide.

My Grandpug is a TV fan. He does not like animals on TV, and he watches ladies behinds. When there is a close up of a gals hind end, he runs to the TV and stares at it. There was a commercial on for some car or stereo...had hamsters driving the cars. He HATED that commercial. And its not the sound that gets his attention, we've had it on mute and he'll run to the tv and get excited when he sees animals (or ladies rumps).

I entertained my family and dinner guest last night with many of the stories here . . . at least the ones that were tellable at the table! They loved them all, especially your stories, Shannon. The girls were laughing with tears running down their faces when I told them the ones about your cat! Many thanks for all the funny ones. And, of course, my condolences to all of you who,like us, have had to go though the obstructions and/or vomiting that goes along when these crazy furkids eating some not-so-good things.
Lynn

Princess Posie likes to:
Lounge in the sink.....
Watch TV while sitting in my lap....
Sit in the high chair at the table when we eat (she never touches anything, she just likes to sit there)....
Jump up on your shoulder when you come in the back door...
Get on the bed in the morning and lick your face to wake you up......
Share your ice cream (if you don't move fast enough)
Chase the granddaughters around the house (our house makes a complete circle).
She is wonderful entertainment, all for the cost of litter and Purina!!

When my Kiki girl was with us she would get on back of sofa my mom would sit on and sniff and lightly nibble my mom's hair. I took a pic one year cause it was funny. We figured it was the meds releasing through her hair that attracted the cat.

My dashaund used to catch digger squirrels and one time he walked into the kitchen as mom was taking out a roast. He barfed up this huge hunk of furry stuff, we thought the roast fell to the ground. That was sooooo gross. Then one time he brought came in and went to his bed under a desk. I reached it to pet him.... it was a dead squirrel. Waaaaaay gross. He would also bark at blue jays for days on end. We had to drag him into the house to make him stop. Next chance out and he was back out there. He would bark until he was hoarse.

At halloween we would let our shephard bark when the kids would knock or ring. We would tell the kids we had to put the werewolf away. We told them he turned into a werewolf on halloween. It was really cute to see their eyes get big.

Our shephard was really smart. We had to stop saying walk, talk, etc because he would get all excited. So we started spelling the words. He eventually figured out what w-a-l-k meant. We had to get really creative with him. Our new pup is starting to figure it out a bit too but he is not as anxious as the other one so he only freaks a little.

I love pet stories and videos. Trying to type with one on my lap right now. Both of my kitties would fetch, shake and sit up for treats. They would also try to catch the light on the walls from watch or ring reflections like cooperbailey's story above.

This video was passed around Facebook last week and it made me laugh. Hope it brightens your day too! (warning, it's 3 min. long)

Here is a link that might be useful: Woody the cat takes a shower

All these stories truly make me count my blessings! My two dogs never go through the kitchen garbage or take things off the coffee table. They will moan and whine but wait for me to give them something. However, anything that falls on the floor belongs to them unless I move with lightening speed.

The beagle, however, has a habit of occasionally eating something outside that gives him horrible gas- all kinds of squeaking noises and rumblings come from his tummy. This usually happens in the middle of the night after he's run around outside for awhile.
When it happens, he is inconsolable. He wants to get in bed with me, sit on my head, my chest, jump off the bed, go outside, come back in, and then we start it over again. Every few months I spend a night with him doing this. He will just look at me with these huge sad eyes and walk around the bedroom.
I have no idea what he is eating but he sure hasn't learned his lesson!

We live in the country so it is most likely a dead animal. Gross...