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Got Any Tales About Quirky Critters?
Regardless of whether you currently share space with another species it is part of human nature to enjoy them, so feel free to share your animal tales about anyone from a zoo animal to a previous pet.
I would have said there are no neurotic pets, only neurotic owners, and mayhaps that's true. I also know that cats and dogs vary in their abilities to handle change, same as humans.
But Ziggy has got me baffled by his recent behavior. In my less charitable moments (when he's preventing me from sleeping) I think he's just being a WATB. That alternates with wondering (worriedly) what is wrong with him and wondering (in frustration) WTF is wrong with him. This, I suspect, is exactly how he's training me. He may literally be dumb, but he's not stupid. He knows how to get attention and it's not by being a nice guy.
It started when we replaced the cruddy bedroom carpet with laminate flooring several weeks ago, and granted, it does make it a wee bit harder for smaller dogs to jump up on the bed. You can hear their little claws scrabbling for purchase at all hours. Of the two rat terriers, Sancho (whose nickname is "The Dude" and is perturbed by very little in life) figured it out right away, even though he's got short stumpy legs. Ziggy (his great-great uncle), the long-leggedy resident climber, has always been a bit of a prima donna but he also quickly adapted.
Except recently at night. Ziggy sleeps on my side of the bed in accordance with the 2007 Treaty of Rattitude, in which the vast buttes of elevated bedroom territories were divided in a just and fair negotiation based on terrierist size, seniority, and extended mouth-wrestling.
In which the terms of the territory were pawed out
But recently Ziggy has started pitching midnight pity parties. Every few nights, and sometimes two or three times a night, he just sits at the foot of the bed and whines in the dark, softly at first,and then with increasing urgency until someone, usually pNut, gets up and lifts him up onto the bed. I know he's not in pain because I've witnessed him hopping down and right back up with ease moments later. He's not sore over his joints, and he ignored the handy steps I put next to the bed for him.
Ignore him, you (or any reputable dog trainer) might say. It's the only way to extinguish an unwanted behavior. But he can win the waiting game by whining louder and longer, escalating to pawing at the bed and moaning in truly pitiful fashion. He wants to be picked up and put to bed by a person, dammit! You people changed my world and I'ma make you pay!
I know this is pure anthropomorphism, reading human resentments into his behavior, but I've known this guy for 10 years and believe me, I wouldn't put it past him. I've seen him fake limps, coughs and indifference, all in his quest to maintain center stage.
It's Friday and I'm in the mood for fun. Bring on the tales tails!
To each his own side of the bed
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