About Dogs and Cats and their Buddies. And some little jokes.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

FOR dogs, it's instinctual to be interested in moving objects. Bicycles, cars, and yes, postmen, trigger a dog's natural hunting instinct. So the advice to the postperson or Amazon etc personage: When you deliver mail and stuff, don’t move. Like you’re frozen. Let the dog collect the mails and boxes from your vehicle. 🐕‍🦺📬🐕‍🦺

WE say cheese on photo-shoots. I don’t know why. But dogs may hear differently and think you’d give them cheese sticks after a photoshoot. Cats though don’t care. They pose for the cellphone cam because they can or because they won’t. 🐕📸🐈

FORGIVEN, or grant pardon for a mistake or wrongdoing. Your dog trashed your $7,199.99 Haverty’s Audrey Sectional couch and your cat broke a replica of Christie’s Ming Vase (fake, maybe $300; real one: more than $10 million). Would you forgive them? I will. (Because I don’t own any of those couches and vases.) Arrow can always destroy stuffed toys from Goodwill Outlet that I bring her and Ching and Fizz can break whatever thingy that I got from Dollar Tree. No problemo. 🐱🐕🦊

WHY do cats follow us to the bathroom? Whatever the reason, cats follow us into the bathroom to spend time with their beloved hooman. Kitties associate the bathroom as a positive space. Sitting on your lap while you're on the toilet means caresses. Bath time means playing with bubbles. Although Ching and Fizz follow me to the bathroom, they are not that “lap” or “bubbles” dramatic. They just stay quiet as my security details, in case a python crawls up from the toilet bowl. 🐈🚽🐈

SQUEAKY toys tap into dogs’ hunting instinct. Such as with Arrow who is a hound dog. Experts agree that squeaky toys offer dogs a way to connect with their natural prey drive because it mimics the sound of a scared or injured animal, which immediately activates the urge to hunt. Arrow is also a natural surgeon. That is why she “operates” on those stuffed toys and figures out or studies if the squeakyness makes them sick. 🧸🐕🪆

IF your cat has decided his once favorite cat bed is no longer cool, it could be the usual personality change. If she's not showing any other signs of abnormality, she could simply have found a better sleeping spot. Or maybe after she scrutinized her bed, googled stuff, and found out it is made of toxic materials or made by abused child workers. Reason why Fizz sleeps in only one or two beds in the house. She likes to google. Ching though, no problem. Whatever is cool. 🐱🛌🐱

CATS are good at visual recognition, except when it comes to human faces. Though they use other cues: Scent, sound, or mood swings to ID us. Reason why they run when an Amazon person shows up on the porch. “OMG! Who is dis guy?!?” Or “Are you stressed out again about Elon?” That’s what researchers (who are cats) from Tokyo University say. Meanwhile, dogs can understand human phrases or nonverbal cues. And some can google. Because they are trained by cats. 🐱🦊🐱

ZIP LINE, an inclined cable or rope with a suspended harness, pulley, or handle, down which a person slides for amusement. That’s what I need–from my room upstairs to the living room, in front of the big TV screen and work/computer table. Seriously. ☺️😊😂

Wanna Talk Weed?

Marijuana or cannabis is a sensitive issue to many. While I seldom oblige a “hit” when offered as a gesture of friendliness or diplomacy, I don’t consume it at all. But I digress. Here is part of an article on Sierra, 2017 issue, that is part of the reason why I don’t thumbs-up (unregulated) marijuana growth. 

ON public lands, drug cartels and other criminal organizations have built enormous, well-guarded plantations in remote areas, covering the land with trash and irrigation pipes and contaminating it with pesticides. Growers have exacerbated California’s historic six-year drought by diverting water from headwater streams and springs in the summer and fall, when flows are weakest. Each marijuana plant consumes about six gallons of water per day. That can have major effects on seasonal streams, which salmon rely on. Water demand from Emerald Triangle* marijuana grows often leaves streams there completely dry.  

*The Emerald Triangle is a region in Northern California that's known as the largest cannabis-producing area in the United States. The region is made up of three counties that form an upside-down triangle: Humboldt County on the coast, Trinity County inland, and Mendocino County to the south. 🍀🎍🪴

Photo: USDA.