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tachikoma01
2009-06-18 05:02 pm UTC (link)

Replying again to say that the sheer amount of extreme cat hate in some of the comments disturbs me. It's one thing to dislike cats or say they're not their thing, but some of the posters are only a step away from advocating killing cats. And the more people get the idea that that attitude is 'normal' (ESPECIALLY since it seems to be pushed as normal if you're a young male to hate cats and love dogs), the more validation it gives to sickos who like hurting animals.

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	tree 2009-06-18 05:27 pm UTC (link)
	it seems to be pushed as normal if you're a young male to hate cats and love dogs It's more like 'have dogs' (especially Bull Terriers), not necessarily care about them. I'm a dog owner and this kind of attitude depresses and pisses me off. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ecchaniz0r
2009-06-18 06:33 pm UTC (link)

Blargh. This. I babysit the parents' cat, but - dangit, dogs are AWESOME, and people who neglect or abuse pets - ANY pets - fail at life and should consume excrement doom doom doom the end.

(Obligatory kitty story: parents' cat, Harley Davidson, has apparent worked out how a doorknob works if her reeeeaching for 'em and attempting grabbity is any indication. Alas - no opposable thumbs! Then again, she may just be going omgshiny. But it's hard to say; my aunt Laurel's cats both know how to open the doors in her house, and those have lever-knobs easier for futzy little paws to hook around.)

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tree
2009-06-18 06:47 pm UTC (link)

Oh god, opening doors. My Basset has figured out that his stretchy ass (long dog is long!) and the size and might of his paws can negotiate lever knobs, but since he's crazy about opening stuff in general he's also figured out how to get in the fridge and open plastic bottles and various other food packaging.

Of course, he's super intelligent when it comes to finding noms for himself, but if I ask him to come over or bring something, or a billion other things I know he knows, and he knows that I know he knows, he'll happily put on the stupid Basset face and not do it.

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beccastareyes
2009-06-18 07:44 pm UTC (link)

Both our cats can grasp the concept of how humans open doors. Geno can open those glass doors with the little levers, and Peppy figured out how to undo the (light) sliding bolt on the laundry room. Both of these seem to involve 'stand on something and jump at door with paws on mechanism until it moves'. I don't know if both cats can open both kinds of doors -- Geno doesn't care what's in the laundry room and Peppy doesn't care what's outside.

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	also_not_a_pipe 2009-06-18 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	The cat we had when I was young locked herself in a motel bathroom by trying to apply lever-doorknob knowledge. We were in the middle of moving across the country, from a house that had doorknobs she knew how to open. The move that makes a door with a lever knob open does not work the same way on round knob with a push button lock, it turns out. (Reply to this)(Parent)

brennalarose
2009-06-18 09:45 pm UTC (link)

John, the bigger of our two kitties, figured out that he could headbutt the door open. The smaller one, Raven, has decided she's such a lady, the rest of the world needs to open the door FOR her. And if you don't, she'll rip up the carpet underneath it.

Raven also knows when she's about to get it for being naughty, even if we were in the other room and don't know she's done anything. She sit there and wait until she knows we're coming for her and then start running. Eventually, she either gets tired and gives up or figures we aren't letting up, because she flops down and makes sure that the scruff of her neck is pointing the other way. And she was the one my husband thought was stupid.

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amaresu
2009-06-19 04:36 am UTC (link)

The smaller one, Raven, has decided she's such a lady, the rest of the world needs to open the door FOR her. And if you don't, she'll rip up the carpet underneath it.

I had a cat, Tiger, who would just pull at the bottom of the door if it was closed. This had the effect of ripping off layers of the wood. Had to replace the door eventually because she'd pretty much torn it apart on the bottom corner.

My current cat, Snickers, doesn't open door for himself. Even if the door is just ajar and he'd be perfectly capable of opening it himself by headbutting it or pawing it he'll sit outside and yowl until I open it enough for him to walk through.

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vzg
2009-06-28 08:57 pm UTC (link)

My newest cat would meow whenever he'd done something wrong for a little while after we got him. We might hear CRASH! meow at any moment. Now he knows to be quiet, so it may be minutes before I turn around in the kitchen and see him sitting on the table chewing on flowers. And then no amount of yelling can make him move — you've got to run at him like you intend to body slam him.

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	sepiamagpie 2009-06-18 10:10 pm UTC (link)
	My cat's figured out locks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ecchaniz0r 2009-06-19 03:12 am UTC (link)
	I completely believe this, because I have seen other cats do it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	quackaquacka 2009-06-19 12:37 pm UTC (link)
	Our cat, Otto, just hurls himself at the door. He'll miaow for a bit then it goes silent and then - THUD. THUD. THUD. and he keeps going until he bursts through. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tofuknight 2009-06-19 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	I had a cat named Gizmo who did this. It usually worked, the head-butting, because we tend to leave the doors ajar. It did not work so well when the door was latched closed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jyuu 2009-06-20 05:20 am UTC (link)
	I am so glad to know my cat is not the only one who does this. It is, however, extremely obnoxious at times. (Reply to this)(Parent)

mary_mac
2009-06-20 03:16 pm UTC (link)

The cat in the icon hasn't a hope in hell of ever opening the doors, but he earned himself the title of 'Fat Bastard Cat' by figuring out how to open the directional locking slides on his catflap, which are bloody hard to open when you have opposable thumbs, in the thirty seconds between clawing his way out of my father's grasp and my father getting to him again.

The cat is now impossible to lock into the house and has also discovered how to do this trick from the outside, so we can't lock him out either.

Next door's cat what stalks him has not figured out the trick and thus tends to end up crashing into the catflap, because did I mention that he will lock them again? Seriously, I have no idea.

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beccastareyes
2009-06-18 05:43 pm UTC (link)

My little brother never really liked cats until Mom got Peppy, our youngest one, who seems to think he is a combination of dog and squirrel. (Only cat I've seen that rough-houses with humans while playing. On the other hand, he also grooms the family if he can get at our heads, sleeps in the sink, and refuses to drink water unless it's from the toilet or sitting in a dish in the sink, so he's definitely got some weird-cat traits.)

Peppy probably also would not be attracted to treats. The only time food other than his dry cat food is interesting is if Geno, our other cat, is eating it and Peppy needs to make sure that Geno isn't getting anything he wants. (Strings on the other hand, are great...)

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	amaresu 2009-06-19 04:40 am UTC (link)
	It was something like 16 years before my cat Snickers showed any interest in food beyond his dry stuff. So it could just be that Peppy needs to age a bit? (Reply to this)(Parent)

sepiamagpie
2009-06-18 10:08 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, my brother insisted over and over he needed a dog if my sister was to have a cat because that's how it should be*.

Currently he's neglecting the dog once he got bored while my sister cares for the cats and the dog. He still makes constant comments about beating up the cats when no one is looking. I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to prove, except he's a jackass.

*the fact I also had a cat meant nothing, apparently. But I have a feeling he doesn't see me as particularly masculine to begin with.

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	tree 2009-06-18 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	I wonder where this dog = male, cat = female comes from. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sepiamagpie 2009-06-18 10:21 pm UTC (link)
	man, I have no idea. Because our dog is a girly girl and the cats are both pretty butch, as cats go. Hell, the little girl cat likes to slap women on the ass as they go by. Not that I approve, but she doesn't seem to understand my lectures on sexual harassment. Usually as she's burrowing her way into some girl's bra. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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ecchaniz0r, 2009-06-19 01:34 pm UTC

vzg
2009-06-28 09:02 pm UTC (link)

I dunno, but I had it in my head when I was little, even though I loved dogs to absolute bits and pieces (and still do). Somewhere around here I've got a drawing I did when I was six-ish of an anthropomorphic dog and cat couple with their canine son and feline daughter. Of course, seeing as how I was six I'm sure no one else would have been able to tell their genders. Maybe I'll just pass them off as a gay couple in the future.

And on the other side there was a skunk, a bee (in a cage, no less), and... something else. Possibly a worm. The animals I hated most back then. Now I like skunks and bees, at least to some extent.

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snarkhunter
2009-06-20 05:09 pm UTC (link)

Not that it matters in the slightest, but I always though you were a girl. :)

Of course, when on JF or LJ, my default assumption of anyone's gender identity is that they are female.

How old is your brother? Maybe he'll grow out of the jackassery. My brother once tried to shave our cat, but he loved her as much as any of us did. (And he was mostly trying to shave her to upset me.)

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	sepiamagpie 2009-06-20 10:28 pm UTC (link)
	Most people tend to assume that. He's just turned eighteen. He was right sweet until seventeen, then he suddenly turned evil. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tetradecimal 2009-06-20 07:01 pm UTC (link)
	You and your sister sound like bigger men than your brother'll ever be, that's for sure. Wait, is that right...? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sepiamagpie 2009-06-20 10:31 pm UTC (link)
	Well, my sister is kinda butch. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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