Here’s Greg Pike and his trio of amiable animals (Booger, Kitty, and Mousey; guess which is which) in Santa Barbara, California. It’s pretty amazing, especially the rat. Rats don’t live that long, so I wonder if he has to replace the rodent from time to time.
The University of California, Santa Barbara student paper gives some details, of which here are just a few (the quotes are from Pike):
“The dog raised the cat — I used her gestatation period to raise the cat like a puppy. She chose Kitty from the litter, so she thinks it’s her baby.” The cat was then raised around all sorts of small animals, and treats the rat as if it were its own sibling. With the rat, “it’s all about food.” Rats, it turns out, are very open to interspecies pairing, as long as they aren’t threatened and are properly taken care of. While it seems odd for the cat and rat to be stacked on top of the dog, Pike explains that it is the animals “safety zone”: It is where the cat and rat feel most at home and protected by their surrogate mother. Of course, it also helps Pike and his pals walk around a little faster, as well as avoid possible rat or cat tripping incidents.
Pike maintains that this trio says that all animals can get along together if raised properly, but I doubt that would work with a killer whale and a penguin!
~
OK, you can get away with passing the cat off as a leopard, but no one is going to buy the rodent as an even-toed ungulate of any flavor.
Speaking of prophesies (from Life of Brian):
There shall, in that time, be rumours of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things wi– with the sort of raffia work base that has an attachment.
At this time, a friend shall lose his friend’s hammer and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight o’clock.
Jerry! You’re back! 🙂
If only kids could be raised homogeneously, surrounded either by no religious formalism or a combination of them all how very certain the world’s organized edifices of worship would deteriorate.
Sure, animals can learn to get along with other animals but it depends on the animal as well. I’ve had dogs with a strong prey instinct that would not get along with small animals & I’ve had dogs that loved everything (one dog I had used to let our pet robin sit on him. We’d say, “there’s a birdy on you” and he’d turn to see it on his back but the bird would fly off). 🙂
When I was in high school, my family had a yellow lab who thought that every cat in the world was his friend.
He was always very unhappy when the cats inevitably didn’t share his view. Probably because they tended to express their opinion of it on his nose.
Although our Siamese actually was his best friend- the two were darned near inseparable.
Oh, and sub.
Yeah the dog in my story with the bird was a yellow lab that thought everything wanted to play with him. He befriended a random cat that used to rub up against him and he used to play but running really fast over top of the cat (he did this with a skunk once, toppling the skunk and he was too fast to get sprayed – again thinking the skunk wanted to play). He also thought a vicious dog wanted to play too and jumped over top of it. Luckily he was fast and couldn’t get caught. That dog seemed to be a bit socially unaware.
One of the things I love about labs is their amiable cluelessness.
My current lab is unpredictable. She may or may not like something and when she doesn’t like something like a loud sound (fire crackers) or she feels you are making fun of her, she narrows her eyes & barks angrily.
Well, guess you can’t generalize about all of them. 🙂
(One of our dogs is a pitty cross from the pound, and he is the sweetest dog I’ve ever had. We call him ‘the bulldog of happiness.’)
Ha ha! Yes, all my dogs have had very different personalities and levels of intelligence. My current dog is the smartest I’ve had; she knows the names of all her many toys & she can retrieve them when asked. I suspect she may have come from a field trial line as I rescued her from a group that takes unwanted dogs – she was on death row in Ohio. So I had her DNA tested thinking she was a mix with some giant breed like a Great Dane but all lab. My theory is she was from a field trial line where they care less about looks. Who knows why she ended up being a stray. Maybe bought as a “toy” and when she got big & was untrained they let her go.
“Who knows why she ended up being a stray. Maybe bought as a “toy” and when she got big & was untrained they let her go.”
Their loss was your gain. And it sounds like hers, as well.
Where is the dog?
Susan Freiman
[image: cid:3.3437162163@web172503.mail.ir2.yahoo.com]
Reblogged this on The Road.
What amazes me is the dog walking by, who sees this and also treats the cat and mouse as a “sight,” not prey.
This reminds me of that:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/fb/86/32fb8680ce62e2948e5407fe8d5202cb.jpg
Sometimes you just have to stand up and cheer for the human race, in this case for Greg Pike. And a hand for Booger, Kitty and Mousey too.
Am I the only one thinking of the Bremer Stadtmusikanten? He needs a donkey and a rooster as well.
See my post and click on the link – post N°8
🙂
Of course, silly me. So I guess that answers my question. Great minds think alike and all that? Cheers.
I’m to see a cat harness being properly used…even if Kitty does have to suffer the indignity of being leashed to a d*g named, “Booger”….
b&
Leashed rather snugly? Or surely she’d be jumping off at some point?
Reminds me of P.T.Barnum’s (alleged) “Lion lies down with the lamb” display. Which was intended to be displayed “Until the end of time. Or until we run out of lambs.”