Dumb As Dirt

[mtbat]

Okay, we all brag about the smart pets we've had-but what about the really stupid ones?

Our dog Max is about as dumb as dirt. This dog falls down hills when he goes running. He ran off while out with my husband and cost me $47 to get out of doggie jail.

About every two hours I have to give him fresh water because he plays with his food bowls I am amazed at where I find the bowls each morning. We tried bungie cording a bucket to the fence-he ate the bungie cord. He spends a lot of time in his doggie run(which is huge-the length of the house and probably 1/2 the witdth and he has a huge doghouse and lots of blankets-of course he normaly pulls out all the blankets and chews them up or poops on them)-but he spends a great deal of time in his run because he chews everything up.

I swear this dog is brain damaged.

About the only trick I"ve taught him is SIT-and that I swear is just pure dumb luck most times.

So tell me about your dumb pets

(Max's nickname is now DAD-short for DUMB A** DOG)

Fridai

[nicholmere]

All my cats are smart. Or so they tell me.

[hypotenuse]

Well, I explained about Sim's adventure with the reindeer in another thread. Dumb dawg.

I just felt so sorry for her the other day. We went outside. This is something we do on a fairly frequent basis now that I can't smoke in the house.... But Sox, my male kitty, always wants to go out as well. And I take him out sometimes. Let him sniff the air and generally check things out. But not this time.

We (that's me and Sim we) came back inside on this occasion and Sox was sitting in his normal spot. Right beside the door. Evidently he was really aggravated about not going with us because he reached out his paw and slapped poor Sim right upside her head.

This was right out of left field. He'd never attacked us (or rather, Sim) like that before. Just the befuddled look on Sim's face had me rolling in the aisles. But I guess you can't say that Sim's dumb. Now, on the way back in, she'll look around to see where Sox is before she walks through the door.

Lynne

[emeleel]

Well, my Missy cat isn't the brightest bulb in the box, but she's not totally stupid either. She does the usual dumb things like stand right behind someone and get stepped on, walk right in front of someone and get stepped on, etc.

Here's the dumbest thing she ever did: When we first brought Sean home from the hospital as a newborn, she was, well, let's say "less than thrilled". For months, she stayed in the back of the house in the computer area or in our bedroom - as far away from the living room and Sean's room at the front of the house as she could get. After about 9 months, she finally decided to grace us with her presence in the living room once again.

This was the same week Sean let go of the furniture and started walking unassisted.

Poor cat.

[murasaki]

I think of Kushi (one of my cats) as dumb because compared to her twin sister, she's missing a few rocks. But maybe she's just a hedonist--sleep, eat, chase plastic caps, etc.

I had to teach Kushi to jump up on the counter when she was a kitten. She has a one track mind, usually on food. If there is an object she wants to play with (my pony tail holders come to mind), she'll get it; I'll take it away from her; she'll wait until my head is turned and go after it again. She gets very focused on one thing and doesn't do anything else (no multi-tasking for this cat). She has a more difficult time staying off the kitchen counter when food it out, even though she gets the spray bottle every time.

Not helping the dumb image, Kushi's weight problem (mostly resolved) hasn't helped her keep the image of a graceful cat. She's the most graceless cat I've ever known.

--naomi

[hadassahchana[$]]

Our poor Bat should easily take the prize for dumbest pet. Poor darling- this is probably because her previous owner often punched her head and beat it against the wall.

Anyway, when we first got her, we had a cat tree for the kitties - one of those tall stands with shelves for the cats to sit on.

Every morning, Bat would come downstairs, run through the living room into the sunroom and leap onto the top shelf- she had quite a jump in those days. Then, she would groom herself for a while before beginning her day.

After the cat tree broke, we never replaced it. Which did not stop Bat from swooping through the living room each morning, running into the sunroom, and leaping into the air, because, of course, her shelf was no longer there. She did this every morning for several months after we got rid of the broken tree, and she would leap into the air, fall to the ground, land on her back and look really perplexed. My friends used to come over early for coffee just to watch Bat do her morning routine.


Cindy

[kurt_messick]

I had a dog who always ran for the door when it was opened because he took that as a play-time signal.

In that particular house, we remodeled the living room and dining room (major renovations), and moved the door about 10 feet to the left. After that, the door would open, the dog would come running around the corner to go outside, and run right into the wall. Every single time.

Shorty didn't stop doing that until we moved to a different house.

Doh!

For all of his occasional flashes of brilliance, Nardo is still the dumbest cat in our brood. He routinely falls off the bed during his flippy-kitty spells, singes his nose and tail when sniffing candles, incurs the wrath of Edloe the Chunkbucket when trying to sneak around her, and can't keep a collar for more than 5 minutes because he's always breaking it off in some horrible tree-climbing incident.

(In my photo gallery, he's the orange one head-butting the little calico one and she's rearing back a bit about to strike him for being stupid-friendly)

Worst times are when he wants to play fetch and then chases the toy and doesn't come back with it. No pattern to this... just now and then, he doesn't.

He also sometimes flippy-kittys when Edloe is on the bed, hidden behind a pillow or some blanket-ride wakes her up, and she goes kitty-postal on his ass.