Dog translation device coming to U.S.

Reuters ^ | 3/24/3

[RosieCotton]

And don't forget the "But, but, but - WAIT! It's snowing out there, mom!"

Well...she doesn't mind snow as much as cold. The look and whine that says "You expect me to go potty out THERE? It's thirty below out there! Have you completely lost it???"

[BunnySlippers]

Saving

[jdege]

Is there any guarantee that dogs that grow up in Japanese households use the same vocal signals as dogs that grow up in US households?

[kaylar]

By 2005, sales of the devise plummeted, as dog owners learned that most dog comments are as follows:

1.I'm cute, so I can do whatever I want.

2.Humans exist to serve me.

3. I gotta pee in the house ; how else can I prove I own it and everything in it?

4.No...won't. And you can't make me!

5.I don't wanna go to the vet...be brushed...be bathed...have my claws trimmed...

6.I'm the alpha! I'm the alpha!

7.I'm entitled to be the center of attention.

8.Feed me. And not any of the cheap crap-I want Science Hill, food of loved dogs.

[conservonator]

No thanks, if I find out my dog is a liberal, it might awkward in the duck blind.

[AnAmericanMother]

What if your dog says:

Meow meow meow meow
Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
Meow meow
Meow

I have a dog who does that . . . at least she tries, it comes out like a gargle. She tries her best to purr, but it comes out like heavy breathing. She hangs around with my 3 cats too much and is an only dog. She also winds around your ankles when she wants to be fed. But she also does all the proper doggy things like barking at squirrels, etc.

And she IS very patriotic.

[IFly4Him]

So that's what Hillary has been wearing on the Senate floor... I was wondering...

[RLK]

I like the idea. I hope it works.

[mitchbert]

I kid you not, my cat has a distinct "There's a bug in the house!" meow unlike any other noise he makes. If he sees an insect on the wall he let's loose and I look directly at him and say "Where?". He then proceeds to wherever the bug is and stares at it until I kill it.

Flying insects have a very short life expectency once they enter my home.

[reformed_democrat]

My Golden Retriever is my bug detector. One morning, he was barking like a lunatic, and I thought we had an ant invasion. Turned out it was a baby snake, and he was trying to snap its neck the way he snaps a squirrel's. Every time he'd grab it by the head, it would nip his tongue, and he was becoming quite annoyed with it.

My husband finally caught it and put it in a jar. I sent it along with him to Springfield, thinking it would be at home among its own kind there.

[Gothmog]

On the subject of weird pet behavior, my mother has 2 siamese-mix cats (sisters, same brood) who are quite entertaining. Both are great cats, but their personalities are somewhat different.

One is sleeker and slightly more siamese looking. She's the 'hunter/killer' who loves to go outside, stalk and bring back her trophies, much to Mom's disgust.

The second is much more funny. She occassionally likes to 'go outside' and pretend to 'hunt.' On the rare occasion she catches anything and brings it back, she does not quite know what to do with it. But, she has this strange affectation.

Ever since I have known her, she's been a great lap cat. While both are frindly, this one obviously enjoys attention more. But, when you scratch behind her ears and she gets comfortable and slips into that slit-eyed 'cat nirvana' state, she grinds her back teeth rather loudly. Like she's chewing on a bone, and she makes this loud 'kratch, krunch, kratch, krunch, etc.,' sound.

I thought something was wrong the first time it happened, like she had a hairball, or something. But when I stopped scratching, her eyelids went to half-mast and she just looked at me like 'you aren't through yet.' Ha ha ha.

Anyway, a few years later, I noticed (the brave battle-cat that she is) she also makes the same noise when fully awake 'stalking' the birds and squirrels outside from her perch by the window. At this time her eyes are wide open and she also intersperses little cat 'barks' at the birds as they fly (oblivious to their imminent danger) safely outside the window. She's quite ferocious!

I can only guess that when she is happy she is imagining grinding their bones between her teeth.

Meanwhile, her sister is outside having a blast actually hunting and catching prey. They are really quite funny.

[AnAmericanMother]

I'm very familiar with the "yammer" that hunting cats make. It's not a grinding of the teeth, though, it's a rapid vocal "ak-ak-ak-ak-ak", almost a stutter, as they eye the bird or squirrel or whatever.

I bred and showed Siamese cats for 15 plus years, and I never had one that ground his or her teeth. (I did have one who liked to steal my husband's socks, carry them to his water bowl to get them nice and soggy, and then lie down and chew them with his back molars like a dog with a particularly tough bone. He would chew huge holes in them, and I was always afraid the wool would stop up his little digestive system, though it never did. Unexpected Bonus: it taught my husband to pick up his socks, and the lesson has stuck even though that kitty has gone to his Great Reward.)

My parents had a Lilac Point Siamese female who would make a big deal out of threatening raccoons through the sliding glass door. My dad would open the door and say, "Okay, go ahead on out there and show us your stuff." The cat would just give him a Look and then remember urgent business she had upstairs somewhere . . . :-D

[AnAmericanMother]

. . . forgot to mention that when the boy chewed on the socks, he made the noise you describe - k-ronch, k-ronch, k-rinch, k-rinch . . . only difference is he wanted something between his teeth . . .

[Gothmog]

Maybe it has something to do w/ the siamese, although the other, slightly more pure-bred looking one, does not do it at all. My mother has asked her cat's mother's owner and a bunch of her friends who have cats, but no one else has seen (or heard) of this behavior. Now I can tell her after all these years I've finally heard of another cat (and siamese) that does.

It is quite strange. At least she's happy doing it.

[dfwgator]

"It's Bacon!"

[RosieCotton]

I love Siamese! Though I might have said otherwise when Tam was a baby...he was, in the words of one of my favorite Freepers, a monster. Big time! Talked allll night, never stood still, and chewed things like a dog. My coat has a leather patch on it that still carries the marks of Tam's teething process, if that's what it was. There's a picture of him on my profile page, along with my other cat, who's a Siamese mix. She's not very Siamese, though. Doesn't talk unless she actually WANTS something. ;-)

Oh...I have a funny dog story! My dog learned a new phrase this weekend: "Make ya look!" I often go over to my Dad's on the weekends, and they have my dog's brother, Fritz. He and Fiona have a blast playing together, but there are definitely moments of sibling rivalry.

So...Fritzi went and got his favorite chew bone, carried it up on a comfy chair, and started chewing it in front of Fiona, who immediately decided SHE had to have it. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get it away from him (or even just share!), she jumped off the chair, ran to the window, and barked a few times. He turned around and started barking too, upon which she ran over and tried to snag the bone. Didn't work the first time, so she did it again, further away this time so he actually jumped down to see what was up. We were watching this whole thing and just ROLLING - what a little trickster!

[BillCompton]

No, it was a split cartoon where in the first picture the guy is explaining what the invention is. The dog is standing there saying "Bark!...Bark! Bark!...Bark! Bark! Bark!

The second frame, the scientist has put on the hat and the dog is revealed be saying "Hey!...Hey! Hey!...Hey! Hey! Hey!"

[Frohickey]

Hey, make a translator for Monkeys--then we'll all understand French.

How about making a translator for Rats. All 49 of them in the US Senate. :D

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, the thing about Siamese is that they always have some idiosyncratic thing that makes them blissfully happy - but it's always different with every cat.

Our youngest cat likes to "make biscuits" on any available inhabited shirt, and she really gets into it, sort of zens out and shuts her eyes and will knead her front paws literally until you throw her off your lap (I keep her claws clipped regularly or I would have little puncture wounds all over my front).

The middle cat jumps into my husband's lap (it has to be my husband, nobody else) and goes completely boneless, like a cat rug. She'll lie there as flat as a pancake for hours while he works, reads, watches TV, whatever. The big boy on the other hand, announces himself by meowing VERY loudly and sharpening his claws on my blue jeans (has to be blue jeans, nothing else will do) then leaps from the floor onto my shoulder (he does kind of run up my shirt now, but that's because he's 14 years old) and drapes himself around my neck like a fur stole. He'll just hang there, limp and purring, until I put him down.

Siamese are VERY weird cats. I love 'em.

[secret garden]

Hey, my cat did that while he was stalking birds, from inside the house, through the window, and I thought he was just doing his Steven Tyler impersonation! Does that mean he's NOT demented?