I think I've got a little ratter on my hands :)
Well, Sevuk, my dog that wouldn't even harm a fly, amazed me quite a bit today. My aunt's house has a little rat problem in their garage and attic. We were over there today and forgetting about the rat, I went into the garage with Sevuk following me like he usually does. He was acting completely normal until he suddenly pricked his ears, tensed up, and ran to the cabinets sniffing and whining like crazy. It kind of scared me because he has NEVER acted like this before. He usually a very good listener, but when I tried calling him off he completely ignored me. I was standing right by him when all of a sudden he stuck his muzzle right under the cabinets and I just heard a very loud squeak. I quickly grabbed Sevuk and pulled him back when right in front of me, a brown rat ran out from under the cabinets and scurried away out the door leading to the backyard.
I was pretty amazed with my little boy
I remember reading that min pins had been bred to be ratters hundreds of years ago, but I always thought that mine had pretty much no prey drive. He's always tried to play with every other animal he's come across, even our neighborhood squirrels. I just thought it was pretty cool to see his instincts kick in when faced with the correct prey they were bred to hunt. I'm pretty sure he would have caught that rat if I hadn't pulled him away. After the rat ran away I couldn't get him to calm down for a good half hour. He really wanted to kill the rat. Looks like I finally experienced first hand a dog that's in "hunting mode."
I was pretty amazed with my little boy
I remember reading that min pins had been bred to be ratters hundreds of years ago, but I always thought that mine had pretty much no prey drive. He's always tried to play with every other animal he's come across, even our neighborhood squirrels. I just thought it was pretty cool to see his instincts kick in when faced with the correct prey they were bred to hunt. I'm pretty sure he would have caught that rat if I hadn't pulled him away. After the rat ran away I couldn't get him to calm down for a good half hour. He really wanted to kill the rat. Looks like I finally experienced first hand a dog that's in "hunting mode."
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eta: hey, Araks, saw your sig. on the Shiba side...you have a new African Grey? (Probably not that new anymore!) How is that going? My best friend has an African Grey, and she's a fascinating bird....I'm her second favorite human, which doesn't mean I'm willing to do much with her--she's still a little scary to me--but does mean that Ruby climbs down from her cage and comes running to see me everytime I come over. Years of feeding her treats to get that response, though!
Greys can come off as scary at first. My sister still hasn't warmed up to him yet (after a little incident haha). One time we were in my room wrapping presents on the floor and I had Coco (or Koko, I tend to switch the spellings occasionally) with me. I also have a bowl of water in my bedroom for Sevuk to drink out of because he sleeps in there with me. Coco went over to that water bowl (which is pretty heavy) and starting lifting it and banging it on the floor. My sister got annoyed and turned around to him and told him to stop in a kinda loud voice. He just stopped, loooked at her weird, and ran and bit her elbow! So, they can pretty much tell who likes them or not, and they're way too smart for their own good
They are great birds once you befriend them though. He's mostly "my" bird, since he took to me from day one, and he also does not get along with men. On the first day he flew onto my dad's shoulder and bit his ear, but luckily, now that its been about a year and a half, he's settled in pretty well and hasn't done anything like that since. He just tends to favor women and children. Oh, and on top of that, they are FANTASTIC talkers, to the point where they know what time it is appropriate to use certain words or sounds.
Have you held Ruby at all? Oh, and out of curiosity, do you know what kind of African grey Ruby is? there's two subspecies. Mine is Timneh, the other type is a Congo. I'm just curious, because usually the Congo ones tend to be more popular.
She is an amazing talker! she can imitate people's voices so well it's really hard to tell the difference. And she does know when to put in certain words like you say: like she seems to know certain parts of speech, as in "smart" is always an adjective (Ruby's a smart bird! Ruby's a smart pretty bird! *lol*). My friend also has a conure, and they don't get along, and one day Ruby managed to get to Neko and attack him, and he had to stay overnight at the vet (he's ok now, though, thankfully). Ruby said "where's Neko?" Then she said "Ruby's a smart bird!" Indeed.
The only thing she's not smart about? My shibas. When the come to visit, they are fascinated by her, and tend to sit by her cage. She goes down and tried to bite at them. My friend said everything was fine as long as Ruby was in her cage, but I noticed that it didn't take too long for the Shibas to figure out they could avoid her beak and bite at her feet-in fact, they figured it out so quickly I had to say no more Shibas in the room with the birds, because I could see she could lose a toe fast to the Shibas, who are nothing if not determined. (Though honestly, Bel, my best hunter, is a bit afraid of Ruby. Once she realized Ruby was talking, her tail dropped and she lost some degree of interest in her. I think it was just too much for Bel: a bird that sounded like a person!)
Hester brought an injured mouse inside once and then ran away when the three dogs came up to take a look. All three dogs (Rakka, Tojo, and Loki) all just looked at it. Epic predator fail.
Heidi: That is hilarious
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About the birds...although I've been around birds my whole life, I still get pretty nervous around unfamiliar parrots. I've had a couple nasty run ins with other people's birds and they've given me worse scars than those I gotten from dog bites. I have a rule to never let a bird that I don't know well enough get near my face. I'm fine with holding them with my hands, but if I notice them inching toward my face, I'll put them back on their cage immediately. My grey and macaw both love to give me "pecks" on the cheek (pun intended), and even make kissy noises, but that is reserved for my birds only
He looked so intent too, like oh, here's another one of her wierd little pets, better not hurt it!