When you’re a pet owner, sometimes your animals behave in unpredictable ways. These actions often make you utter certain phrases that you never imagined you’d say in your lifetime. Here are the top three from our home:
- “Get your nose out of her butt!”
Our new dog, Sasha (of the famous shoe-stealing episodes) simply cannot leave our cat, Chilly, alone. While they’ve finally become friends, whenever Chilly walks by, Sasha perks up and absolutely must check to see what her feline buddy is up to.
Being a dog, one of the first things Sasha inevitably does is sniff Chilly’s rear end, much to our poor cat’s dismay. And I hear myself exclaiming “Get your nose out of her butt!” and immediately feel ridiculous.
At least Chilly is grateful for my actions.
- “Don’t pee on your sister!”
Our other dog, Elli, is a female like Sasha and Chilly. But you’d never know it sometimes due to her habit of lifting her leg like a male dog when she needs to pee. It doesn’t matter if there’s no tree, fire hydrant, or bush in sight – Elli is a leg lifter.
Whenever I walk Sasha and Elli, I use a splitter device so I can put them on the same leash. Most of the time this works just fine.
Occasionally, however, Elli will stand a little too close to Sasha when it’s time to relieve herself. When I see this, I gasp, screech “Don’t pee on your sister!” and quickly move Sasha off to the side. Then I look around and hope that no one overheard me.
Thankfully, I’ve managed to prevent Sasha getting a urine shower so far. I hope I continue to have quick reflexes.
- “Cat yoga.”
Arthritis can be one of the not-so-fun adventures of middle age. I’ve got it in my right hip but have discovered that if I do certain stretches after I wake up every morning, it helps me barely feel any pain as I go about my day.
Most of these stretches (which I discovered thanks to Bob and Brad, “the Most Famous Physical Therapists on the Internet”) resemble yoga poses. They take me about three minutes, and I do these stretches in my bedroom while I’m still in my pajamas.
A couple of weeks ago, while doing “child’s pose” on my back on the carpet, our cat Chilly decided to crawl on me and sit upon my chest. I immediately burst out laughing and couldn’t stop. She still does this every morning.
Our columnist demonstrates one of the many moves of cat yoga. (Photo by Amy Shankland)
Many readers have probably heard about goat yoga, where people do yoga with goats surrounding – and sometimes standing on top of – them. In the Shankland household, we now have “cat yoga,” which I enjoy telling people about.
When it comes to our pets, I’m sure more unusual phrases are on the horizon for me. Who knows, maybe all of this will warm me up for my future grandchildren!
Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs, and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.