¶ Pet Enthusiasts Share Heartwarming Stories
Hello Pet Enthusiasts , we're back . Welcome to the most wholesome audio show on X slash Twitter . My name is Jason Zekowski . I'm the dog dad of Bunsen Beaker , the science dogs and social media . My co-host is Chris Zekowski .
Co-host . Extraordinaire co-host with the mostest . I am the dog mom of Bunsen Beaker and the cat mom to ginger .
Okay , on to our stuff , Chris . We got to share our stories and then we'll get to the community . We already have some people up as speakers . Chris , what's your Bunsen Beaker story today ?
Well , I think Beaker helped out Bunsen this week .
Oh yeah , you were telling me about this .
Yes , bunsen has been a little baby . He's not dealing with the time change very well and so he's up very , very early . Yeah , and what happened was , I think Adam came home and he left the gate open . So we have a gate that we put across the stairs and Bunsen is such a good boy , but so he thinks his way is blocked .
He just he's like oh , I guess this is me now . So I think Adam left the gate wide open and Beaker was already in our room sleeping , so she wasn't worried about it , but in the morning Bunsen was like crying from very far away , from the other side of the gate .
Because it opened . It opened when it's opened . It blocks the little hallway from the front door to our bedroom right .
Yeah , and he normally sleeps right by the front door to protect everybody , yeah , and so he's like um , cry , cry , cry , and Beaker jumped off the bed and I'm sure I heard her nose the gate closed , or nose the gate . Just enough for Bunsen to realize okay , thank you , I have enough room to get by now and I'm gonna come cry in everybody's face .
So Beaker did Bunsen a solid .
Beaker did Bunsen a solid , but today he did her a solid because she , um , he , he was breathing a little bit weird . Um , I think he just got something in his nose or something he was trying to . I don't know . It was disgusting . He was like breathing out of his nose very heavily .
Um and then .
Beaker ? Of course I don't . I know , I don't know how to describe it . It's not as bad as a puking dog sound , but it definitely had me on high alert . I'm like Bunsen , are you okay ? What's going on ? And Beaker came right over and she was like trying to you know with how mothering she is with a cat when the cat like hawks up a hair ball .
Yeah , um , she was the same with Bunsen . And then Bunsen just uh , he was calm down , I was petting him and then he reached over or looked over at Beaker and gave her like three kisses on her cheeks . So , um , it was a very cute moment for for Bunsen , beaker and I , yeah , Well , I missed that . You did you .
You missed that , but it was a good story and it was a good time , because I love my um babies .
Yeah , I caught a video Many of you saw it of uh Beaker was laying full on you , chris , like cuddling , like sleeping , and then Bunsen was on his back and you were scratching his belly at the same time . It was so sweet and it just kind of like shows just you are the mummy fave to these dogs . They love you so much .
Um , I'll maybe throw that up in the nest . I'm sure it's . Yeah , there it is . Yeah , it definitely is . Uh was a really cute video . Well , okay , I've got . I've got two , two stories .
I have to tell everybody about getting chased by an ostrich because , um , I that was part of our weird animal fact this this week is that you know , ostriches can roar like a lion and and then I think I , just as a little bit of a click baby thing , I said that I got chased by it and then a bunch of people were like you need to tell us more about
this story . So this isn't recent . This happened when I was a camp counselor for Sunnybrook Farm Museum . Do you remember that , chris , back when I was like finishing my education degree ?
Yeah .
Yes , so , yeah , I was a camp counselor for Sunnybrook Farm Museum and one of the things that I had to organize was , you know , not only like develop this program . That was brand new , which was fun . Um , I love like creating programs and like figuring out what kids are going to do in a week .
Um , it's basically like teacher planning and uh , and then we also once a week we tried to get the kids to a farm . So these are like city kids . And then I was caught like cold calling all of these farmers trying to see , hey , like , if we brought a bus of kids , uh , like a Vanna kids would , would you be able to show them around your farm ?
Would you be able to show them like your cows or whatever . And most of the farmers were pretty receptive . There were a couple of farms we went to , chris , that were not very interesting to the kids .
Like , we went to a seed farm , which I found fascinating because there's tons of like science and technology that goes into me making the seeds that farmers grow , but this was not very interesting to like little kids .
They're like , they're like uh , the first one was explaining how the canola seeds were rated from like S to J , like it was some kind of weird rating system and the farmer was really into it , kind of like diamond rating system .
Yeah .
It was a weird rating system . It wasn't like one to five , it was like weird letters . I forget and I'm not . I'm not a canola farmer , so I'm butchering this so the kids could care less . And then the farmer showed them like the combine . And then the kids were good because the kids got to go sit in the combine and pretend they were a farmer .
Anyways , where all this is going is I cold called this one farmer who had horses in the the I was using the yellow pages because that's what I had back then , if you can believe it . And he's like no , I'm sorry , I don't have horses . I'm like oh , dang . Well , thanks , John . The guy's name was John .
He's like but actually I have ostriches , Would you want to bring the kids to see my ostriches ? And I'm like yes , yes , I do , I want to see the ostriches . So there was an ostrich and emu craze in Alberta back in the day . Do you remember this , Chris , when , like farmers were getting ostriches and emus ?
Because I think somebody thought it was like a quick get rich , quick thing . You could .
It's kind of like the elk velvet .
Yeah , elk velvet Like yeah .
Similar kind of craze .
Yeah , exactly yeah .
¶ Close Encounter With Ostriches
So we went to this guy's farm and he had like 30 full grown ostriches behind a massive fence and I'd never been up close to an ostrich before and , thinking back to it , I think it was kind of dangerous because he's like letting the kids feed the ostriches through the fence and these are like giant , 12 foot tall ostriches .
They were huge or however tall ostriches are way taller than me , the males at least . And then he's like OK , come on over here . And he took us into a barn and he opened up . I can't believe I haven't told this story before . He opened up this little thing , this like gate , and guess what came out of the gate ?
Chris , do you remember me telling you this ?
Was it a baby ostrich ?
Like 60 baby ostriches . They just came running out like little dinosaurs . They were so , so cute it was , they were adorable and they were like I don't know how to explain , they were about the size of a chicken but they were babies .
So they had like really long necks and they were really curious and acting really baby like and they are like that came up to the kids and the kids were playing with them and then I stayed behind to like shoe the kids out and I noticed one of the baby ostriches didn't get put away and I was like , oh no , what do I do with this baby ostrich ?
So I like kind of shoved it through the door and turned around and I was like , oh no , I didn't know how to get out of the barn Because I stayed back . I was the last person out and I scooped up the baby ostrich and I went out the wrong door .
I went out the door into the ostrich pen where there were full grown ostriches running around and and then I was like , oh , I'll just go out through this gate .
I didn't realize how dangerous the ostriches were and in seconds I had like a whole bunch of ostriches very curious with me and one took off chasing me and I ran so fast and I actually scaled the fence .
I like jumped over the chain link fence and I climbed it and flung myself over the top and it was like it didn't get do anything to me , but it got really close and these things are huge . Like I probably exaggerated how tall they are I'm going to google that right now how tall an ostrich is , but they were definitely taller than me Nine feet tall .
Ok , they're definitely taller than me , not 12 feet tall , like eight to nine feet tall . That's tall , though . Right , that's a big thing .
That is tall .
Yeah .
And then they run very quickly .
Yeah , oh , so fast . I was like , yeah , like I scaled the fence , the fence was like as tall as the ostrich and it was chain link . So I just I think it was just fear and adrenaline and I just shot over the top of it .
And what did the farmer say ?
He laughed , he thought it was the funniest thing and all the kids were laughing .
Oh , of course , yeah , because you were the clown , the entertainment .
Yeah , I don't know . I don't think Amy was on that trip . I think I took the kids by myself because , again , I'm name dropping somebody that nobody knows except for Chris . But Chris knows this lady .
Many stories about Amy , anyways , so that's usually , usually , she would be the brunt of the horrific .
Something she would wreck , something crazy expensive all the time .
Yes , Well , or she would be the one running away from the ostrich like any kind of mishap .
Yeah she got bit by the dog . She got over it . Yeah , the donkey bit her butt . That's one thing that definitely happened . On one of the things Anyways , this is nothing to do with pet chat , but I did . That's the ostrich story . So is everybody happy with the ostrich story Again if ?
I , everybody is happy .
Yeah , if I had my cell phone I would have taken video of all of those little ostriches . And the farmer was so nice Like he gave the kids ostrich jerky and like ostrich feathers and pieces of ostrich shell , like it was . That was a cool trip . I'll tell you that he was a very nice man .
That is cool .
Yeah , that's awesome .
Very nice man , and just quickly with my pet story . I've been super hard at work . We have we had a break actually it's called fall break and I've been putting the finishing touches on the text from Bunsen to the audiobook . That was a lot of work , it's all organized and it's going to be guess what . The ebook and the print book are the same size .
I was worried I was going to have to cut down the print book , but it's going to work out to be 200 pages , so I'm really excited about that . So the same size as text from Bunsen one .
So I know that's not pet related , but I had a fun with Adam recording all of this stuff over the last couple of days and then I was just finished finishing everything else .
So Well , and I had Rafi yesterday .
Oh right , I was downstairs the whole time , working , though pretty much .
I know , but the dogs were so happy to see Rafi , as they always are and Beaker she , of course she goes and runs against a toy and then she wants to show everybody , the guest , the toy that she has . But because she was so happy that Rafi was here , she took a toy into our bedroom and she took out her feelings on it .
She ripped out all the stuffing because she was just didn't know what to do with herself , because she was so happy that Rafi was here .
Yeah , you said she had to channel that energy . Yeah , you said she had big feelings and I was like what are you talking about ?
She had big feelings , and so she had to channel her energy and she shredded her toy .
And Bunsen just loves Rafi so much .
Bunsen was actually even better than usual . Like sometimes , he likes to play chase with him when when Rafi's like , come on , chase me . So dangerous . And then he's like okay , and I'm always thinking you know what ? Bunsen is as big as a bus . Bunsen is actually almost as tall as Rafi and I'm just like whew , there's a size differential there .
That could be a problem , but Bunsen was just awesome . He smelled him and only barked two times , because that's what Bunsen does . He usually barks three or four times when someone new comes . But no , it was good , it was , it was awesome , it was a great day .
I love it . One of the sponsors of Pet Chat is Bark and Beyond Supplycom . Bark and Beyond Supplycom is a small , family owned company that started making joint supplements for dogs but now has a whole host of things on their website Toys and treats and subscription boxes . Skip the big box store and help out the little guy .
Remember , if you use the code Bunsen B-U-N-S-E-N , you get a little bit off your order at the end . They got a lot of good stuff there . That's Bark and Beyond Supplycom .
¶ Community Sharing and Pet Stories
Well , I think it's time to move to community sharing . So we've brought some speakers up and if you'd like to share a pet story or ask us a question , go ahead . We do , we do keep things kind of ordered and we we do check your profile to make sure you're not a brand new account and you're not tweeting troll like stuff . I got burnt .
We got burnt the last space because I took a chance on a very small account . That's awful , so anyway . So we have some folks folks up here as speakers , so we'll kind of go through the list and please request the mic if you'd like to tell us a story . I want to give a shout out . I always forget to do this . I want to give a shout out to Indra .
Indra , thanks for being here . Indra is our partner with the Positivity Vibe Tribe . Indra was running running a space today on forgiveness . Her spaces are always really interesting . I was there partially as a listener , but I have to admit I was working on the audio for text from Bunsen . It was a big job today .
And then also shout out to Kuno Kuno , the Certificate Roddy . Hello , kuno , good to see you . You here , your mommy Marla . We're so impressed and humbled by everything that you guys do . Okay , so in order of folks who came up Bianca , you can go . I know you said you pressed the button by mistake , but go ahead if you want .
Then Sarah , then Sasha , jamie and then at the period . So we'll go to Bianca and if you don't have anything , that's okay .
No , I haven't got anything . I'm being more careful with pressing buttons .
Well , it's good to see you today here , but Bianca .
Thanks .
We'll go to Sarah .
Hi you guys , how are you ?
Hello , hello , we're good .
You know when you were taught during your game what's it called I can't think of Coot During your coot game I laughed so hard because of the puking sound . Sammy are our Australian shepherd Beagle mix . He has such a sensitive stomach that , if we hear him , I've never gotten out of bed faster .
Both my husband and I are out of bed at the sound of him making even a slight gagging noise because his stomach is so sensitive that I have ignored alarms . But I could be dead asleep at four in the morning and Sammy will just make a sound and we're up . We're up . My husband has already got him scooped up and we're running to the door .
Oh God .
If you can get them outside , though , like if you get them outside , that's the win , because there's zero cleanup . Right Like I get it .
Exactly , and he also can't ride in the car we're taking it because he gets car sick . We've been taking him on tiny little trips . We were trying to figure out like the furthest he can go before he gets sick . And my husband the other day there's a grocery store that's pretty close to us and he said I'm going to take him to the grocery store .
I think it's close enough . It wasn't , and my husband gets about , oh , three , four blocks away and he turned around . He came back he was like no , it was too far . So we're going to have to work on that . It's funny because he doesn't get sick when he rides in our like UTVR side by side , I think because it's open air .
OK .
And he can ride in that all day . He's fine , but you put him in the car , we have to lay down blankets in case he gets sick . It's so funny . But talk about babies and dogs . Charlie does not like babies . OK , he doesn't mind toddlers , but when he met our granddaughter , she was just starting to walk , but he was terrified of her .
He ran away from her and all she wanted was to pet the big , fluffy puppy . Every time she would reach out her hand he'd run away and then he bark and growl and hide . And then when she was asleep , he was . He was a little better because the sleeping baby wasn't so scary , but she was asleep and he kept trying to bite her diaper and yank on it .
So he had a hold of her . Her mom was holding her and Charlie came up from behind , grabbed a hold of the diaper and woke up the baby Terrified , terrified of babies . And so we were at the Home Depot a couple of weeks ago and Charlie's walking around , he's happy , people are petting him , and then a couple of kids and a mom with their baby .
And you know I had him on a loose leash , it was just around my wrist because Charlie's so good . And Charlie saw the little kids , he was happy and wagging , he saw the baby and he took off no leash on my wrist , he jerked it off and he ran away . I don't know what he has against tiny humans , but he sure does not like them .
There you know a couple of those things that you mentioned . They're quite common . Like dogs , it's quite common for dogs to get carsick . Yeah . Oh , I say yeah , like I'm not going to say like every dog gets carsick , but it's something that you know .
If we were to pull everybody in here , it'd be a sizeable number of people would say their dog gets carsick and it just has to do with their had a dog that got carsick before . Yeah , like it's . It's not a majority , but I have to look at back at the study I did years ago .
It was like five to 10 percent of dogs get carsick , so it's it's not exceedingly rare . And then a lot of dogs don't do well with babies and infants and children because they're super unpredictable .
Unless you have it like , obviously it might be a different , sarah , if you got your Charlie when you were your , your kids were little and they kind of grew up together , it might have been different , right , right .
That was the first baby he had ever seen and interacted with , but from the moment she walked in the door he was hiding from her .
Yeah , yeah , they're just there . If all they're used to is an adult , they , they . You know we can't put our brains inside of a dog brain , but some of the studies I looked at was they're just unpredictable . They make weird sounds that they're not used to . They can be quite alien to dogs , If you think of it right .
Yeah , yeah . You know , when I was , my mom always said , you know , because she we took in strays and so at any given time we could have 10 , 15 dogs . And she , we always had little kids running around and she always thought that the measure of a like good dog was how well they were with children .
And my sister had a toddler at the time that would lay on the dogs and she would , you know , hold their faces . And she , yeah , and I thought , oh gosh , if that were Charlie , he'd probably bite their little fingers off . He would be so mortified .
Yeah , there's a there's a fine line between yeah , there's a fine line between tolerance and then , like , putting your dog in a situation where I don't know . I see those videos of like babies on top of dogs and I'm like , oh like , why would you , why would you subject a dog to that Like it's ? That's not what you should do .
Exactly that's not what you should do , especially because babies are defenseless .
So , yeah , so now that we know he's so scared of them , we , you know , we'll have to pay a little more attention when you go out .
Fine , with the little kids that walked up to him , he was like , oh , thank you , please pet me , and we have treats , you know , and treat bags , and we'll hand the kids a treat and he'll give they give him a treat , but the baby , nope , he was out of there . He took off Bye . It was so
¶ Dog Greeting Behaviors
cute . Oh , and then my other little pet story is my husband is out of town . He's been out for the weekend and this is the first time he's been away for a while over a year and really likes to . He plays a game with my husband when it's bedtime .
We say , charlie , you know it's bedtime , charlie goes and he jumps on the bed and he lays in my husband's spot and he won't move . You know , my husband will play this , you know game . You'll say , gruff , you , you get over , you move over , come on , and he'll .
And I'll say , come on , and he'll push him and Charlie will go raw , raw , and he'll , he'll do this raw . It's almost human like sound that he makes . And last night I said Charlie , time to go to bed . He laid in my husband's spot and then he started to whine and I thought , oh , the reason why is because my husband's not coming to bed .
Try to get him to move . So I had to get up and play the game , get him to move . I was like Charlie , you need to move , you need to move . And he growled and he rawr and finally just said but he was very , it was very concerning for him that his daddy wasn't there to push him around and and you know they fight and play right before bedtime .
But I wanted to ask you guys have do your dogs ever hit like slap you ?
Oh , Chris , what do you ? You can answer that one about Bunsen .
Yeah , bunsen punches . He has a burner punch . He goes to him and he's like pow and he hits your legs and he does it . I think is a term of endearment .
He does it because he really likes you and loves you yeah .
Yeah , and he does it . Annalise , She'll be like Hi Bunsen , he's like Hi pow .
This all's often like punches people , so Carly is hitting If he wants .
if you're ignoring him , he'll just jump up and he'll smack you right in the face .
Oh and .
I'll say , carly , what do you didn't know . And then he , like he does a smile . He smiles , it's hilarious . He tilts his head and he smiles , like what did I do ? And then I'll sit down and he'll jump and he'll smack right in the face .
Oh , bunsen doesn't do that , but like it's a greeting . So you're standing , he's standing and like he's got those massive shoulders so he can't , he doesn't rear himself up , so he kind of swings his paw sideways and punches . So you're like Hi Bunsen , how's it going ?
He's like I'm so happy to see you , I'm happy to see you , and then wham , he punches you and it didn't like hurt . But it's just this odd thing that he does . And we've talked to other people with burners . It's super common , like it's a burner thing .
Maybe when we get to Sasha she can say she can maybe mention if like sorry , like if Holly , if Sasha the burner doodle does it . So I see Kathy's giving a hundred because Kathy's got a burner as well . So it doesn't .
It doesn't hurt . He's not hurting and he's not using his claws , he's just giving you a little slap in the face to like hey , I'm right here , but it's something relative new that he started .
I think as well . I would worry about the face , but like I don't know , we don't correct Bunsen , because it's just , it's a , it's a greeting that doesn't hurt somebody , and it's just a silly thing . Paulie , your hands up , go ahead .
Yeah , I have to . I'm sorry , I'm in the car , so if I , if I'm going to cut out , I hope I don't . But I have to laugh , sarah , because , um , trixie's new gal Well , she did it since a puppy and all of us used to play it too .
But we call sheets and we have to like roll our hand underneath the sheets and she jumps from side to side because she thinks it's like a mouse . But now she gets up on her hind legs and and she wants me to grab her head and she starts boxing me . It's the funniest thing , cause she's like swatting , but she wants me to grab her heads .
I just think , I just think my palm and I gently grab her head and she's , she's swinging and she's standing on two hind legs doing this in the bed and I'm like where is this coming from ? This dog is like like acrobatic boxer all of a sudden .
So I'm laughing at your story because you know , here you're saying your dog swats you , but then Mayan's into this head grabbing , boxing move . It's like I don't know , too funny .
They don't have rock music , but that would go perfect with that story .
It would be perfect , because I was thinking you know , do I get a little boxing gloves or a little like that ? She's just having a ball , but she wants to do it every night before she goes to bed . It's bizarre , it's bizarre .
It's a it's the world out regiment . Sarah , thank you so much for your share today . Feel free to interject as we go through the people's stories . Thanks for coming . We always appreciate your stories so much . We'll go to Holly slash , Sasha the burner doodle .
Hello , yes , sasha is a puncher . She does it in the con . She does it in two contexts with humans . You're sitting on the couch with her and you're petting her and you stop and then she hits you in the arm with her paw to tell you to keep petting her . So I call that her toddler time thing .
I've seen her do it with other dogs , as it is an almost an affection thing . There's a little doodle in our neighborhood that she loves , and when they're playing she'll sit down and just kind of box them with her front paws . He loves it , he thinks it's awesome .
That's amazing , it's like Rockham Sockham robots .
But anyway , I am going to break dog Twitter for you guys . I am currently in Ottawa .
I heard I am sitting on ?
I'm sitting on a couch with my grape slurp juice and Benson .
Oh , my goodness , we're so jealous . We saw that you were heading to Ontario and you were going to be hanging out with Lisa and Benny and Bowie , so we're very jealous . They are just wonderful .
So first of all tell the beaker that Ben is the perfect gentleman , the best boyfriend she could ever have .
Okay .
So he is just . He's so chill , he's such a like you know , kind of rolls with everything kind of dog Bowie is so , so sweet . She just wants you to love her . But , she is definitely a chaos , golden , I feel there's two types .
Hey , I feel there's two types . They're there , the either end of the extremes . They're like the world is their play play area , everything is chaotic , or they're just like the sweetest things on the planet , the sweetest potatoes .
Yeah , and I don't want to say he isn't sweet , she's she just wants you . She's like she loves everyone .
Yeah .
And sweetest thing in the world and I'm having the best time here .
Lisa is the most amazing host we will be having because Benson insisted we will be having bacon tomorrow with our breakfast Very important and we're also having a big play date tomorrow with Canadian penny and sky and a bunch of other Ottawa dogs of Twitter and I am so excited to meet all these folks and their these dogs and their humans .
Oh , very cool , Love it .
And not a dog related thing , but I'm going to say it's really meaningful to spend , member and stay in Ottawa . Lisa and I went downtown today and it's honestly just one of the the most meaningful remembrance day experiences I've had , and this is actually the first time I've been to Ottawa .
Remember I've only been living in Canada for 11 years now and I just got so much out of it . We did the parliament tour and we went to the War Memorial and just absolutely fantastic . And I just want to say that Lisa and her family are some generous people I've ever , ever met .
Well , we second that . They're pretty special .
Oh , absolutely . And yeah , benny and Bowie are just , they are my , they are just my favorites now , except for Sasha , obviously . I wish I could have figured out how to smuggle here , because I think she would have loved .
It's a long ways . Canada is so big , like from the West Coast to Ontario that's , that's like a four day drive .
Yeah , and you know she doesn't fit under the seat in front of me sadly so couldn't sneak her into her Canada .
Bunsen would need his own . Bunsen would need his own seat .
So would Sasha . But poor Sasha is stuck at home with dad who apparently cannot tell time . He sends me this photo . My husband sends me this photo of Sasha sitting there staring at him and the time stamps , like you know , a little after five o'clock and he thinks I should feed her and I'm like well duh , it's time for her dinner . Go feed the dog .
Dogs across North .
America are confused . We've actually been really lucky . Just , I think , just you know , you know , being as far north as all are , sasha's a sleeper and as we go to winter we find she actually sleeps later . So she has not been getting us up at four in the morning , thankfully . I'm very grateful for that .
Well , maybe they should tell Bunsen something . Sarah , your hands up . Is it about punching ? I saw your what you posted .
Yes , it is .
Go ahead , and then we'll go to Jamie .
So my , our family's dog , sadie she doesn't , I'm technically her sister . She lives with my dad and her and my stepmom . She is half great Pyrenees and kind of like how you were saying , bunsen and Burners do the punching , you know , of affection . The pure version is affectionately called Pure Paw . Okay , and it's the same thing .
Sadie does it when she's really happy or , you know , like when I , because I only live like 10 , 15 minutes away from my , from from them , but I don't come and visit that often . But she's at the point now we've had her for more than a year where she knows like who I am or whatever , and it's the funniest thing , she literally like I .
One of the pictures I dropped in the in the chat was she literally knocked my glasses off of me . Once you know if you don't know from my picture for other people who are listening I'm in a wheelchair and Sadie is a big dog .
She's half German shepherd , half great Pyrenees , so her , her when she's standing on all four is basically the level of my power chair joystick .
Okay .
So she can literally like I have to make sure I turn my chair off when we're just sitting there because she can like bop my joystick with her nose .
Oh , my goodness .
Accidentally and she literally went . It was about over a year ago .
She went to , you know , give me like as if she was going to shake my hand and she went up and she she was kind of to my side because I was sitting at our kitchen counter and she went up and she , she pawed my glasses off of me and you can see in the picture I have a slight little . I had a slight little scratch from where her her thing got me .
You know , her paw got me but she high fived me with love in the face .
Yeah , you know , they don't mean to hurt us , right .
Yeah , and normally they don't . She's not . That was the only time , I think , really she's ever actually gotten me like that before . Normally it's just she's like trying to shake your hand aggressively , you know , or like slap you in the leg . But yeah , that was . That was one of the first times she's ever gotten me in the face before . But we love her .
She's such a love bug and , yeah , pure paw is real .
Just like the burner punch is real .
¶ Leash Incident and Funny Fall
Sarah , thank you for jumping in with your take on the whole punching business . We'll go to Holly , are you okay ? We can go to the next speaker . We'll go to Jamie . You got your stuff out Okay , so we'll go to Jamie and then to okay , and then at the period everybody thank you for waiting patiently and then to Tracy Jamie , go ahead .
Good morning everybody . How are you all today ?
Yes , hi , jamie , go ahead .
So yeah , Rose hits me when I don't get their walk started at five o'clock , because she can tell the time and I think she learned it from the ghost of Clara , who also used to come and whack us If you stopped patting her at the wrong time , if you weren't quick enough with the walking time , all that sort of stuff .
Clara was very determined to let you know everything that should have happened at the right particular time in time . But today's story is a follow on from last week . Oh boy we tried to kill me .
Part two Part two we tried to kill me , yeah .
But yesterday River didn't try and kill me , rose did so . We just started our walk . The two younger dogs are always on leash and Jenna , the old lady , is off leash for most of our walk because she's got a gammy leg and she can't chase things anymore and she gets off the road when she's told . Anyway , we barely started our walk .
We're about 200 meters from home . We live on the crest of a hill and I was just over the top of the hill and a neighbour from down the street with two goldens came up over the hill behind us and my two on leash heard this .
And I was concentrating on River because he freaked , because he's very reactive to other dogs and I have to pay a lot of attention to him .
And in paying attention to River , I neglected to notice Rose wrapping herself around my legs oh no and then pulling forward while I'm trying to hold on to River , and so I ended up on my backside on the ground and then Rose pulled out of her harness and chased up the road after these goldens .
I was like , oh my God , she didn't do anything to them , she just ran up and barked at them and then ran back and of course I freaked out the neighbour with her dogs .
So , and then she came back and I finally got her back on my harness and , of course , because , being the human that I am , you know you've hurt yourself , you know you've bruised your bum , and you get angry because that's what you know you've missed taking control of these dogs that you're supposed to be in control of .
So then we go for the rest of our walk and I'm a bit cross by this stage , because I was , my bum was sore and I couldn't go back because the neighbour and her dogs were up behind us . So I couldn't go home , so I kept going with the walk and then I saw the neighbour's husband . So it's like I'm really sorry , please apologise to her and your dogs .
I'm really really sorry for this . And Rose is just perfect today . She's doing absolutely nothing wrong and nothing happened yesterday , of course . So little rat bag and River's just being himself , and I think Jen is upstairs asleep on the couch , because that's , you know , that's where you should be when you're a dog .
Well , I'm glad that you weren't more injured . Our previous golden drug , chris , across a field after a deer and Beaker did the same thing . She did like the remind , have you okay ? So you've probably seen Empire Strikes Back , jamie ?
Yes , the Star Wars movie , empire Strikes Back , okay , anyways , they're these big walkers , the ATT , at , at , at walkers , and they get taken down literally by that same move where the little ships do dog leashes around their legs and they fall . And that's what Beaker did to me .
I was like outside doing gardening and then there were Canada geese flying overhead and I got taken out hardcore by this little tiny retriever because I got just my legs just taken out from under me . And once a tall person starts to fall , that the bigger they are , the harder they fall . That is very true If you're built like an orangutan like me .
When I go down , I go down hard , especially when I wasn't expecting it .
Yes , Jason , at 11 minutes of that video of the Creek .
Walk . Oh right , yeah , you have it on video of me eating absolute crap over that log .
Yes , Over that log . Yes , that happened .
There's a lot of momentum , that's right .
How much of that video is Chris laughing ?
I actually didn't laugh , shockingly .
I thought you were going to laugh so hard .
I laugh now that I watch it after the fact and I know it's coming and I just get the giggles right before it comes and then you eat it and then I laugh because you were fine .
Yeah , I was fine . Nothing hurt but my pride . Jamie , thank you so much for your part two . We're going to go to at the period who's been waiting very patiently , and then we'll go to some hands up .
Sorry , I just had something for Sarah With the car sick dog . We had one who would spew almost the second he saw the car . But as soon as you open the windows for the car and , like you said , if the dog's in the side by side he doesn't spew . Try opening the windows of the car .
Give them more airflow and then they're less likely to be crook in the car .
For some reason , even if the windows are down in the car , it's like he knows that that's his barf spot . Oh God .
Well , you know , a safe zone God .
Okay , sorry , I think that it's funny , but my husband doesn't find it so funny because I can't clean it up and he has to do it , so he doesn't find it so funny .
Oh , my goodness . Okay , we'll go to the thanks , jamie , for that . I really appreciate some advice there At the period . It's the first time you're in her space . Hello , looks like you have some mutuals with us , like people we follow . Go ahead .
Now
¶ Tesla AC and Pet Stories
, that's what y'all mentioned . I'm going to share something different . If you have a Tesla , you can leave the AC on for your dog . You don't have to worry about cracking windows or anything like that .
You can actually check on your dog , like review the dash cam and like I do it with my daughter she's six Like I've done it a couple of times but like just want to stay here . Yeah , I'm like all right , I'm like watching her the whole entire time .
Are you worried ? Are you worried that people won't understand that it's a Tesla and they're perfectly safe ? Like I would be terrified of leaving a dog .
No , we have one , and he's right . You can leave the dogs in the car with the AC on and watch them with the dash cam . No but we have a little sign .
Oh , okay .
It's in the door that says these pets are safe . Please don't break window .
Right , that was my question . That was my question , yeah .
It says that you can see it clear as day on the . So somebody was to do that , and then they're just being malicious .
Yeah , okay , cool , because it's really obvious . That's cool . I've only gotten to ride in a Tesla once and it was quite the thing . So did you have a pet story or any question ? You've been waiting a while . If not , that's okay .
I said like dad , dad , dad . Earlier I was like oh , I could share some dad stories , but now it's changed to come here your pet stories .
Oh that it was about the ostrich .
Yeah , yeah exactly when my dog was alive she could talk . It was weird as shit . Like she would say I love you . It's cool actually , that weird , that is cool Aw .
What breed of dog was it .
It was a pug . Oh , a pug Like a pit bull . She was a black , solid black pug . She looked like a little miniature pit . She would walk . It was pretty cool . But yeah , not about that , it's only a dog story I got to share .
That's all good , that's a good one . Okay , we have some hands up . We'll go to Tracy was first , and then to Cindy and then to or Paula . I'm sorry Paula's been waiting , but Tracy , your hand is up . So , tracy , go ahead , and then we'll go to Paula , then Cindy . I'm just trying to figure out the order at all .
Everybody kind of like got jumbled around , hi guys .
Hi . So , like I mentioned on , when Jen was here with Golden Ratio last week , I started watching like the snaps from the beginning . So I'm in like July 2018 right now . So we have like the four original dogs . Oh so no spoilers .
Like I said , yeah because I know , yeah , I know you know a lot of them are going over the bridge , so but I don't want to know anything about that . So but it's like really cute , you know , because they're birthday waffles and they're with pre even .
Yeah .
I'm like , am I not doing enough for Ricky ? Should I be giving him like some more birthday things ? But it's been great to like wind down from work and just put that on and watch these dogs be cute .
Every time I come to bed , Chris is watching the Golden Ratio snaps Like the last thing she does before she goes to sleep , I think .
There was a 14 minute one the other day . 14 minutes .
Yeah .
Our dad was out of control , yeah .
And then , like Jen mentioned it , and then the next day it was like so much shorter . I'm like it's okay and go . You can just go go crazy 20 minutes . I'll sit there and watch your dogs .
Look , we talked about the Golden Ratio again and pet chat everybody . It's like a streak . I love it .
It's a thing . So I still have to watch the one from today . But Ricky's doing well . I had like a rotisserie chicken that was , like you know , almost done about to be thrown out , because there was like nothing left on the bones , and he jumped on the counter for it . So I like wrestled that from him because I'm not trying to deal with that visit . So .
But other than that , he's a good boy and he loves his Halloween blanket , which I think we're going to keep out all year now .
Why not ? Seems like a plan . Tracy . Tracy , thanks for sharing about Ricky . I'm Paula . You've been . You've been waiting quite a bit and I'm sorry I passed over you , and then we'll get to the hands up . Cindy , I see you there , so thanks for that .
That's okay , I was in the car and I'm home now , but I just wanted to talk about , you know , punching dogs and also about car sickness for dogs . Never have your dog go if he's really car sick with a full tummy because he'll definitely just barf it all up .
We got puppies and we were driving home from the breeders and when I got Annie , my mom drove and I you know it was a two hour drive to New York because that's where we went to go pick her up and she barfed on my lap . So you know , it's always , it's always something . But now Annie likes to ride in a car . But you can break them in slow .
But my advice is just , there are there's like dramine you can give them or even Benadryl just to make them a little bit sleepy so they don't get motion sickness because it's the motion that they're bothered by .
So some people say you can get like a car seat for the you know the dog and hook them up that way so they're not feeling that turning of the car . So I don't know if those little hints help , but do little rides help , but don't do it on a full
¶ Pets and Funny Stories
stomach . I'll tell you a funny pet story . We had this black lab and he was a Border Collie mix .
His name was Ski Zix and we had him as a kid and he hated car rides and we had to take him up to New Hampshire because my parents got invited to go to this lake with some friends and so of course we had to take the dogs , because nobody could take care of the dogs and we had four growing up so we always , you know , found strays or whatever .
And this poor dog was so sick . My mom had a like a ziplock bag and it sounds gross , but she filled it up with drool because he was drooling the whole car ride and that was the only way she could like keep him from getting really sick . So it was kind of a funny story .
You always say Ski Zix and his bag of drool , you know , but the poor dog hated car rides . So , like , sometimes I just think it's in them . You know some dogs are riders and some aren't , but if they get car sick , you know , just keep trying different things and you know there's natural things you can give your dog to .
But , like I said , break them in slow and see what happens .
Thanks , Paula . I've been , I've been checking out some of the stuff you've been doing with puppy puppy class two , which has been really cute . So I appreciate the shares on your on your timeline there . Oh , that's great .
Yeah , trixie's been doing pretty good , so she's learnings to stay and I had to do jumping jacks in front of her to make her stay and she was looking at me like what are you doing , mom ? So that was kind of fun . But but it is , it's really fun .
We're in puppy school too , and the bull mastiff is huge and we had to move two doors down from him because Trixie just does not like him . So 14 pounds versus 180 . I don't think so .
Well , you know what I heard somebody say in the space earlier the bigger they are , the harder they fall .
So yeah , that's true , that's true . But you got that Napoleon , you know , complex , going with the little guys . So Trixie thinks you can , you know , rule the world . So that's pretty funny . But but he's , he's pretty docile , but he , he had the day he was going to do something . All he wanted to have was a belly rub .
So he laid down on the floor and took up like two thirds of the floor and I was like oh , I'm going to see you so big oh , my goodness , great space . Sorry , I just wanted to say thanks for everything .
Thanks , paula , love your stories . Thanks for thanks for stopping in . Good advice too on carsick dogs . We haven't had one , but you never know , sydney , go ahead your hands up .
Hi , thanks . I don't have a story about carsick dogs , but I do have two cute stories about my pets that happened over the last week . So the first one was one of my puppies went to their new home , while another one of the puppies went to their new home and this home they have their boarding stable near Airdrie but she has a sloth . She imported a sloth .
What ?
What I love sloths . Is it a three-toed sloth or a two-toed sloth ?
I don't know , I did not ask , I didn't think to ask that you know , because she said that you know I don't have any pets in the house and it's time I really want another border-coly type dog , so I decided it's time he'll sleep with me . The only other pet in the house is a sloth . I said , like the animal sloth , what she's like , yes , what I'm like .
How did you come across a sloth , what ? I said ? It took her 18 months to get it imported and through all of the things they had to do to make sure it was safe to import . But she specifically ordered and imported this sloth and she said she just always wanted one . So okay . And so I said does it just roam around the house ? Like what does it do ?
And she said , well , she has this area , special room for it , that's a certain humidity and temperature . And she said then you know , when she wants to , I let her out and she just she walks around and slowly gets in trouble .
They are so slow , like everything . Yeah , I know a lot about sloths and like when we sorry . Yeah , I'm just fast , I'm just blown away . This person has a . They can live so long . Sydney , did you know that ? I don't ? Know , I don't know anything about that they can live to be 40 years old . Like they . They are a long live-it animal .
Yeah , most in the wild don't make it that long , but in captivity they they . They are not a short-lived animal , so Wow , that's incredible .
So you know she has a sloth for a friend .
Oh , my God .
And extra of a second day . There he was , he had a hose in his mouth because they were watering the arena , the indoor arena . But that story won . And and my other story was the day before yesterday . I was feeding a pen of horses and there had a tarp hung up on a gate and I noticed shadows behind this tarp .
And so the tarp was because I desensitize all of my horses , you know so they're safer to ride and they're they're used to all sorts of things . Yeah , anyways , I saw the shadow behind the tarp and I'm like that that's too short to be horses , because there was horses on the other side .
So I had a pen of cows out and they were in there and it was a horse pasture . So I'm like , okay , I'm just going to open this gate and let them in here and then I'll sort them out . And so there was about nine cows there and I took down the tarp .
There's nine cows plus my best saddle horse , who is trained to work cattle and his name , his barn name , is Renty . So that's it , that's it . There were 14 other horses in the pasture , but it was just Renty and those nine cows . He brought them to the gate and he's just like can you get rid of them for me ?
So I opened the gate and he pushed them in and I'm like thanks , bud , do you want in too ? No , he booked it back to his friends . Apparently , I don't even need to ride my horse anymore . He just does the work for me better than my border collies . That's wonderful .
Oh my God , I love it , I love it .
And this horse . I've had him since he was a baby and he's 22 this year and still in great shape , you know . So he's a very special horse to me . I've had hundreds in my life , but he's my sole horse , so it was particularly special that he was helping me out .
What a good boy . See , all horses are good horses , maybe just like all dogs are good dogs .
I think inherently they are . I think it's the people that mess them up mostly .
This will tell you I love petting horses and their noses . I love horse noses . They're just the coolest apparatus on the whole thing .
Do you know ? They can pick out something as small as like a tiny little grain of medicine out of their oats or feed with their lips . Yeah , they're so nimble and so sensitive with their little lips . Yeah , oh , it's incredible . You know that everything but their medicine , so you have to make that oh .
My god , they're just . They're just like dogs .
Yeah , they are actually some of them . They really are . And I might have a group of Phillies , because I have a breeding herd and this there's three Phillies .
Well , they're not young anymore as I bred them , but they're all like five and four years old and if there's something wrong in that group that they're with , they will come , tatl , they will come to the gate or wherever I am and they'll winnie and they'll tattle and I . Then I know Something's wrong so I can go , I can go see who is hurt and they'll .
They have literally escorted Ones that are hurt up to the gate . Be like this one , this one's hurt . Come get this one and I'm like okay , so it's the cutest thing .
I love your stories because , um , for many people , who who don't grow , who have never been around a farm or didn't grow up in a rural area , I think these stories are just magic to folks who are , who are only no city life , like All those farm animals are just so cool .
Oh , they really are . And if you pay attention their personalities are so big and you become really in tune to them . You know , and a lot of the bigger commercial farms that you know produce a lot of cattle and things like that . They never get to know those cattle on an individual level .
And you know , we have a small herd but we know our cattle and they have distinct , individual , big personalities . It's really cool .
Yeah , I've , I agree . I've talked to many behavioral Animal scientists three on the podcast and one of them specialized in animal behaviors and even the most simplest of creatures Like insects they they are finding now they have individualized personalities . So that's no stretch to say that these .
This one scientist conclusion is that if simple insects with a simple brain have Individualized personalities , then it's no stretch to say that all animals of all types have individualized personalities , which is kind of cool .
Very cool and I totally agree . You know , I also keep laying hands and one rooster , and , and they all have individual personalities as well , if you pay attention .
¶ The Sloth Story From Costa Rica
I Can't believe that person has a sloth , chris . Chris , can we get a sloth please ? I ?
Knew . I knew you were going to ask if we can get a sloth . You call them sloth ever since you came back from Costa Rica . I know you're like Chris there's sloths and they're so cute and they move so slowly .
Can I , can I please tell my sloth story ? Can I please tell the sloth story ?
You can tell your sloth story but first , but first .
Can we get a sloth ?
Jason , you want a new fee ? Yeah , okay , make a PowerPoint .
That's right . The next PowerPoint coming is the the benefits of getting a sloth . Can I do you guys want to hear my sloth story , or is that stupid ? Okay , we have some 100s . I Don't want to monopolize the space . I think all of our speakers have spoken . Okay , you guys ready for this sloth story that we had the ostrich story , you know .
Here's the sloth story . So I was one of three teachers that took kids to Costa Rica . How many years ago ? Was that a decade ? It was a while ago . Along it was a long time ago . We took kids to Costa Rica on a quote unquote marine biology experience and the reason I was chosen was I was a man . They needed a male .
I am Large and intimidating and they thought I could protect the children if things got bad , because I have martial arts training and I know first aid and I'm a really good swimmer and they were going places that they might need to Do all of this , so I was like there , if things go south , this guy can protect the kids and patch up everybody when we get
hurt , and that's why I got . Jason , no , I think it was because the other guy jammed out well , that too , but that's why they chose me when the other guy jammed out , is they needed a similar ?
skill set Okay so .
So we go to Costa Rica . The whole trip absolutely amazing and All of the kids were very excited to see sloths or sloths . They were very , very excited to see sloths Costa Rica is known for them and our guide the very first Day .
We're all bleary , died ever jet lagged and the guides like , okay , we're gonna go for a nice breakfast and then we're gonna go into the jungle and you might be able to see a sloth . He's like okay , don't get your hopes up .
You might not be able to see a sloth , you might not be able to see the sloth and if you see them , they're gonna be from really far away .
But I'll try to get the sloth . I , jason , I'm so sorry I have to pause you there . When you said we're going to have a very nice breakfast , everybody needs to know that it was beans and it's not a nice breakfast at all .
Oh , it was so good .
You were the only one who liked the breakfast . The kids were like mortified that there was beans . It was so good . No , you're like oh , this is great , Let me give all your servings , Okay they had , it was beans and plantain .
Oh god , I would go and eat that . I would have beans and plantain for breakfast every single day . It was so freaking . Good yeah , but the the high school kids were absolutely mortified and that was what they had for breakfast every day and you were hating there like the children were like , they're like where's my corn flakes ?
I'm like no , you got beans and plantain . Guys , we're in Costa Rica , all right , anyways . So we have this really nice breakfast and some of the kids were like choking down this food . I remember this now . They were super disappointed and even the other teachers were like picking around at the beach this food and I was like can I have seconds ?
And their guides like have as much as you want . I was like delicious , I'll eat all the plantain , anyways . So we have our breakfast and we are like okay , we got to go on the tour bus and we're gonna go to the jungle and we head out there and the guides like , oh , my goodness , look up in the tree .
And in this tree in the middle of the parking lot , there was a sloth Way up high , like 50 feet in this massive tree Whatever trees they have in Costa Rica , I don't know , I'm not a botanist , I didn't study any of that Costa Rica tree and the sloth was way up high in this tree and the kids were like , oh , it's a sloth and they're freaking out .
And they had their like cameras , like tear crappy , like point and shoots , because there were no cell phones really back then , because it was a while ago . I don't think anybody had a smartphone that could take decent photos . It was , but they had point and shoots , so they're taking photos . And Then , ever so slowly , the sloth and sloth was so slow .
We saw so many sloths and they absolutely move as slow as all the jokes are .
The sloth ever so slowly Started to crawl and climb out on the sketchiest branch and the guides like Looking at me and he's looking at the other teachers and he's looking at the sloth and it keeps crawling and the sketchy , sketchy branch starts to bend and the kids are like oh no . And the one girl's , like one of the girls , yells out no , sloth , no .
And the guides like Jason , I don't , I don't think the children should see this . Jason , round up , jason , we need to Jason .
And then the kids are like and the sloth just keeps going and the branch breaks and the sloth falls like spider-man from the 1960s cartoon Doodaloo , doodaloo , doodaloo , you know , like the falling animation , like it falls , fump , lands in front of 20 Children who dream to see a sloth up close and it plants itself right in the middle of all of us and the
guides like got his hand over his mouth . Some of the girls started to cry and I'm like shoving them , like let's go back in and have more beans and plantain , let's go , come on , children , get out of here . We got to move and the girls were one of the kids like is the sloth dead ? And the guides like yes , the sloth is dead .
And I'm like okay , you could have said that differently . And then a miracle happened . The sloth was on its back and looked dead , like super dead . It sat up like a person . I just like sat up if you watch WWE . It was like the Undertaker , you know like if the Undertaker sits up if you watch WWE .
Anyway , so the sloth sat up like a person Like getting out of bed , you know , sitting up like , and it shook its head like a cartoon . Still remember this to the day . The sloth one oh , like shaking , concussion , I don't know . And then it slowly started to crawl back to the same tree I Can't , this is a hundred percent true .
And all the kids were like there's lots alive , it's a miracle . And the guides like couldn't believe this happened the first day and the kids are like taking close-up photos of it and the slot . The guides like don't touch the sloth , because the kids were trying to touch the sloth .
Like don't touch the sloth , they're dirty , they're covered in insects and it was you like had a stick and he was showing all the kids like they're just coated With insects because they move so slow .
The insects live inside them and it took about half an hour for the slot to crawl back to the tree and then get into the tree and then it just sat in the tree and looked at us and the kids got so many amazing close-ups of the happy sloth face , probably because it was concussed , and I don't know how the guides like totally the guides like I don't think
we're topping this , jason , it's only going downhill from here . Because , From now on there , whatever animal the kids see , it's gonna be like really far away . So that's the sloth story there , this lost story and the ostrich story . I have photos of the close-up of the sloth somewhere . I think I showed you the photos right , chris , you saw the photos .
Yes , you were so happy about that trip . It was awesome .
Yes , sarah , go ahead .
And you went to the cloud for .
Yes , oh , chris , I lost . I lost you , chris . What'd you say ?
Oh , I don't know . I was talking about the cloud forest .
Oh yeah , the kids were putting scorpions on their head . That was stupid .
Yeah , that's no , no good .
No , that's a story I have . There's so many . We lost a kid , zip lining , and I almost died when we were right white water rafting . There's lots of stories from that trip , sarah , go ahead .
How long did it take the sloth to sit up ? From the time that it fell ? Obviously guys thought he had passed away , but how long did he leave there before he sat up ?
30 seconds , like enough . Like the kids were crowding around it and If you've ever had 20 high school kids when they're excited about something and they're not gonna listen to adults . So the guide was like like trying to tell them to move on and I was like I Was shoving the kids , like I was pushing .
I was like pushing without pushing , like let's go , it's , we don't want to see the debt . Like I think I said let's respect the sloth or something stupid like that . But it wasn't very long in the sloth sat up like a human and then it shook its head . Ah , like shook its head . Didn't make that sound , but it shook its head .
Yeah , I like came back to life .
And that is Jason . That is absolutely true . If anybody is teaching and it doesn't matter what you are teaching if there is a lawnmower that goes outside your classroom , the kids will run to the window like they've never seen a lawnmower in their life before .
Oh my God , a cat got into our school two years ago and that was it . Like , whatever you were gonna teach , throw that lesson plan into the sun , because a cat was in the school . Like that was the end of it .
And then the last year , when we had a hold in secure because there was a moose blocking the door , all the kids wanted to go see the moose and then we had to like , no , you can't go see the moose . That was also throw your lesson plan into the fire .
¶ Canadian Geese and Their Aggressive Behavior
Well , and then you also , I think , had a hold in secure because you had Canada geese that moved into your front field .
Oh yeah , like a hundred of them landed and they were worried they were gonna murder the kids I forgot about that , there's so many of them and they chased the kids back inside . There was a hundred of them , over a hundred .
They were all over the front and they surrounded the school and some of the teachers are like they're like , are we ever gonna get go home ? Do we have to call the fire department Because the Canada geese landed ? Oh my God , this space is bananas .
But that's true . So anything that you want to teach to a high school student is not going to be taught that day .
Yeah , they were watching the geese out the windows and some of them were having sex with each other and they were like it was what ? Well , that's what was happening the geese , not the kids . No , not the kids .
But the geese .
That's another hold in secure Sarah .
Oh my gosh , I couldn't even imagine . They're terrifying . Canadian geese are terrifying . I don't think people can fully appreciate the terror . It's like if you saw a lion coming towards you . That kind of fear you should have for Canadian geese .
They're the biggest goose on earth and the males especially , or the females , like the full grown ones .
They put their wings out and they're as big as probably like you are , chris , like that's how big they are , maybe a little shorter but like , from wing to wing , like I would say , they're probably as tall as you are sideways when they're moving their wings out like that .
Why are they so mean ? Like what makes them so aggressive ?
Usually it's because they're getting close to having their babies . When they fly south , apparently like Elizabeth Bourgeois , she's like way down south in . Where does she live again , Chris , In the pant .
No , she's in Louisiana In .
Louisiana . So she's a bird , she bans birds and does a bunch of awesome citizen science and captures alligators . She's like a badass anyways . So when they go down there they're totally chill and she like cuddles them and reads them books and stuff , Like it's on so many I know . And I'm like how come they don't eat her face ? How come they're not ?
And she's like , oh , they're so docile , and we're like what ? But just as an aside , she did send me a picture of a whooping crane .
I know .
And so that has made my day 100% better .
It's my favorite bird , chris , can we ?
get a whooping crane ? We're not . No , because they never live , they're just ridiculous . They're so not . They're not helping themselves .
No , they're like pandas , they're bad at being birds . Paula , your hands up , we'll go to you then , sarah , paula , go ahead .
Yeah , you're going to cringe , but I love Canada geese . We have them a lot in the golf course and used to see the babies and the parents all the time and they're quite beautiful . But they are destructive because they poop a lot but they have no water . So they're kind of like we're kind of like singling them out a little bit by having places for them .
They can't land . But the reason why they get so nasty is number one . There's one always on a couple on patrol , because I see we have flocks of them on the ponds in the golf course and there's like I'm not kidding you probably about 300 .
And one year at our other house we had a cornfield in the back and of course when the farmers plowed the corn we had flocks coming in and it was fascinating to see how they communicate and the bees would come in in groups and they would all land . We must have had 2000 bees back there .
But when they took off the noise was so amazing because the cackling and they signal each other . But the father usually looks out for predators . He's guarding , they're very territorial and they're also protecting the babies . So they'll get nasty . They used to go .
The ladies couldn't tee off one of the tees , because the father goose was standing there and he was getting all you know peeved off and they had to actually take their clubs and get ready because he would start running after them and he would just start going after them . And like you said , their wingspans are huge and they are there to be the .
They're like the guardians of the flock . So that's why they get so mean is , and I think people probably just you know think that they're after them , but they're not . They're just protected . They will go after you , but you know you get close enough they're gonna get nasty . But for the most part you just kind of yell back at them and they but they do .
They get very territorial and that's the reason why they get so nasty . So I didn't share that story .
Yeah , and our school is extremely close to a massive wetland called Kerrywood , so they probably just missed it . Somebody some stupid goose was like was yelling at an . I told you to stop and ask for directions and they just missed it by a little bit . You know , they're just a little bit off there . Sarah , your hands up and then we'll go to Sidney .
Okay , hi , so I have a couple you know different things with geese , but I guess my biggest or most relevant one . So I went to college in Northwest Pennsylvania and so , if you're not familiar , so our college town , there's a lake in the town and then we also had a man-made lake on campus so we had campus geese .
We also had a lake-eerie , seagulls who got very fat from people feeding them . But my relationship with the geese was my building , where most of my classes were , was right next to the campus lake .
So I had to deal with a lot of , if you imagine , like a ski slalom , you know how they like have to weave the poles and things I never like on the sidewalks walking to class , I like almost always ran into somebody because I was looking down at the sidewalks and I was looking down to avoid the piles of poop with my wheelchair .
Yeah .
Because there was . It was literally this classroom building was right next to the on campus lake , in which obviously is where the geese live . I was almost always like swerving because I was trying to avoid running over the piles of poop and you know , I frequently almost ran into people because I was never looking up . So yeah , I don't blame you .
They around there , the wetlands where they nest . Where we are , it is disgusting with poop and we can't take the dogs there because it's like delicacy to dogs . I don't know , it's so gross . Thanks for sharing , sarah , cindy , go ahead .
¶ Encounters With Geese and Cats
I was chased by a Canada goose once on horseback . And she's the horse , oh God , yes , yes . And it came up out of a ditch with its little wings out and its neck snaked and the horse took off Like he bolted . He was having none of it and I'm like all right , apparently this is happening . So it took a little bit to get him under control .
But yeah , no , there was none of that . So that's my only goose encounter , but I put up in the nest too . This year has been extremely horrible for people dumping unwanted cats Living on a ranch . We have happened every now and then , but this year has been like extreme . So we have and I stay in New Jersey the adults because and they end up in my barn .
I've had , I've been able to re-home some adults , but most of them just end up in my barn . And then I always try to re-home the babies because I think they'll have a better chance at finding a good home . So I put one in the nest . She's super floofy and cute and her name is so funny . My kids named her . It's Queen Picante Super Salsa .
I love it . I love it Aw .
She has a home and now there's just two of her brothers left and then , oh please , I just don't want any more cats dumped here . But the shelters are overflowing and I think that's why there's an increase this year . Like I think it's a pandemic .
Pet thing is , people are realizing they don't have time for pets and the shelters are full and they end up thinking just leaving them at a farm is better , and that's not necessarily better . There's not an abundance of people like me that will actually set traps and care for them and try to re-home them , so a lot of farmers end up shooting them , sadly .
Well , or they get eaten or they get hit . We see it all the time where we are . How many of Gord's cats are like just the random cats that have come to the farm ? Chris ?
Oh , there's so many .
Yeah , there's one prowling around . I saw it the other day . There's some stray cat out there right now .
A black and white one .
Yeah , I saw it yeah .
So Adam's been trying to feed the cat .
Yeah .
And definitely going to try and domesticate the cat .
OK .
Gord will have more cats .
Oh , it's not coming home . Ok , I was like he should probably run that by the guy that's crazy allergic to cats . If he's going to try and put another one in the house , well , no , the cat won't come here . Oh OK .
We're very fortunate with Ginger and the fact that she's responding really well to the food and you're responding really well to Ginger . It's not something that we can just add more cat dander into the house , because that food is only 43% effective and it just happens to be effective enough for you .
Yeah , Because if we get another cat I'm getting a new fee puppy . I'll just tell you that right now . That's the deal .
Oh , what about the sloth Either ?
sloth or it's a list . Yeah , that's right . Every new cat gets me an exotic animal . So a sloth , a new fee puppy , some other animal like alpaca .
Oh , we talked about alpacas . Yes , we actually did .
We've been talking about alpacas for a while .
Yes , yeah , there was the home show this weekend and you're like , oh , we should go to the home show and bring home some alpacas .
Because it's that easy . No , it's not that easy .
It's not that easy .
Jamie , go ahead .
¶ Alpacas as Guardian Animals for Wildlife
So alpacas can be guardian animals . Would they keep away moose and or Canada geese from your property ?
We don't really have a problem with Canada geese , because there's well I guess we might with the beaver now the beaver .
The beaver day .
I was just going to . We might have a wetland back there next summer .
Are beaver animals to the yard .
Oh , my God , because there was moose yesterday , there's moose here . Yeah , there's moose now . We have constant moose because of the beavers .
So maybe the alpaca might help .
Just have a free roam back there .
Yeah , another guardian , animal .
The farmers do get llama and alpaca to protect , like when it's calving season . They're just spooky to coyotes . Well , thank you for coming to Pet Chat everybody . This was a lot of fun . We talked about ostriches and sloths and dogs that puke and getting hit and dodging geese and wheelchairs . It was . It was a whole thing today .
So thanks for coming to Pet Chat . Chris , do you have any final words ?
Thank you everybody for coming and then sharing your stories with us , and thank you to our speakers . Yeah , it takes a lot of guts to come up and speak in front of people , so we very much appreciate you sharing with us and building our community . We love your stories and just thanks everybody for coming , even if you just came as a listener .
Yeah , there's a lot of spaces about things that are important , but not necessarily you .