Updated pet stories
60I've told stories already of my toads having particular tastes in what videos I watch, I might've mentioned somewhere that my mantis Rose decided October 14th was April Fool's day and laid her eggs for me, I've probably even mentioned that my dog Cookie talks.
Even if I haven't mentioned these things, I'm going to state that animals have a wonderful sense of comedic timing.
Take last night for example. Our household DVD player in the living room likes to get cranky from time to time and it had already failed to load 2 disks when I put in another. Dad has a history of "blessing" machinery around the house to make it work - no religious implication there, just a funny term we use for his fixing things - but he was asleep due to working nights. Cookie was in the living room with myself and Mom and while waiting for the disk to load, conversation turned to Dad blessing it. I suggested that maybe Cookie ought to bless it and a second later she said, "GO!" right after that, the DVD loaded. Okay, coincidence, but a funny one anyway.
Another good bit of animal humor comes from the toads. They reside with their 7 fish companions under my loft bed, where they have a good view of the computer and the TV. I can think of at least 4 different versions of Batman I've played both live and animated that they have opinions on. The 1966 series with Adam West and Burt Ward - they'll watch - and sometimes, attempt to beat up bad guys... though I could swear some of my toad guys have a crush on at least Catwoman, depending on which season I have going. Batman Beyond, Battoad's favorite happens to be Return of the Joker - in which he'll try to beat up the Joker, of course. The live movies of the 90's... you know, Batman Forever and them. They're moody about those four and hide from the Riddler. Then there's the 90's cartoon series. For that one, it depends on the episode - they're particular there. Then I tend to put in things like Aura Battler Dunbine, Ronin Warriors, Power Rangers, Pokemon and such along those lines. For Dunbine, they love a good fight and usually want in on the action. Ronin Warriors, mostly Ryo and Rowen love and frequently go looking for their own armor. Power Rangers, they only go for the earlier seasons, up to 6 it seems. Then they become disinterested. Pokemon, they've only seen the few movies I've got, but chitter away merrily for Pikachu in particular.
My three oldest toads, Rowen (3), Ryo (2) and Battoad (who will be 2 in December) are all guys and quite happy to make their opinions known. The three newest, two of whom have yet to even pick names and the third being Cattoad - Battoad's mate (her name's pretty obvious) are all still about a year old.
The mantis is another enigma - she, too likes certain movies. Rose earned her name because I found her on one of Mom's roses in the front yard. She's definitely smart, watchful and excellent at hide-and-go-seek, even in a 10 gallon former toad tank. Thus far, she's picked on Dunbine as one of her favorites as well. No, I don't own the rights to these shows and such, I just watch them from time to time in private with these critters.
Silly as it might sound, these critters make wonderful movie critics. I made this uniquely clear on my subdomain site made last year as a school project: http://www.fbp.dreamangelsparadise.com/welcome.html. You'll find a good number of fan-made music videos on the site all with the mark of Firebelly Productions. You want to know the funniest part of all? These same videos are my highest rated on youtube! The toads approved the music from hearing it from my collection on the computer, the toads picked the video from their favorite series, all I did was edit the two together. No, I don't own the rights to the music or the videos - they're fan-made. Despite this, my most popular videos came from the toads' opinions through either singing or their actions.
Cookie, has also become a movie addict somewhat recently. She'll lay in front of the couch and watch movies she likes and sleep through the ones she doesn't like. In particular, she likes horse movies like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, she also liked the new Underdog live movie. She has her particulars, just like the toads, but she's less articulate about them. She simply watches. She does most of her talking when we are around the house and not watching something. Usually when Dad comes home from work in the morning, he gets differing degrees of "GO!" ranging from a quick "GO!" to an opera like aria of "GOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOOOO!!" Her timing of "How rude!" usually results in loud peals of laughter, too. One such instance is if we're late giving her breakfast or dinner. Then there's her "GO OUT!" For me, this accompanies her nosing her backpack in an effort to convince me to take her to the local park.
Nobody can tell me animals don't have a personality all their own - I'll most firmly disagree.
Even my rabbit Raggedy Ann (who died at the age of 10) had her own personality. I used to read to her the Animorphs books and she'd very attentively listen to every word. It could've been just the sound of my voice, but I like to think she enjoyed the books too. I'll never forget the day she died, as well. At the time, my parents were managing a now-demolished motel in South Lake Tahoe and I lived on my own in one of the rooms - I was a sophomore in high school at the time - and the rabbit was with me. I went out shopping with mom and when I came back, there she was in her cage facing the door as if waiting for me to return. She really was a beautiful old bunny and very well-loved.
*Ahem* Getting back on subject, animals have great comedic timing and a wonderful personality all their own. One mantis I had this summer even enjoyed sitting on my laptop's monitor and chasing the mouse cursor to show she was hungry. The only problem with their comedic timing is the fact that it's very hard to catch on video! I'm usually too busy laughing!
