primitives watch cats watch primitives cook

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x52223

Oh my.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 06:37 PM
Original message
 
Do your pets watch you cook?

I swear my kittehs are absolutely rapt when I'm at the stove. There is a window right next to it and one of them will sit on it. Right next to the stove is a 5 gallon container of wheat berries with my huge stock pot sitting on it ( distinct lack of cabinet space around here, even with the new baking cupboard) and the other will get on top of there with her front paws on the side of the stove watching me intently as I stir or whatever. It's like they're trying to learn or something.

(Disclaimer: I do wash my stock pot before I use it.)

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 06:55 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. we dubbed one cat the "kitchen inspector"...

...because he did what you describe, often from the top of the refrigerator. None of the five current cats do that.

The kitchen inspector had another interesting trait. From anywhere in our house (it was a 3-story victorian) he would come running at that popping sound coming from a plastic-wrapped meat package being opened. He wanted raw hamburger, bad. In those days, we gave him a tiny bit. I wouldn't now.

wryter2000  (1000+ posts)        Wed Dec-31-08 07:25 PM
Response to Original message

2. Nope

Cat-hole lives outside, and the snake lives in a cage except for when I get him out to play.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 07:36 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. The Inspector!

I love it! But that's it in a nutshell!

spinbaby  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-02-09 03:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
15. Ours are supervisors

They supervise cooking, gardening, bathing...everything, in fact, except vacuuming.

That, they figure, we can do on our own.

elleng  (1000+ posts)       Wed Dec-31-08 08:25 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. Do you sing/hum while cooking?

Your movements are probably so fluid/dancelike as to be worthy of being watched, hippyw! THANKS for all you do!

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 08:35 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Not at all! LOL

I'm pretty business like when I'm cooking because I'm trying to keep track of everything I'm doing or need to do. (That OldHippies Disease thing I've mentioned before, ya know.) I just think they're little beggars always looking for a hand out.

It is funny seeing those little paws and mostly just a nose, eyes, and ears peering at me over the side of the stove, tho.

Tab  (1000+ posts)        Wed Dec-31-08 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. Ah, the old joke. The dishes are as clean as soap and water can get them.

"Here, Soap! Here Water!!"

I opened up the bottom drawer of my oven yesterday - probably for the first time in half a year. Five cups of dog food was in there. Apparently we have visitors (typical to New England) making a little stash for the winter.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Wed Dec-31-08 09:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
7. We've had that problem in the past, too.

'cept it wasn't dog food they left. Ugh! I don't use that bottom roaster very often so they were living the high life in there for awhile. I much preferred the frog invasion we had this summer.

Tab  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 01:05 AM
Response to Reply #7
 
8. Frogs?
 
I guess that's what you get for living in the southwest.

What the heck... cook a few.

eridani  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 06:36 AM
Response to Reply #6
 
9. Geez. I found out about that once by turning on the broiler before looking inside 

Yeecchhh!

eridani  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 06:42 AM
Response to Original message

10. I miss my kitties , especially Fuzzbutt 

Not just cooking--he'd watch people do just about anything, including vacuuming. He ignored the noise, and his head would go back anf forth watching eth vacuum cleaner as if it had been a tennis ball.

He was so nutz about chicken. When we first got him as a kitten, I made the mistake of cutting up a chicken without locking him oustide. He ran up my leg (luckily jean-clad), and I held a drumstick over my head to get it out of his reach, whereupon he ran up my arm (luckily sweatshirt-clad). At that point I grabbed him by the scruff and got him out the door. You never heard such wailing.

Husb2Sparkly  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
 
11. Our dogs pretty much don't ......

..... although they are very aware of what is going on. We work to discourage begging. "Little" the Border Collie has the idea down pat. She never begs.

"Big" the German Shepard is tall enough to counter surf. But she doesn't. She sniffs a lot but has never made an attempt to grab food. She also knows when we're done eating and just sitting there. All of a sudden this giant wet nose at the end of a looooong snout burrows its way into the crook of an arm and pushes slowly forward to the plate beyond. Again, she's never actually taken anything, but she sure loves to sniff. Cute though this behavior is, we discourage it.

TygrBright  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 12:43 PM
Response to Original message
 
12. Yup.

Any time one of us is preparing people food in the kitchen, Fisbin joins us and sits VERY POINTEDLY next to the Magic Dish, looking expectantly at us, as if to say, "Well? You feedin' yer faces, howzabout something for ME?"

This is highly inconvenient, as The Magic Dish is close to where the refrigerator door opens, and we have to maneuver around him or step on him to get stuff out of the refrigerator.

MOSTLY we maneuver around him.

Tab  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-01-09 10:19 PM
Response to Original message
 
13. We have one that will follow me around when she's hungry.
 
I have five dogs. Three don't give a damn. The fourth waits until the food is cooked and we exit the room for five seconds so he can steal it. The fifth is a Tibetan Spaniel (sort of like a Pekingese) and when she gets particularly hungry she follows me around staring at me, and will do this for hours until I feed her. If she's hungry enough she'll eat "dog food" but she's pretty spoiled. To her credit, she's a rescue, a former abused dog (hot oil burned on her, legs broken, and so forth - awful story) so we indulge her.

That said, they all seem unusually nervous when we make frankfurters. I can't imagine why.

Mojorabbit  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-02-09 03:18 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. Two of my dogs are always lying on the kitchen rugs when I cook hoping a morsel will fall to the ground. I don't know what the new pup will end up like but for now she is following me everywhere I go. She will be tall enough to check out the counters when she is older. Haven't had that problem since the days long ago when we had a lovely greyhound.

Gore1FL  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jan-03-09 08:21 AM
Response to Original message
 
17. Mine does, but I make Dog Food soup for him

I mix 1/2 can of dog food, arbitrary spices (he seems to like Basil for some reason) and water. Then I heat it up as a gravy to cover the dry.

It must be dog-licious. He won't eat dry, but goes through this like it was people food.

sherbear  (81 posts)     Mon Jan-05-09 03:10 PM
Response to Original message
 
18. When my Sammy hears me pull the cutting board out he comes running. He is constantly under my feet while I am cooking.
 
after which a photograph of a dog, perhaps a Corgi; I dunno

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jan-05-09 05:43 PM
Response to Original message
 
19. When we finally get around to building a new kitchen, I may insist on a Dutch Door to keep the dogs out from underfoot while I'm cooking. Jack used to stretch out in front of the stove until I made him move just in case something should fall to the ground.

Crisco  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-05-09 06:03 PM
Response to Original message

20. Nope

She comes running if she hears the can opener, but that's the extent of it.

dotcosm  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jan-05-09 06:08 PM
Response to Original message
 
21. Watch *me* cook? Not really. Watch "the floor" around me is more like.

The usual way I discover that something has fallen off the counter is when my dog rushes in to investigate. She lays just outside the kitchen so her eyes are at floor level.

lukasahero  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jan-07-09 04:05 PM
Response to Original message
 
22. My new pup puts her front feet on my back to watch me 'cook'

I swear, I spent most of Thanksgiving morning with a dog on my back so she could see what was going on on the counter. We'll have to break her of that because I'm a danger with sharp objects and sooner or later we'll end up calling her "Stumpy".

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Wed Jan-07-09 04:13 PM
Response to Original message
 
23. Nope.

My poor cat got sick of having stuff spilled on her and getting her tail stomped on.

The twice a year or so I use a can opener for anything, she's right there.

I dunno.

[Flame]

Maggie cat like to "help" me do dishes...mostly she just like to play in the water...I indulge sometimes, and leave a stream running for a bit for her to play in.   But I don't allow any of the cats or dogs in the kitchen when I'm cooking...the dogs lie in the doorway, watching, hoping to get called in to clean up a spill, but they won't be underfoot.

[Miss Mia]

They may watch for a minute, but usually not.  My cats are not allowed on the counter tops in the kitchen and have never been up there.