What is your cat or dog's favorite video/TV show?

[wnylib]

Thete are lots of you tube videos of cats watching videos but I've had dogs who viewed and reacted to scenes on TV, too.

My cat loves a video made for cats called Cat Sitter. It is by far her favorite and she watches the entire thing totally mesmerized.

But she also likes scenes from human movies. She loves the Harry Potter flicks. (Yes I still have them.) I think the owls and strange creatures attract her attention. She recognizes planes and helicopters on screen from seeing them through my window. She looks at the window as if to ask "How did they get in here?"

She loved a Natiional Geographic wildlife video until it showed lions taking down a zebra. Ran from the room and I found her under the bed.

She knows the sound of the DVD tray opening and the clicking sounds of the VCR starting up. (Yes I still have that and some old videocassettes too.) When she hears them she hops onto a chair or footstool to watch the screen and decide whether to stay for the film.

[iamateacher]

1. I will have to find that video for my three cats

They really don't pay attention to videos, but that sounds interesting.

[wnylib]

11. I don' t know if it is available on dvd. A friend gave me

the videocassette for it. Might check Amazon. It was very popular with cat owners when it first came out so it might be available in dvd too. There are others besides this one I think.

The video shows different animals in segments. The first segment is a colony of rats moving around each other in an outdoor rock ledge setting. She tries to touch them and looks behind the tv if one goes off the screen.

Throughout the video there are bird and insect sounds in the background.

After the rats there are birds at a feeder. Next are butterflies, then small exotic looking fish swimming around in a tank. The sequence repeats a few times, with variations in the.kinds if birds. Oh. Almost forgot. There are also scenes of squirrels moving across the ground picking up acorns.

When my cat is not trying to touch the screen she sits on the tv stand tilting her head to follow the action, totally absorbed in every move.

[csziggy]

23. Not sure if this is the same one, but Cat Sitter DVD Trilogy - Vol 1, Vol 2 and Vol 3

Is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Sitter-DVD-Trilogy-Vol/dp/1223000893

There are also various "cat sitting" videos on YouTube, just search for them.

My old cat never watched TV - I think it was because he was cross eyed. Years ago we had several cats that loved to watch TV - they turned out to be the best mousers, but unfortunately, they were also the best bird catchers.

My kitty disappeared while we were in England. He was 17.5 years old and I suspect he just went out and went to sleep somewhere on our 60 acres.

We won't get another cat for a while. Our plan is to get two cats that will get along and have them strictly indoors with access to our screened porch.

[wnylib]

25. Yes, video 1 in the dvd trilogy is the same

Last edited Mon Nov 18, 2019, 06:14 PM - Edit history (1)

as the videocassette that I have. I just looked it up and was ready to post about it but you beat me to it.

Note: Edited to correct an embarrassing typo that suggested an alternate meaning to what I said.

[wnylib]

36. Didn't mean to ignore the rest of your post. Got

interrupted by a demanding kitty.

Sorry about the loss of your kitty. Hurts to lose these 4 footed furry family members. I waited several months before getting another cat after the last one passed away.

Current cat and previous one couldn't be more diifferent. Last one was easy going and a very affectionate lap cat. He was also a "talker" who amused everyone with his feline grunts and mutterings that left no doubt of how he felt about anything.

The current cat is a real live wire. Into everything. Strong willed and self assertive. Hates being held, but craves company and demands it when she feels ignored.

Unfortunately I can't get her another cat for company. My apt building rules allow only one 4 footed pet.

[csziggy]

38. Thanks - we used to have a number of cats

Once, as many as eight or nine. Some were barn cats, some house cats, and some went where ever they wanted.

Over the last 25 years, we've mostly had two cats at a time as house cats, with one cat as a barn cat. Unfortunately, the last several house cats never got along. the one we just lost was so aggressive, when we adopted him as a four ounce kitten, he beat up and intimidated my husband's 20 pound cat. The two never got along, though eventually they would stay in the same room together - some times!

So after my husband's cat passed, we decided to wait until this one was gone and get two at the same time, hopefully ones that already get along. I don't think at our ages we will adopt kittens. For one thing, we wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

But over the next few months we will be adding onto the house so we're waiting until the work is finished. Then we have to sort through all the stuff that is currently in storage, most of which came out of my mother's house. Then and only then, will we be ready to bring new pets into the house.

This is the first time in 45 years we have been without pets. It is odd, and I don't like it at all.

[wnylib]

39. When you are used to havong pets around

your home seems empty without them. When everything is ready for a pair of cats, maybe you will find two that have been together already and need a new home.

[csziggy]

40. Yes - the house feels very empty

Since my cat was part Siamese, he was very talkative and we'd have long conversations about politics. I miss that!

This being a college town, often the Animal Shelter will get cats from the same homes. I'm thinking we could find a couple of cats that had lived together and been abandoned/relinquished as adults - and that the Animal Shelter would be happy to have them adopted together. Adult cats are harder to find home for so that might work to our advantage.

[wnylib]

42. Sounds like a plan. I'm sure you will find

a compatible pair and give them a good home.

I had a cat once that was half Siamese. Did not know it when we got him as a tiny kitten from the Humane Society. He looked like an ordinary domestic shorthair with a tabby coat.

But when he howled during his first shots the vet was visibly startled. I asked what was wrong while the vet looked closely at kitty's eyes, ears, height, weight, and length. When done he told us our new kitty was definitely part Siamese and he was 99% sure kitty was at least half. The distinctive Siamese howl from a domestic shorthair tabby was what startled the vet.

That cat was a treat. He had the Siamese devotion, cleverness, love of attention, and chattiness. But the Siamese capacity for aggression was modified by his domestic shorthair mix. Outdoors, he walked next to us like a dog on an invisible leash. We never used a carrier for him. At the vet office he always sat on my lap and watched the other people and animals. Had a reputation with the staff as a show off for the way he sucked up to their attention.

Chatted with me extensively every day when I came home from work. Split his loyalty between my husband and me. For petting and fussing over, he went to hubby. For claw clipping and medicine when sick, he only let me do it. Learned to sit and to catch without using treats to train him.

And most peculiar for a cat, he always came to us when called. If outdoors, he answered us repeatedly so that his faint responses got louder as he got closer.

He was an only cat so there was no problem of dominance with others. Made friends with our neighbor's dog to hang out with outdoors.

[csziggy]

46. Yes, those are Siamese traits, alright

Mine would come when called - if he not wrapped up in something more important. His aggression was not tempered at all- if we didn't feed him when he insisted, he'd tackle one of us around the ankle and leave scars. More than once, he stood off a pit bull just by staring him down. I sure miss him.

[wnylib]

47. Mine did the stare down look with a curious great dane

seated next to us in the vet's waiting room. That stare was serious enough to make me walk the cat outdoors until hubby told me we had been called into the exam room.

[wnylib]

48. I wasn't worried about the cat's safety. I didn't

want the vet bill increased by damage to the great dane-- and the clinic.

[csziggy]

49. Lol! Since we had one cat that did attack a pit bull, the Great Dane is lucky!

My husband's cat he had when we married jumped on our neighbor's dog. The neighbor had just bought the farm next door and came over to introduce himself, bringing his dog with him.

We warned the new neighbor to watch his dog and his response was that if his dog hurt our cat, he'd fix him since he was a veterinarian. The dog looked at the cat wrong and the cat launched himself onto the dog. He had his front claws into the dogs ears, tried to kick the dog's eyes out with his back claws, and tried to bite through the dog's spine with his teeth. It took three tries to keep the cat off the dog and my husband got pretty scratched up in the process.

For some reason that neighbor never brought a dog onto out property again...

[wnylib]

53. Oooh. Fierce guy. (the cat) Husband sounds brave.

Looks like we're running out of space. Our posta are getting so narrow that I fear they will come down to single letters in a vertical line.

[yellowdogintexas]

66. our Siamese mix was obsessed with the toilet

to the point of teaching himself to urinate in the toilet.
He was very talkative, funny and loved our daughter.

BONUS: he also had Hemingway cat genes - one extra toe on each foot. The kid who found him and brought him to us apologized for the "one thing wrong with him" ! After we got over a howl of laughter, we explained how neat that really was.

It was our good fortune to be owned by him for 15 years. I miss having a cat with blue eyes

[csziggy]

67. The first Siamese in the family also taught himself how to use it

Mom did not like having indoor pets, so he was let out regularly, but my sister (whose cat it was) wanted him inside at night. Dad got a picture of the cat using the toilet - which explained why Mom kept fussing that one of us wasn't flushing when they used it.

That cat had a defective tail which gave him a nice weapon - he had a club at the end.

[safeinOhio]

2. My cat is hooked

on tv basketball. Runs around in front the big screen blocking shots, stealing passes and going for dunks.

[tblue37]

5. In the 1970s we had a Tonkinese cat named Sammy. My then-husband watched golf on our

TV, which was on a cheap metal stand. Whenever the ball was hit, Sammy would follow it intently with his eyes, but when a ball fell into the hole, he'd run around behind the TV stand to look for it.

[wnylib]

14. Mine looks behind the screen, too, when something disappears.

She is also fascinated with where the dvd tray goes when it closes. Stares it down in case it opens again.

[tblue37]

20. One of my cats from years ago used to turn my printer on in the morning so she could

watch the paper come out. At first I couldn't figure out why the floor was covered in printer paper when I got up in the morning.

My sister's cat used to stand on her dresser and flick her light on and off when she was lying in bed trying to read.

[wnylib]

22. I forget now which breed it is but I read once that

Last edited Sun Nov 17, 2019, 05:49 PM - Edit history (1)

there is one cat breed that is known for the habit of flicking lights on and onf.

Mine recently started tapping the dvd player trying to figure out where the tray went. I distracted her right away before she knocked it to the floor.

She learned that she could turn off my phone alarm by hitting the phon until accidentally hitting the right spot it went silent. I was still working then and woke up late for work. Couldn't call in because I couldn't find the phone. When I told the boss that I suspected the cat stole the phone after turning it off, she cracked up laughing.

Found the phone when I got home -- under the couch. To prove my hunch I set the phone for 2 minutes and waited. Soon as the alarm went off she started batting it until it stopped. Then she picked it up and started walking away with it.

Next day I closed the phone inside the cat carrier for safety after setting the alarm. Woke up to a crash. Kitty got mad when she couldn't reach the phone so she knocked the whole carrier to the floor.

This cat is the most challenging one I have ever had.

[wnylib]

24. At least then I understood why my radio alarm

had stopped working -- which is why I resorted to using the phone alarm.

[MaryMagdaline]

29. That's hilarious! It's tough when our lives interfere with our pets' lives

[wnylib]

32. And vice versa.

[wnylib]

12. LOL

[5X]

3. Same as mine....

Test pattern or golf, in that order.

[wnylib]

13. Who has a test pattern these days?

[catbyte]

4. There's a Social Security/Medicare ad that shows a red ball traveling a track like a rollercoaster.

I DVR'd it and the cats are always mesmerized when they watch it. They also loved DogTV when I had DirecTV, but Xfinity only has canned episodes on demand, and it's not the same. And they have the nerve to charge $4.95/month for that garbage.

[Ohiogal]

6. My dog pays no attention to the TV at all.

She’s not exactly a rocket scientist but I love her anyway ....

[Backseat Driver]

7. My doggie liked to watch my Second Life avatar's animations.

[wnylib]

17. I had a black lab who was very protective of people.

He was on the floor while we watched tv one night and didn't seem to be paying attention to the tv until the program showed a fight scene between two guys. The dog barked at the screen and rushed up to touch it with his paw. Occasionally he would also bark there was a scene with a dog in it.

OTOH, I later had a border collie who never noticed the tv at all.

[braddy]

8. My dogs was Rin Tin Tin until I had her spayed, now she just watches cooking shows.

[wnylib]

15. Wearing an apron and chef hat?

[braddy]

18. Yes, but it is less disturbing than the Teddy she wore when watching Rin Tin Tin.

[wnylib]

21. Who was it that was disturbed by the teddy?

Or is it better not to know?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. Othello likes cartoons

Lots of action bright flashes.
He also Chase's sunbeams off of the star mobile in my living room.

[LyndaG]

10. Had a cat who loved "Barney"

One time, when I got up to change the channel, he grabbed my leg.

[wnylib]

16. LOL. Wanted equal choice rights?

[TeamPooka]

19. My current dog doesn't care about TV at all but my last one loved TV, but only when football was on

I never understood why.
She'd just lay there and watch the game.
Change channel or When it was over she'd leave.

[LakeArenal]

26. My dog doesn't like what he sees

Latest was hyenas stalking some wildebeests. He objected to it strongly.

[livetohike]

27. Wild America reruns. Or any show that has Barred Owls

hooting or wolves/coyotes howling.

[MaryMagdaline]

28. My dog used to love Animal Planet

She also liked cartoons with little kids’ voices and Jane Austen movies. When we had to be gone several hours, we’d put Nickelodeon on for her.

Our male dog liked action movies because he liked sitting watching them with my husband.

[Archae]

30. If I use Youtube through my big-screen TV and XBox...

I put on YouTube, and put on these YouTube videos of birds flying in and out and eating seeds.

Both my cats love those videos.

[Bayard]

31. Nobody around here cares about TV unless a dog barks on it

They they run around barking. One of the Pyr's has started howling anytime there is singing involved.

[wnylib]

33. As a kid, I had a dog who howled when I practiced my

piano lessons. My brother said it made him feel like howling, too.

[trueblue2007]

34. my ANNIE cat loves the red string video. she recognizes the music.

&t=98s

[wnylib]

35. Good one.

[jpak]

37. Any BBC nature show with birds or smalll rodents

Baby girl kitty twitches her tail and dilates her pupils whilst making biscuits on me.

If I think she's going pounce at teh TeeVee, I change the channel.

[Codeine]

41. Rally racing and Formula1.

Bright colors zipping around on the screen is all it takes to get him worked up.

[wnylib]

43. Mine likes fast movements, too.

So I got some cartoons from the library to see if she would like them. Snoopy and Peanuts were big hits with her. I think she related to Snoopy's vulture posture when he leaped on Linus to grab the blanket.

[Niagara]

44. Our two feline keepers like the Paul Dinning YouTube videos

The last time it was a mix of bird and squirrel videos and the t.v. got knocked over while in squirrel phase. So now we avoid any squirrel videos.

One of our cats has separation anxiety and does well when the t.v. is left on 24/7. As long as humans are talking he's fine. If the t.v. gets turned off or has a internet connection error, he sometimes freaks out.

[wnylib]

45. The squirrel-incited violence is hillarious.

At least from my perspective since it wasn't my tv.

I leave a radio on for my cat, tuned to NPR since its programming is all human voice. She is probably the best informed feline in the country.

[Niagara]

50. The t.v. survived the attack

Eventually, I would like to get the t.v. placed on wall mounts so (hopefully) that never happens again.

[wnylib]

51. Good luck with that. Hope your cats are not leapers.

[rampartc]

52. cats do like the cat food commercials but

big cats on a nature show they will sit and watch.

they don't bother the mice, but i'm sure that if the wildebeests ever migrate down my street i'll find them playing with a dead one.

blossom likes this video :

[wnylib]

55. Wish I knew what the guy was saying to the cougar.

Great video but, much as I love cats, I would never be comfortable around a wild one. I know that some people walk and live freely among wildcats. But I also know how temperamental a domesticated cat can be. Wouldn't want to be near a wildcat when it felt temperamental or mischievous.

[rampartc]

58. blossom, a little siamese looking alley cat

sleeps with me in just about that position. sometimes I wake up with bleeding scratches. nothing serious, but I can imagine how sleeping with a dreaming mountain lion could end very badly.

[wnylib]

59. Indeed

[Sucha NastyWoman]

54. I have five dogs, three males and two females

The two females watch TV all day long awaiting the commercials. The three males don’t seem to see the TV at all except on rare occasions.

One of the females watches for animals on TV as a hobby. The other one thinks it is her full-time job, which she is completely expert at. She knows which music goes with which commercials. When the first note or two of a commercial sounds, that she knows there are dogs or other animals in, she initiates her work of defending our house from such animals by standing up on her hind legs in front of the tv and barking. This is when our other female joins in - she rarely initiates the routine herself. All the while, the male dogs usually pay no attention to any of it.

[wnylib]

56. You are well protected. LOL

I had a dog once who reacted to human fights on tv. He seemed to believe that he was a professional peace keeper because when he saw people in real life who seemed to be fighting (often just kids wrestling or horsing around) he put himself between them and broke up the fight by pushing one or both to the ground.

Other than that he pretty much ignored tv.

BTW, I like your moniker.

[herding cats]

57. My cat loses it when the birds in this video fly out of camera range.

She's looking behind the iPad and trying to find where it went. She'll sit and watch it for longer than she watches the real birds at the feeder.

https://m.

[wnylib]

61. I can see why. Looks like it is designed to

tease a cst. It would drive mine bonkers to see them get away. But she will not look at small screens any more. Only the tv. She used to sit behind the portable dvd player and look down over the top , which gave her an upside down view. But she lost interest in that perspective.

[sakabatou]

60. Mine likes videos of birds and fish

[wnylib]

62. For people who don't have cats, it must seem strange

that cats like to watch videos and tv so much. I have a hypothesis for why they do it.

Csts are very observant creatures. Outdoors that habit helps them learn to take care of themselves. They patrol their territory and observe everything that goes on within it.

An indoor cat substitutes this behavior with looking out windows to see what goes on in the world.

Looking at a video is very similar to looking out a window. They are viewing another world through glass that they also cannot reach or become an active part of. Their inborn instincts cause them to react to things they would notice outdoors if they could be out there.

So for an indoor cat, a video or tv screen is the same as looking out a window which, in turn, is a substitute for being able to monitor outdoor territory.

Edited to add that my indoor/outdoor cats paid much less attention to tv than the ones I kept indoors. (I always had just one at a time) As little kittens they noticed tv but when old enough to go outdoors, tv was not a good substitute to them for the real thing when they were inside.

[wnylib]

63. I do not have a hypothesis for dogs who

like tv or why some dogs never seem to notice it.

[Harker]

64. Tosca, a gregarious three-year-old Siberian Husky, gets excited by any canine presence.

I knew a cat in the past who loved NHL games nearly as much as I, and who was always thrilled by the annual showing of Paul Gallico's "The Snow Goose." Much chattering throughout.

[yellowdogintexas]

65. my adult cats are pretty much only interested in what is on my laptop

and my husband's desktop. This allows them to be as obstructive as possible.

We are fostering a kitten that is fascinated with the TV; she sits on the cabinet right in front of it and follows any motion that travels across the screen. She is very touch averse so monitor obsession is still a ways away. She is so touch averse that when we thought she was a male, we named her Elliot Ness. Now she is Ellie or Nessie.

Her major obsession though is one of our senior cats who will let her snuggle with him as long as she likes. She just adores him and he is very sweet to her.

[wnylib]

68. That's adorable. I can picture her snuggled uo'

with her pal after checking out the tv screen.