Do your pets watch you cook?

[hippywife]

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]

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]

2. Nope

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

[hippywife]

3. The Inspector!

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

[spinbaby]

15. Ours are supervisors

They supervise cooking, gardening, bathing...everything, in fact, except vacuuming. That, they figure, we can do on our own.

[elleng]

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]

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. :rofl:

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.

Thank you, ellen, for being so sweet. Happy New Year to you, dear. :hug:

[Tab]

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]

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]

8. Frogs?

I guess that's what you get for living in the southwest.

What the heck... cook a few.

[eridani]

9. Geez. I found out about that once by turning on the broiler before looking inside

Yeecchhh!

[eridani]

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.

[Stinky The Clown]

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]

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.

amusedly,
Bright

[Tab]

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.

[hippywife]

16. How very sweet of you guys

to take in such a special needs dog. The ongoing medical care must have been exorbitant! You're good folk, you are! :hug:

[Tab]

34. I have to give my wife the credit

she's the "rescuer". Formerly on the board of her local humane society. Not that I don't care, but she's more driven to it than I. My ex and I bred dogs, so probably the one reason my wife actually married me was that I wasn't freaked out by the fact that she had 6 dogs (a few have passed over time). Now we have 5, 3 are rescues - one, as I described, another a former street dog that now just wants to lay on the couch (and he deserves it), a third rescued from a kill shelter who is more trouble than the other four combined, the fifth is a Border Collie / Schizophrenic mix. He does have a title, but I swear... The one from the kill shelter is a hound and he gives us more trouble than any other dog I've ever owned. To his credit, he's extra cute. I think that's how nature ensures that dogs and little children survive - they make the difficult ones extra cute.

[Mojorabbit]

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]

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.

[Lucinda]

28. I make cat food soup for one of my guys...dry cat food and warm water

then swish around until it makes a gravy. He loves it. LOL

[GentryDixon]

18. When my Sammy hears me pull the cutting board

out he comes running. He is constantly under my feet while I am cooking.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

33. What a cutie. I'm a sucker for a smooshed in face

especially one with an underbite. I have 2 Peke mixes - Buster is probably part Tibetan Spaniel and Louie probably has Shih Tzu or Lhasa in him - both rescues from local shelters.

[hedgehog]

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.

[NashVegas]

20. Nope

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

[Duer 157099]

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.

[NMDemDist2]

29. not really, the needle nosed fuzzy butt will hang out just outside the

cooking area 'just in case'

but the older ones have been shooooed out and gotten yelled at enough not to even go there.

the cat just doesn't care.

the old girl (if the smells are driving her nutz) will sit in the living room and bark until she gets in trouble or Mr. K gives her a treat

:rofl:

[lukasahero]

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]

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.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. they supervise very well. nt

[kestrel91316]

25. Sort of. My cat does Dropped Crumb Patrol at my feet whenever I spend more than 10 seconds

in the kitchen. And he loves for me to pick him up and carry him to the stove so he can see into the pots.

[lies and propaganda]

26. one totally does!

Im pretty sure its because he thinks he is going to get some turkey lurkey ;0

[irish.lambchop]

27. The minute my dog hears me getting out pots, pans, whatever,

she plants herself in the middle of the kitchen as I usually drop something on the floor. I do note, however, that she doesn't like carrots, olives, or cucumber :)

[mopinko]

30. just the new kid. but he watches everything that anyone does.

the 3 "old" dogs have all been trained to stay out of the kitchen. the new kid has no idea. he gets chased out about every 5 minutes, then he is back. in fairness, he has no idea that when you tell him to do something you mean- for more than 2 seconds. like sit-stay. and get out of my kitchen.
i fear he might never get it. he is a little self absorbed.

[bearfan454]

31. Daisy watches franmarz(my mom) cook.

She's waiting for something to fall on the floor. My old dog name Daisy used to her me rattling pots and pans so she would wake up and smell the air and go back to sleep, look and smell when I was setting the table, then go back to sleep, then get up and come mooch when we would sitdown at the table to eat. Smart, huh?

[Tab]

32. Just as a side-note, poisonous to dogs....

Grapes and chocolate.

Milk chocolte is most common in households, but actually not as bad health-wise for dogs. Dark chocolate is the worse - the levels of thrombomine can cause a heart attack in them.

I had a cocker spaniel who got into a stash of M&Ms (milk chocolate) and she was mighty sick. Darker chocolate, though, could have killed her.

Grapes are also highly poisonous to dogs. Most don't know this. The only mitigating factor is that I've yet to have a dog that will actually eat grapes. Most of them play with them, might possibly eat one at the very most, but I've never seen one that took a liking to them (and I've bred dogs and have had maybe nearly 60, various breeds). So chocolate is the bigger danger.