Author: tranthe

As someone who is a scientist who studies turtles, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls tortoises turtles. If you want to be “specific” like you said, then you shouldn’t either. They’re not the same thing.

If you’re saying “turtle family” you’re referring to the taxonomic grouping of Testudines, which includes things from Meiolania to Helochelydra.

So your reasoning for calling a tortoise a turtle is because random people “call the not extinct ones turtles?” Let’s get chameleons and snakes in there, then, too.

Also, calling someone panther or a puma? It’s not one or the other, that’s not how taxonomy works. They’re both. A tortoise is a tortoise and a member of the turtle family. But that’s not what you said. You said a tortoise is a turtle, which is not true unless you’re okay with calling all members of the turtle family turtles, which means you’d call meiolania, Helochelydra and other reptiles turtles, too. Which you said you don’t.

Panther generally refers to leopards or jaguars with black coloration. It can also sometimes be used to refer to other members of the Panthera genus like lions and tigers.

Pumas (also called mountain lions and cougars, different names for the same and animal) are not part of the Panthera genus, and have never been documented to show black coloring, so it’s not accurate to call them a panther.

As the mom of shelter mutt, that was pup from a shelter mutt, that was a pup of a street mutt, this is one thing that I can put my finger up on:

☝🏻While humans may have domesticated the dog, they didn’t make the dog. The dog was a dog before it became a pet. And I have to say, regardless of the breed, I still believe that the loyalty, unconditional love, and heart of the dog is something that we humans didn’t contribute to—it would be impossible because these are traits that humans have yet to master at the same level of the dog. It’s the opposite actually; humans are better because of dogs.

Depends on how you define “dog” and how you define “pet”, but generally I would say no. Somewhere along the line there were wild wolves that were slightly less hostile to humans and weren’t killed on sight, but I wouldn’t call them dogs or pets.

And I have to say, regardless of the breed, I still believe that the loyalty, unconditional love, and heart of the dog is something that we humans didn’t contribute to—it would be impossible because these are traits that humans have yet to master at the same level of the dog.

That is a lot of sentimental mumbo-jumbo that is clearly refuted by the science. We didn’t make them into dogs by teaching them those traits, we made them into dogs by selectively breeding only the most friendly ones, over thousands of years. It doesn’t matter if we “mastered” those traits, because we were able to identify them and breed for them.

I was just thinking “if Pebbles were a cat, that squirrel would have fucked around and found out” lol the squirrels in my yard taunt my cat when he watches out the windows, but when I take him outside (either in my arms or on a leash), they make themselves scarce right quick. I’d never let him get a squirrel, but they take no risks.

That was my assumption too. We have a lot of them here in Ontario and they seem to quite easily become used to things they see on a regular basis. And of course, they will come up and accept any food right out of hand. The most aggressive squirrel I ever saw was one I gave a morsel of chocolate to. He kept coming back and seemed to insistently demand more. Can’t blame him. 🙂

I had a dog that was very chill, got along with everyone and everything but squirrels. Would haul ass to chase a squirrel. Than she would stare up into the tree and look back at me just like that, as if to say, “You saw that, right? Fucker just disappeared!”

Very very sweet. I love dogs like this. I used to have a big golden named O. He used to catch chipmunks and just carry them around in his mouth. I could always tell when he had one because he’d do this weird shuffle with his back paws. He’d barely pick them up off the ground when he was walking. I’d call him over and say “what do you have?” And he’d real gently place it on the ground. Then a terrified chipmunk would shoot away at 1000 mph right up the nearest tree. That was also how I learned chipmunks can climb trees lol. Never knew. He never hurt one and caught dozens. Or maybe the same ones multiple times. He was the goodest of boys. Man do I miss that dog.

typically i don’t rly like the temperament of smaller dogs, which in reality is a reflection of how their owner raises them. But pebbles here is a cutie pie and if you ask me she deserves to be befriended by this squirrel.

Our old cat used to walk with the dog and us. Once the walk got too long for him or he got cold paws from the snow, we would pick him up and then he would meow indicating he wants to go down to look around or smell something. And then wanted to be picked up again. I miss that cat…

My cats would also do this. I would turn around and put them inside because they would flop over and roll around in the gutter or in the middle of the street.

My neighbor’s cat has tagged along when we walk our dog. Cat hisses at her pretty much the whole time but the dog couldn’t care less. I think he tries to get a rise out of her. He is nice to people though, my son enjoys stopping to pet him when he’s out.

My daughter has always entertained the neighborhood when out walking and two cats!! One cat decided to change his style and walked from one window box to the next. When my daughter was moving people stopped me to tell me what wonderful entertainment they were!!!

You should like, maybe try to get her to stop doing that. I stopped taking my dog to the dog park because of owners like this. Not every dog likes to be immediately jumped on, and dogs with joint issues, shy dogs, older dogs etc should be able to visit the dog park without worrying about getting hurt. You can train your dog to introduce itself without “pissing off” every dog it meets, and teach it not to play rough unless it’s been invited to by the other dog. I’m sure I’ll be downvoted because people get super offended when anyone suggests they aren’t the most perfect dog owner in the world, but what you just described is straight up bad behaviour and probably isn’t funny for the other owners, even if they don’t say anything at the time. Clearly isn’t funny for the other dogs.

No downvote from me, I get it. We actually did stop taking her to the dog park for a while (unless it was empty, which isn’t uncommon in my small town). I guess I should have said ‘used to’, because we tried again about a week ago and she was perfectly well behaved.

“There was another dog here a few years ago, kinda looked like you. Beautiful coat, a reddish gold that shimmered in the morning sun. He also liked to have his pick of the toy bin. But he didn’t understand the order of things. He just wouldn’t get the hint. That’s not how it works around here. One day, he just stopped showing up at drop off. Funny how that happens sometimes…

You know what? The more I watch this, the more I see it as dominance. I was thinking that the hesitancy and gentleness were more salient that it really is. Because now I’m noticing how she is always touching the face and head and staring with, like you said, wide and unblinking eyes. The other dogs interpret this correctly, and I’m a dumb human.

This is why I get frustrated at the anthropomorphism of pets/animals on social media like Reddit. A lot of animal behaviors are much different from how people initially interpret them and it can lead to disastrous results an incorrect blaming.

This dog is obviously used to being in control and dominating other dogs without issue. When another dog challenges this dominance display, who do you think is going to get the blame?

Could be another explanation, but my general thought is that they don’t really know what they’re doing. They’re just going “For some reason I have a need to put my paw on this other dog” and doesn’t get that it’s her instinct to be dominant over them.

Despite the “dominance” answer, in this same thread, I think you’re more likely to be correct. My dog actually does this when she’s looking for our other dogs to give her attention. She literally wants them to pet, kiss, or love on her, and she’s so used to requesting it like that, with me, that she does it to the other dogs, as well. She’s basically requesting attention. So many people just label any kind of canine behavior as “dominance”, with so much certainty, but very little proof, or study on the subject.

It’s their natural response and I love them for it. I got a golden doodle but he’s a hell of a lot more golden than doodle, he strikes that pose any time anyone walks past him or we get home from somewhere.

I have a shorthair and she does this all the time. It’s cute and I feel like it’s just her telling me she wants some love, sometimes when she wants some play. Shes very touchy but that can be a problem sometimes around guests. The vet I see thinks she might be a French shorthair. She is small and the vet guesses she’s about 3 now but is small for her age. I dont really know much about the differences in the French/German breeds. Curious if any of you had any knowledge on that?

Obligatory warning that they are a high intensity breed with oceans of energy and intelligence and not for the casual dog owner. If you can meet the demands of the breed they are better than most people and the dearest companions. If you can’t meet the demands its like having gremlins on cocaine running amuck.

I just got one. I’m paraplegic and live right next to my dad, who has the BEST GSP ever. She’s the sweetest and so athletic and wouldn’t hurt a fly. She never gets on the counters either. I’m hoping they can play together a lot and old one can teach baby one as I can’t really go out in the yard so easily where I live while in a wheelchair. As for intelligence, I Just spent the weekend with both of them and baby learned “sit” in literally two attempts with the older one there. I swear they understand more than we think.

I always asked myself the same thing but it depends on the dog though. My dog is a bit weird one because he absolutely never barks even though he’s a big boy (beautiful mutt between boxer and Bernese mountain dog) and only barks if he sees someone outside passing by our house especially if they are loud and taking or if someone he doesn’t know comes into driveway. So i think when he barks in his dreams like that it probably means he’s not really enjoying his dreams. Even the dog in this video got up and tried to wake him up….

I honestly don’t know, I just do it when they’re like crying/whimpering in their sleep, which doesn’t happen too often, maybe a couple times a month. They never seem to care, usually just wake up, look at you and go right back to sleep.

Very very occasionally, maybe once a year, my dog screams in her sleep and it is terrifying. I do wake her up. If she had a more aggressive personality I might not because they can get disoriented when you do it but I can’t stand listening to it doing nothing. Just whining I probably wouldn’t wake her, that could be for anything.

I think ur fine, I’d do the same thing. As a matter o’ fact..Aren’t we all watching the same video of a dog instinctively wake his friend up from some sort of dream, outta’ concern? Who better to teach us how to “dog” than another dog? Yeah..ur doing the right thing..

I’ve heard that you should hold your hand near their nose. This should give them a reassuring smell and take them out of the bad part of the dream. When I do this with my dog she usually wakes up soon after and seems happy to see me.

I’ve read that is not recomended to directly wake them up because of the shock of the nightmare and you worried next to him. I personally when my dog has one I try to make a familiar noise to him and indirectly wake him up and then pet him

I always wonder what my dog thought after waking up from a dream/nightmare, i mean they don’t know what dreams are…so do they think it was something that actually happened? I always worried that my dog would wake up stressed because he’s suddenly in a different place then he was in his dream and that would be worse.

I always heard ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. I think mainly because if you wake a dog from a dead sleep they could potentially attack you if they are still dreaming of being chased or attacked themselves. That being said I did used to put my hand on my dog when he had a nightmare and tell him things were ok. It always stopped the whimpering and he’d go back to a quiet sleep.

One of mine growls, howls and his eyes roll back in his head. The other one runs like her life depends on it while she’s asleep in her crate and kicks the sides. It sounds like a wild animal is trying to break out. Sleep howls are eerie sounding.

We adopted miniature dachshund sisters, and one of them does this, too. As soon as her sister starts making any noise at all while she’s sleeping, or moves unusually in any way, she panics and rushes to check on her. They’re both so sweet, and we love them so much!

One of ours once woke me up by pouncing on my ear. Went from a dead sleep to sitting upright, screaming, with claws embedded in my cheek and my scalp, and needle-teeth clamped in my ear.

I went from living alone to having a dog this past summer and the first night that she came in in the middle of the night and stuck her nose right on my foot that was hanging off the bed outside the covers was like every child’s nightmare come to life.

I legit will not let my toes be bare at the edge of the bed. My mind says ” scary demon will get you from under bed’. It was ny step brother’s cat when I was 5. I remember that.

I think they just expect it. I tend to foster kittens right around when they’re weaned or with their mothers. I have a little deaf-blind old man cat who lives for kittens and bathes and mothers them. They never give up looking for milk in Momma Stephens fluff

It’s not just the smell. 13 years ago I got a puppy. I brought it up in bed and he latched on to my nipple!! At that time I’d never had or nursed a baby in my life, so no smell of milk. Weirdest thing that ever happened to me. Poor boy missed his mama, but I scared him by my reaction.

Yeah I was wondering, is it safe for an animal to drink milk from a different species? I mean I know we are all similar and chemicals are chemicals no matter where they come from, but just wondering.

Iirc most animals lose the ability to process lactose once they’re out of infancy. But since drinking animal milk is a good source of nutrients for people, children who didn’t lose that ability had a higher chance of survival, and because of that, a higher chance of passing it on.

They have a strong sense of smell – which is why you shouldn’t wear any perfume if you want to hold a small baby. It’s also super irritating for the mother to get her baby back smelling like another person. Suuuuper annoying. Smokers are the worst. Bring a change of clothes when visiting newborns, people!

Now I have a couple of thoughts on that, the first is pretty obvious: Humans domesticated the cow, to the best of my knowledge no other species on earth has domesticated livestock for dairy production. We don’t see orangutans drinking glasses of milk for the same reason don’t see African swallows installing headers in their Honda Civic.

If you’ve owned a house cat you know those gremlins will guzzle down milk like it’s going out of style. If you’ve ever had a dog you know that they’ll be happy to drink a bowl full of milk. I’ve seen racoons and opossums drink milk. And not to be outdone, nature itself, sometimes, will hook up a kitten or a puppy or a kid with a mother from a different species (like we’re seeing in the video above) and they won’t miss a single beat plugging themselves in to a pig or lamb or sheep to nurse. In my (admittedly limited) experience, the number of animals who will drink milk vastly outstrip those who won’t.

(Important note about that, though: While milk makes a wonderful treat for house pets, it absolutely shouldn’t make up the main bulk of their calories. You know this, I know this, but it still bears repeating. Milk is delicious stuff, but house cats can’t live on milk alone.)

The larger point that the pundit was trying to make was that humans aren’t naturally lactose tolerant, that’s an evolutionary trait. Here in the west most of us can consume dairy without a second thought, but there are many places around the world where lactose will send a person running to the bathroom. Unfortunately he chose to make that case in perhaps the weakest, mostly easily dismissed way possible, which is somewhat of a shame, that his point was obscured by his arguments.

He was really sharp on everything else, though, when it came to politics he absolutely knew his shit, no doubt about that! He just had a weird thing for milk drinkers, I guess.

You don’t even need to cut out dairy to stop supporting the dairy industry. Though you should know most dairy farmers aren’t giant operations, they’re relatively small farms with ~100 head that sell their milk to a larger company. Nonetheless, if you like dairy products but don’t want to support factory farming there is, almost for a 100% certainty, a local farmer in your area selling his milk himself. Maybe it’s sold from a shop on his farm, maybe he has a local farmer’s market that does it. Either way it’ll just take the effort once to find them. After that, you’ll always know where to get the freshest, most local, most ethically produced dairy.

When I was a kid my family went on a day trip out to the river, while my mum had my baby sister, my dad and I got in the canoe and were going to paddle it around a bit. We had only gotten about five metres away when we suddenly stopped, when we looked back we found our yellow lab had run out, grabbed one of the handles in his mouth and was trying to drag us back to shore.

I love that we don’t even see when Golden doggie jumped in. We just see that the super concerned black doggie took all the time to run around and panic and by the time it jumped in, Golden already solved the problem.

Ikr? Would’ve made the rescue even harder. I get what they invented to show with this scene. But especially considering that atla is a kids show I’d prefer they would’ve taken a different approach

They lived on an island with another monster off the shores. I’d have to assume there clothes were swimmable, then again water tribe clothes should be too(even if they were cold climate).

I kind of wonder how traumatizing stuff like this is for dogs. Black lab is clearly distressed and ultimately did the heroic thing, but still. Listen to it whine like that. I wouldn’t want to put my dog into a situation where he thought I was in danger and freaked him out for no reason.

Dogs can also be dramatic, this one was obviously distressed but my german shepherd makes similar sounds whenever I don’t pay attention to him, or give attention to another dog, or miss dinner time by a few minutes, or when he wants out of my room, or when he wants in my room (often moments after letting him OUT of my room), or when I grab the leash for a walk, or when I pick up a toy, really anytime he does anything he’s gotta be fuckin’ dramatic over it.

Separation anxiety can be trained out of dogs, or at least reduced significantly. Might be worth talking to a trainer about it. When we took our pup to a class, our trainer gave us techniques to use to teach our pup that us leaving and coming home was a very normal thing. Now he’s really calm when we leave, and doesn’t bark or freak out when we come home.

See this is cute as fuck and really sweet knowing a dog cares and wants to rescue you from potential drowning, but my pupper SCREAMS AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS when one of us goes in the water, and pulls the leash like a madman trying to get in to save us. this actually genuinely stresses him out, and we’ve already been through this multiple times. usually pupper swims with us in calm waters, but he will complete disregard his own safety if there’s huge waves and is still convinced his tiny 25 pound body can handle saving a grown human.

Seriously. People always freak out about the slightest possible inconvenience to an animal. I get it, I LOVE cats and doggos too, but seriously. Dogs have poor long term memory and almost non-existent short term memory. Their entire existence is working memory, 30 seconds at a time. By the time that black lab got out to their human and realized they were safe they’d already forgotten why they were there and were now just happy to be swimming around.

Our dog started doing it when we go to the beach swimming. Can’t bring the dog to the beach anymore, just not worth the hassle. He’s started going to “save” random people too, just can’t handle anyone swimming.

Sorry to bring the mood down but this actually made me sad. This dog looks exactly like my parents dog, Lily, who died two weeks ago. She was a great dog, a rescue they had for years and one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known.

Her and their cat (who died two weeks before her) were best frenemies since day one. They would “fight” for the dog bed. She would always let the cat take the bed from her, no matter how comfortable she was but the moment he was out she would be back in the bed. I miss them both.

It’s a comfort thing. The kitten is likely stressed being away from her mom in a new surrounding with new animals, so nursing is kitten’s way of establishing some normality for comfort and stress relief. Full grown adult cats who weren’t separated from their mother young and were fully weaned sometimes do it too to self-soothe.

We fostered a mother cat and her two 7wk old kittens. She had them 90% weaned by the time we got them all, but still would let them occasionally nurse for a min or two. Then at 8 weeks she cut them off completely and would smack, hiss and growl at them if they tried to latch on. She loved to cuddle with them, but if they went for her nips, her whole demeanor changed lol. Funny thing is, the 3 other male cats we have (ours, not fosters) were more than happy to let the kittens mock nurse on their bellies. It was pretty adorable. I have a few videos of them nursing on the boys that I can look for in the morning and share 😊

I had a male cat who did this with two kittens found in my backyard. The mother cat didn’t come back for a few days, so we brought the kittens in and he immediately took in the two kittens. They would attempt to suckle him for a few months and he was pretty chill about it.

every doggo do that they’re lying down and their head lifts up and they look up at everyone with their sad sad eyes and they look like they’re wondering “ h h ei wats going oon? Can Iiiiii participate?? Or can I sleeeps”

We had a rescue cat that had had several litters. We fixed her when she came to live with us. A few months later, we found a kitten that was about 7 weeks old. We couldn’t find a mom or the owner, so she came to live with us. This kitten started nursing often. We woke up one morning and discovered a huge mass on the cat. It literally appeared overnight and was probably 8 inches by 5 inches. Took her to the vet immediately and found out it was due to the nursing when she had no milk. I can’t remember what he said it was though. We stopped the nursing and it went away pretty fast.