Okay so I have just procrastinated on my homework by working on saddle the pony (my roommates are so relieved that after 2 months of lessons I have gotten to at least sound decent so they don’t threaten to riot when i practace anymore) and I wish to procrastinate more… so in the keeping with the random threads I have a tendency to start (remeber the day jobs?) I was wondering what kind of pets do chiff and fipple people have? And how do your pets respond to your whistle playing? Anyone have any funny stories? (the neighbors dog used to howl when i used to practace my saxophone many years ago.)
so I start I guess:
I have many fish- one betta in a tank named fred who lives along because he’s a mean bastard and tries to kill anything near him-
and i have a bigger tank with 3 minnows (the Stooges) one platy (Sancho Pansa- his sidekick Don Quioxte died) and one lean mean algae eater named Groucho- they however do not care about my whistle playing- they just look at me and blow bubbles…
I have the two rats, Bart and Larry. They don’t like the whistle playing…I think it’s too shrill, and reminds them of their own alarm cries (they don’t like it if I squeak at them either).
My dear old doggie, Cedar, is deaf now, but when he could hear, he used to try to “sing along” when I’d play whistle or recorder. Being a poodle, he doesn’t really howl, but would do this annoying, wailing bark (I used to wait to practice until he was fast asleep).
My old tortie cat, Khani, who died last year, loved all kinds of music. We adopted her from the shelter as a senior citizen, and we’ve often speculated that her previous owner must have been a musician. Not only did she love the whistle (she used to insist on sitting on my shoulder when I was playing), but when we got our piano, she got very excited, loving all over it like it was a long-lost friend. I still miss her terribly .
Our new kitty-boy, Jonah (a very large, jet-black cat with orange eyes…the original Halloween cat!), hasn’t shown either an aversion or attraction to music yet.
My household is home to 2 cockatiels, Bard and Diva (there used to be Dancer the cockatiel too before he passed on), Rainbow the Betta Fish, Banshee the Kitty, and my son’s dearly departed (as of yesterday) SpeedJumper the Wonder Frog.
The birds start loudly accompanying me whenever the whistle comes out. Banshee ran for cover the other day the minute I started to play Cliffs of Moher. I didn’t know I was quite that bad at it! She usually sticks around unless she’s on my lap-- then she gets down quite quickly. Ah well. Rainbow and SpeedJumper never seemed to mind much, but they were also unable to get away-- contained in glass as they were.
My children never complain about me playing, bless their little hearts-- my husband just rolls his eyes and leaves the room. I’m forbidden from playing in the car while he drives. Sigh… Oh, this was supposed to be about pets wasn’t it? Ignore this last paragraph and pardon my rambles…
On 2002-11-03 17:28, Redwolf wrote:
Well, lemme see…
I have the two rats, Bart and Larry. They don’t like the whistle playing
“You know what dad told me one time. Dad told me this way back years ago, when I was just a boy. An’ he raised alot of corn, every year he raised a thousand bushel, and he worked us to death nearly. An’ he worked us awful hard. And uh, it’d tickle us when it would rain a day an’ we got to stay in…An’ one, one day we had an’ old banjo and pound aroun’ on it ya’ know. An one day he told me, he said, ‘You know rats won’t stay where there’s music?’”- Ward Jarvis
I have one cat, a shelter rescue named Ceili. Despite her name, she mostly just ignores my playing except when I hit the high notes - then she leaves the room. I came home from work a couple of years ago to discover two extra holes in my Walton’s Little Black that look suspiciously like teeth marks…I guess that’s her opinion of my playing. But she hasn’t been able to make a dent in the Copeland! (No, I haven’t really let her try…)
My four greyhounds don’t seem to care one way or the other of my playing. The closest they come to caring is that Ruby likes attention, and it annoys her that I won’t stop to pet her. She once head-butted my arm while playing my Chieftain Low-D, which rammed it straight into my teeth. (ouch).
I have a number of sea-monkeys, both at home and on my desk at the office. I don’t have names for any of them, and they don’t appear to respond to music.
Well, they’s actually a variety brine shrimp, grow to about 1/3" to 1/2" long when adult, from the size of a grain of sand (or smaller).
They’ve been around since the 50s or 60s, and the packaging hasn’t changed much in the meantime!
I had some a couple of years back but alas they all died. I’m hoping to have better success this time round. There seems to be a big push on for the Christmas market in the UK. Several varieties of tanks are now available to hold them in, (mine is shaped like a submarine, the real deluxe tank) and you can even get spare food sachets now quite cheaply. Previously you’d have to buy another whole starter pack to get enough food to last the two years they are supposed to live.
I used to have Sea Monkeys®. There is also a larger freshwater shrimp you can get in pet shops (I’ve gotten them in American and Philippine pet shops through the years) called ghost shrimp, I think, that look a lot like the picture on the Sea Monkey® Package. The ghost shrimp sell for like 10 for a dollar or something.
My cockatiel likes to sing along when I’m playing the whistle.
I have two Cockatiels…Tory and Billy who like to fly madly thru the house at the mere sound of a whistle. Especially Billy, he likes to land on my living room curtains and “do his business” just get even. I also have an Amazon parrot, Godzucky..“Baby” for short who does not care what I do as long as I leave him alone. Then there are the six turtles…Ti-Ti, Joxer, Mr. Turtle, Babydoll, Shikiko, and Heather, who don’t give a darn about my whistling as neither does “Mina” my California albino Kingsnake. Then ..oh gosh…our beloved ratties who live upstairs…Mary, Martha, and Stuart who really hate it if I play upstairs during the day when they want to sleep. Night is ok…after 9pm thank you very much and by then I am too tired to even consider it. My pets run the house, what can I say??? I am banished to my bedroom with my whistle, which is the only critter free room in the house it would seem!!!
I have a long-haired black cat named Dulcie. I was playing an Appalachian mountain dulcimer one day and she started plucking the strings with her teeth, hence the name.
When I play the whistle, she will come out of her hiding place and lay down nearby. When I stop playing, she will meow.
Five cats ( my wife’s idea, not mine… I can’t stand the darned things) who, when nearby, rub against me when I play.
Two Yorkies, who lay at my feet, a Greyhound who could care less, and a 3 month old Cocker Spaniel who comes running to me and lays beside me while I play. Not unlike her predecessor, Buffy, who always sought me out in my music/computer room when I played and lay by me the entire time.
Sea monkeys are brine shrimp??? Thanks, Martin, for solving a many-year-old mystery for me! I used to read this stack of old comic books that my aunts and uncles left lying around when I was a kid, and there would be advertisements for sea monkeys in them. I always thought “Is this a joke? What on earth is it?”
I haven’t thought of that for many years. But now I know! Thanks!
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