Cat

[Elapid]

woke me up at 4:55 am

now, this may not seem strange, but when you take into account that the cat called me on my cell phone to be let out...it gets a little freaky....


how could this happen, you ask?

well...
he stepped on the speakerphone button and then the redial button... of course, the last call that was made was to my cell phone...

so, i hear the speaker phone and the cellphone both making noise and the cat on the windowsill waiting to be let out...

Grrr...
at least i was able to go back to sleep!


anyone have any similar animal and technology interactions?

 

[Planet Andy]

That's great! Ringo the cat (she's a girl cat but that's another story) Often sleeps on a table right under a lamp next to the answering machine. usually once a week she'll press the "record an outgoing message" button when she stretches out in her cat REM phase. We'll call in to get messages and our greeting consists of Ringo "snarfling" the built in microphone. Even more comical is when she hits the "handset locate" button and it starts beeping right next to her head.

planet

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Ah, yeah

And I thought I was the only one...

About a year ago, I called a colleague's cell phone as we were having a system problem and I needed to marshall his resources. Well The phone answered and all I heard was this choppy noisy garbled mess. Thinking it was a bad connection, I hung up. The next day he asked me what I wanted. It seemed he had dropped his phone while mowing and his Labrador retriever had found it. So, essentially, I had a 5 minute conversation about a network outage with a dog.

Funny thing was the dog made more sense than most of the network engineers I know.

 

[Rocketmaniac]

A few years back (3 or 4) I came home on a Monday morning from work (I worked 8:00pm to 8:00am). As I pulled into the driveway, I saw my wife's van already there. (she works same hours but only drive 15 minutes, me 1 hour) As I got out of my truck I saw a Full unopened bottle of Crown Royal near my wife's van.

A few weeks before I had asked my wife to pick me up a bottle, as I was getting low. But, the week before I got a bottle myself. So I picked up the bottle and went inside. Once inside I told my wife "Thanks for getting the bottle of Crown, but I had already gotten one myself" She quickly told me that she had NOT gotten me a bottle........

End of the story...... I found out much later that the people 3 lots down from our house had a party after working on their house (they were building it themselves, and just had the foundation done) After the party they left a bag of stuff on their picnic table...... including a full bottle of Crown which my black lab decided to bring home

Now, that is a GOOD DOG!!!!!

 

[Max_Power004]

that is an AWESOME dog, a dog that brings you Crown Royal!!! Sweeet!

 

[scottrc]

Thats what I call a Retriever

We all had to give up on cordless phones when my Lab was young. He kept taking them and burying them in the yard.

To find the phone, I had to take the cell out and call my number, then walk arond the yard with my ear close to the ground.

 

[lalligood]

I have an African Grey parrot, Eljay, that does the one-sided conversation...usually while I am trying to talk on the phone.

Her routine goes something like this (and keep in mind that all words spoken are in *my* voice) :
<ring>...<ring>...
Hello?...
Uh huh...
Yeah...
Uh huh...
OK...
Yeah...
Alright...
Bye. <beep> (sound of cordless phone hanging up)

She's been doing that for probably for at least 8 years now (I've had her for 9.5 years!) Eljay also has recently learned to command our 6mth old sheperd-lab mix puppies to be quiet when barking and to stop wrestling in the house--all in both my wife's & my own voices! (The dogs usually listen to her too.)
Oh yeah, she also picked up from my wife to say "LANCE!" when she wants my attention... haha

Funny story about the cat calling you on the phone though, Elapid!

 

[lalligood]

Here's a picture of Eljay too!

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by Elapid
of course, the last call that was made was to my cell phone...

...

anyone have any similar animal and technology interactions?

I'm still trying to figure out why you called yourself on your cell phone from your speaker phone.


Not so much using my technology, but rather developing his own:

Spork, my rocket assistant (see "Two Fat Boys" thread) was always transfixed by water. One day I was taking a bath and he was sticking his paw into the water and looking at it sideways, I'd swear looking at the angle difference due to diffraction. He got tired of that, and jumped down and started to walk away. He flicked water off his paw, and it hit the baseboard heater... SSSSST. He stared. He flicked his paw again. SSSST. He flicked his paw again. SSSST. He flicked his paw again. Nothing. He immediately climbed back up on the edge of the tub, stuck his paw in the water, jumped down, flicked it at the heater..... SSSSST. Satisfied he'd figured it out, he walked off.

 

[TheRadiator]

Originally posted by lalligood
Here's a picture of Eljay too!

Nice looking bird! My dad owns an African Grey as well. His name is Juju-Bear...... don't ask me how he got that name. He became quite the sports fan. After 20 laps or so into the Indy 500, he began mimicking an Indy car engine. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Naturally, I started laughing, and eventually, he'd make the engine noise and then laugh for me at the end of it.

He also does a good Monica Seles imitation. If you've ever watched (or heard) her play, then you know what I'm talking about.
He also imitates the phone ringing, a beeper going off, and an air hammer. African Greys are a lot of fun.

Currently, I have a grey tabby cat, Jasper, who is a fairly intelligent cat. He sets off the answering machine, turns off the lights when he wants to sleep, and has attempted to turn a doorknob on several occasions. Here's a photo of the little rascal when I pinned him down. He was attacking a modem cord and I held him down long enough to get a photo

 

[Elapid]

Originally posted by DynaSoar
I'm still trying to figure out why you called yourself on your cell phone from your speaker phone.

well, that's easy!
my wife made the original call to my cellphone while i was out and about.

 

[Ozymandias]

My lazy dog never does anything like that. He just sleeps, eats, and stays in my house for free. What a racket! I'd get a cat but I'm allergic to them and I don't like their additude. Once I heard this story about a dog who dialed 911 when its owner had a heart attack. He barked into the phone until the operator sent help. When the paramedics came the dog even opened the door for them! True story.

 

[Neil]

And all ive got is a really fat cat that sits in my lap and purrs... How boring!!!

When we lived at our old house, the cats would play with the awnsering machine to get my parents to wake up and let them outside. They also jump from my mom to my dad and back again over and over and over to wake them up. Demanding creatures, cats........

 

[Steward]

Knocked over the Redstone last night...

You guessed it... I'm currently re-building the escape tower...

"That Darn Cat"....