What chores do your animals help you with?

Stella simply MUST participate in changing the sheets. She jumps on the bed and stomps on the sheets when I fluff them out to make them settle down.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, she likes to assist me when doing yoga or other exercises.

She fetches me random pieces of paper throughout the house - receipts, dollar bills, crumpled up papers, etc. I think she's trying to declutter

And of course, she has to paticipate in The Changing of the Litter.

Alas, Jackson isn't so much into chores. They get him dirty (seriously, he is very OCD about keeping himself clean).

Anybody else?

My cat does the bed-making thing and is an expert typist who frequently opens firefox help menus and turns on something called "sticky keys" which I, the allegedly more intelligent animal, have never been able to figure out how to cancel except by restarting the computer.
She also makes sure that empty cardboard boxes do not remain cat-free for too long.

My boy also has OCD. He was a homeless street cat for quite some time. Maybe that's the cause for his over-grooming?

As for chores, he enjoys laying on dryer fresh laundry. And he likes to be underneath the sheets when I'm changing them.

Btw Flexi, do I need to pay you loyalty for using "Meow Say Tongue?"

grafixguy wrote:
Btw Flexi, do I need to pay you loyalty for using "Meow Say Tongue?"

Being unemployed, I know the answer should be "yes', but I'll just put it out into the Universe in hopes that somehow it will come back to me

When I am at my mom's house doing laundry (because you are NEVER too old to do your laundry at your mom's house, IMHO), when we stretch out the sheets, Stella jumps on them and we (gently) toss her up in the air. She loves it.

Jackson's white fur is VERY white. He likes to keep it that way, thankyouvermuch.

Of course, they both serve as official Bird Watchers and Bug Removers.

Flexichick wrote: Jackson's white fur is VERY white. He likes to keep it that way, thankyouvermuch.

Aubrey's white fur is the same. "SNOWY white!" I say to him. He is also absolutely fanatical about his mani/pedi, and scrapes his claws between his teeth in a way that sets my teeth on edge.

He is extremely interested in bathroom cleaning operations. He doesn't actually help much, but he supervises. He's also a fan of dryer-fresh laundry, and laying his head on the computer key that goes +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++.

In my old garden apartment Lucinda killed a mouse and many bugs and growled at anyone who came to the front door, but now in this walkup she leads a life of ladylike leisure (she's getting quite soft, really, no longer 'Miss Mountain Lion'), as does Wanda, who is too old for chores.

Duh...I just noticed my typo. Can I edit the headline?

Aubrey and Jackson are two Mr. Cleans.

They do both love to help cool off the warm laundry.

Ms. Thang is now also an assistant hairstylist. She has to be involved in all of the blowdrying. She lets me try out new styles on her. She's a fan of spikey 'dos.

Anytime I drop something small and metal on the floor, I can count on Ripley finding it within 5 minutes. I drop a nail on the floor and 5 minutes later it's in Ripley's mouth. Cheech and Ripley have found me change on the street before by pooping near it. I bend down to pick up their poop and, "Hey, a quarter!"

Flexichick wrote: Duh...I just noticed my typo. Can I edit the headline?

I got it for you Flexi. But I think that non-mods have that ability -- look for an "edit" button on the first post in any thread you've started.

Apollonia and Neely O'Hara also like to help with the changing of the sheets and the flattening down of the clean laundry basket. They also like to inspect my toilet cleaning technique and LOVE to help me pack when I'm getting ready for a trip, hanging out in or on the suitcase to supervise.

One chore they don't help with is vacuuming. They do not like the vaccuum one bit and hightail it to another room whenever they see me plugging it in. Hate it hate it HATE it!

apollonia666 wrote: One chore they don't help with is vacuuming. They do not like the vaccuum one bit and hightail it to another room whenever they see me plugging it in. Hate it hate it HATE it!

Mine too. Lucinda always gives me this look of, "Why, WHY do you do this to us" before she runs under the bed.

They also run away from the ironing board because it squeaks horribly when I set it up.

No matter where he is in the apartment, Oscar comes running to supervise how much dishwasher liquid I'm using.... never fails. Supervision involves him sitting on the open dishwasher door with nose as close as possible to the liquid - i have to push him off to get the door shut. Nutso cat.

Oh, my cats help me pack too. Except my late, great Phantom used to pee in the suitcase after she was done hanging out in it. Not good at all. I used to tell anybody who stayed over that they were leaving their suitcase on the floor at their own risk!

They don't like vaccuuming.

I don't know about ironing, because I simply can't/don't/won't iron anything :-)

Furry - is Oscar the blind one? That's a pretty funny image

No - Oscar is blessed with sight and doesn't miss a thing

Merlin, the blind one, also has a thing about suitcases - thank god he doesn't pee in them though. That would really stink....

Oscar is either very frugal or he likes his dishes clean. That's a pretty funny quirk he has, very cute!

if she makes a mess around her bowl she takes her paw and "sweeps" it into a little pile.

caseopele wrote: Oscar is either very frugal or he likes his dishes clean. That's a pretty funny quirk he has, very cute!

I'll have to try and get a photo of him doing it. You'd think after 3 years he'd be bored of it - I mean, it's not like there's food involved!

Now if only I could get him to clean up the mess he makes when he eats..... that's a skill worth having!

If only I could get my cats to bring home some money!

Does Oscar do that regardless of which brand you buy? Do you think he likes the smell, or is it the actual event that he's into?

He doesn't seem to have a preference - it changes from Cascade to environmentally-friendly stuff.... it must be the smell though, since he doesn't come running every time I open the dishwasher, only when I'm putting the detergent stuff in.

I'd swear he was a genius, but unfortunately this is not demonstrated anywhere else! (He's the one who's afraid of water in all forms and under Darwin's Laws would not have survived).

erikka, you have no idea how lucky you are! My cats think it's their duty to make as big a mess as possible. They really enjoy picking up a mouthful of food and dropping it on the table to eat it there. Of course, they never eat all of it so there are crumbs everywhere. I put their bowl in a wooden wine crate in the hopes of containing the mess. Didn't work!

I trained my dog to take my socks off my feet. It's especially convenient when my lower back is acting up, hee hee.

cythren, if I tried to do that I would never get the socks back in one piece! A customer brought his dog into the wine store a month or 2 ago and the dog was carrying his dry cleaning ticket in his mouth! He would carry it the whole way to the dry cleaners for him. I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with having two 65lb heaters to keep me warm in the winter.

This is just adorable...... how do I get my cats to do that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=450076&in_page_id=1773

Of course, it would help if I had a piano.

My dogs very helpfully let me know when another dog is walking by our house, by barking like maniacs. My cats are not useful at all. One of them thinks it's her job to wake me up every morning -- but she's wrong.

FurryGreyBoy I just loaded the dishwasher. Please tell Oscar to get his butt over here!

My Rocky loves to get the toilet paper roll going (and going, and going)
My Sonic makes sure that all his toys are picked up (as well as rubber bands, shoelaces, my son's socks) and deposited nicely into his food bowl.
Both my boys make sure that any bug that enters this house is "disposed of properly" i.e., swallowed with a swig of cold tap water.

My cats are mostly useless in the chore department, they rarely notice bugs. But Pele (my incredibly heavy cat) likes to let me know when she needs something. Low on food or water? Parks her fat tush on my stomach while I'm sleeping. Messy litter box? Drives one massive paw into my pancreas. She's quite plump (my vets can't figure out why, she doesn't eat alot and is very agile for her size) but I swear that her density rivals that of a neutron star. And she can concentrate that density into one paw on my sternum.

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Flexichick wrote: FurryGreyBoy I just loaded the dishwasher. Please tell Oscar to get his butt over here!