When my friend’s brother was younger, he had a cat called Scallywag, a tom cat. One holiday, they were driving round a roundabout in Birmingham (not sure if that was the final destination of their holiday – I shall resist all other comments) and Scallywag made a bid for freedom through the slightly open back window. Despite driving round the roundabout for the next few hours and combing the surrounding area, Scallywag was not to be found. The dejected family were about to carry on their way, when suddenly the cat was spotted! Elated, they grabbed the moggy and shut it firmly in the car.
Six months later, and Scallywag had all but forgotten about his run in with a roundabout in Brum. Until he went to the vet that is, and the vet told his family that this wasn’t Scallywag, or if it was, the time he went missing on the roundabout had resulted in a sex change – Scallywag was now a lady cat! So not only had the family abandoned the cat to the elements in Birmingham, they had also unwittingly cat-napped someone else’s cat and moved it halfway across the country.
Mistaken identity seems to be a regular issue for cats (well, they all look the same to me). A friend who lives in Brighton had recently noticed a missing cat poster near their house. So when a black cat with a nick in its ear appeared in their yard looking lost, they thought it was the cat on the poster, as it fitted the description perfectly. They lured it inside with a can of tuna and phoned up the number on the poster. “Does the cat have grey flecks in its tail?” they were asked? It did – turns out that wasn’t the missing cat, but in fact a cheeky impostor cat who was cashing in on the other cat’s misfortune by looking lost and eating lots of food that it was being supposedly lured in by, and then causing missing cat’s owners disappointment every time they got a call about it.
Another friend tells the tragic story of the demise of her childhood pet guinea pig Elliot. The family decided to get Elliot a guinea pig friend to keep him company, but had been warned off another male pig by the vet, as he said they’d fight. Unfortunately the pet shop was all out of lady pigs, so they decided to get a female rabbit instead. All was well, until a trip to the vet revealed that Jess the rabbit was in fact a male rabbit, at which point his name was changed to Jesse. What happened next you wonder – do male rabbits fight with male guinea pigs? Maybe, but not in Jesse’s case. In fact, he took rather a liking to Elliot, so much so that, in the sensitive words of my friend’s mum to her seven year old daughter, “Jesse bonked Elliot to death”. My friend is still traumatised by this event, so I’m not laughing about it, honest.
Jack Russells are always a source of amusing news stories, such as Candy the dog who went fishing with her owner Elwyn Thomas, but as he cast-off she jumped up taking the bait hook, line and sinker. She was rushed to vet Richard Gibson in Llanelli and an x-ray showed the two inch (5cm) steel hook stuck inside her. Rather than operate he prescribed a diet of banana sandwiches to let nature take its course and two days later the problem was solved. See here for full story.
Ooh and look here for a story about a jack Russell that can horse ride!
Oh and who spotted the recent story about the piglet born in Croatia with six legs and two penises? It’s like some sort of joke – what did they call it? Octopig of course!
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4 Responses to “What’s an Octopig?”
Posted: Jun 20th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Animals do the funniest things! I love them.
My spaniel dog, Toby, used to bark at the hanging basket that he could see thorugh the dappled glass of the front door thinking it was a person, so we’d open the door and say “Toby it’s just a hanging basket”. Then we’d shut the door and he’d contiune barking. He also used to hump my friends legs when they came round, particularly one girl called Zoe, who made the mistake of kneeling down with her back to him…
Our one eyed ginger cat, Bobbles, went missing, then a man turned up with a cardboard box looking worried, and asid he had a dead ginger cat in the box, we started crying, but turned out it wasn’t Bobbles but another dead cat - yey!
Also, and I feel a bit bad about this, when I was really young I cleaned out teh cage of mine and my sister’s mice (Mighty and Danger) but accidentally threw my sister’s mouse out with the sawdust - oops!
Posted: Jun 21st, 2007 at 9:57 am
I have a Jack Russell, call Gaspode for the Pratchett fans out there! Not only does he talk quite a bit, he’s also had some interesting adventures. I bought him in Durban, South Africa, and used to take him to university with me as a puppy, until one day I came out to find him eating half a muffin in the court, it wasn’t until later I found out it was a special muffin, and had a very weird puppy for a few hours. But his experimenting didn’t stop there, oh no! He also found my tranquillizers one day (after my friend’s funeral I needed them, not normally in the house!), and ate the entire months supply. Luckily, the vet pointed out that his high metabolic rate meant not much of the drug was absorbed, so we just had a very drunk puppy with no co ords for a couple of hours. I think he learnt his lesson then! However, daily I will come home, and no matter how hard I have tried, he will have got into the bins, and the laundry and both will be strewn around the floor, normally with those most embarrassing bits in the most obvious places, for all my friends to see. People tell me he’s bored, I can assure you I do my best to exercise him and give him many many distractions and work toys, but being a Jack Russell, I can tell you, they are just willful! But provide much amusement.
Posted: Jun 21st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Oh jack russells - the comedy value they have! Anyone who knows me knows quite how much I love them, so I shall restrain myself from telling too many stories here, but those stories made me laugh Sophia!
Posted: Aug 16th, 2007 at 10:22 am
A piglet born in Croatia with six legs, two anuses and two penises has been nicknamed Octopig by owner Ivica Seic.
Russell Brand, of BBC Radio 2 fame has recently expressed an interest in obtaining Octopig with the intention of him making an appearance on his radio show.
Help Russell get Octopig flown over to the UK by signing this petition!