Animal Stories

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razorrabbit

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So I was watching a lets play of Until Dawn and one of the parts reminded me of a weird and pretty cool animal encounter I had and a freaky one I witnessed, and I figured I'd share them cause why not?

The freaky one was years ago during winter when we still kept bird feeders out, there were a few birds eating in the back yard and a squirrel was creeping up behind them, we thought it was trying to get some of the seeds but instead the scary bugger snaps one of the birds neck and drags its dead body away.

The kind of cool one was a few months back where I went with my grandmother to help take care of some jerks animals, one of them being a wolf. While she was feeding the other animals I had to get something from our car and on the way too it is the wolf, when I was walking past him, he got on his hind leg putting its front paws on my shoulders and just started to howl at me until I started to pet it. Though a few weeks later i found out that almost right after we left it bit someone and chased another person down, don't know why he was so friendly with me but I'm glad for it.

Do you guys have an weird, cool, funny, etc animal stories? I'm kind of lame so I think stuff like this is pretty interesting^^;
 
Sadly I can't think of any stories on that level of craziness atm.
But I do have a video on how my Dog acts when he thinks he's home alone.

instead the scary bugger snaps one of the birds neck and drags its dead body away.
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There's this one squirrel that will just walk into our house, take some nuts, and then run off and do their thing, then come back, take a nut, and then eat it in the middle of my living room.
 
One time my family and I were driving to visit the lurray caverns in the blue ridge mountains of Virginia and a little over half way there a freaking turkey fllew out into the middle of the road. My dad had to slam on the breaks and everything in the car went flying forward. I was unbuckled at the time, and since I was really tiny back then I actually fell forward and slipped underneath my moms seat. Then I pulled myself out from under the seat and looked out the front wind shield and the Turkey was gone. I asked them what happened and they told me a bird flew out in front of them. When we moved onward I looked back and the Turkey was staring at us in the middle of the road. It was creepy as fuck.

I was dog watching my puppy Clarice one day and I was home alone with my parents, well apparently something spooked her because she started barking at our back door with the hairs on her back end sticking up. She would go back and forth from the back door to one of the windows that faced the back yard barking furiously. I had to beat her with a towel to get her to stop, I even turned on the back yard light and nothing was there. She wouldn't start barking, so I was kind of creeped out. Especially when she stares at me, but she isn't staring AT ME, but behind me. She's kind of dumb though, so I just chock it all up to her being not right in the head. Anyways, normally when she acts up I give her a bone and she quiets down lol

And for a cute story. I volunteered at my local SPCA and while I was there there was a cat that would give you hugs if you carried him around. It was super cute.
 
Oh we had a cat that did that, liked to rub his face against yours too when he was hugging you. Had breath like he was dying inside too, made me very glad my sense of smell is all messed up, I can only imagine how bad it was for people who could smell just fine.

That reminds me! One of our cats that we'd let outside sometimes one year went after a grown fox in our front yard. I just happened to look out the window and see two orange things running pass the yard, I thought that mama or papa fox was gonna tear our cat up, couldn't get to the door fast enough. Instead our tiny prissy cat with no claws chased off a damn fox by himself. It was so weird since he was one of the most prissy cats we had too.
 
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Instead our tiny prissy cat with no claws chased off a damn fox by himself. It was so weird since he was one of the most prissy cats we had too.
That's not surprising. :P
Foxes are scavengers by nature and tend to avoid conflict if they can help it.
 
True but it had kits in the yard too I would of thought it would of tried to chase him off. Maybe they took off too and I just didn't notice it. Now that I think about it there were no foxes in the yard at all after I got the dummy inside.
 
So, just had to drag my Dog away from pissing off a Skunk. >.<

Considering he's blind I'm surprised he even spotted it across the yard.
Double surprised he was actually getting hostile. He's never like with animals.
 
One time, a stray dog suddenly popped into our backyard because we didn't close the gate properly.

We would've kept it...but we knew that it was someone else's dog so we couldn't orz. We ended up sending it to a dog shelter and I think it has been returned to the correct owner so YAYYYYY.

During the time when we had to take care of that random dog, we had to awkwardly ask around for dog food (since we were like the only fucking household who didn't raise a damn dog). We also had to cut this cardboard box out and lay it with some blankets that we don't even use anymore as a bed for the dog.

It was a cute dog doe ;^;
 
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Let me tell you guys a story about THIS LITTLE GUY!! Yes, he was so amazing he deserves bold capital lettering in color. This ball of feathery floof changed my life.
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Once upon a time there was a little bird... Meet Jiro, my little hedge sparrow, back when he still looked like a crazy scientist. (more under the spoiler tag because... long story, lots of photos. Grab tissues).

[spoili]I found Jiro in my backyard in 2007. I couldn't find his nest, and being an animal lover at heart (plus animal care is also my job) I couldn't just leave him there - my cats were hunting him, and I heard him squeaking in the bushes. I actually almost stepped on him with barely an inch to spare when I went out to search for him.

Either way, I took him with me, figuring that he'd probably die of stress within a day or two, like little hatchlings mostly do.

Little did I know that I had just met the most AMAZING animal in my entire life, and that's not even an exaggeration.
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"Feed me! >C"

Jiro beat all odds. I kept him in a cage next to my PC where I spend all my free time, and often he napped in my lap inbetween feeding sessions. Within 3 to 4 days his wings and tail feathers fully grew in, and I had him practice on my bed until he got the hang of it.

I grew really, really attached him in those few short days, and I guess it was selfish of me, but I didn't want to release him back into the wild. I told myself "he might not make it out there"... so I kept him.

Cue the beginning of a wonderful friendship that lasted two and a half years!
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Jiro amazed not only me with his intelligence, but also the bird experts I got to talk to. I never kept him locked up, his cage was always open so he could come and go as he pleased. But he knew that his cage was the place to sleep for the night. I didn't have to teach him that, he just knew.

Every night he would perch on his favorite spot on the shelf above my monitor, all poofed up and watching me work, before going into his cage when I went to bed (or, when he was being a little shitplayful, he'd make me catch him first).
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I'd always tell him good night before I switched off the lights, and he'd always softly chirp back.

And because I like to sleep in, I always left his cage open at night as well, so he could come out whenever he woke up, and not have to wait for me to drag my ass out of bed. As a result, most mornings I woke up with either
  1. Jiro sitting on my pillow next to my face, or
  2. he'd be stomping all over my back and butt and peck at my sheets to wake me up.
I once had a friend sleeping over, and she told me she woke up and found Jiro sitting on the edge of my bed giving her the stink eye.
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Most of the time Jiro entertained himself, running around over my floor and what-not. He was very playful though, and if I wasn't giving him the attention he wanted, he made sure to get it.

I often wore my gaming headphones, and Jiro would make sharp dives and zoom right over my head, close enough I could feel his toes through my hair, in order to get my attention. Or he would literally hover in front of my screen and get in the way. That, or he would chase my fingers all over the keyboard and peck at the keys while I was typing. This happened so often I had to give him an old, unused keyboard for himself, because he kept pooping on mine. He loved that keyboard.

He'd also often chase after my fingers if I dragged them over the floor. He could also play 'fetch'! He just never brought it back lol.
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"Grubby human! Your finger offends me!"

Jiro knew his name, always reacted when I called. He disliked men for some reason. He also knew when something was wrong. I'm rarely sick, but I came home early one day and went to bed straight away. Within minutes Jiro fluttered to my bed and made himself comfortable on my hand, keeping me company until I dozed off. He didn't often sit on my hand! Stood on my fingers often enough, but rarely actually perched on my hand to just sit. So this was rather special.
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He had this metal bowl in his cage, which he used as a bath every day. And there were times I hadn't refreshed his water by the time he wanted to take a bath... so he would literally sit on the edge of it, and splash water in my direction until I got the hint! This was the only photo I ever managed to snap of him bathing. He didn't mind photos and videos, I've plenty of those... but whenever he noticed the camera while he was (trying to) bathe he'd nope the hell out of there until I put it away!
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I woke up one morning, Jiro was already running around doing his thing... I went down to get breakfast, came back up to my room, and was met with a disturbing lack of happy chirping. Jiro would always greet me when I entered my room, but this time there was only silence.

He wasn't there.

You should know that I'm paranoid about my animals escaping. My room is in the attic. My windows have mesh in front of them, but they were intact. I always squeeze myself through my door and close it behind me as fast as I can, so nothing can follow. Jiro's wings made plenty of noise, I would have heard him had he flown out after me. My room is as animal proof as I can make it.

I completely panicked and turned my entire room upside down that day, terrified he'd gotten stuck somewhere and I would find his dead body behind the closet or something.

I didn't find him.

Jiro had been my best buddy for two and a half years... and now he was gone. I figured he must have escaped somehow... and to this day I still don't really know how. The only way I can explain it is if he followed me over the floor when I left my room, meaning he stayed right behind my feet and out of sight even when I turned to look behind me to make sure nothing followed, and then waited until I was gone before flying down the stairs (where he'd never gone before) and finding an open window somewhere.. That is the ONLY explanation I have... and if it's true, well... I always did say he was extremely intelligent.

Even so, I really, really missed him.
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Then one day, about 3 weeks later, I was in our backyard drinking coffee and reading a book - this was in the summer - when I suddenly heard a chirp. A very familiar chirp. I looked up and there, only a few feet away from me, sitting on the pergola, was a hedge sparrow.

Now you should know that hedge sparrows are extremely flighty birds. You rarely see them, and if you do, it's mostly a quick brown blur under the bushes. So for a hedge sparrow, this was unusual behavior. And I instantly knew it was Jiro! I listened to his chirping for over 2 years, and recognized it instantly. The way he sat there quickly beating and flapping his wings, something he always did when he was being playful, this one did as well.
He flew off after a minute or so, landed in our chestnut tree and began preening himself. He looked really good, and I suppose I should never have worried in the first place about him not being able to make it in the wild, instinct and all.
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In the year and a half after that, I saw him occasionally. Even saw him with another hedge sparrow once, so I like to think he actually found a mate somewhere, and every once in a while he'd visit here to let me know he was doing okay.

Then, the visits stopping coming. Made sense I suppose, he'd be 5, almost 6 by then. I have no idea how old hedge sparrows get to be in the wild if they're not caught by predators, but I'm sure that's pretty darn old for a tiny bird. I didn't see him for at least a year.

Then... in 2012... I was getting ready to leave for work. I stepped outside and the first thing I noticed were two birds... one of them being a hedge sparrow. Of course my mind immediately went "Omg Jiro!!!" even though I knew how unlikely it was.

Still, I made the whistling sound I always made when he still lived with me in my room, and to my utter surprise, the sparrow in question turned around, fluttered up to the pergola, looked at me and chirped back!!

I WAS FREAKING OUT! I was so excited, so happy! I use the same whistle on wild birds all the time and they always ignore me!

I was late for work though, so I walked to the garage, huge derpy grin stuck on my face, and got my bike. I parked it near the fence and turned to put on my work boots, and as I did I looked at the pergola. Jiro was no longer there... instead he was sitting on the roof of the garage, chirping and acting all excited! He'd actually followed me! He flew into the bushes then and disappeared from view, but I could still hear him!

I was CONVINCED that was Jiro, even though he had to be downright ancient by then!

That was the very last sighting, I haven't seen him since.

I still miss him greatly, even to this very day. I still have dreams about him occasionally, in which he comes back. Jiro was so special to me, I've never shared such a deep, strong emotional bond with any animal before, and I think I can safely say he lived a good life. I'm actually tearing up a little now that I've looked up all his photos and remembered all these little things we experienced.

So yeah, that's my story, about how one little bird changed my life.[/spoili]
 
Well then, I might have to go train a bird for myself one day o.o But i'm more of a cat person so yeah.

I gotta ask though, how does a bird get from the first few pictures, to the bottom ones? Not just the feathers, but the beak looks completely different too.



I'm calling my dad the squirrel guy now. We were at a yurt last night and this baby squirrel came in. It was the most trusting, not trusting thing I've ever seen. As long as I kept my hands behind my back, it was all fine but the moment my hands move, it ran away. It went through our entire yurt looking for nuts. Even went to the empty spetachio shells trying to find something inside and those things can nibble FAST. It's mouth is like a high frequency weapon XD


And my dad either fed/the squirrel stole a nut from him... Thing is, it was a spicy nut. The way my dad described it, he made the squirrel question his/her entire life when it took one bite DX The Squirrel looked at the nut, then at my dad, then back at the nut. Either "Why would you give me this?" Or "... What have I just done with my life?"

I was REALLY wanting a racoon to show up at the yurt to see one, but they went to like everyone except us. (Stole our neighbors bacon XD) I shoulda put out a few things of beef jerky >.<
 
@Pharaoh Shadon All young birds have wider beaks like that, at least those that are heavily dependent on their parents to feed them - the wider 'beak corners' allow them to open their beaks really wide to make it easier for the parents to shove in food.

This isn't really prevalent in bird species where the young are already capable of finding their own food shortly after hatching, like ducks and chickens and the like. Most birds that nest in trees though, with completely helpless hatchlings that are born featherless and blind (like sparrows, blackbirds, owls, hawks etc), the young have crazy wide 'grumpy' beaks like that, and the beaks take on their final shape when they become adults, which only means that the corners sort of shrink in size and become less wide. Jiro's baby beak really didn't look that different from his adult one, it was just darker in color and less wide, but the general shape was the same.

Hope that made sense.
 
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@Pharaoh Shadon All young birds have wider beaks like that, at least those that are heavily dependent on their parents to feed them - the wider 'beak corners' allow them to open their beaks really wide to make it easier for the parents to shove in food.

This isn't really prevalent in bird species where the young are already capable of finding their own food shortly after hatching, like ducks and chickens and the like. Most birds that nest in trees though, with completely helpless hatchlings that are born featherless and blind (like sparrows, blackbirds, owls, hawks etc), the young have crazy wide 'grumpy' beaks like that, and the beaks take on their final shape when they become adults, which only means that the corners sort of shrink in size and become less wide. Jiro's baby beak really didn't look that different from his adult one, it was just darker in color and less wide, but the general shape was the same.

Hope that made sense.
Makes perfect sense. Didn't know that birds changed THAT much from baby to adult.
 
@Wild No, my cats aren't allowed in my room, and Jiro obviously never left it either until he miraculously escaped. It was just me and him in here. Good times!
 
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Shortly after we moved in to this house, a couple of stray cats started hanging out in our backyard. >> One was super duper friendly (the other was super shy, but this isnt about her!), and he was also a little dumbass.

One day he was sitting in the backyard with a broken glass jar rim stuck around his neck. >:[ He liked to get in to people's garbage, so we think he stuck his head in a jar, couldn't get it back out and then broke the jar in the process of trying to get it out. Unfortunately the rim was still in tact, so he had this jagged glass around his neck like a collar. o____o It's a freaking miracle he didn't end up stabbing his neck really bad.

Anyway, I had to butter his head and neck to slide the glass off. @____@ From that moment on he was named Butters and still resides in our backyard with his lady friend.
 
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That very touching bird story reminded me of a less touching story I have.

While at my grandmother's house having a friend visit we were all by a fire on her property by the river when a couple of geese landed down next to us. Geese used to freak me out was attacked by one when I was young. They get up on the rock that I'm sitting on and at that point in my life I was really scared of them so I froze for what felt like near an hour for me as they sat by and enjoyed the fire with us, at no point did they get startled and fly away at anything we did, my friend and I went back up to the house early that night but the geese were still by the fire when we left. Next day when I go outside the same geese are in our backyard in one of our big cages, according to my grandmother and uncle the geese followed them up to the house, not sure why they put them in a cage though maybe to keep something from eating them in the middle of the night? My friend being a jerk and knowing I was afraid of geese dragged me in there with them then locked me inside of the cage with the geese, I'm standing in the corner trying not to anger them or make them attack me, both birds turn out to be really cuddly though and just sit by me and try to snuggle against me, it helped me get over my fear. They stayed for about two days then took off, haven't seen either of them since then.
 
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