Mysteries of Life

[Jeff]

One of the mysteries of life.

The garbage truck comes. Its noisy, noticable, sometimes lurks, and they take stuff, and my dogs pay zero attention to it. Ever.  But have a mail or package delivery person show up and bring stuff and they are in all out git-em mode even after they leave.

[Magicman]

We have 3 different vehicles.  When we leave home in PatD's car or my F250, the neighbor's dog never moves.  When I leave home in the RAV4, that dog absolutely goes berserk and will chase me, with the hair on his back standing up, until he gets to the "underground fence". 

   

[Nebraska]

Animals know routines and sounds that aren't. 

[beenthere]

One of the mysteries of life.

The garbage truck comes. Its noisy, noticable, sometimes lurks, and they take stuff, and my dogs pay zero attention to it. Ever.  But have a mail or package delivery person show up and bring stuff and they are in all out git-em mode even after they leave.

Dogs letting you know that your mail or package has arrived, because they know you react and go fetch it. 

[mike dee]

Animals know routines and sounds that aren't. 

Our cat will go to the door and start meowing about 10 minutes before my wife gets home from work. The interesting part is the cat does this based on when she actually arrives, not a set time on the clock. She doesn't always get back at the same time.

Does the cat hear her car 5-10 miles down the road?

[Jeff]

Cedar is the same with Tammy.When Tammy is coming up, I don't say anything to Cedar in advance. He probably picks up someone is coming because I will clean. He will be standing up at that big window looking when she is still at least several seconds from actually pulling in.

[SwampDonkey]

We throw scraps of meat to the crows, so none goes in the garbage. I can leave a bag of garbage for the garbage pick up and the crows never go near it.  Some people leave garbage out for pick up and the crows will tear the bags open. Crows are also very timid of scrap food, they will jump back from it a few times before they latch on and take to flight with it, as if they are afraid it will bite back at them or maybe a trap. 

[Jeff]

I've read tha crows can carry generational grudges. I just watched Mark Rober's latest video and he mentioned that as well. Maybe someone mistreated a crow!

[SwampDonkey]

We pretty much have a family of 4 to 6 crows. There's probably about a 100 that fly over the house here even in that last snow storm. But there's only the family that sits in the trees around the yard. If a raven comes in here, it's high alert. They rarely come into the yard, I recall one a year ago pestering the crows, he never had a chance. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   While working a project in Jeddah Saudi Arabia we had some kind of trees that had a curly bean fruit on them and we had ravens nesting in them. I had a co-worker/scuba buddy who spotted a big raven on the ground in the back yard picking up the beans. My buddy got the bright idea of easing the window open and shooting one of the ravens with his speargun. It hit the bird but did not kill him immediately and my buddy went out and finished off the bird who screamed loudly. Till the day he left the project every time he walked out the front door to his car he had to duck and dodge the ravens as they swooped at him. The rest of us could walk around with no problems. They never forgot or forgave him.

[Ljohnsaw]

I have Ravens up on my property. I was dispatching chipmunks, mice and occasional squirrels in my water buckets. I would place a victim out on a boulder away from my mill. 

Once I saw a raven come down and work on eating it. Never saw them do it again but did see remnants around the boulder so I assumed it wasn't being taken by bears or bobcats. I do have bald eagles and perigren falcons, but I'd think they would make off with the whole thing as well.

Was hoping to find a thankful Raven. Maybe they are not as self aware as crows?

[SwampDonkey]

I think they are just as smart as crows. The raven has cultural significance with lots of native tribes. They just aren't as thick (abundant) as crows. There is usually a couple pair of ravens that hang around the fields here, but not 100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xYMnb5Dyko

[Sheepkeeper]

Years ago when we had our first small flock of sheep they would start to gather at the pasture gate about ten minutes before I would get home from work. We also had a beagle who was confined in the back yard with no view of the driveway. When we would drive in - not a peep, strange vehicle drives in - we knew that someone was here! Boy could that dog bark!

[Rhodemont]

On Friday's we get milk delivered.  Ash can here the truck way up the road and runs to stand at attention for it to arrive.  UPS he runs to the porch.  Fed X he runs to the flag pole.   With out a doubt he understands the routine of the sound of the truck that will be arriving.

[Old Greenhorn]

My son drives  5.7L Turbo and all the cats have to do is hear that and they head for the hills and their tails puff out. In fact, anybody drives past with that engine brings the same result.
 Now when my wife pulls in with her van, 'her' cat comes trotting to the side door and 'my' cat will follow him a a distance to see what's up.
 I recently added infrared driveway sensors on both driveways that chime when somebody walks or drives in. The cats are still trying to figure that out because in the evenings the deer and bear set them off a lot and nobody actually comes to the door. Well, a couple of the deer do, but they don't come in.

[js2743]

Animals know routines and sounds that aren't. 

Our cat will go to the door and start meowing about 10 minutes before my wife gets home from work. The interesting part is the cat does this based on when she actually arrives, not a set time on the clock. She doesn't always get back at the same time.

Does the cat hear her car 5-10 miles down the road?

cats have insane hearing,  my cat i bought a laser to play with him, it had a small chain with a snap on it. i could go to the opposite end of the house with him on the other side 60 feet away and press the buttun on the laser or just rattle the chain and he would come running.  i could barely hear it myself so its very possible he can hear your wife way before she gets home. 

[doc henderson]

We have life 360 on our phones to keep track of each other, kids and mother-in-law.  There is a tone for someone leaving or arriving.  the dogs get as excited when they hear the tone as if you are knocking on the front door.

[aigheadish]

My dog can seemingly hear a vehicle turn onto my driveway from inside the house and probably 270 feet away. Pretty crazy.

Also, I'm not messing with crows, though I would like to be on a crow family's good side, I think that'd be neat and I hear they bring presents. 

[Ianab]

One house I deliver to regularly has 4 large dogs. From memory I think a German shepherd, a bull terrier, an Australian shepherd and a rottweiler. If you drove in there past the "beware of the dog" signs, and this gaggle of dogs came rushing out the door you would probably think "ohhh Crap". But they have learned that mail vans deliver dog food and treats, and they are the nicest dogs you might ever meet.  I think the "Beware" sign is more about the trip hazard. Even the younger ones don't get over excited as they seem to take their lead from the older dogs. They all have to have a sniff in the van to check what I might be carrying. 

[SwampDonkey]

My cousin has a Christmas tree farm and some of his labour is temporary workers from Mexico. The dog, a rottweiler, likes to spend the summer with them at the house they lodge in. They feed him treats I think. They have an old pick up they get to ride on the farm and come back to the house in. The old dog rides to. My cousin says to me this spring, 'whatever you do don't feed that dog.' I said we never do, but he must be the package deal along with the the old pick up they get to drive on the farm.' The Mexicans went back home a week ago now. I noticed a few days ago, that old dog was laying up there by the front door on a straw bale, the old pick up is still up there. He's expecting his treats and ride still I think. The dog is real friendly, never barks or growls at no one. What I've found over the years with dogs, if you chain them up all the time, you'll have an ugly dog on your hands. Ain't no life for a dog, on a chain.

[SawyerTed]

Our dog recognizes our vehicles but sometimes mistakes a similar car or truck as ours.  She also wants to go outside when she "thinks" my wife should come home.   The dog goes outside and lays down outside Emily's parking spot in the garage and waits for Emily.  Emily more often than not gets home within 15 minutes.  

[thecfarm]

Another one.
Most people that come to the house never ring the door bell. 
That's what the dog is for and some of my friends can hear me working somewhere and won't even stop at the house. 
This dog has never heard the doorbell.
I was out by the door doing something and I hit the doorbell.
That dog came out likes it butt was on fire, just a barking and ready to rip someone a new one.
Then we was watching a movie and the doorbell rings on the TV.
The dog is off and running.
How she put the doorbell together is beyond me.

[Ianab]

Where we holiday in Rarotonga there are wandering dogs everywhere. They pretty much all have homes, but their owners go off to work, so the dogs wander down to the beach and find some tourists to hang with. When it starts getting dark they wander back home for supper. So we would have this dog (we named it Ralph) turn up each morning, find a warm spot in the sand by the front deck, and just hang out most of the day. Or if you are walking along the beach, you would find this random dog walking with you. Give them an ear scratch and carry on. They aren't strays, and you aren't supposed to feed them. 

We even had a cat that visited most days. Maybe 12 months later someone staying at the same rental posted on FB.. "We are at Iro's beach house, and this random cat has turned up. Anyone know who's cat it is?" I posted back with a picture of the same cat, on the same mat, in the same kitchen. The kids had named it "Naughty Norman". Turns out it's actual name is Sandy, and she belongs at another holiday complex about 3 houses down the beach. Raro is a small place, when you can ID a cat via Facebook. 

What I've found over the years with dogs, if you chain them up all the time, you'll have an ugly dog on your hands. Ain't no life for a dog, on a chain.

Experience around Rarotonga seems to support that, and it's how the locals operate. 

There was one observation though. Every morning there would be a short burst of loud barking. Turns out it was the dogs across the road, and a couple of other dogs on the back of a ute pulling out of the side road. I don't know what they were saying, but it was either "hey get off our patch", or "Nya Nya, we're riding in the ute and you aren't". Possibly both, but they would have the same "discussion" every morning. 

[Peter Drouin]

My cats hear my truck coming from the mill and they come running.  The wildlife too. When they hear my truck, they wait until I leave the woods. I see them going to the food I just put out.
One year I had a bear doing that. I could see him off to the side and watch. One time I took my time with the food on purpose to see if he got impatient. Nope. 

[Big_eddy]

Ravens are smart.
A couple of years back, they were having a problem with a pair of Ravens in a town north of me. The Ravens would hang out in the grocery store parking lot. As people were coming out, one would land on the roof of their car and start pecking it. When the people went to shoo it away, the other would land in their cart and steal any meat trays. Classic distraction theft.  
The store owners ended up posting "beware of Ravens" signs on the exit doors.