OT: smart animals

I was talking to an old family friend of my grandparents last night and we got onto the topic of interesting animal behavior. I'm 48 now but I remembered when I was 10 or 11 I spent the summer at the farm and my job was to clean out the stalls. We had an Apaloosa horse named Silver Cloud who had some interesting habits. First is if you walked by his stall without talking with him he'd reach out and grab onto your shirt until you paid him some attention. Second thing was while cleaning his stall. If you were on his left side there was no issue at all but if I happened to go around him on his right side he'd kind of lean on me and pin me to the wall. Then he'd look back over his shoulder and just kind of grin at me. I swear that horse was laughing at my predicament! I finally figured out to just turn him around in the stall and he wouldn't do it. That horse sure had a personality!
 
Had the opportunity to look at a phycology magazine, from a month or so ago, the other evening in a waiting room. Seems they have been doing studies and have discovered that pretty much every animal actually does have it"s own personality. I didn"t grow up on a farm, just in the country, and knew that a long, long time ago.
It"s always funny to me how long it takes the "educated" folks to discover, and then decide they need to study, so many of the things that us country folks knew pretty much all our lives.
 

When we first got into sheep it was because of our daughter. The very first lamb that we got, of course we had to keep. It turned out though to be a smart one, and finally had to go, even though she was a pet and almost a family member. A smart animal is difficult to keep, and a smart sheep is going to be a leader. If one gets out they all get out.
 
do you mean to tell me that the checkbook I planted in my buddies wheat field a few years ago isn't going to grow a money tree?
 


Kids had a pet white rabbit we let run free after we taught the border Collie to leave him alone.
The rabbit was always around and watched everything with active interest .
One day I glanced towards the shed and said to the wife . That dog is bored and is herding the geese and duck in and out and in and out of the shed again.
It was then we realized the dog was sitting beside us??? A closer look revealed the rabbit at work. The bunny would zig zag back and forth herding the birds. Twice when a bird would not heed. The rabbit turned and kicked the bird with both hind feet together. Thought it was a fluke event then somebody here posted a youtube video of a British rabbit herding sheep.
 
Favorite saying around this house is animals are a lot smarter and have more "common sense" than a lot of people. Contrary to some teachings that get crammed down your throats from the ...... animals do in fact have an "intellect and free will" and the more you are around them the more you will realize that. Proves itself to me on a daily basis.

Mark
 
How is this for smart.

Every night I go to bed about 8:30 or 9. Every night I call my cat's name, Leia kitty. She runs up onto the bed and lays right down next to me on the bed spread next to my left leg. After I fall asleep the cat jumps down off the bed and goes out the living room with my wife. (The cat is able to tell when I am asleep and awake) If I get up in the middle of the night the cat comes back to my left leg and stays there until I fall asleep again, then she goes to the foot of the bed.
 
When I change my clothes in the morning to go to work my dog just stays on the couch. When I change my clothes to go to town for groceries she also just stays on the couch. When I receive a call from my neightbor or somebody else and she hears me agree to come and help with something she can't wait for me to change my clothes and let her into the car because she is so sure she can come with me like so many times before. I have never figured out how she knows where I am going.
 

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