Thursday, March 18, 2010

Why do my humans think they know best? They don't.



Dear George,
There is a rumour going around that rabbits like to get up early. I don't know how it started - probably by my distant country relatives who have to find their own food. They can dash about in the early hours as much as they like but I like my snooze time. I like a very slow awakening.
I ignore my family when they come downstairs and start their human chatter. "Good morning Harve." No, it's not good. It's early. "Where are you, Harve?" Where do you think I am at 7.30am? In bed! "Are you hiding, Harve?" No, I've left home. Go away.

And another thing, they're starting to persuade me to go outside for a run. I was picked up this morning and carried around the garden. "Look, Harve, a snowdrop!" So what? If a snowdrop wants to sit around in the cold garden, let it. "Look Harve, a birdie!" A birdie? Are they the things that have been eating my raisins all winter? Naturally, as soon as I was put down, I ran f
or home.
George, I am not a rabbit. I am a bun, a house bun. Which word don't they understand? How should I convince them I am simply a furry person with his own preferences in life?
Harvey the House Bunny, http://harvey-diaryofaninspirationalbunny.blogspot.com/

Dear Harvey,
I am not sure about house rabbits but I know that wild rabbits like to get up early - dawn, preferably. It is one of the many reasons why I wake up my humans at 6 to 6.30am. They are sluggish pets that would prefer to doze longer, particularly on a Sunday. But I like to get up, have my breakfast served to me, sit on my copy of The Times (while they are reading it) for a quick chat with them, and then out through the cat flap for early morning hunting.
Of course, waking times apart, you raise a valid point. Why do humans think we are all the same. We cats, house rabbits and even those poor deluded dogs, are all individuals. Some of us like to rise bright and early, while others like a very good lllllooooonnnggg zzzzzzzzzzzz. There's something odd about the human inability to realise that one cat is not necessarily like another cat, or one house bunny like another house bunny. As you say, we have our own individual preferences.
Mind you, I think this hardly applies to humans. As a lower form of life, the apes, as Wicky Wuudler calls them, they need a sensible routine. We cats and you house rabbits cannot just let them go their own way. We should aim to install proper waking times (to suit our needs), sensible eating (with our share from the table), and times when they leave us alone. It's important not to respond to their attention seeking, as any human trainer knows. Make them earn our attention by good behaviour. I think it is called a Learn to Earn programme in human training circles. It takes time for dumb animals like humans to learn but they will eventually get it.
Love George

PS. If anybody reads Japanese would they tell me if the posts that I have enabled are OK. The script looks beautiful for me and i hope they are all funny cat comments. But I can't be sure. They might all be ads for viagra for all I know - which is my ignorance of a beautiful and cultured language. Very very reluctantly, I have decided I dare not add comments which I do not understand just in case this blog is littered with obscenities (despite being run by a neutered cat). Please forgive me. English is welcome, though.

11 comments:

  1. Puss-Puss.March 20, 2010

    Dear George,

    A discreet word...some of the posts in the past were in Chinese, and I am sorry to say they were for a sex site. No! I didn't check! That's just what they said. You are very wise to ask.

    You needn't feel ignorant. Asian languages have not been widely taught in the West owing to the lack of economic incentive (I believe) to teach them, but this is changing. If it helps at all, I can state that I have seen, with my own eyes, a can of Thai soda pop, whose brand name was "Poop."

    Regards,
    Puss-Puss.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, this is a bit different for me, it's been almost 30 years since we didn't have a cat in our house and it's been painful and lonely. We have been faithful servants to Minnie Mouse the House Mouse, Tar Baby, Buster our Bubba Cat, Twinkie (our neighbor's cat), Twinkie (our neighbor's cat), Mollie Moo Cat and her two babies Emmie Sweet Pea and Oscar Snuggles. But, I'm going to make a comment anyway.

    I've only know one family that had a rabbit. Poor thing lived in the basement full of junk and greasy things. This poor rabbit was really white, but because of all the dirty stuff down there he was a dark gray. Poor baby.

    Unfortunately, my recent experiences with rabbits have been trying to rescue them from breakfast for Oscar Snuggles. He would bring baby rabbits home and has been known to bring them inside. I would always rescue them. Needless to say I always had one upset cat on my hands and would have to keep him inside for a couple of hours.

    Harve, I suggest you keep right on sleeping late and miss breakfast.

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  3. Poor Harvey, plagued by such rude and noisy apes. It's a testament to your sweet bun nature that you have not shown them the business end of your teeth. How would they like being carted off outside at times not of their choosing? Find their alarm clocks Harvey, kick them to the ground!

    Oscar must have thought that the baby buns needed to live inside Tee ;)

    Whicky Wuudler

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  4. That's the funniest thing I've ever seen (in my whole 19 years of life!) - looking for sex on a cat blog! Don't they know we all are (more or less) "fixed"? Ha!ha!ha! Sorry George, but that's just hilarious.
    Sebastian

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  5. Hi Harvey,
    Being a house bunny and sharing the house with a cat is no fun! Frederico can say whatever he wants but I'm not enjoying it! We are allowed in the same room only under supervision.
    At night ...I'm in my cage but he can roam around freely and yet! he's laying on top of my cage trying to stick his paws in.
    Bunny hugs
    TuTu

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  6. Sir WinstonMarch 22, 2010

    Dear George,
    Is that you and your blog became too famous and certain "humans" think that's a good place to advertise or look for "things" we won't mention without blushing? Hm! Times are really changing.
    Sir Winston

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Harvey,
    You look so cute! Regarding your humans - just ignore them. Do ONLY what you want to do.
    I still have training problems (minor thou) with my female human but...generally speaking...I do what I what to and they do what I want them to do - ain't this great? :-)
    Love
    Fluffy

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  8. Harvey, you are so sweet! I've never seen a bunny in my life but I'll be happy to share my home with one as cute as you.
    Love
    Shumba

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  9. Harve, try this trick; get up early, earlier then your human and start hoping up and down her while she's still sleeping.
    See if she'll like it! May be she'll get the message.
    Minnie

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  10. I like your cushion Harvey! Very nice.
    See, I like to sleep late but...I don't mind to get up early if it's for food!
    On Sundays I love to sleep late with my mom! Fluffy is bad - she'll get up early just to wake up our humans and then she's upset that our mommy doesn't put up with her no-senses!
    Hugs
    Cayenne

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  11. Any connection between you and the movie "Last chance Harvey"?
    Frederico

    PS. Please ignore TuTu's comments about our relationship! I love her and I won't hurt her! But I'm much younger and playful.

    ReplyDelete

Help for cats whose humans show behaviour problems.

This blog is devoted to the study of human behaviour. We cats, who live with this sometimes unpredictable and always feeble minded species, can benefit from seeing their behaviour in its proper scientific context. The study of feline dilemmas, training problems, and difficulties with humans, can only benefit all of us. All of us train our humans - to buy the right food, for instance, but many of us do not have knowledge of how to improve our training methods. The human species is obviously not as intelligent as the cat, but nevertheless can learn quite a lot - if properly managed. Topics of interest include the use of claw and order, purring as a human reward, rubbing your human up the right way, when to bite, spraying as a method of making our wishes known, ignoring the human, human harassment, human inattention and sheer human stupidity. I welcome your questions. Photos can be sent via my secretary's website, www.celiahaddon.com This blog has been chosen as one of the top 50 feline blogs by Online VetTechprogramms.org