...According to the American Animal Hospital Association's Ninth Annual Pet Owner Survey, about 65 percent of pet owners sing and/or dance before their pets...This and much more per the San Francisco Chronicle last month.
Does sixty-five percent really sound right, even if we presume that's a U.S.-only figure?
Personal evidence: I grew up with collie dogs and one cat, can't remember singing to them, can however remember dancing with (but not for) one of the collies. Recently, however, we've adopted a small stray tabby, named her "Edwidge Sparklycat," shortened the name to "Edgie," and given her a theme song. It goes "Edgie cat/you been makin' me crazy..." using the tune and selected lyrics from the Beatles' "Honey Pie."
Not aware of other Singing To Pets in my family, though we did have one case of Singing By Pets. One of my paternal great-aunts had a dog named Falla, after FDR's dog. She claimed Falla could sing along when Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians were on TV. I'm not sure anyone else called it singing.
OK, that's my share of embarrassment. Who'll go next?
Posted by Martha Bridegam at September 8, 2004 04:35 PMI hope this isn't the beginning of the final descent into crazy-cat-lady-dom ...?
Posted by: Alan Allport at September 8, 2004 04:53 PMFinal descent? You imply there's been a previous decline.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at September 8, 2004 05:12 PMP.S. Yes, J&I have been melted by this small beast. We are being godawfully and I hope uncharacteristically sappy about her. Not to worry, though: no cute kitty photos will be posted here, if only out of respect for the shade of Cyril Connolly, who as we know preferred lemurs.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at September 8, 2004 06:20 PMA long time ago I had a Spiny Mouse which I named, for some reason, Leeuwenhoek. My roomate and I made up many stanzas of a heroic epic about him, all of which went along the lines of:
"Leeuwenhoek, he was a mouse
Leeuwenhoek, he did have spines
Leeuwenhoek, encased in plastic
He was Leeuwenhoek The Bold."
(He lived in a small plastic cage.)
Eventually he escaped and nearly gave the neurotic lady who lived across the kitchen a heart attack. She was the sort of tenant who liked to acost other tenants while they were making dinner and discuss in utmost seriousness the dire necessity, in a rooming house, that everyone strictly follow a bathroom schedule. She was always trying to get people to drink prune juice.
Posted by: Alan Hogue at September 8, 2004 07:39 PMI remain catless.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at September 8, 2004 07:40 PMAlso dogless?
Just discovered I've unconsciously pictured you with a dog, Ben. A big floppy retriever dog to fetch ducks for you on crisp fall mornings. Or something.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at September 8, 2004 10:55 PMMoosifer Jones - my late cat - had multiple songs, often sung whilst gently dancing with him sprawled in arms. There was 'Moosifer Sam' to the tune of 'Lucifer Sam' by Pink Floyd. ("moosifer jones / scruffy cat"). There was 'Moosey Jones' to 'Doctor Jones' by Aqua. The best was 'Moose' to the tune of 'Bike' by Pink Floyd:
I've got a moose
and he's always on the loose
I don't know why I call him 'maccy'*
He's getting rather old
but he's a good moose
You're the kind of cat who fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
Anything but Whiskas**
*when first got his name was 'Mac'.
**horrible mid-range cat food, once rumoured to contain caffeine in order to get cats addicted to it. He never had a can of it, ever.
Also dogless?
Alas, yes. One of these days, I'll retire to the country and maintain a large pack of Beagle/Basset halfbreeds. I'll likely train them to chase wild geese off the ponds, if I don't take up hunting them with a punt gun.
Ahem, yes. I had many songs for my family's dogs, sadly no longer with us. As are the songs. The only one I can remember is one for the Burk family's last dog, a collie/ terrier/ unknown mix named Babe who had a song adapted from the musical "Mame": "You're simple indescribable ... Babe!" and so on.
I used to have a couple of different ones for Sarah the dog, but I can't remember them now-- it might be too early or I'm simply blotting them out of embarrassment.
Posted by: Graeme Burk at September 11, 2004 04:55 AM- Doesn't it take collies to chase geese off lakes with proper efficiency?
- Woss a punt gun?
- Many thx to AH & mags re: spiny mouse & caffeinated cat. Much imagination fodder there.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at September 11, 2004 10:25 PMThinking back further, I tended toward the silly phrase thing rather than the singing, though I did that too. But I couldn't help but say to Babe all the time that she was "La Grande Doyenne De Dog" and such.
This conversation isn't being recorded, is it?
Posted by: Graeme Burk at September 13, 2004 06:21 PMWe had a dog named Gus when I was a kid. My sister and I used to sing 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover because of the line "just get on the bus Gus".
Posted by: Barbara A. MacDonald at September 15, 2004 01:42 PMReally good work. I found a lot of profound information which can help me to go on. Thanks for all this input.
Posted by: Martha at November 17, 2004 02:05 AM