Can't believe what I have just witnessed

I've nominated this thread for Classics.

I remember once when DH and I were visiting my parents there was a kite or some bird of prey that attacked a pigeon. Things did not look good for the pigeon until another pigeon defended it and managed to distract the kite enough to let the first pigeon escape into a bush.

Our German shepherd is very protective of our boys. When DS1 was born she got so agitated at being put out in the garden when the health visitor came that she opened the back door for the first time and came barging into the living room to inspect the HV and make sure DS1 was okay.

I'm almost certainly autistic, DS1 already has a diagnosis and DS2 is being assessed so the household can be rather...fraught at times. When the boys are being particularly hard work and I start to get overloaded and start raising my voice our tortoiseshell cat always jumps down from on top of the freezer where she likes to lie and meows at me. Then she'll climb on me and purr for a couple of minutes until I've calmed down when she'll get off me and go back onto the freezer. Every time.

How amazing. Lovely story. Proves that animals are far nicer than a lot of humans as another human would prob let it drown. Thanks for brightening my day.

This has reminded me of a pair of rats I saw down an alleyway. I was walking and they appeared from one side but one was injured, it looked quite old. Normally they scarper fast at the sight of humans by the hurt one couldn't go fast. I swear the other rat was helping it along, it was nudging it and wouldn't leave its side. I stood watching them as it helped the injured rat through the hole in the fence, and they disappeared into the undergrowth.

Our cat didn't like to sit 'on' us - rather next to us or slightly away, that all changed when I became pregnant and every night she would climb onto my bump and 'kneed' my belly purring and fall asleep. Stopped doing it as soon as he was out!

Lovely lovely stories :)

(Ignores the one about the deliberate pigeon killer horse who gives me the heebee jeebies, shudder)

Agree that this thread is CLASSICS quality.

See to it, please, Powers that be.

Clever pony, I believe you we had a stray cat that got dumped at our gate, it was wild and wouldn't come near any of us but would curl up on my horses back to either keep warm in the winter or sunbath in the summer. One night my horse got colic and that cat refused to leave her, he kept winding himself around her legs to keep her upright

The cat also always sits next to anyone who is poorly. we don't have pets but love cats, once my Ds was off school sick and was laid out on the sofa all drowsy, back door was open and a random cat that we did not recognise and have never seen since, wandered in and sat on his lap all day.

Excuse awful typos

Ben, my greedy, cheeky black lab was the so un-loyal. He's allow the house to be burgled providing the burglar threw him some food first. On a walk, he'd be legging it miles away until he decided to return. If you called him, he'd throw you a backwards glance, see there was no food, and keep on running.

Then, when DD1 was a baby in a sling, just a few months old, we were walking up the local woods and he was doing his usual run for freedom. In the distance were a group of lads - they'd clearly been drinking up the woods and were loud and bolshy. Out of nowhere, Ben crashed through a load of bushes gruelling and snarling at the group - he actually stood between me and the lads (who probably posed no threat, but we're still quite loud) and was so intimidating that the lads turned around and walked the other way.

I felt he was being rather protective of my DD. He was 17 when he died. Still miss him.

What a beautiful thread sitting here grinning and trying not to cry at all the gorgeous stories... Animals Rock!!

Please add this thread to classics as it is so heartwarming to read on a very cold day.

Awwww lovely thread. I believe you.

Animals are amazing and do have empathy.

bummymummy77 I never know it it's deliberate or not, but reading the post about the police horse and the pigeons I'm guessing he's not entirely innocent

frouby aaaaw, buster and his friend! Just read ur story that's so funny (*im imagining the 'littlest hobo'!)

Haha, good photo. Aw, you're so lucky - I don't ride but it's always been a little fantasy of mine. The hug story was lovely.

Here's the giver of my bestest hug ever.

Did anyone watch Spy in the wild. I cried all the way through it. It was so moving watching how they live and protect themselves and their babies. The monkeys even had teenage monkeys minding their babies. They were fighting over who got to look after the baby. Just like human children do.
Lots of other gorgeous babies as well. Including a little baby elephant with a tuft of ginger hair. I wanted to jump in the telly and eat him. l

Oysterbabe

When one of our cats was very sadly hit by a car, the other was found trying to drag her off the road - heartbreaking.

On a happier note, when our rabbit got out of her hutch and we had no idea where to look first, we asked our (different) cat to find her. Sure enough, about an hour later, along came our cat with our big old bunny lolloping alongside. Our cat even supervised bunny getting back into the hutch. Strangely, it didn't seem all that surprising as I just knew that if I asked dcat to bring Matilda back, she would.

"Wasn't there a story a few years ago about a cat in a nursing home who would predict who was going to die in the night, and would go and sit with them."

Yes, the idea was used in a storyline in House. Eventually, Dr. House figured out it was because the patients had high temperatures or had been covered with thermal blankets.

When I was a child one of our cats was run over, and the surviving cat and his friend from down the road both came to 'funeral'. And for a long time after they'd sit by her grave as though they were paying their respects.

Yes, our cats always lie on us when we're ill. Maybe they're being nice, maybe they're just taking advantage of the body heat from our fevered temperature. Who knows?

My horse would have been terrified of it :-)