Kaiya was (probably) possessed by a cat spirit for Thanksgiving

kaloric

Well-Known Member
So, Kaiya and I went across the road to visit friends for Thanksgiving, and things got a bit ridiculous. It's like she became possessed by a cat spirit, as my title says.

Fairly quickly, she annoyed all but one of their 5 dogs, who are all lower-energy, senior, or crippled. The only one she didn't annoy is the paraplegic, deaf, & blind dachshund, probably because she barely recognizes his presence in the first place. When nobody wanted to play with her because they were too busy begging around the table once everyone sat down, she mostly just zoomed around and jumped off the back of the sectional sofa and climbed as high as she could on furniture in the adjacent living room.

Partway through the meal, there was a clatter in the dinette area off the kitchen. Someone went to investigate, apparently Kaiya had gotten up on the table in there and pushed something off onto the floor. There wasn't any food or much of anything else on that table. She has mostly been pretty good about not counter- or table-surfing in the past, so that was kind of strange.

She wasn't even begging much at all, but as dinner was winding-down, she decided to climb into my lap after the grumpiest of our host's dogs growled at her to clear-out of the prime begging spot. I think she swiped my half-eaten dinner roll as I set her back on the floor.

After the table was cleared of plates and such, everyone took a break, wandering into the living room & kitchen, and dessert was set out on the dining room table. Someone noticed Kaiya walking around on the dining room table and got her off the table just as she started licking a pie. A few moments later, she was back on the table again, in full view of many of us, jumping clear up on it and landing softer than a cat 1/10th of her weight. She was ushered back to the floor and the pies were then put away, nobody had room for dessert. She jumped on the table again, and grabbed a Hershey's Kiss or something out of a candy dish. I picked her up, got the chocolate out of her mouth, and the candy dish was put away somewhere else. She jumped on the table and ran across it a few more times, and was picked-up like the naughty kitty she was behaving like by me and the others. I think that was the most ridiculous situation, here was a good-sized dog behaving and being treated like a cat, as if that was just a normal occurrence.

When everyone else had either retired to their rooms or headed-out to do other things, my friend & I sat down to watch a couple of movies, and Kaiya decided to stretch-out on the top of the sofa. That also wasn't typical for her, she normally wants to sit in my lap or next to me & anyone else who will pet her.

About the only naughty kitty thing she didn't do was climb up inside the xmas tree or knock ornaments off.

Our hosts were very gracious and amused by the antics, when their pups were younger and more agile, they sometimes had those sorts of things happen as well.

Something I thought of after heading home later in the evening is that some of the things Kaiya was doing were more typical of the cat in their household who'd been recently euthanized over serious health issues a few weeks prior. He jumped on tables, climbed furniture, lounged on the top of the sofa, and I'm sure he would've licked pies whenever he had an opportunity.

I think I'm going to bring a spray bottle next time we go over to my friend's place...
 
? I was thinking this was going to end with a funny "just kidding". Did you really let your dog do all these insane antics as a guest at someones house? If your puppy isn't trained wouldn't you put him on a leash and either excuse yourself to take him home, or put him on a down at your feet everywhere you went for the rest of the day? Sorry, I just don't get it. :scratch:
 
She just had a very interesting day, didn’t she??

She was determined to have her fun regardless of what everyone else was doing!!
 
I'm hoping this was a one-off thing and does not cause any long-term behavioral setbacks. She is normally much better behaved than their dogs (not a high bar), and we head over to visit pretty often. It seriously was like she was possessed on this occasion.

I was correcting her and redirecting with toys, mostly trying not to make too much of a scene of it. I was about to put her out in the truck for a time-out, but the vibe for my friend's house is that they are amused by dog antics, so I just did my best to read the room and crack-down only on things that made anyone even a little uncomfortable, such as invading personal space (she fortunately wasn't trying to grab food from anyone else or even pestering them for scraps like the other dogs). The correction is just a lost cause when most everyone is laughing and encouraging the silly behavior.

She's back to normal at my place anyway, following house rules about counters and tabletops, and also flopping on the seat of the sofa like a normal dog and not on the top like a cat.
 
Reminds me of the classic instances where family comes over and the dog jumps up on them and they say, "oh its fine!" Nope. Its not fine. This dog has rules it must mind and you're not about to reward bad behavior I've worked so hard to discourage.

Often times when you change the environment, the dog has to learn the behaviors taught also apply in this new environment too.

I know personally, I would have been horrified if my dog counter surfed let alone walking on the table multiple times and eating food intended for people. :anonymous : Second occurrence would result in losing off leash privileges because she has shown she's not ready for that outside the home.
 
I actually enjoyed the cat like antics 😆 But yes, I too would be shocked and horrified if Kaiser did that at someone’s house. That said, it seems no one was bothered by it. Honestly, I’m more shocked by this:

:spit: WHO doesn’t have room for dessert?

It's a testament to the skill of the chefs in their household! There were an absurd number of amazing dishes that even taking a single helping of most of them was too much to consider dessert until the following day. The lady of the house is extremely talented at preparing vegetarian dishes, and the disabled vet who lives downstairs is a master at preparing meat from raw cuts and baking.

I'm sure this absurd incident "When Kaiya was shockingly bad and acting like a cat at Thanksgiving" will go down in the Fond Memories of Naughty Behavior category, where the time "When I took Kor to work and he cornered a coworker and forced him to pet him (or he'd growl menacingly if the petting stopped) when I stepped out of the office for half an hour" also resides.
 

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