Smart Animals

Pets really know how to get our attention

Hello There ALANA YEARBY

Early one morning, my father woke up to the strangest sound – still half asleep, he wondered if someone was calling out ‘hello’ to him. As he attempted to go back to sleep, he heard the strange greeting echoing out into the still, dark morning once more. Who could it be? Then he realised the strange ‘h-e-l-l-o’ was coming from our cat, Slinky.

She was pacing around the verandah and when she heard dad move she repositioned herself outside his window and repeated the strange sound: a meow mixed with a loud drawn-out ‘h-e-l-l-o’.

When dad told us about the strange sound Slinky had made over and over, my brothers and I didn’t believe him. Our cat saying ‘hello’? We figured Dad was pulling our legs.

Then, one evening when we were eating dinner and had forgotten to feed Slinky first, we heard it. Slinky had figured out the best way to gain

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our attention was to start with a hearty chorus of ‘h-e-l-l-o-s’. She sounded exactly like our mother, who for years had been greeting Slinky every morning with a deep, theatrical drawn-out ‘H-e-l-l-o-!”

Eye on the Time JEFF LEWRY

When I was working as a butcher back in the 1960s, I had a red kelpie cattle dog named Buster. Every Wednesday, I’d bring him along with me to work, so he could join me at the weekly sheep sales. We’d arrive at the butcher shop at 5am, where I would leave Buster in the small backyard behind the shop to wait until 9.10am, when I was generally ready to head off to the sales.

Buster would sit, wait and listen as the nearby clock at the post office ticked by, chiming loudly with the arrival of the passing hours – 6am. 7am. 8am. 9am.

If I was delayed by something and I hadn’t collected him from the yard just after 9am, he would jump the gate, go out into the back lane, turn right into the street at the end, take another right turn and come to the front of the shop. He’d worked out that route all by himself. Then, he’d peer through the door and wait patiently for me.

Somehow, he had learned how to tell the time. He was a uniquely clever dog.

Buzzy Bee DOREEN FOY

One summer day, I was painting a brick fence in my garden, working happily and pleased to be doing a good job when a bee came buzzing around. It must have been very curious as it continued flying around my pot of paint. Not afraid of bees, I kept shooing it away.

Then, to my horror, it dived into my pot of white paint. No buzzing now. Mortified, I carefully picked it up by the wings and ever so gently swished it around in the water bucket.

Still holding on, I placed the sodden bee on the ground. I felt really bad and, fearing the worst, I went back to my painting.

Then, ten or so minutes later, I could not believe my ears. The little bee started buzzing and flew away. I was so pleased to have saved it and felt good all day.