That’s the directive I have been given, anyway. Ran across one small foxpaw. Oops.
Your friend,
Fisher

Dear Fisher,

I’m a lady, 13 years young, who doesn’t get out much. I find it very entertaining to bash my food bowl about. I do it when my people are home. But when they’re gone, I nudge the bowl to unlikely places – like under the bed, in the middle of under the bed. It’s hilarious to watch them search all over. Especially Ma. She acts all mad and laughs her butt off at the same time. I love that!

Another thing I do is bury the food. I kick it over and cover it, say, with an area rug. This is interesting, but more obvious. It does serve to make food readily available, though – all I have to do is go around and tidy up. The one time I dug up dirt from the potted plant to cover my dish, Ma got out the vacuum cleaner. Can’t stand the thing!

Why don’t humans understand that dogs have a well-developed sense of humor? I mean, everything isn’t instinct, is it?

Maddie

Dear Maddie,

What you are describing here is instinct with a good dose of humor, except for the part about the re-emergence of the vacuum. Evidently not horrific enough to curb your creative side by adding humor to your life and entertaining your humans just to the edge of frustration. May they keep their good sense of humor!

The instinct part is your need for attention which is quite common in most dogs. Instinct may also come into play as you “bury” your food for future ingestion. But, that is where it stops and your playfulness and humor take over. My what busy days you must have.

Many dogs suffer from separation anxiety which is not funny and must be dealt with. Symptoms are excessive barking, whining, or chewing up everything in the house. You do not do these things, so let us explore your sense of humor.

Humor has many different forms, for instance:
1.Slapstick – basic level, usually physical: Tripping over your dog dish to get a laugh.
2.High-level, involves thought: Next time you dig in the plant, hide the vacuum.
3.Psychological, involves startling: Hide in dark corner of hallway, jump out at Ma first thing in the morning.

You are engaging in all three: hiding the bowl under the bed, in the middle of under the bed, and making her scold and laugh at the same time. I think that covers it. You can find more information (and a few new ideas) by visiting Practical Pets, Do Dogs Have Humor? My vote? Of course they do.

Your friend,
Fisher

What a remarkable day this is. I am yawning and laughing at the same time. Looking back over the last two years – where we started and where we got to – can be pretty darn tiring and completely exhilarating all at once.
We have had fits and frustrations over the why’s and wherefore’s of keeping up a web site. We are still trying to get it all sorted out. But today. we forget about the tears and only remember the laughter. We are motivated and excited. Most of all, we are having fun. This adventure will not come to an end anytime soon!
Thank you to our readers and all the wonderful critters who write to Ask Fisher for advice. Thanks to my editor and his staff, my advice column continues to publish in the tbt* Tampa Bay Times. Without you all, we would surely lose momentum.
Just for kicks and with a slight bit of embarrassment, I thought it would be fun to re-post (without re-editing) my very first blog. The only difference is we added a photo to show how intimidated I really was. tee hee

Hello world!

Hello!
My name is Fisher.
This is my fist blog and I am very excited to talk with you. I decided to start this blog in order for us “pets” to discuss matters that are important to us in our world. To me, the idea of getting advice is to get another perspective on things that concern us.
What qualifies me to give advice, you might ask? I have been a cat for at least 6 lifetimes now, and have seen some pretty interesting stuff, met some interesting people, and been in some strange situations. For some reason, through all this, I have developed an ability to tune in to other beings. I suppose you could call me a kitty psychic, but you can just about imagine what the talk shows would do with that one! I don’t think your humans would be happy about that at all! Some of them don’t realize how much we think about things and have opinions about things, and oh yeah – have reasons for our actions.
We love our humans an awful awful lot and most of us are really really happy with them, but sometimes we just want to express ourselves without them suddenly up and changing our cat food because we are acting a little weird that day.
This blog is all about community – you might want to tell a funny story about your human, or your sibling, or the other pets in your household. You might want to whine a little. Admit it – we all do that at some time or other. You might want to ask your new community why your human insists on putting bows in hair, or whose idea was it to decide that you are Irish on St Paddy’s day anyway?? Why not go where you can really share with others of like mind. Your humans do it. You can too. Just ask.

Your friend,
Fisher