Do Your Animals Talk Back?

I have this funny, I guess sort of strange thing I do with my animals (all of them). I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but honestly I was trying to come up with a few paragarphs for the blog today since I hadn't gotten to it for some time, and I thought about this thing that I do. I talk to my animals--horses, dogs, and cat and I realize that isn't so strange because I know a lot of people talk to their animals. However, I sort of take it once step further and have my animals talk back to me. You're probably wondering what the heck I mean by that, or maybe you're thinking this woman is off her rocker. A few people might think that, but I'm okay with that. Really I am. Anyway, back to the part where the animals talk back to me. Let's say I'm talking to my dog Java who is gigantic Rhodesian Ridgeback (not your typical Rhodie) and although Java is gorgeous, he appears to be a bit lacking in brain cells. At the very least he knows how to play dumb quite well. So, when I ask Java a question like, "How was your day?" "He" answers me back with "his" voice, which happens to be rather low and quite dumb sounding (think Scooby Doo here). I wish I could do "his" voice for you here, but I can't and honestly, I probably wouldn't because you would then seriously think I'm off my rocker. Mylee who is our pound puppy has a much higher and far more intelligent sounding "voice," and her answers tend to throw Java under the bus on a regular basis--calling him not so nice names. it's really kind of entertaining when I have an entire conversation going on between the three of us.

As far as the horses go, well, Mister Monty is our little Gypsy Vanner guy and you can guess that he has an Irish lilt that sometimes sounds like a cross between a British/Spanish accent (I don't quite have the Irish thing down yet, even though my heritage dicates a lot of Irish blood in me. His answers to my questions are always highly intelligent. My mare Krissy, who I also call Princess (well, you can only guess what she might sound like and what a discussion with her might be. Basically she always wants to know where her "damn" cookies are). And now I have my 3 girls--Bronte, Mia, and Kaia and they have very young, sweet voices and they all answer their "mommy," in just the right tone. Yeah right. They're yearlings--and each one has their own, strong personality just like the human teenagers in my life.

I'm not sure why I do this with my animals--maybe it's for pure entertainment, maybe it's to drive my kids crazy (which it does seem to have that effect, however, I have caught each one of them trying to hide their laughter at this little game I play) or maybe I am off my rocker. It doesn't matter why I do this, I just do.

I'm curious though, does anyone else out there not only talk to their animals, but do your animals talk back, or at least do you talk back for them, saying what you think they might be saying back to you? I'd love to find out that I am not the only crazy animal person around.

Cheers,

Michele Scott
Professional's Choice
Vice President