Names for animal exploits (a post about animals for jjhunter without taunting photos)

[untonuggan]

So you know how there is talk in US English about "Kitty Crazies"? That thing cats do roughly once a day where they look at you as though they have never seen you before, run around the house, etc?

Well partner's family speaks North African Arabic (also other dialects in other branches of the family). Anyway, there is another name for "kitty crazies". You say that the cat "has tagoug" (Anglicized spelling completely mine because partner is out; note that the correct grammar is not that the cat "is tagoug"). Basically it means that the cat is "possessed" (by a Djinn/demon -- what we call "genies" -- also note that not all Djinn are evil, some are aligned with God/Allah and the evil ones are not; there is a WHOLE area of study around this which not all Muslims and/or Arabs and/or Lots of Peoples I don't have room to specify agree on that I do not even begin to understand so I'm going to stop there). I kind of like this imagery because it ties back to all the ideas of cats and witchcraft and everything. It also kind of explains why cats look so uncomfortable.

Or you could go by my definition, which is that more specific than the "kitty crazies", your cat is just having a short manic episode. (Seriously, not that different from how I feel when fully manic versus hypomanic).

With our dogs, we always called these occasional bouts of RUN EVERYWHERES "racehorse dog" (though srsly they would be really poorly trained racehorses because they did not go in a ring at all). Though once my dog did get hold of the slug trap (which contained beer) and, er, emptied it into his belly before grabbing hold of the container and running round the yard. I think that was a chemically induced racehorse dog. (And don't worry, despite the alcohol/dog poison, he was fine. It was cheap crap beer with low alcohol content, which helped.)

Anyone else have other terminology for such things? Do bunnies have similar bouts of ALL THE ENERGIES? (I'm looking at you for this vital information, shanaqui .) What about other species?

ETA: I wonder if animals have names/thoughts for our shenanigans? Like "omg they are picking out those clothes things again"? Or whatever their idea of our recreational sex is. Or what the hell is the holiday season madness. Or VACUUMING. I mean, basically most of what we do around animals would seem to me to be nonsense to them? IDK. *curious*

Comments

[green_knight]

Horses have 'the sillies' - that time, usually in the evening when it cools down, when the whole herd might suddenly go for a run without any real reason.

[untonuggan]

Nice! :D

[spiralsheep]

Horses who've just been let loose into a large space will often do their "Yipee, I'm Free!" prance / head toss / roll, all in unembarrassed ecstasy.

[untonuggan]

♥ ♥ ♥

[alee_grrl]

I've heard the doggy silliness/racing around called zoomies, particularly when referring to bully bread type dogs.

[shila]

I've also heard of it as 'zoomies' or just 'zooms', but without the bully breed association.

[untonuggan]

<3 I think the "racehorse dog" thing may be unique to our circle of aquaintance, but idk? I like "zoomies" too.

[hyperbole]

Rabbits get them too! More the younger they are, but even our Mr. Senior Rabbit gets them (he's properly elderly). It often involves one random high jump, or suddenly racing around the hutch once or twice.

[untonuggan]

That. Is. Adorable.

[rainbow]

we call it "the runarounds" here, and it's often right after a trip to the litter box.