Pets and whistles

[FairEmma]

This doesn't exactly fall into the "pet" theme, but there is a conclave of skunks in Storrs, Connecticut ...

Just returned from the Amherst Early Music Festival, held in Storrs on the UConn campus. I'd sit outside the dormitory at night by my lonesome, just before the no-more-music curfew of 11pm and play soft gentle airs. I freaked when I saw the first skunk nonchalantly mosey by ... lept into the air and beat a hasty retreat. But I quickly realised if I sat very still and continued whistling, the skunks would stop, apparently appreciating the aural addition to their evening routine,and then be about their nocturnal way.

Two nights before I had to leave, I was joined by a man who played historic harp. The skunks hadn't made their appearance yet, and I was asking the fellow all sorts of instrument questions. I then asked him to play me something, which he obligingly did. You'd have thought KMart just announced a Blue Light Special ... those skunks couldn't assemble fast enough!

Fickle critters! And all that time I thought they were loyal to me and my whistle!

FE
P.S. To keep this on-topic, my cat abhors my whistle-playing ... he yowls madly and scratches maniacally at the outside door if I so much as look at a whistle. Maybe I should look into skunks as pets?

[mamakash]

I prefer to practice in the den(as that is where my computer, and more importantly, my music software is located) but it can be diffucult with my conure as she hates the noise. I like to think of it as music . . . but can you call repeating two or three bars of a reel as music? Practising is sometime painful. Of course, I don't mind the ill-sounding squeaks, but the high notes are hard on her ears.
She *will not* tolerate my blowing into the flute head of my Tony Dixon combo(I like to blow without the body, just to get the feel of it).
However, the canary enjoys my whistling and sings along.
I can't say his tastes are too discriminating. He sings along with the vacuum cleaner, too.

[Tyghress]

My cats seem impervious to the music, but the birds are another story. The macaw is fine until the high registers and then he starts vocalizing unhappily, the caique twitters non-stop, the parrotlet (much like the lovebird from the earlier post) chirps.

But during the summer I spare them and my husband and head outdoors. To my astonishment I assembled three Carolina wrens who darned near perched on my shoulders to get closer! The blue jays squawked and left the vicinity.

[Walden]

My mom is always making me play my flute and whistles for her 'big" birds, aka parrots. Our African Gray, Merlin, loves hearing flute and whistle. He will fluff up his feathers and dance.

Am I the only one here who's tried training birds to sing with a whistle a la the bird flageolet?

[StewySmoot]

When I play
Buster Douglas, a Yorkie, ignores it as expected,
the 2 cats (cat a and cat b) generally leave the room, but

Heather, the Sheltie collie, likes to sit near as if she is watching me play. No matter how bad/good I am that session, she always sits in.
That's what dogs are for, I guess.

Heather passed on 2 years ago.. Buster Douglas who is now pushing 13 missed her so my wife Andi and I went out and got a miniature pinscher puppy, Kellie.

Buster cant hear, cats dont care, and Kellie only pays attention when I stick a Snausage in my whistle.

Thanks for the memory.

[Will O'B]

Our dog -- see the avatar -- used to come running when I would play. She would sit quietly at my feet and watch. At other times she would jump up and down whenever she saw me take the whistle out of hiding, and run to the spot where I always sat and played.
Ahhh. Too bad other family members didn't share her enthusiasm.

Will O'Ban

[Whistling Willie]

I posted this before but what the heck......my grandaughter Stella and Suki my Japanese Akita-Inu

[ChaoticGemini]

My dachshund will howl with irritatation if I try playing when he's resting. So, I have to play between his naps. When I do, he'll sit in the same room and not make a peep unless I miss the breath needed (i.e. squeek, squak, over sharp). If he hears anything like that he will immediatly grumble at me until I start hitting the notes right again. This makes learning a new whistle, especially one with a low breath requirement, a difficult task in my home. He also will not tolerate ANY song played in Bb. I haven't figured that one out.

[seisflutes]

Our cats have various reactions to whistles/flutes/pipes. Dinah the barn cat really likes whistles and flutes. She rubs against my ankles when I play out there. I don't play the pipes in the barn so I don't know what she'd think of them. Bella (small, twitchy, black-and-white longish haired thing) runs away. The others don't seems to care much one way or the other.

The birds(well, the indoor birds. The chickens and guinea fowl don't care either.) do respond to my playing: Squeaky squawks loudly, and Junior dances. I'm not sure if those are good squawks or bad squawks, but the dancing seems to be definitly good. She even has fairly decent sense of the beat. She stopped dancing when she was sick, but she's back to it now.

The goats like medium pitched whistles, like low F. They get all placid and lie around chewing their cud.

[OnTheMoor]

My Lab Rickard, if he is in my room, usually goes under the bed and moans when I play my whistles. When I play my flute he usually jumps at me as soon as it makes a sound... but that's probably just the olive oil.

[DCrom]

Our cat seems to love high whistles - if she hears me playing, she generally comes and tries to climb into my lap (if I'm sitting) or rub against my legs (if I'm standing). When she's outside and hiding, I can usually get her to come out by the time I hit the B part of a tune.

Low whistles don't seem to excite her as much, but she'll still come sometimes (and doesn't leave if I play them).

But she really, really, really doesn't like the pipes. At last spring's C & F party she was hanging around quite happily until the pipers started playing - then she gave a look of sheer horror and disappeared for the rest of the evening.

It *can't* be musical skill, as anyone whose heard my whistle playing (and Justine's piping) can attest.

[cowtime]

My five dogs generally ignore the whistle(or whatever I'm playing at the moment). Our dachsX use to get hyper and run all over the yard when I'd play Brown Haired Maiden on GHBs though. Only that one tune, no others.

[fancypiper]

Whenever I play either my pipes or a whistle, my female parakeet tries to wolf whistle at me, about 2/3 of the time, just the first part of it, then gives me a bronx cheer.

She won't ever fly over to me but climbs all over the outside of her cage.

It's the only bird I have ever had that would let me pull it's tail, tickle it under the wing and pet it on the head.

It's a strange bird.

[Koss]

I have this goldfish..and it seems that no matter what I play, all she does is swim around and wait for food to fall from the sky.

...ever tried to whistle under water ? ...your goldfish will no longer wait for food ...

[buddhu]

Our cat glances at me in contempt for the first few notes, then totally ignores the whole affair. However, the sound does seem to attract moths and woodlice.