Hello-hello and welcome back to another episode of the BigAppleSchool podcast, where the goal of this show is to help you improve your English through listening. My name is Benjamin, and today I'm joined by three guests. Our first guest today is..
So today we're going to be talking about pets. Previously, we talked about pests, which is a different subject. But today we're not talking about pests. We're talking about pets. So our beloved animal furry friends. All right. Well, let's get started. Well, who owns a pet here currently? I mean, I guess..
Not in here. But I have it. I have a pet.
And you call.. Do you call up your pet?
Yeah. We make the face time. Yeah, so my parents are kind of taking care of him.
Back in Turkey, not in here.
I thought you meant you just decided on.. On a whim. 'On a whim' which means like which means spontaneously. I, for instance, sponteneously wanted to..
No, no, no. I have. I have a pet. Back in Turkey. Yeah.
Oh, nice. All right, we'll talk more about it. Varya, when was the last time you owned.. The last time.
Yeah, it was right before I came here, and I.. The last count was nine cats. It was Down from, like, 35.
That's amazing. That's absolutely.. We're going to go into that. We're going to go into that. And of course Maria has..
Yeah, I own a cat. I usually own cats. Like it's my third cat.
Oh, nice, nice. And I own two rabbits. So we'll be talking about that. So why do people own pets? What is special about pets? Why do we have them in our lives?
When is loneliness. People are lonely and they need someone to take care of. And that little furry baby take care of them.
They bring comfort to the house. Because, well, for example, when my cat died two years ago, I didn't have a pet for, like, three month. I just.. Well, I just needed some time. And the house, my home felt empty. It's just like, How, you come home and there is nobody..
On the door welcoming you and saying meow. I mean, it's just very hard for me to imagine because I have.. My first cat.. I had my first cat when I was 7 and..
Did they add a certain energy to your home? When did people start having pets in history? Does anyone know anything about..?
When has to do with a status symbol? So if you're rich, you're going to have a certain type or style of breed of animal to show off.
Or simply as long as they learned how to tame them in a way, so they can understand that they can keep that animal at home. Yeah. So, all right. It's not kind of a dangerous animal, so we can keep it at home just for fun maybe.
If they're going to.. Oh, for fun maybe? But if.. The first ones would be like a work animal out of need.
So they were functional before they were.. Yeah. Would you consider a working animal a pet? Is it something you would..?
I would hope so. I would hope someone would feel a love toward this animal that's working for them. Yeah.
Well, would you consider police dogs to be pets?
I think they're prohibited to consider their dogs as pets because they are, like, maybe colleagues or whatever. Yeah. Because you're a.. You're attached to your pets, you love them. And I guess that you shouldn't love your police dog. That's why I sometimes feel so sad when I see a police dog. They're so cute and nice, but I don't know, maybe they suffer.
Yeah, they're more like the partner of the police officer. And that reminds me of support animals. A support animal is not supposed to be allowed to talk to anybody else or have anyone touch that animal.
Yeah. So for blind people or for other disabilities. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize. So you're not allowed to pet.
Yeah. I was once teaching somewhere, and one of my students had this beautiful German shepherd or something, and, oh, I just wanted to pet that doggy, but I was not allowed to. And we were supposed to ignore the doggy because he was on duty.
That's really interesting.
Breacking the concentration maybe. That's why..
Right. In case something happens to the guy. A student.
I didn't realize that you had you had to maintain such strict boundaries with.. Yeah.
Well, I also think that you can't touch other people's pets, for example, when people walk their dogs. Well, I can be attracted to.. I can like this dog, but, well, I don't touch it because it's someone else's dog. And I just hate when people come to the dog and start to pet them..
..With their dirty hands, I mean...
It's like would you touch another person's girlfriend or boyfriend?
But sometimes these little animals will show interest to me, like if I'm walking by and they're like, oh, okay. And then.. And if the owner allows it to come close..
Yeah, of course. Sometimes it's just you can't resist the temptation.
Yeah, some dogs are much more touchable than others, like Pomeranians. They're very, uh, fluffy and..
Yeah, exactly. What are the pros and the cons of keeping pets? Let's start with the pros. So, pros, they keep you happy. They add energy to the house. What else can we say on the pros?
Yeah. Someone to talk to?
Yeah, someone to talk to.
If you're tired to talk into yourself.
They can teach children how to take care of someone, how to love someone, how to be responsible. Well, hopefully they can teach adults as well, uh, how to be empathetic, for example.
Fair enough. Okay. Alright. Well, we all.. A lot of us like animals. Let us know in the comments. If you don't like animals, if you don't like pets, do let us know.
Well, let's start with the cons. What are the cons? The downsides, the disadvantages of owning a pet.
If you live in an apartment and if you have kind of, yeah, neighbors that you don't get along well with. And sometimes your pet might be the problem if it barks at the midnight..
You're speaking about a dog, obviously.
So he or she comes to the door. All right, would you please stop your dog to just bark? And I said, Alright, don't bark and just closed the door. So that kind of stuff. Yeah. That might be considered as a cons of having a pet.
Well, the first thing I think of when I think of cons about pets is poo. Yeah. So how do you.. Well, how do you litter train your cat or how did you litter train your cats?
Well, my current cat.. I've been keeping him, I haven't had him for, like, almost two years. A year and a half. I took him as an adult cat.
From like a lady who took cats from the streets. He already knew what to do.
Oh, so he.. You just put the litter tray there and..?
Yeah. I just bought a new.. What do we call it? Container? Tray?
Yeah, yeah. That's a tray.
Yeah. And, well, I needed to change different types of litter, but not because he didn't like it, but because just I didn't like it. I needed to choose something that doesn't stick to his paws and blah, blah, blah. Well, but..
By the way, Varya. So what do you call it in America? Do you call it a litter tray or kitty litter tray?
What do we call it? A pan, a litter pan.
And a scooper. You need the scooper.
Okay. But you say litter as well?
Okay, litter. Okay, cool.
We don't say litter. We see litter.
I barely notice the difference.
I seen you don't call it cat trash. Garbage.
Litter tray. Yeah. Um, well, I would.. I'm trying to think what we would call the substance. What you call the substance that you put inside?
It depends on what you have. Like if you have that clay kind of stuff. What I used was pine. And those were wonderful little, little pine pellets.
I don't know what I called it in England... 'Cause I used to have two cats as well and I would just call it kitty litter.
Kitty litter, yes. So that's all.. Because when I came to Russia and I have two rabbits here in Russia, I was looking for some kitty litter substitute and it's what you call 'наполнитель'.
Litter is, is a better word I guess. It's shorter
Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So..
Speaking of, by the way, speaking of disadvantages, uh, when I thought about the litter, for example, I use soy litter which is quite expensive.
So which means that to keep a pet can be quite expensive.
Oh, yeah. The expense, definitely, yeah.
Yeah. And the time it takes to clean up and care for.
Mhm. Well, coming back to the litter. So you recommend the pine subs... What.. You recommend the soy.
Soy. Yeah. Because you can put it in.. Down in the toilet.
Oh, you can flash it down the loo?
Yeah, It's like biodegradable.
Oh, that's great. That's great. And I guess you didn't have a doggy litter?
No. Just going out for three times a day.
Yeah. Three times a day? Oh, that's a lot.
He's a beagle just a medium size.
Because some small dogs just don't walk. They seat at home.
Yeah, they sit at home and they just do it in kind of a special area that designed for them. But my dog is kind of a middle sized dog. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we trained him like or a three times a day whenever you need, you need to just show us that you need to go outside. So he comes and we understand and we just go outside for poo.
Oh, okay. So do you enjoy taking your dog out for a walk?
I used to. Yeah, but for the last seven years or something, as I said, my family, they are taking care of my dog. But yeah, when I first have had it. So it was my kind of pleasure to just spending time with my dog.
So yeah, well, I guess that we can make that an advantage. You get more exercise if you have a dog. Yeah, actually, two days ago I saw a lady walking a cat outside with her.. A leash..
We could say a leash or a lead as well, can't we? We can say both..
We don't say leads. We say leashes.
Yeah, yeah. So just the leash. So a leash.
Yeah. I'm thinking of buying my cat a leash.
'Cause some breeds of cat actually prefer it like the Siamese cats. You know Siamese cats from Southeast Asia? They apparently they like to be walked. Varya, have you had any experience walking cats?
No, I've always allowed them to go out. And of course you have this you you panic. Oh, I hope they come back alive and and it's a quite a worry. Yeah. Because they like to wander.
Yeah. They definitely do. Yeah. Mhm. Alright. So expensive. Vet bills obviously that's not cheap at all. Yeah. Um, I mean, I've only taken my rabbits to the vet. Well, actually, the first rabbit I got has a problem with its teeth. Normally rabbits have their front teeth. The upper teeth are meant to be in front of their lower teeth. And unfortunately, my rabbit's lower teeth are in front of it's upper teeth.
An underbite. Exactly. He has an underbite. So. So me and my girlfriend, we used to take this rabbit to the vet every week or every two weeks to to get his teeth trimmed. And it wasn't.. The great thing about Russia that vets are not too expensive here. It was about..
The same about doctors, I mean, human doctors.
It's amazing. I payed like 250 rubles to visit the vet. How much did it cost to visit the vet in America?
oh my godness, yeah, I would try go to a rescue vet, which would allow me to have a discount, but it would cost at least $50. And then, of course, things on top of that $200.
Just a quick visit to the vet?
Yeah, at least $50. But then with all the things that are piled on top, it you might come out with $200 or $250 dollars.
Well, it is not sometimes good quality. For example, when my.. Well I don't know how to call him.. Previous cat who died unfortunately. When I realized that he's sick that he was sick I took him to a vet and well actually I took him to three different vets until I found a good one.
And also because my friends recommended me this specific vet.
In Turkey, are vets expensive?
Yeah. Especially the vaccines for dogs. So we have, like, regular vaccine shots for, like, every six months to eight months or whatever, so you need to get your dog vaccinated in a way. Yeah. So, yeah, it's around, like, a hundred bucks or something for..
Oh, just a quick.. How much does it cost just to have a checkup?
Oh, okay. That's a little pricey, but this is much more affordable than the UK than the US.
But the vaccines are kind of expensive.
Yeah, they're required by law, correct?
Would you.. Well, let us know in the comments if you'd like to become a vet. It's a very admirable profession. Yeah. Did any of you think about becoming a vet when you were..?
No, never. I know a lady. Well, it's a friend of mine, and she graduated from university, and she was a vet. But she never worked according to this profession because she was just too soft.
She loves animals too much to hurt them. Yeah. Even by treating them.
Yeah, 'cause at some point you have to.. Yeah. If you need to do, to operate on an animal.
It can be painful. Yeah, it is.
Yeah, I know. When I have my rabbits. Well, I still have my rabbits. Excuse me. When I had to get my rabbit castrated, I just couldn't imagine what a.. How someone would be able to do that. It's just such a horrible. I mean, you have to get the animals castrated because otherwise..
And that's what you call it castration?
Yeah, we we call a little bit something more polite.
Oh, neutered or spay as well.
Fixed is nicer than castration.
But it's so misleading these word. It can be anything...
Yeah, you're right. So neutering is for male animals and spaying is for females.
Right, for females. And fixed is for both of them.
Oh, okay. So anyway, I just. Yeah, I can't imagine being the person who..
Yeah, I guess you could sterilize.
Yeah, that's a politeness.
It's just a neutral medical term.
Like castration sounds like you've got an ex and..
Yeah, I was a bit squeamish thinking about it, but..
Yeah, I think it affects men more then woman.
Yeah. That's part of it. But I don't care at all. It doesn't bother me.
So, yeah. So when we originally got the rabbit, I've told this story to a few people. Sorry to repeat myself, but I thought the rabbit was a girl. We thought the rabbit was a girl. We gave it a girly name. And, and. And then all of a sudden, nine months later, we were playing with the rabbit and we discovered something... And.. And we bought, we had bought pink things for this rabbit. And the very typical girly rabbit..
I just can't imagine which things are rabbit needs...
We just.. I dunno, my girlfriend bought like, I dunno, like a lead for it just to take it outside to play on the grass and not run away. It was like a pink lead. And I think..
I think a male rabbit wouldn't object
Yeah. He was okay but then.. Yeah. It was so funny because when my girlfriend discovered that the rabbit was a, was a boy at first she just didn't want it anymore. But then, yeah, she grew to love it again.
Yeah, it took a while to get used to it. Yeah, yeah. When it's a little baby rabbit, it's kind of hard to see basically what, what gender is. But alright moving on from my, from my special rabbit. Okay, let's look at some more questions here. Let's look at cats. So we have the expression 'a cat has nine lives'. Is this.. Is this.. Where does this expression come from? Why do cats have nine lives?
They are so enduring. Maybe that's why.
Would you actually.. Durable. I think the word durable is more for tools.
Maybe because, for example, when kids jump, they always..
I think that's a myth. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they always, I mean, from a 20 foot I mean, a 20 storey building, they would not land.
Let's not try. We don't recommend.
Mm hmm. Well, let's start with your breed. So you said you had a beagle dog. We'll come to dogs later. But what? What your breed. What breed is your cat?
Well, he was born, like, in the basement of some building. I'm not sure that he has a breed, but I can think that he's a Siberian cat because he looks Siberian. He's very fluffy. Or maybe like, you know, Norwegian forest cat.
Because they're very similar. I, well, I just don't care. I really don't care. My previous cat was half British. Well, but that's.. That's not important.
Like a British Shorthair?
Yeah. I used to have two British shothairs. They're very.. They have a permanent smile on their faces, if you understand what I mean.
They are very fluffy and the fur is very thick.
And they're very. Well.. Not melancholic, but very calm.
Yeah. Well, my British Shorthair.. One of them was very neurotic.
My current cat is very neurotic. Even more than I am.
And the other one was very friendly. Yes. The British shorthairs.. So you said Norwegian Forest cats. How would you compare them to.. Do you know Maine Coon?
Oh, I love those. I had a couple.
Yeah, a couple of them. One was actually a poldactyl.
Yeah. Something like seven toes rather than five. Who's a poly.
Yeah. Oh, I loved them. And I called them Mitzi like ..
That's really funny, because my godfather has a cat. I think it's called Mitzi. Something like that. Is that a common name in America?
I guess so. I mean, mitts..
Oh, yeah, of course mittens. Of course. Yeah. Mittens meaning for audience. Meaning, well, gloves. Yeah. Type of gloves.
Well, yeah. Mittens have no fingers.
Oh, well, what are they like?
Варежки, yeah, that's it. Yes. Mittens.
Yeah. So what are the main differences between Maine coons and Norwegian forest cats?
Norwegians are more gentle. The face.. I'll call it a face. Is more, well, it looks gentler and more maybe intellectual. I don't know. But Maine coons are more.. They look lazy and laid back and relaxed. And they are bigger.
Yeah, they're chilled out. Yeah. Well, it's hot weather now. Obviously, these cats don't.. The big the long furred cats don't like the summer months.
They shed. So you've brushed them and lots of fur comes out. Yeah. Or you yo get them groomed. Yeah. Get them shaved like. Yeah. And like make them look like a lion.
I decided not to do this with my cat. What my cat does is he discovered a bathroom.
He just lies in the bathroom all day.
Yeah. And he leans down to the toilet because it's so cool.
Well, because the tiles on the floor..
Yeah, and the tiles are cool.
Exactly. What other long furred cats do we know? So. Persian cats? Yeah. Persians.
You're not a cat person, are you?
Fair enough. I'm both actually. I like dogs and cats.
I'm not into breeds, but I'm into personalities. Like the my favorite cat is a is an old tom cat with a big fat head and really lazy and heavy. And I can... That's my favorite kind.
If they're. If they're really delicate, I don't have fun with that animal. I like to .. around cat.
Okay, so you like a kind of like a little lion.
Oh. Well. With a big fat head and maybe a snaggle teeth and, you know, beat up looking. I like those kind of cats.
So not, not a pinhead, as we call that.
I like. I like breeds. I'm fascinated by breeds. When I was younger, I had this book called The Cat Breed Book, and I would just read it and it was fascinating. Yeah, it's fascinating seeing all the different cultures and different cats and I learned so much about the various different breeds. It's kind of silly for.. I don't know why I spent so much time reading this book. It was really interesting. And I learned..
Yeah, I guess so. And I learned about.. Well, my favorite, the most interesting was the Sphinx Cats.
Do you know the Sphinx cats? The hairless cats.
The hairless cats, right?
A little bit uncomfortable.
They're actually they're very strange looking but actually surprisingly friendly.
They are. They are nice. The are cool. But for me it just doesn't make sense to have a cat without fur.
I mean, a cat or a dog should have some some fur. It's their meaning.
I believe they were breed.. Well, I remember this fact from many years ago. Maybe I'm slightly wrong, but I believe they were developed in something like Toronto, perhaps, in Canada and in the sixties for people who are.. What is it like?
Yeah, a hyper..? What is it? Hypoallergenic.. What's hypoallergenic mean?
Who needs a hypoallergenic cat.
Yes, exactly. So people who are allergic to the fur.
So? So the sphinxes are hyper..?
Maybe. I can't remember the term. Let us know in the comments, guys, if you actually finds the term. Hypoallergenic, hyper.
Hypo something. But for people who can't be around cat fur because they have an allergy to cat fur. Do you know anyone who has an allergy to cat fur?
I don't. Well, maybe my aunt, for example. But it's interesting that sometimes people are allergic to, for example, cats fur or dogs fur, but they are not allergic to their own pets, which is interesting. They get used to their pets fur and saliva and.. Well. Oh, yeah. Like dermal things and they become tolerant.
So you said people allergic, could be allergic to the saliva. Is that..? So the fur and saliva does it contain the same substence?
Actually, I don't. I don't know. Probably it's saliva.
'Cause, I know.. I always thought a fur. Well, I didn't realize the saliva would cause..
Well, animals lick themselves. That's why.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course.
Probably it'ss not fur. Oh, probably, it can be both.
It would be a nightmare having..
Allergies is a fun thing.
Yeah, you have.. Right now you're suffering from, what is it? Hay fever?
Yeah. Pollen of some trees.
Yeah, pollen. So. Alright. So why do you not like cats? No, it's okay. It's okay. I .. have a problem with that, but..
Yeah, I'm okay with cats, but I don't know. I guess they are so unpredictable. I don't know. So I consider cats like aliens. You don't predict what their next move is going to be like, so I don't know. In the middle of night, I don't want any animals to just jump out of my head. So, make a mess. I don't know. That's why I like dogs better..
It is true. If you have a cat in your house.. I remember my cats would, um. They would sit on my face sometimes when.. When I was sleeping ad it was..
So, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe when I was a kid, my dad had a dog. So I get used to live with dogs in the house. Maybe that's why I like..
Yeah, I think so. I think when you're a little boy, you have dogs you're going to grow up to be a, you know, a dog men.
That's the same with us. We always had cats because they're more independent, you know, you have to take care of them as much..
I never had a dog growing up. I would love to have a dog.
Well, we're going to talk about dogs someway. We'll get to it. So obviously you had a lot of cats in your house. So how did it start? So you said you had cats, is it..?
Yeah, it's.. I'm very sympathetic towards street cats or cats hungry or skinny or in need. Yeah. And so I just started feeding them and I, of course, had to get them fixed. They wouldn't proliferate. And so that was quite expensive. And I, I was able to fix about 40. So I always felt like I was like, you know, a good citizen.
But I was doing it ill.. I was illegally having these cats, so I had to hide my cats.
Well, you're only supposed to in this little town, Forest Park, you're allowed to have five outside cats.
So was this California or New Jersey?
So a local law, a limit to cats. So that you don't become a hoarder or something. But I was, you know, a service to the community. So I hid the cats. I always, Oh, no, those aren't mine every time, you know...
So did you have an environmental protection officer or an animal protection officer coming..?
Yeah, we had. Her name was Mrs. Johnson, and she was very mean and I did not like her.
Yeah. So she's come by once in a while. Oh, they're not mine. They're not mine. I don't know whose there are.
So they.. You hide all the cats in your house or..?
No, no, not in the house. They're.. In a nice yard.
Or they would disappear. So she couldn't ever see all of them together.
So I had no idea that they had.. There was like a limit in..
Yes, I'm sure in every local town there's some kind of ordinance.
Yeah. Which, for our listeners, is..
Yeah, it's like a.. It's like a kind of regulation.
That's interesting. 'Cause I would have thought in America you can't really limit such things unless you live in a housing association or..
Oh, we do have laws and restrictions in America.
Of course, of course of course you do, but I thouhgt..
I thought you can own as many animals as you like.
Maybe in some areas you could. Yeah, but not in Forest Park, Georgia.
Fair enough. Fair enough. And yeah, it must have taken a lot of.. Well, you said because obviously you were a ballet instructor and in a previous podcast you said how much you.. Yeah, you worked 18 hours a day or something...
Something crazy like that.
Yeah, it was it was hard. You know, I would be on a long commute home from teaching and I knew at 10:00 at night I'd have, you know, at least 5 to 10 cats waiting for me. And tripping me as I'm trying to make it through the door. And I knew I had the.. I was on duty. I was on duty. Morning duty, night duty. Whatever they wanted, I was on duty.
But did you have, like, an automatic cat feeder?
Well, yes, but Georgia is very humid with a lot of bugs.
And so I couldn't attract these bugs. So I had a constantly clean. I really worked hard, really laborious.
And that's another question, actually. Speaking about the bugs and the fleas on cats. Personally I.. Because obviously you don't want your cats to have fleas. But what do you think about that chemical you put on the neck of cats? Do you think that it's poisonous you think is bad for the cats?
You put them at a specific place where they cannot lick. And so that's what I used. That was really nice and strong and I never had any cat die from it.
Oh, okay. So it's not actually poisonous to the cat. It is poison to the cat.
No, it is poisonous to the cat if it licked it. Yeah, definitely. So you put it at a.. On the nape of the neck where they cannot reach their tongue.
Had a kind of flea medication. Kind of, right?
It's like an ointment or drops. Yeah, drops.
Yeah. Did you.. Do you have problems of fleas in your cat?
Oh, I guess if he doesn't go outside..
You can get fleas from grass and..
Yeah, well, once with my previous cat Дымок. We once had this problem of fleas when we took him to the countryside.. To the countryside summer house. And then he came back home and, like, in a week, I found something... Which was fleas.
Yeah. And it was. I was anxious. I started immediately.. I started to think that I also will have fleas, even despite the fact that fleas don't live on humans. But still, I became itchy.
At the same moment. Yeah. But it was not nice.
Yeah, well, that's another disadvantage. Unfortunate disadvantage of pets is that they can attract pests.
And those fleas will get in the carpet. Because I've been in a place where I'm just walking and all of a sudden fleas just hop right on my legs.
Horrible. So you have to treat the carpet. You have to treat the cats. Oh, it's horrible.
Yeah. I mean, we had a whole podcast some pests, and I can see how this is going to turn back into.
Pets can be pests sometime.
They can be pests sometimes. Yeah. Especially if they chew or destroy furniture. Do your cats..? Have any of your cats ever destroyed your furniture?
Yeah. Sure.I mean it's okay. You should be ready.
But what kind of sofa do you have?
But has it ripped open the..? I mean, is this like a kind of..?
Well, I have a special.. Now for this cat, for Thomas. His name is Thomas. I have a special scratching pad.
Which he actually likes. It is made of cardboard. It's nice. I hadn't known about this before. About such types of such types of pads. And well also he has a chair which he is allowed to..
What does he do? Scratch it or just bite it?
He scratches. Well I guess cats do it because they just have this need, because of the claws. They grow and they need to get rid of them.
We call it sharpening their nails.
Well, to fall them down maybe.
Because I don't cut his nails. I'm afraid to. Yeah. To hurt his paws.
'Cause with my rabbits. Their teeth.. I don't know if you guys knew this, but rabbit's teeth never stopped growing. So they infinite.. Yeah. Which is why I had to take my rabbit to the vet every couple of weeks. Because..
Yeah. And if, if they don't, if they don't chew on something, then, yeah, the teeth will go through the jaw, which is like really dangerous. So you have to keep an eye on their teeth and you have to be careful of rabbits in chewing stuff. But luckily my rabbit hasn't chewed any.. Anything. Yeah. My flat, which is nice. Yeah, it has a chewing.. A little chew. I don't know what to call it actually. Like a chew block.
It's like a little block which you attached to..
Doesn't carrot work like this?
Oh, apparently. Well, I do sometimes get my rabbit carrots, but apparently carrots are.. There's too much sugar in it for the rabbit. Apparently so. So, yeah, apparently the rabbit has to eat 80% hay. There has to be 80% of his hay. So, yeah, sometimes we give it a bit of cabbage or a carrot, but apparently it's not good for it, which is really surprising.
Yeah, it's.. End of a myth. Yeah.
But who cares? Like it's just a bit of carrots are not going to kill it.
If my rabbit died from a carrot, then..
So ironic. Second conditionional. If my rabbit died from a carrot — Past Simple, it would..
That would be ironic. Alright. Okay. Another question about.. Coming back to cats, actually. Have you ever been to a cat show? What do you think about those?
Oh, okay. So I'm very much against cat shows, but I had to go to behind the scenes because I had to borrow a cat trap for a feral cat that I had to trap. And so someone said, Hey, I've got a cat trap.
A cage to trap an animal to get them fixed.
And they were so rude and full of tension. And I realized I looked at them, I thought, Oh, they are competing against each other. They've invested a lot of money in their cats. They want their cat to win. They don't want me to bother their cat just by walking by. And I just thought, Oh, my God, it was just like, you know, like the little girl princess tiara, beauty pageants.
It is a beauty pageant. It is just like it. Yes,it's very contentious.
Yeah. Yeah. I was so turned off by it.
I'd love to just see what just to see what it's like. Just because I'm fascinated by all the breeds. But it doesn't..
I don't think it attracts nice people to invest all that money just to make money. Yeah, I think it's horrible.
Yeah. It is a little.. Have you ever been to a cat show in Russia?
I've been to a couple of cat shows. And once I've been to a dog show. Where I touched a husky dog for the first time and I still remember it. It was so nice. So sometimes shows are okay, but.. Well, I mean, we don't like this idea of perceiving a cat or a dog like an object, the same as like beauty pageants for people or woman.
There's this film, I don't know if any of you know it, but there's this film called Best in Show, and it's this film made in the early 2000 with what's his name, Eugene Levy. And the.. It's kind of like a comedy.
Like American Pie kind of style.
Kind a little bit. But actually it's more deadpan, meaning that the comedy is more.. It's hidden.. It's hidden comedy. It's about the kind of neurotic cat show. Dog show types, actually. Yeah. I mean, let us know if you want to go to a dog show, let us know what you think about it.
Yeah, maybe we could do the BigApple..
BigApple Cat Show. Yeah. Well, let's move on to dogs. So Ugur, have you been to a dog show actually?
Yeah, a couple of times back in Istanbul. Yeah. And that was like Maria said, that was kind of objectification kind of thing. So everyone is kind of, alright, bragging about their dogs or my dog is the best one.
Yeah, the status of it and it's just the objectifying of it. I just.. It's turns me off so much.
Yes. So that was just fun for me to just see the different breeds of dogs in a kind of like a groomed and like behaving just and well.. So, but yeah..
See, I'm.. Animal rescuers are very much against this breeding because you have so many animals that are in shelters that are suffering, that need homes, and then someone is making money off breeding animals and selling them or something.
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. A stray dog and a kind of a specific breed then they mix it and as you said, they're selling it and just earn money. Yeah.
Yeah. Some some dogs are actually like have medical complications because of that.
Right. Yeah. Like those little kitty cats with the short ears. I don't know, they're called English..
Those are the ones who have arthritis because of something.
Oh yeah. Well so I.. Because my.. The really interesting how, how did they.. How were they bred to have their curled ears. But my girlfriend's mother has one and it's very it's a very playful cat. I don't understand how it was bred. What an evolution.. But what an evolution would make a cat need to have curled ears... Some animals were bred for specific purposes, for instance, Jack Russell.
Jack Russell, French Bulldogs.
Well, Jack Russells were bred for.. For killing rats and.. And going into. Yeah. Going down a little foxholes.
You said terrier. Because terriers are supposed to be good for killing rats and mice.
Yeah, exactly. So different dogs bred for different purposes.
Beagle is for hares. They're just running off to the hares for the game. So, they were just specifically..
Another cruel sport, you know, this poor little hare or this rabbit running to death. Literally to death.
Yeah, like the hunter dogs. Yeah.
Beagles. Weren't they used in fox hunting?
So classical fox hunting dog.
Fox hunting or the rabbit or hare hunting.
And again it is a status symbol and only the rich people do that. Look at me. I'm, I'm on a top of a horse and I've, I've won this hunting.
Well fox hunting was banned. It is technically illegal in the UK since, I think, 20.. It was kind of recent actually. I think it was 2010 some.. Maybe earlier.
I guess we talked about it on the past..
Yeah, we did talk about it a bit. Yeah. But now, now it's, um, it used to be something for the upper classes. It's a very posh sport, but now in the country you still have illigal fox hunting and you get a lot of people who want to be upper class. Who.
Yeah. Who like putting on the red uniform.
Look at me, look at me...
And trotting around on their horse. Yeah. Well, could your beagle be capable of hunting?
Yeah, he used to be. But we never tried to just.. Let's go to the game and just let's try.
I guess you live in the city, so..
Yeah, in the city It's not that much possible to just try something, like..
Get a pigeon or something.
But he was so active when he was young, like he was around three or four years old. Yeah. But after that, around six years old, he had a kind of condition and he had a tumor on..
And we had to get it removed, in a way. So and after that, he was kind of more..
Yeah, chilled out and slower than before. Now he's 11, so..
Yeah, he's 11. But yeah..
What do you talk about when you face time with them?
What do you talk about when you face time with him?
I'm actually saying, All right, how are you doing, boy? Are you alright? Are you getting along well with..?
Does he still recognize you?
Come again? Yeah. Exactly. He starts just breathing heavily when he sees me.
And how long will you face time with them?
Like more than 30 minutes or something. Yeah. Yeah. And he understands I'm in front of him and he just reacts what I'm saying. Alright. Are you.. Are you doing good? Are you getting along with, well, with mum and dad? And he just is breathing and just heavily and just looking at me straight. So yeah, he understands what I'm saying.
So wait the Beagles are originally British, aren't they?
So many.. Why is it that so many breeds come from the UK? Talk about cat breeds, British short hairs, Scottish curleds, Beagles, Jack Russell or something.
The Royalty or someting.. The Royal family. As it is, like the status symbol.
The Yorkshire terriers. Yeah. So, so many different. Yeah.
Actually Beagle is called like Queen three color Beagle. The official name of the Queen three color Beagle. So it's from the Royal family kind of. Like Corgis.
So Queen has the corgis, I guess lots of corgi. So it was kind of that kind of breed. So, the official name is Queen three colour Beagle. Yeah.
Yeah. Then we have other Royal breeds. Yoy know King Charles Spaniel?
Spaniel. Yeah, my friend has a King Charles Spaniel.
Is it really relaxed? Is it like a really chilled?
So she had been dreaming of having this King Charles spaniel for like, well, more than ten years. And when she was an adult and she had two children, she finally talked her husband into this. And they bought a spaniel. Like, it's quite a lot of money. And then she was disappointed. Because she said he's too stupid. He's very active, like, hyperactive. And when, for example, you enter their house, he will be a.. He will be cheering. He will be trying to lick you to death.
I love. I love. I love stupid dogs. They can be very funny.
That is why I prefer cats. Because cats are more.. Sorry... Cats are more intellectual.
Oh, here we have a debate, guys. Oh, we like debate time. Alright, so. Well, you don't really normally train cats?
And I guess we're sitting like this. Yes? People who think that cats are more intellectual and..
Let us know cats or dogs. Cast your votes. What's more intelligent? Well, dogs have the capacity to be trained, so they have they have more.. Let's talk in terms of computers, it's kind of like they have a bigger ram.
They can.. They can get what you give them, gradually. But if you need to start in the early ages in order to get the full performance as a kind of. But I'm not sure about how you train the cats or..
Cats will get.. Cats will get what you want from them, but they just don't want to obey and they just ignore you.
You can't not, you can't have the aim to train a cat.
They're kind of rebellious.
They're very. And there's one word 'incorrigible'. This means that no matter what you do, it still does what it wants to do.
But when we say intelligent, I don't know if that's fair, because who and what are we comparing it to? If we're comparing cats with another cat, this one's more intelligent. This one's.. They're all different. They all have different personalities.
Yeah, the same as humans.
Well, I guess dogs. I mean, I love to watch this show to learn Russian. 'Кто в доме хозяин'. Who's the boss at home? Do you know this show? Have you seen this show?
It's a TV series. I use it to learn Russian.
Yep. But it's still ongoing.
I forgot the name of the host, but he he believes that most dogs can be trained and.. Yeah, but it's really funny when you have an untrained dog. My grandparents had some really close friends and they had this big poodle. Usually poodles are actually quite intelligent and have a very.. They were bred to be..
They have three types of I guess.
Many types. Yeah. Yeah. Poodles are actually supposed to be attached. This poodle was not clever.
And I remember it was a white poodle. A beautiful white fur and it was Christmas time and they had gravy on the table and the dog came in.. And.. Just spilled this whole.. Like tub of gravy over itself. And it had this permanent stain, this gravy stain on it.
Yeah, it was really funny. Yeah. Training dog. So was it difficult to train your beagle?
Not at all. Because, as I said, I started like in an early age. So he is not allowed to getting closer to the table or when you're eating something he just sits around the corner and wait for you to just give him a food in a way. Yeah. So if you allow him to just come and get something. Alright. That's the time. He understands that. But. But as you said, some dogs are not following that rule. They're just out of the circle in a way.
Some dogs need to be professionally trained, don't you think?
Yeah. Like the German shepherds and like the service dogs that you said. But we didn't. Yeah. Beagle was not that much kind of strictly.. I don't know. He wasn't kind of.. How should I say? I don't know. He wasn't that disobedient in a way, so that was easy for us to just show everything that he needs to do in the house. So it took like three months or something in order to get everything settled down. So alright he came to me like when he was like three and a half months. So that was quite easy for us to just get the training..
I rescued a dog one time and I don't really know anything about dogs, but this dog was in a bush right underneath my window, a little puppy.
And he was just curled up and I thought, Oh, no, I don't want a dog. But I brought him in, put him in the tub without water. So he's contained. And I didn't know what to do. So I contacted a rescue. They couldn't take him. They said, Well, we'll take him out. But you just have until.. We'll take him if he's adopted. But in the meantime, you've got to take care of him. So I was stuck with him for about two months and I was very kind to him, but I didn't like him because I didn't know what to do with him. I couldn't train him. I put a leash on them and go, okay, he'll and no and oh.. Oh, it was horrable...
Actually that's quick. You just said a dog 'come on'. One of the typical English dog commands because I was looking at a list of Russian dog commands and they're quite different, which is interesting. So, um, well, I heard the word 'Фас'. What, how, what does 'фас' mean? It's like bite, doesn't it?
Attack. Yeah. And then 'охраняй', which is 'guard' or something. But what would you say, 'guard'?
Oh, 'seekm' to attack. Seek him. Seekm.
Oh seekm. Oh, I don't know that one. Oh, interesting. So seekm. That's interesting. Wait, seek is it like..
I don't know, seek him. Seek him. Seekm.
That's really interesting. Yeah. Well then the most typical dog commands we have 'heel'.
Yeah. Which is like sit down basically.
Oh no. Heel is walking by my heel.
I thought heel, I thought heel just mean sit down and..
No, in that you have to say 'seat'..
But when you're walking, you've got to have him by your heel.
I thought heel, I thought heel just back because hill is on the bottom of..
Maybe in British English it is
Maybe I'm wrong, 'cause I'm..
Maybe I'm.. I'm not a dog person, so I don't know. That'ss my thought.
'Cause hill is what 'пятки'. Yeah. So the back of your feet. Yeah. So I thought that it just meant like, go to the seated position.
I have no ideaa. I've never had dogs, so.. Just can't say anything. And cats will just not follow your command. So don't. Don't bother.
Well, do you speak, by the way? Do you speak to your dog in Turkish or English?
Turkish. Yeah, Turkish. He understands Turkish. Yeah.
That's an interesting question. Do animals understand language or just the intonation? That your approach to them.
The tone of your voice. Yeah. That's that's also important.
With cats, you just you make a noise. Are you getting up? Are you going to feed me? You just make one little noise. You don't even move.
Because we, we talk to our rabbit in Russian, sometimes English, but..
Multilingual rabbit. Yeah.
Yeah, the other rabbit. Okay. So basically, I've got a little story to tell you. So my rabbit, the white rabbit, the original rabbit. We wanted.. We go to work at day..
Yeah, it's still, yeah, it girl's name but whatever it's..
Yeah. Yeah. We're just going to pretend it's like a guy's name. Even though it's a girl's name.
Your parents are really in denial.
So basically, this rabbit.. We wanted to give it some company, and so I went to the pet store and found this lovely black rabbit. And, yeah, I didn't realize that it's not a good idea to have two boy rabbits together because they get very territorial. So now the boy rabbit, we called it a few things. We called it Black. We called it a Buller. We gave it a few names, interesting names. And they were fighting quite a bit, to be honest. And we had to protect them. We had to protect the white one from from the other one. So basically the second rabbit is now on holiday at my girlfriend's mother's dacha at a.. And we hope that..
I thought like holidays is a euphemism for on heaven.
Oh, no, no not on heaven. No, no, no, no. Just hopefully a permanent holiday.
Yeah, but yeah. I mean, I still love it. It's just..
Yeah. Happier away from, yeah, the aggression.
Yeah. But we bought it to keep the original rabbit a company.
Because now get a girlie.
Yeah. Probably a good idea to get girlie, yeah. So yeah, my rabbits.
So and you talk both English and Russian.
Mostly Russian to them. Mostly Russian, because it's I like to practice, but sometimes we have English. English words.
If I have a name picked out, if I ever get a kitty here, it's going to be a boy as he will be Ростов.
Rostov. On Don. That's a good name. What inspired you? Because it has like..
Oh, yeah, it's a strong name. It's a strong name and it's not a real common name.
Yeah. Oh, good. Actually, I was just about to ask, what is the.. What do you think of when..? What do we need to consider when giving an animal a name, especially a dog? You don't want to give it like a really long name because then that could confuse it. No?
Yeah, my dog came to me with his name on. So..
Yeah. He is one of the nine brothers and sisters of out of one mother and my friend just gave me that one of the puppies. Yeah. And he, he just came to me with, with his name tag on him. So yeah. He was already called Pasha.
Which is. Yeah. Which is a kind of common dog name in Turkey. So..
So he, he, he's Pasha then.. Yeah. So like 11 years he's Pasha. So the dog name is kind of to be short. So you need to just take a command..
Yeah, Pasha. Then you just raise up your voice. As Maria said, he understands just something is going on, so he just reacts. Pasha. Yeah. And just, he just looks around.
So it has to be short and sharp. Was.. So I've had a few names.
Smoky, yeah, because it was, he was gray like half British. Gray. Yeah. And this current cat is Thomas. We have been dis.. We had been discussing it with my son like different names. Yeah, well different names came to our heads so we stopped on Thomas. It's not because Tom and Jerry. It's because of Thomas Edison, you know.
Yeah. And I guess maybe I'm wrong, but I guess that cat's names should have some 's' or 'sh' in it. Okay, because it attracts them. They will react.
It's funny. Oh, that's another thing. So in Russian to attract cats, you go 'кис-кис-кис'. In English we don't do that. How? How would you..?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
In Turkey. In Turkey 'ps-ps-ps'.
Yes. Kind of like that. Yeah.
That sounds so rude to me. You not do that to a cat.
Like saying 'piss-piss' kind of. But in Turkey we call a cat 'ps-ps-ps'.
Might get the wrong idea and destroy your apartment. Yeah, that's.. Yeah. Because I saw.. I was reading a Russian book. It had 'кс-кс-кс' and I thought, what is this? Yeah. So that's how you beckon a cat.
Yeah, 'kiss, kiss, kiss'. Yeah. Um, well let's actually ask what's the most.. Let's talk about exotic pets. What is the most exotic pet you have ever had or you know, someone who has had. My brother, he owns a snake which is pretty funny. And his Fianceé has owned quite a few snakes in the past and I can't remember if it was her, if it was someone else, but they had a big boa constrictor, big black boa constrictor. And it, it trawled behind the wall and it got stuck inside the wall and they had to move apartments. And now this apartment just has this big boa constrictor living in the wall, which is. Yeah, because they couldn't, they can destroy the rented property.
Well I think they should have because leaving an animal stuck in trap, it's not a kind thing to do.
Yeah, no, of course it's not kind.
It's not kind. So they don't care about that snake. They didn't care abot this snake.
Snake owner anyway. I mean, some of them enjoy giving the snake live animals.
They have to do it unfortunately.
I think that's so cruel. And they enjoy it. They enjoy. These little animals that are trapped in a cage. Yeah. Terrified. Panic. They're having a heart attack.
Well, I know, snakes.. You have to have.. Well some.. Most snakes.. I think you have to give them live mice because they don't eat the frozen dead mice. You have to give them alive mouse.
So those are kind of people, you're kind of like, Okay.. What kind of what kind of person are you? Yeah, I don't..
They're interesting animals, they.. Like my brother let me touch.. So this sounds wrong. My brother let me touch his snake. Sorry..
Sorry, guys. Alright, so I played.. I touched this snake. It was very friendly. It was really.. I was like.. I'm okay.
I'm not going to continue on with that one. But the snake was a.. It was a nice snake, so. And yeah, but basically you have to..
How can snakes be nice? I mean, do they understand, do they react to the owner or what..?
I mean, if you go on Facebook and you see snakes with little expressions, they're very sweet. Frogs, lizards. Any of them.
Lizards. Yeah. Lizards can be quite funny pets too. My cousin had a gecko.
One of my students owned tarantulas.
They had names. They named tarantulas like Richard or something, I dunno. And I was like, Oh, my God, they're hairy and scary. Why would you keep them?
Maybe it's a shock value too. Because I think people who have exotic pets, again, show off like, look what I've got, you know, so unusual. Little special. Yeah, I'm scaring you with my tarantula.
Yeah, yeah. Tarantula.Yeah. They are quite funny animals, actually, but obviously don't want to be bitten by..
They all have personalities. Well, this were sentient beings, you know.
Yeah. These are animals beings that have feelings.
Well, are there any animals that you think other than snakes that are just dawn evil, which..?
No, no, no, no. How can.. How can an animal or sentient being be evil? If you don't agree with that animal, just walk away. Yeah. Don't have them around you. That's what we do. We kill something. What we're frightened of.
I mean, I love cats. I absolutely love cats. But they.. They can be evil sometimes. With the mice.
No, you just don't have cats around. But that's how.. That's how, like, myths and superstitions and abuse happens because people are afraid of it. That's how.. Although, you know the black cat walking. There was a time where people used to kill black cats because of this superstition.
Black cats and red haired people, for example.
Yeah. Well, what do you feel? I mean, because cats do like to kill birds and they like to play with birds. Do you.. Do you think it's a good idea to put a bell on a cat, or do you think it's a bad idea? Yeah. Tell me what you think.
Okay, so I tried the bell idea, but the.. The thing the collar kept on coming off, so I always had by my door a broom for the cat and a plastic dish for the bird.
When I saw it I would rush out, I get the broom against the cat. Yeah. And then scoop up the bird and then walk down the street. Release the bird. Yeah.
Yeah. I remember many years ago when I had a cat, they caught a pigeon. I think.. I think it was the cat that caught the pigeon, and I think it stuffed it. So we had this radiator, a heater which had a heater cover over it, like this wooden grid cover over it. And it stuffed this pigeon behind the heater and the radiated.
So they just want to play with it or smell it. It's just their instinct. So to stuff a pigeon behind there, it's just part of what they wanted to play with it. They're not starving to death, not eating it.
I thought I thought he just wanted to play a cruel game with them or something.
I think so. Oh I see. That he was trying to be cruel. I don't think that. I think that it's just..
Yeah, but I love cats even though they can be evil maybe. Alright. Well, let's let's finish off with this one question, and this is actually really difficult question over here. Do you feel.. Okay, so if you saw someone drowning in a pool or a dog drowning or a cat drowning, your pet drowning in the pool, what would you save? Who would you save?
What is the second option?
So you have your pet drowning and a human drowning.
I would definitely try to find some way to just save together. Save them together.
Well, no. I mean, you have one. You have to choose one.
Okay, I will be honest. I will save my pet.
A pet because it's lighter for one thing.
And yes, because it's easier to save a pet and.
And it's my pet. And probably sometimes when you try to save people who are drowning, they can drown you instead.
Yeah, yeah. 'Cause they want to stay.. They want to stay afloat on you. Yeah. Well, let us know, guys. Would you save your pets? Would you save the the stranger? Let us know in the comments. And let's wrap that up for today, guys. So thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. Be sure to subscribe to our social media channels on VK and on Telegram and also check out our website which is www.BigAppleSchool.com. You can find other interesting podcasts and articles and more information about the courses we offer here at the BigAppleSchool. So see you next time.
Мария Усаченко
