People Explain Which Things They Wish The Opposite Sex Understood Better
Whether it's in family, friendships, or dating, we've all felt misunderstood at some point. But it seems especially common to feel misunderstood by the opposite sex.
Here are some key points that people wished those of the opposite sex would just understand already.
Redditor idontplayhockey asked:
"What is something you wish the opposite sex understood better?"
Compliments Go a Long Way
"A good chunk of the men who need reassurance are most likely not getting enough compliments in the relationship."
"This isn't always the case, but I always felt insane dating certain people, and then with the right person who complimented me, is genuinely attracted to me and initiated things, and who ACTUALLY loves me (I now think others weren't that attracted to me, even ex-fiance), and I have never felt more confident, and safe in a relationship."
"Looking back, my intuition was correct with the other people I dated, and that's why I never felt secure."
- TinyDrug
Food Secrets
"If you wanted fries, you should have asked for fries."
- podrick_pleasure
For the Love of LEGO
"I don't drink, smoke, gamble, do drugs, go to strip clubs, or play video games... My vice is LEGO (yes, I'm a f**king dork) and my wife just can't stop complaining about the LEGO."
- lazyFer
The Dating Game
"Wish both sexes better understood biased selections. F**kboys, f**kgirls, arrogant egotistical people, and deplorable tw*ts will be overrepresented in the pool of people you encounter in a dating setting."
"Normal people form relationships, get tired of all the bulls**t, and 'age out' of the dating pool, all of which makes them underrepresented."
- 5e884898da
Stay the Same
"When I say, 'Just like that,' I don't mean speed up to 100 miles per hour."
- Unlikely_Anywhere464
Not Perfect
"For both sexes, we are flawed people and we are not perfect. Stop expecting everything to be perfect 100% of the time. I'm far from perfect, but I strive to make myself better. I'm married guy."
- ThrowAway97283917
Okay with the Friend Zone
"This might be specific to me, but... If I ask you out, and you say no, that's it. Like there's no lingering weirdness or anything. If you're not interested in me romantically, that's fine."
"I'm perfectly cool just being friends. I won't be awkward or anything about it, won't bring it up, won't bring it up to mutual friends, it was just a question."
"The friend zone isn't a bad thing all the time. Sometimes it's where the best friends come from."
- bstyledevi
Feeling Clueless
"I genuinely have no clue about 99% of the mind games taking place around me."
- SolitaryDumpster
Be Direct
"It's not as romantic, but plainly saying, 'I want the D' would fix so many issues in the communication department."
"Don't come to my place claiming to be interested in my hobbies but really after the D, because I will museum guide you through all that s**t that is my past time, and the idea of unzipping will scarcely occur to me."
- ZenEvadoni
Individualized Emotions
"Just because you keep telling me it's okay to have emotions doesn't mean I'm going to burst into tears. I have emotions, they're just quiet and don't bother people."
"I'm not emotionally distant or unfeeling. I'm just not going to burst into tears because the dog died in 'Marley and Me.' I'll cry when my dog dies in 'My Dog and Me.'"
- DanteWolfe0125
Menstruation Woes
"How bad period pain can get for some women."
"Have you ever been WOKEN UP from pain at 3 AM that didn’t go away for at least a couple of hours so you just stayed awake because going back to sleep was definitely not happening?"
"Painkillers only work for me if I catch it BEFORE it gets bad."
- BluWaff_x
Boundaries, Please
"Just because you think I’m pretty, doesn’t mean I need you to send me a photo of your junk. Come on now."
Connect First
"As a guy, I don't always want to have sex. Wanting to get in your pants isn't an indicator of liking you or not. Sometimes I just want to laugh and see how I enjoy being around you because most people turn out disappointing."
- Vapes-DB
Happy to Help
"We're honestly happy to help you lift stuff and carry stuff and put things away on high shelves. We like being big and strong. But please don't take it for granted. Show your appreciation."
- Fuzzpot
No Means No
"'No' doesn’t mean 'convince me.'"
- prosecutie05579
Some of these examples were heartening, as they apply to both genders, but others, like no meaning no, are disappointing, as it feels like it's a concept all people should understand by now.
People Confess Why They Think Waiting Until Marriage To Have Sex Is A Good Or Bad Idea
Why is sex such a dramatic aspect of life?
It carries such weight in our lives.
For some, there's a big debate about waiting for marriage.
Other want to know if they're compatible (both emotionally and sexually) before tying the knot.
Whether it's for religious or other reasons, this topic can put a strain on many adult relationships.
First and foremost, we do know we have to do what's best for us.
Redditor EveningAd3633 wanted to hear about all the reasons to abstain or let loose, so they asked:
"Do you think that waiting until you are married for sex is a good idea? Why or why not?"
Redditors from around the globe wanted to share their experiences.
No Touching
"I know a couple who are waiting until marriage. They both agree on it and are fine with it. But they have ridiculously over the top tickle fights. - _- It makes me so uncomfortable to witness. I'd almost rather see them bang in front of me. It's band camp levels of tension that just won't ever go away."
rlev97
Do we Fit?
"No. We waited and we were not compatible… eventually, he cheated and we got divorced. Also, being compatible sexually is not a reason to get married either."
Whatwhyohhh
"I don’t understand how people don’t get this. It’s the same as any other aspect of marriage—if you aren’t compatible, you shouldn’t get married. It would be like dating someone, and the entire time you’re both blindfolded."
"Then after you’re married you can FINALLY take your blindfold off only to find out your partner looks like someone set their face on fire and put it out with a pick axe. Every aspect of compatibility is important in a marriage."
"Yes, you both change and evolve but if you’re not both 100% committed to weathering these changes and adapting as a couple, then your marriage will probably not be a happy one!"
ThrowRA--scootscooti
All Aspects
"Personally, I think it's good to wait a while before having sex with someone to actually know them, but I wouldn't wait to be married... I think you should know the person that you are marrying on all aspect."
reidjanie
"WELL SAID - and just to take on so many of the other opinions on this thread, it is NOT a good idea to wait until after marriage. It’s not 'fine if you want' it’s actively a terrible idea IF you care about having a sex life. Hoping it will work out through sheer luck? Idiotic."
frecklie
Things Change
"No. Not saying you should f**k everyone that propositions you but you should make sure you are compatible with someone before marrying them. Too many people find out too late they can't stand someone's actual personality. Things change after sex, people calm down and get real, they stop being on their best behavior. Get to know the real person before you marry an intolerable a**hole."
Sithlord_unknownhost
Stay Calm
Relaxing Chill Out GIF by Talk StoopGiphy"If you want to wait, go for it. But don’t set yourself up for waiting until marriage, and then rush the marriage part just to get to the sex."
1107rwf
"Kid I work with is 24. Just got married. Did the deed. Now has a kid on the way. All within 3-4 months of meeting his wife at church. Great kid. But you can see it in his face already. The guy is STRESSED."
PostRdMalone
Roulette
tv land casino GIF by Lopez on TV LandGiphy"Paraphrasing Lewis Black: If you wait until marriage to have sex, then you are a gambler on a level I can't even freaking imagine."
Zerotan
Don’t judge...
"I would say it’s not about waiting until you are married but waiting until it is right for both of you. That’s the key point that a lot of people get wrong. They get to it for reasons other than it being right or feeling right."
"So if your belief is that you should have committed to a marriage, then that is what is going to feel right for you. It could also be that within hours (or even minutes) you can feel that it is right for you. Don’t judge the duration, judge the feeling that you have."
Icanicoke
Cause and Effect
"I’ve heard horror stories of marriages being destroyed because it wasn’t until after wedlock that they discovered their sex drives were entirely different. It causes depression, it causes divorce, and in some extreme cases, it pushes people to cheat. I just don’t think it’s worth it to wait when it could potentially make or break a relationship."
Hiding_In_The_Back
He was right...
"My step dad always told me, 'You might like the pair of jeans you have, but there's always a chance you'll find a pair that fits you better.' He was right. There was no shame in having sex before marriage, and he also taught me that as a female, it is perfectly OK to buy and have the condoms. It's also ok to reject a guy if he doesn't want to be safe. Your body is worth more than his sexual pleasure."
nivsei15
More than talk...
Heart GIF by BuzzFeedGiphy"No. Unless you're both asexual, sexual compatibility is an important part of a relationship, and that's not something you can determine just through conversation."
Deaf_Witch
"Sexual compatibility is important for asexual people too, as in having a similar lack of interest in it."
DescipleOfCorn
Thanks to these Redditors for opening up and sharing on such an important topic.
Some really valid points were made about communication, expectation, and compatibility.
Do you have any thoughts to share? Let us know in the comments below.
We've all known someone who tends to say mean things or generally be kind of a jerk.
And whether we want to admit to it or not, it can be fun to see that jerk taken down a few notches with a solid insult.
Ready for roasting, Redditor depressed_jellybear asked:
"What's the best insult you've ever heard?"
Not Your Mom
"When I was in high school, one of my classmates gave our teacher a typical 'your mom' response to a question without realizing the teacher’s mother had just died."
"Without missing a beat, the teacher said, 'Leave my mother out of this. I don’t make fun of your parents, and look what they produced.”
- HopeDeferred
Adoption Jokes Not Welcome
"I was playing 'Pavlov' (a virtual reality game) with a group of people, one of which was this very annoying kid who kept saying something like, 'You're bad because you're adopted,' and stuff like that."
"He did that to one dude, and the guy replies something like, 'I'd return the insult, but that'd imply someone wanted you.'"
"Had the whole lobby erupting. I don't know if it's taken from somewhere or what."
- ClaireBear13492
Underestimated by the Teacher
"Teacher of mine once said to a classmate who kept making the most asinine contributions to the conversation:"
"'You make it really difficult to underestimate you.'"
"The guy had no idea what it meant, he thought it was a compliment."
- robbycakes
Jeez, Dad.
"16-year-old me trying to convince my dad to take my friends and I to see 'American Pie':"
"Dad: So what is it about?"
"Me: A group of high school friends trying to lose their virginity."
"Dad: I can stay home and see that."
- Theromented1
Based on Real Life
"I once asked my cousin if he watched the tv show 'Desperate Housewives,' and he said, 'No, I’m married to one."
- InourbwotamI
The Joke Will Go On
"I remember when 'Titanic' came out. My grandma, my mom, and I were getting ready to see it."
"My grandpa said, 'Don’t know what the fuss is about. I can tell you what happens, the boat sinks. The end.'"
"Lol (laughing out loud). Maybe it was his delivery, but it cracked me up."
- a7xbarbie
So, Anyway...
"The best one I've heard was, ''I bet your parents change the subject when their friends ask about you.'"
- scottcree486
Seems Pretty Complicated
"I overheard someone tell someone else, They’d need a recipe for making ice cubes."
- thepiecesaremoving
An Insult for an Insult
“You’re not the dumbest person I’ve ever met, but you better hope he doesn’t die.”
- Trick-Reveal-463
"And I have the best response for that: 'Well then, I will pray for your health.'"
- Maria_506
New Take on the Clown Car
"I saw a bunch of quite pretentious people getting out of a limo at a club and pretending they’re more than they are to get in ahead of the line."
"The bouncer quipped, 'I can always tell clowns, all arriving in the same car.'"
- preferablyoutside
Signs of Aging
"Some bouncers are brilliantly witty, I assume it comes with working in a job where you have to deal with drunk a**holes all the time."
"A few years ago, I got IDed to enter a bar. I'd recently started buzzing my hair due to hair loss, yet my photo driving license had me with a thick full head of hair from several years before."
"The bouncer looked at the card, then me, and then said, 'Haven't you forgotten something?'"
"I was confused. He then showed his colleague, who nodded and said, 'Yeah mate, you've definitely forgotten something.'"
"Then he pointed to his head."
- Squeaky_Lobster
Good Luck Getting a Job
"You've got a face for radio, and a voice for writing."
- mike_e_mcgee
Girl Quips
"From 'Golden Girls':"
"Blanche: Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a long, hot, steamy bath, with just enough water to barely cover my perky bosoms."
"Sofia: You're only gonna sit in an inch of water?"
- LissaMasterofCoin
Randomness Wins
"Context aside, someone once told me I look like I go to the park to punch birds."
- TheRoamingWeeb
While it can feel terrible to need to be around negative people sometimes, there's hope knowing that there are some things we can say that are funny and that will relatively put them in their place.
Now if only some of us could think of the comeback at the moment when it's useful...
Teachers Reveal Their Craziest 'This Student's Gonna Be A Serial Killer One Day' Experiences
We've all known someone who genuinely creeped us out, whether we could pinpoint exactly why or not.
But teachers see a lot of weird and creepy things after serving classroom after classroom of students, sometimes they will meet a student who gives them big serial killer vibes.
Redditor Advanced_Bad4443 asked:
"Teachers of Reddit, what was the moment you realized, 'This kid is gonna be a serial killer one day'?"
Impulse Control
"I was in my office one day when a kid I’d never met before strolled in. Very quickly I recognized by his behavior that he was a BD (behavioral deficit) student who somehow got out of his class."
"He started a conversation with me asking who I was and what I did. I could tell he was trying very hard to get under my skin as he emptied a box of tissues one by one. So I didn’t react."
"He then kicked over a number of trash cans, but I didn’t react. He went into my office bathroom while talking to me with the door open (not to use it), and started messing with the supplies in there."
" I walked over so I could get a clear view, and he then tried to pull the sink off the wall while telling me that he has compulsion issues and has a really hard time not doing the things he thinks about but knows are wrong."
"He said last year he was expelled from his school because he threw his desk at another student. He told me sometimes he imagines what it would be like to brutalize and murder someone."
"Eventually, he tired and realized the sink wasn’t coming down. I kept talking to him and asked if he would like to help me clean up the mess on the floor or if he wanted to go back to class. He helped me clean and then I took him for a walk back to his class."
"That kid took a lot of work over four years by a lot of people, therapy and medication included. He eventually learned impulse control and learned the differences between craving negative and positive attention from people. He left BD and got to be in general classes, became an athlete, got some real friends, and graduated."
"I honestly cried when I saw him get his diploma. I hope he stays healthy."
- PantsIsDown
Not Going Places
"A nine-year-old chasing an eight-year-old with a brick in each hand trying the smash the other kid's skull in. When I stopped him, he was screaming something about how he was going to kill the other kid..."
"He's probably 13 now and I suspect in jail or killing animals for fun."
- free_crude_oil
Positive Influence
"Preschool teacher for a very wealthy community. I have a three-year-old who is physically violent. The first day I had him in my class he attacked me."
"I tend to get down on the floor and play with the kids. Seeing an opportunity he latched on to my ear and tore little bits of flesh with his tiny fingernails. I bled."
"I tried talking to his Mom. She said, 'Yeah, he gets rowdy...'"
"Just this past week I had him in my room again. He delighted in making another boy cry. Refused to participate in our activities. Only wanting to throw toys directly at my face."
"Once I did convince him to participate, he clung to me. It was bizarre and honestly made me very sad."
"I talked to some other teachers who've known them longer. Apparently, Mom and Dad are serious alcoholics. He is an only child and desperate for attention."
"They all know about his outbursts and violent tendencies, but there's really nothing anyone can do because he is three."
"I'm just going to try my best with him. Maybe a positive influence and some consistency will give this little guy some reassurance.
I know that there are people who are mentally ill and born with issues beyond their control, but I think this kid just has s**t parents. Wish me luck, friends!"
- MissSassifrass1977
Disturbing
"I have an eight-year-old student in my class this year. All his time at school he has been a troublesome kid, hurting other kids without being provoked, having unpredictable mood changes, and he's really hard to read. Lots of teacher colleagues say he looks dead in the eyes, with no expressions of joy or any other emotions."
"The moment that really shocked me, was when another student had found a fly in the playground. The fly was hurt and couldn't fly anymore. So this student gave it a name (Henkie) and started to care for it, very sweet."
"Lots of classmates joined in taking care of the fly and helping it (making a house out of leaves, etc). I gave the kids some magnifying glasses so they could take a nice look and encouraged the kids' curiosity and gentleness."
"This kid also came over to 'take a look' and was told to be careful, because Henkie was the other students' friend. He looked for 2 secs, grinned, and stomped on it."
"The worst part is that Henkie didn't even die (or at least it was still twitching). So the other student kept on trying to nurse his little buddy back to health. He even took it inside to read it a story. My heart just broke by the love this student was showing for this little creature, but the kid didn't seem to care at all about what he did."
"This was a couple of months ago, and he still even kind of brags about when he (almost) killed Henkie. This kid just gives me the chills."
- Snackicu
Just a Matter of Time
"I'd like to say there wasn't one defining instance but more of a long list of them that when everything was over and I had time to relax and process everything did I come to the realization that in 20, maybe 10, years time, I'd see this little boy as a teen or a man on the news for murder."
"I had this one student, let's call him Timmy (age 4 at the time). Timmy was prone to extremely violent outbursts for little to no reason at all and they were so unpredictable that I had to set up a Timmy evacuation protocol with my other students incase I felt their lives were in danger. These are some of the times I had to use this protocol."
"Before Timmy was banned in my room from using pencils and safety scissors, he went on a rampage with a pencil. He was trying to stab another classmate because I helped her with her writing before him."
"He was doing his writing just fine, and seconds before that, I had told him, 'Great job, Timmy, I love how you are keeping your letters on the lines.' He didn't need help, and he never once asked for it."
"Thankfully, the little girl was not hurt as I was right there and was able to throw my hand in front of her face where he was aiming. However, he did get me and the pencil lead was left in my hand."
"Timmy attempted to choke another child because that child was using a red crayon, so instead of getting an identical red crayon from the bucket in front of him he tackled that child out of his chair and put his hands on his neck while screaming like a banshee."
"About a week after the choking incident, he was upset because he wanted to be the only one in class, so he pushed a shelf that I, as a grown adult, have trouble moving over in an attempt to in his words 'squish' his classmates who were working on the carpet. (Thankfully, I was able to hold it up while they ran.)"
"He proceeded to destroy my entire room, to the point where I decided to just move classrooms for the day as it would have been impossible to clean it up and frankly I didn't want my already traumatized students to come in and witness it."
"Every single day, this child would have a violent meltdown. Some were more contained to himself, a small area, or me personally."
- VanillaRose33
Preventative Care
"My wife thinks her best friend’s son is going to grow up to be a serial killer, and, while I think she tends to overstate things, it’s hard to deny that there is cause for concern."
"I’ve gotten creepy vibes from this kid since he was a toddler, less than a year old."
"He’s probably six or so now but was kicked out of most of the preschools in their area for being violent towards other kids. At one point a couple of years ago, he got very fascinated by death, squishing bugs to see what would happen and talking about stabbing himself."
"The mom (my wife’s friend) is concerned and has taken him to doctors to try and discuss, but hasn’t gotten much in the way of help. But I don’t think they’ve pursued strongly much in the way of psychiatric/psychological specialists."
"The dad (who has become VERY right wing) seems to not be overly concerned, and his solution seems to be either Catholic or Military School when the kid gets older. Which to me sounds like it would do more harm than good."
- justahominid
Flip of a Switch
"She was a little angel student when my boss was in the room, but the second the door closed, she tilted her head, stared at me, and said, 'I want to hurt you.' Her eyes were absolutely lifeless. She was eight."
"She was also very frequently violent to me and other students/teachers."
- TheUnpunctualWizard
No One Home
"This is chilling to recall. I’m also a teacher, and while nothing violent happened with this kid, I also looked into a kid’s eyes one time and saw absolutely nothing. It was like there was no soul in there."
"He was a run-of-the-mill disrespectful child, with a reputation for being a troublemaker, but I never actually had an incident with him. However, I have never forgotten the day I made eye contact with him, and the coldness and emptiness in his eyes scared me so bad. I have never felt so creeped out."
- cml678701
Wrestling Match
"Not a teacher but used to have a friend that had a cousin in the same school and this cousin had an almost disconnected link to other people."
"The first time I was introduced to him he started the conversation with, 'If I kill someone, I'll get away with it because they say my head's different.'"
" This was during high school where everyone is finding themselves so I just thought he was trying to be a tough guy. Just nodded my head and stepped back."
"He was the type that if people were play fighting or wrestling he'd invite himself and make it a real fight. Once getting me in a wrestling move called the 'Boston crab' and just kept adding more pressure as I was screaming for help and clawing at the floor, genuinely thinking my back was going to break."
"No remorse or thought he was taking it too far, only stopped when several people were yelling at him to let me go."
"The look on his face as I was getting away, like he was disappointed he had to stop haunted me for years. Stayed as far away from him as possible after that."
"Last I heard he's admitted now due to refusal to take medication and constant violent outbursts."
- KingOfFlukes
Hopefully All Talk
"I’ve taught PreK (four and five-year-olds) for years. Only one kid has ever really scared me and I wish I knew what happened to him, he’d be high school age by now."
"He used to talk about hurting animals a LOT, we had several conferences with his family but they swore he never did that at home and never hurt an animal despite so many times of him talking about it at school."
"He had zero affect most of the time, no smiling or laughing. He would be sneaky about hurting other kids, pinching or things like that, and have no remorse when he did something wrong and wouldn’t deny it either. Completely dead behind the eyes."
"I’ve never had another kid like that, even the violent ones who have hurt me or destroyed my room have had emotion and remorse at some point. Not him."
- waughwaughwaugh
Too Fascinated
"There was a kid in my elementary school who used to abuse small animals. In high school, he got super obsessed with serial killers and was caught trying to make poison brownies and give them to kids at our school."
"I was one of those kids (as were two of my classmates in one class), but we didn’t eat the stuff he offered us."
- Gulbahar-00
It Starts at Home
"He wrapped both his hands around her throat unprovoked, he laughed about it, and his mom defended his behavior. He was eight years old."
- nniicholee
Shocking Reveals
'"I think about hurting people all the time. I dream about it every night,' was said by the sweetest, most polite girl in one of my ninth-grade classes."
"I turned that over to the counselors immediately. Hope she got the help she needed but knowing the public school system my guess is they didn't even address it."
- little_shop_of_doors
No One Listening
"Kid in fifth grade (11 years old) very intelligent and in gifted classes. He would torment the other gifted kids. The only time I ever saw his creepy, dead-eye, jack-o-lantern smile was when he made another kid cry."
"He would do things like finish a book over the weekend that the other kid was reading just so he could come in and spoil the ending. He researched some country that this kid's grandparents came from and called him a nazi (it wasn’t Germany - can’t remember)."
"The other kids' parents did the nice kid thing: just ignore him. And god love them, these kids tried."
"He would chase them on the playground just to say creepy s**t. Anyway, I came in 1/2 way through the year. I called a meeting with the parents and school social worker. They said the other kids bullied him!"
"I kept a bunch of papers that he wrote about blowing up the school, blowing up the White House, and making way for a new species of human. He is definitely going to kill prostitutes or hide bombs somewhere."
"After he went to middle school there were a bunch of bomb threats. I notified the principal about his behaviors and sent copies of the papers he wrote. Awkwardly, his father worked at the middle school. Anyway, the threats stopped soon after that."
"He would have graduated by now and I have no idea where he is. But when he kills people, I’m going to the news with all my documentation and show that I tried to get this sick little s**t some help and no one cared. What else can you do?"
- troismanzanas
Social Influence
"Not a teacher but the meanest, most malicious, vindictive, manipulative child I ever knew growing up did not become a serial killer. Nope. She became an 'influencer.'"
"I’m kind of scared of what she’ll become when she’s no longer relevant as an influencer, or when her looks fade and fail to bring her the attention she craves."
- SuddenYolk
These stories are absolutely chilling, and it's no wonder that there were concerns about who these people would grow up to be, or what they would do when they came of age. Hopefully at least some of them received the care they needed, so they could turn their lives around for the better.
Dog and cat owners are constantly amused by their quirky four-legged besties.
And while we are as captivated as dogs chasing their tails and cats determinedly chasing after that evasive laser point, pet owners can witness quite a show when an uninvited animal enters the domestic environment.
So what happens in those unusual circumstances?
Lucky for us, we don't have to wonder, thanks to a subReddit that addressed the very subject confirming we are merely spectators really living in the animal kingdom.
Plenty of interesting anecdotes filled the thread when Redditor 99_Restaurant asked:
"People whose homes have dog/cat doors, have wild animals ever entered your pet doors and what happened when that occurred?"
Things went bananas with these intruders.
Monkey Pause
"Not quite a pet door situation but we lived close to the national park in Nairobi. On several occasions monkeys would come into the house through the windows."
"They'd raid the pantry and make a mess of it. Once my husband was home alone. He heard a noise downstairs and as he went to investigate met a monkey coming back upstairs. They both froze, then he backed up back into the bedroom and the monkey made its way back out through our child's bedroom window."
"It was quite a hoot."
– Amantes09
Knock, Knock–Who's There?
"Also not OP but some years ago I stayed in a wildlife area in Ghana. The lodge warned us not to open the door without checking the peephole first because the baboons had learned to knock on doors and if you opened they would rush inside and tear apart the room looking for food! They really did knock too! If not for the warning I might have opened the door. Pretty freaky."
– ExcellentBurps
You'd think woodland creatures were cute.
What The Cat Missed
"I lived in an apartment that backed up to an open field for a while and had a real raccoon issue. Once they figured out that the cat door was occasionally open after I left it open one night when was out late, they would show up in a gang of 5-7 every night and bang in the slider and try it get in."
"The apartment was a studio with a slightly lofted bedroom and one evening was sitting on the couch working and saw what thought was my cat wander down into the living room and hop up on to the couch next to me. I reached out to give her a scratch and noticed in my periphery that her body language was off. That was when I turned to look at her and realized it was a raccoon. I screamed and lept off the couch. The raccoon made a quick exit back out the cat door. My cat slept through the whole exchange."
– BraveLittleEcho
A Staring Contest
"A squirrel came in through my parents cat flap (they don't have a cat but didn't replace the door when they bought the house). I remember walking into the kitchen and having a staring match with this squirrel until he decided he'd had enough and left the way he'd come in. Not very exciting but still."
– yellowteapots
No Exit Strategy
"Squirrels can be pure madness sometimes, so it might very well have been."
"We had a squirrel get in through a hole in the screen door once. She couldn't figure out how to get back out so she ping ponged around the room for a bit, knocking over a bunch of stuff."
– PlasticElfEars
The Cat's Guests
"Kind of similar, I guess…"
"I once walked into the kitchen and noticed that our horse had gotten inside. He had opened a cupboard in the mud room and was happily munching away on some chaff we had stored there. The pull down handle to the back door was covered in horse slobber, as was the cubboard door handle. Cheeky bugger."
"Also, one of our cats has brought in the odd snake. They are very much alive when she deposits them inside the house. Luckily, she usually chooses to leave them in the bath for some reason."
– hummingbirdpie
Chilly Reception
"I live in the countryside in the UK, and I’ve got a load of marshes behind my house, so we get all sorts, bugs, birds, small mammals (foxes, hedgehogs, etc) and amphibians. One day, my cat was meowing at me, and she led me behind the sofa, and she had brought in a whole adult rabbit that was frozen solid. I was shocked because she had to have brought it over several walls 7 feet high, and through the cat flap, and the rabbit was more than half the size of her. The most concerning thing, however, is that I thought it was a duck until my sister came down and saw it and pointed out it was a rabbit. It was because it was so frozen solid and the ears were covered in ice and stuck together, so it looked like a ducks beak. Yeah idk how I thought it was a duck at first."
– CrazyCalamari86
Indoor Outhouse
"A fox pissed on my couch."
– mekese2000
Winged creatures need shelter too. They just don't understand boundaries unless they're the ones that are spooked.
Permanent Landing
"Came down one morning to find a peacock in the utility room that had got in to eat all the cat food. It stayed on our property for about three years and we called it Wazzock."
– TouchMySwollenFace
Special Delivery
"One morning, there was a noise at my door. I opened it and there was a peacock standing on my stoop like the UPS guy. He squawked and flew into a tree."
“At God is my witness, I thought peacocks couldn’t fly.”
– substantial-freud
"Greedy Bastard"
"Similar. After our cat brought in live mice, small birds, a giant moth and a couple of slow worms, we nixed the cat flap. We do keep the patio door open during summer."
"We have a seagull (European herring gull) that has been cruising in our negbourhood for about ten years now. He knows where the cat food is, so each summer he just wanders in and has a nice serving. Greedy b@stard."
"There was also the one late summer evening when the door was open, and I suddenly heard crunching sounds. I walked over to investigate, and a badger was just sitting there, munching on some bug or other about ten feet from the open door."
– Sticky16
These wild anecdotes sure will make you reconsider getting a cat flap.
From an animal's perspective, the tiny-sized openings of a human home are basically house-warming invitations.
Have you experienced any wild intrusions?
And are you one to welcome such visitors, or are you prone to standing on top of your kitchen chair for safety?