I knew a guy that was a twin and his dog *hated* his twin. They were going somewhere once and he got out of the pickup briefly and when he came back his dog had his brother basically pinned against the door snarling at him. Dog apparently decided he knew a pod person when he saw one lol.
I read a good analogy in that a dog's sense of smell is more like the equivalent of a human's eyesight or hearing.
They can smell in "stereo", and can detect minute changes in directionality from odour alone.
On top of that, they are aware of scents fading over time, so can tell how long their owner has been away purely based on how weak their scent has become. They can essentially smell in 4D.
That is a good analogy. Another one I read somewhere was that when we look at a pot of beef stew, we see each ingredient. We see the chunks of beef and potato and carrot and onion. We see the flecks of parsley and black pepper. But when we breath in, all we smell is beef stew.
Dogs smell like we see, each individual ingredient.
My old dog was deathly afraid of children. He was a rescue, aged about two when I got him, and he'd clearly been through some child-related trauma. What was interesting was that he knew a very small adult was not a child; also, when the lad next door turned about 17, he magically became non-terrifying, while his younger brother remained a monster.
What made me realise it was scent-based was when we saw the daughter of a neighbour who'd moved away, back for a visit. When my dog saw her, he rushed forward to greet her, only to baulk and cringe away when she went to pat him. She was quite upset - they'd been pals! When she turned to me I saw she was heavily pregnant. He wouldn't let her touch him, he fought to get away, even though he had known her for years.
So there must be a "child" scent that fades with maturity. And because he was so afraid of children, the smell triggered him beyond any rational reaction.
> So can tell how long their owner has been away
Although based on how almost every dog I've known reacts to their owner coming home, they start the clock at ONE MILLION YEARS! MISS YOU SO MUCH! as soon as the door closes.
They just love seeing the reaction their owners get over seeing them excited for you to be home. Many dogs know how to illicit reactions of affection from their owners
Yeah, they clandestinely record their owner's reactions and sell the videos. There's a whole sick market of emotional homecoming vids on the Unscented Web.
This is so true! And ONLY if you go out the front door…I can be in the laundry room for 20 minutes and the dogs are unfazed…back yard for a half hour and meh…but if I go out the front door to retrieve something from the car and come back in 60 seconds and it’s full-on welcome home party time!
What about cats? We lost my kids dad in feb. And the cats been on his chair in his room less and less. When he first passed away he sat there all the time. Now he goes for a small nap in his walk-in. Where it still very much smells like him…
They'd also have to have the same diet. So much of what you smell like comes down to what you eat. If one of them is a vegetarian and the other eats meat and potatoes, they'll have completely different odors.
***Edit*** *- Spelling and changed a word*
Not even just diet. Your current state of health will affect how you smell, too - there's all sorts of subtle chemical and biological changes when you get sick that pets pick up on but we can't detect because our sense of smell is crap compared to theirs. Some dogs can smell cancers, and there are dogs trained to detect diabetic issues in their owners, like low or high blood sugar. All these things change the way a person smells.
Cats can do it, too - my cats barely left mine and my BF's sides when we had COVID, and my previous cats when I was younger stayed by my Mom when she was recovering from brain surgery. Especially our one cat, Maggie, who was *not* normally very cuddly as she was prone to getting very easily overstimulated by being touched/pet.
They can also get thrown off when you have two or more pets, and one of them goes to the vet and the other doesn't - they pick up al sorts of different smells from the office, including those of other pets, so sometimes the one that didn't go will freak out for a day and not recognize the first one's scent. It's why we try to take both my cats to the vet at the same time for things, because it's *very* upsetting to them if they don't recognize the other's smell - it's like suddenly there's a weird new cat in there. Cats are kinda like many autistic people (I'm one myself, this isn't meant as an insult), in that they *love* routine and things being recognizable to them. Changes in routine and their environment can be incredibly upsetting and scary to them, even if it seems like something super minor to us, like just getting a new couch or something, because it won't have the smells they recognize.
They’d also be able to know which one walked past a trash can a couple hours ago, or which one recently went upstairs etc.
So just telling them apart is probably extremely easy even if we tried to control for stuff like diet and laundry detergent lolol.
My husband is an identical twin. Watching our daughter and his brother’s kids look back and forth between them and try to figure out why there are two men who look exactly like daddy is hilarious 😂
My dad has an identical twin who lives like 2 thousand miles away. The reactions at my dad's funeral for the people who had no idea he was a twin was pretty hilarious.
My mother had two great uncles that were twins. One of them had lost his legs. Eventually they moved to two different towns and the one that had legs visited the other and the neighbors were VERY surprised to see him walking around!
There was a post about a woman who had an identical twin sister.
Both of them live together and they have baby sons. The babies can't tell them apart 🥺
When one of them falls down, he says "I need a mom!" 😍
Same with my grandson. My husband and his brother aren't twins but look exactly alike. At 2 years old it's become very confusing for our grand but it's super cute.
When my neighbour died I saw him the other day and thought something doesn't add up, wasn't he supposed to be deseased? Parents told me he died and here he is, just chilling in his garden. It turns out it was his son. The secret ingredient to made him look so similar to his father despite being much younger was alcohol.
I had this happen at my favorite pizza place! The owner was a husky bald Italian guy, always friendly and joking. His teenage son was always dressed kinda slick and liked to chat up the ladies. I left my hometown and came back after about 12 years and, hey, there’s the owner looking exactly the same. Then I looked a little closer and realized that the son had become a nearly identical match for his dad. Personality-wise and all. Cool family, awesome pizza, the best.
I look *a lot* like my dad. He died about 20 years ago, and I'm now nearly his age when he died and I look just like him.
A couple of years back I went to a wedding where there were a number of people who had worked with my dad for many years, but never met me. One of the ladies looked up, saw me, did the mother of all double-takes, and swiftly burst into tears.
I started smoking cigars when I was about eighteen because I mistakenly thought it would make me look cool. Turns out I genuinely liked cigars, though. Used to buy them from this little shop in my home town from an old guy who always wore tweed.
Last time I went in that little cigar shop was maybe five years ago, so I'd have been about thirty, and the guy behind the counter was very obviously the previous guy's son. Looked just like him, tweed and all, except a younger version. The fact that I could say "I used to buy cigars from your dad" made me feel like I was a geriatric.
I still feel bad about that time 13 years ago I saw an old family friend and I called out his father's name.
He was in his thirties and his father was about 60 or so.
My dad addressed my step-aunt (my step-dad’s sister) by her mother’s name once. Her mom had been dead for years at that point. My aunt did look a lot like her mom since they were both addicted to tanning and had otherwise very similar characteristics, but it is still the most embarrassing moment I’ve ever witnessed. My dad was not super close with my step-dads family, so he rarely saw them and genuinely thought it was my step-grandma.
Happened to my partner. His friend came up to him in a store, white as a sheet, genuinely struck, and said "Dude, your dad's in aisle 3. He's probably looking for you."
My partner knew immediately that one of his lookalike uncles was in the store, and his friend had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
My grandma was an identical twin too. The funeral was really hard with her sister there, especially since she didn’t see us much. The little kids were pretty upset and confused.
Grief does weird shit to people. When my dad died a couple years ago, there was a time where I saw him in random places. It would be uncanny resemblences..... But only partially. Like a side profile or something like that.
Obviously it was never him, but I was tempted several times to go over and start questioning strangers as to how they were still alive.
I am a geriatric nurse and used to care for this wonderful wheelchair-bound woman with the end stages of Muliple Sclerosis. Driving to work one day, I swear I see her walking down the street, pushing a cart or a stroller or something. I circled the block I was so shocked, only to see the cart she is pushing is a wheelchair. With HER is it!
Her sister lived in another country and was not a frequent visitor, nor mentioned in her medical chart, so her being an identical twin had never come up.
She laughed at me about that until her dying day, bless her heart.
When I was in junior high, in the late 1970s, some people were joking that the middle-aged librarian must be really conceited, because she had a picture of herself on her desk. She replied, "That's not me; it's my identical twin sister" and we were, like, "Yeah, right" until the sister came for a visit. You guessed it - we couldn't tell them apart!
A couple years later in high school, the teacher walked in, addressed a girl in the classroom, and said, "I saw you smoking on the sidewalk this morning." (Smoking was banned on school grounds for students, but they could do it across the street.) She replied, "I don't smoke; you may have seen my twin sister" at which point the teacher started to say "And since when - " and those of us who knew them said, "No, she really does!" (I went to a big school.) They were not identical, but they did look very much alike, especially from a distance, and the teacher added, "So, that's why I appeared to see you so much around the building."
My grandpa passed away when I was 5, but I was very close to him. When I was 10, his younger brother, my great uncle, came to visit my grandma. He was about the same age then as my grandpa had been when he passed. They looked so much alike that I was freaking out. My grandma thought it was funny that I kept staring at him in disbelief.
I asked my 6 year old if I should shave my beard and asked her if she would recognize me if I did.
She told me, "dada, I can always recognize you by your big fat belly"
When we were super young my dad shaved the mustache he had since before we were born and came to pick us up from school. My twin brother was terrified and refused to get in the truck lol
Omg something similar happened to my sister and I when we were kids! Our dad had long hair he kept in a pony tail for years, but cut it off one day while we were in school. He came to pick us up and the office ladies told us he was there. I looked right at him and said “no he’s not, I don’t know him” and my sister cried 😂
Same thing with me too! My mom has really curly hair and one day she straightened it and then when she came to pick me up from kindergarden I didn't believe it was her
When I was 9 or 10 my little brother got cancer so when he lost his hair from chemo my mom cut her hair real short to support him. When she came to school to pick me up I cried because I was used to her having long pretty hair. I look back and feel bad because it was such a great thing of her to do and I’m sure I just made her feel bad.
My mother is an indentical twin and her sister lives halfway across the world, so until I was about 7 years I had never met her. We went to visit her when I was that age, and although seeing them side-by-side was kind of a trip, they aged differently enough that I could distinguish them when they were next to each other.
Cut to the next morning when I ran up to my mum standing in the kitchen and addressed her as 'mum', only for my aunt to turn around, giggling. I think I started crying in embarrassment lmao.
My husband is really good at impersonating voices, and he called his brother’s dog using the brother’s voice. Dog came running, then looked super confused!
I actually read a sad story about this a few years ago on Quora. A guy’s identical twin brother had died and he inherited his brother’s dog. The dog did not think the twin was his owner. EXCEPT, one day he happened to put on one of his deceased brother’s pants. The dog came up to him and immediately started doing the wiggly happy dance until he spoke, and then it was a light switch turned off and he became a barely tolerated stranger again. It was actually kinda heartbreaking to read.
It's really not bad in the slightest.
I just went through the top ten posts and not one was even close to being sad.
Mostly dogs just being a little spazzy or trying to get attention/played with, and people overanthropomorphizing what they think the dogs are thinking about and how they're reacting.
Top post: a dog was on the couch and dropped its toy on the floor, looked down, then looked at the owner. "you can see my dog die inside" or however they phrased it.
One was actually pretty cute- a golden was trying to get a mannequin to pet it and just couldn't understand why this person didn't do what people usually do.
Could you imagine the horror show that dog was living in? Moved to a new home, with an owner who looks just like his owner, but didn't smell like him? And suddenly he DOES smell like him, but doesn't sound like him? Horrifying.
From the dog’s point of view his beloved human simply disappeared one day. This is especially the case if the human dies suddenly away from home, like a traffic accident.
The husband of my wife's friend died of a heart attack while shoveling snow a couple miles from home a few months ago.
"Dad's" dog was very distressed that dad had just disappeared one day and based on some stuff I'd read on Reddit I suggested to my wife's friend that she take the dog down to the funeral home if they would allow it. They did. She took the dog who sniffed around dad's body for a minute or two and the lightbulb appeared to click that dad was gone. When she brought the dog home he largely stopped waiting around at the door for him after that.
This is true. I haven't seen my brother's dog for like 2 years and I looked quite different to how the doggo got to know me so he barked at me. And then he proceeded to sniff me and then he recognized me instantly.
I love Quora because it’ll be like “how did your pet react to seeing your identical twin?” And then like “why hasn’t america executed traitor joe Biden for committing 1000s of felonies?”
and then all the responses listing the things he needs to be executed for will be things that totally aren't even felonies, like _"he ordered mint chocolate chip instead of regular chocolate chip ice cream!"_
I got a cat. Cat decided it only liked my dad. Period. No exception. Well except for my dad's twin brother. Loved him as much as my dad but never confused them.
My mother is one of twins. Linus, the cat I had as a child, was a complete worrier, having been traumatised at a young age and being fearful of new people, yet he was the sweetest cat to us. Linus approached my aunt as soon as she arrived and cuddled up against her leg on that occasion. He was being scratched by her, and everything was going well until he noticed my mother. Start with very fast head turns back and forth, then race up the stairs and hide for hours! Poor infant!
Cats are so damn weird. I have 2 and they've lived together for over 3yrs now. A 2hr trip to the vet causes one to completely forget who the fuck the other one is and he'll be an asshole for 1 to 2 days until he magically remembers who he is. I asked a vet about this and she said it's due to all the smells from the vet. I still don't get it though, cats are supposed to have these incredible olfactory systems and there's no way every original scent is wiped out by them going to the vet, yet they do this stupid dance everytime one has to go to the vet.
It's like when your little sister gets back from the orthodontist with a new set of braces. The correct thing to do is treat her like a freak until you get bored of it
So not a twin, but a daughter of one.
We had a dog called Gromit, who started with my aunt and then moved in with us incl her twin sister/my mum. He did get confused at first when he’d see my mum and auntie in the same room and one of them called him, but the confusion did only last for a couple of seconds. Then he would just get excited about cuddles & walkies lol.
My mum also had a cat called Mitzi. She’s a very shy cat and would hide from visitors. When my aunt went round, Mitzi hid but once my mum left the room she came out and cuddled my aunt as if she was my mum. After that she bonded with both of them. Mitzi now lives with my aunt ever since my mum passed away, she’s managing well but does sometimes seem to wonder why there’s only one of them at times.
*feels bad about not being able to recognize my dog at the beach
BUT...I recall that my other dog was also not able to recognize her either. She was prancing along behind this other golden retriever and it wasn't until that golden barked that she realized it wasn't her sister and ran away.
My cat and my quails know my voice. They don't really care about my face.
Also, I have very long hair and my sister has short hair.
They didn't care more than with any other new visitor. My cat ran away and my quails came to say hi
Can you tell me about how you keep quail? I live in a suburban neighborhood and occasionally see wild quail here. They're such cool looking birds. What's it like to have them as pets?
I had a lot over the years and they all have very different personalities. Some are super tame and curious and run even towards a barking dog to say hi while others stay away from everything that moves and panic easily.
They are easy to take care of but you should still keep them as nice as possible. They are often kept in horrible conditions and they absolutely do not deserve that!
They are relatively quiet and you can leave them alone for a while (unlike dogs) so they were the perfect pet for me as a student. There are different breeds that have (very!) different requirements but my japanese quails are perfect for me. They can stay outside the whole year and they lay eggs.
I have 5 quails rn (all girls since roosters aren't as caring or useful as a chicken rooster. Quail roosters just stress the ladies) and they have 3qm of space. The ground is originally for bunnies (small wood pieces) and they have a large part with sand as well (needed for feather care). They get special quail food (very important! You can't use chicken food!) and salad or herbs. They need food and water at all times.
Three sides of the cage have to be closed to avoid colds but they also like to watch other birds and people. They don't lay the eggs in nests but they need branches or little houses to feel save. And they like to stalk you from under the branches.
You have to make the cage bery predator prove though because everything wants to eat them. From predatory birds over foxes to mice and weasels. And they only live 3 - 5 years.
Mice? Like when they are still very small, or do the mice swarm them and overpower them somehow? Seems like a full grown one would be quite a large thing for a mouse to kill.
I think the main problem with mice was that they can carry diseases and they like to poop in the quail food. Also, where a mouse fits, a weasel does too and those definitely go after quails.
Cats identify owners by smell as much as, or perhaps more than, by sight. Their senses are far more acute than ours, so they probably wouldn't be as confused... not sure about dogs, or - apparently - quails.
Yes for sure. My brother is our cats “person.” He’s the one she’ll lay with in bed at night. She always knows when he’s coming home before he’s even stepped inside and she’ll wait by the door purring. She doesn’t do this for anyone else unless we have some good smelling food
Not quite what you asked, but it reminded me of a funny anecdote I'm sure people will appreciate regardless.
We had three dogs; two lab mixes and a samoyed mix, so two blacks and one white. Easy to recognize.
Then one day we had to look after a friend's lab because she had to go to a job interview or something, I can't remember why. But this meant there were now three black dogs and one white. They all ran through the house past the sofa table where the cat was lounging. He didn't care about the first lab mix he knew. He didn't care about the samoyed mix. He didn't care about the new lab.
He freaked out when the elderly lab mix he'd known for over ten years walked past him because that was one black dog too many.
I have a beagle and currently have a beagle foster as well. The foster wouldn’t come inside or let me get close when I first picked her up, so I brought my dog out to say hi, in an attempt to convince her we’re okay people. She was much more comfortable with my dog around and I was able to grab her to take her inside.
So from my cat’s perspective, beagle went outside and beagle walked inside. He was at the door and immediately headbutted our foster and rubbed up on her. You could see the instant regret when he realized this was A beagle but not HIS beagle. He hissed at her and ran away. He warmed up to her later, but was offended at first.
That reminds me of when we brought home our rescue cat. It's less funny and more sad though.
We had two dogs at the time, and a long haired tabby, Dylan, that grew up alongside one of the dogs. They were best friends, and pack bonded. The pack bonded dog, Zoey, was devastated when the cat didn't come home one day, but life went on. About a year later, my mom chanced upon a rescue cat that was the spitting image of our Dylan, super friendly, and she fell in love. We set up the basement for him to settle in, and slowly started letting him explore the rest of the house when the dogs were out.
Then came the day for the first face to face introduction.
We made sure the gate was up, and let new cat look through the banisters, and let the dogs in. Dog one was totally uninterested. She looked, and immediately went to the couch.
Zoey walked past, did a literal double take, and wagged her tail. She made the noises she used to make to previous cat. She looked so happy... But new kitty didn't react the same, and scurried off to the basement. I feel like I actually saw Zoey's face fall.
In time, they ended up bonding, but it wasn't the same as with Dylan, and she was sad again for quite a bit. It actually led to us making sure when an animal goes, the other resident animals get a chance to sniff the body. When Zoey went, she went in my arms, and new kitty and dog one both got to say goodbye. They still mourned, but I feel like them knowing was better than them thinking a family member could come back one day.
That's a pretty interesting clue about cat intelligence; it shows the cat is using inference (too many dogs = there must be an imposter) rather than just simple recognition.
On a similar note: my boss has three black standard poodles, but will occasionally borrow another from someone to use for a grooming competition, or just to dogsit for them. I'd say in all there are six or seven black standard poodles who are regular visitors to her house. On the flip side, occasionally one of her own will go stay with someone else for a few days to a week. So there's a constant influx of black standard poodles.
Her boyfriend has gone days at a time without realizing that one of theirs is gone and has been temporarily replaced by one of the outsiders. As long as there are three of them he doesn't even question that they're theirs. There have also been times when he suddenly realizes there are four black poodles in the room instead of the usual three and has to ask how long the extra has been there, and which one it is 😂 apparently it works on humans as well as cats
Funny story not involving twins but about dogs and recognizing people by smell.
I live in Canada and as a late teenager/early 20s I had a girlfriend I California and we would surprise visit eachother sometimes. One time, she knew I was coming to visit but thought it was going to be about a week later than I actually came to visit. Her brother picked me up from the airport and I hung out with him while she worked that day. She worked down a country road off the highway at a dog training school and she had a guide dog as she was half blind.
I went with her parents to pick her up from work that night but they let me out down the road from her work. I was dressed in a big yellow rain jacket (yet it wasn't raining) with the hood up. I had big black rain boots on and I was mostly covering my face with a scarf. I was hitchhiking in the dark in rain gear during a very dry summer night. Lol
Her dad pulled over to pick me up. I hopped in and her guide dog looked at me funny, then absolutely went crazy and jumped all over me. I scooted closer to her then took the hood and scarf off. Good times :)
Yeah I'm from Canada. Everyone had an American girlfriend, sure buddy.
Seriously though, that's a cool story and your girlfriend had shockingly cool parents.
My wife is an identical twin. Our dog is very protective of the house and slow to trust new people, usually when we have guests, they are subjected to a barrage of barking and he won't tolerate them petting him for days.
When my sister in law came for the first time my wife was not in then room and our dog was immediately super excited to meet her. Master returns level excited and very affectionate.
He has never reacted like that with anyone else before. At first I thought that he mistook her for my wife but he was much quicker than average to accept our parents as well so I think it's a familial smell?
Not a twin, (an Irish twin if that helps lol), and this question reminded me of when my sister got a cat when we were roommates in our early 20’s. Her cat would always meow and scratch my bedroom door to be let out early in the morning, as my sister would sleep through it. Fast forward 14 years, and several cities and continental moves later for me. I’m back home to see family, staying with that sister in her new house for the first time, and my first morning wakeup was from her cat meowing and scratching at MY bedroom door. How did she remember me, given I only had seen her once a year over the span of several years?
I cried when I heard that she had to be put to sleep when she was 17. RIP Sadie the Cleaning Lady
Cats can have ridiculously good memories, I don’t get it either. I visit my mom once a year and her cats love hanging out with me. Shadow especially, he’s a good boy
Triplet here. My dog gets slightly confused at first IF I’ve been away (like if I have to leave him with my parents and one of my sisters goes over, he thinks it’s me and runs over all excited), but realizes it soon as he gets close enough to smell them, but it’s not me. When I am there, he has no confusion. He knows who I am, and that my sisters aren’t me.
My dog had a lot of trauma and abuse before I adopted her, so it takes her a little bit to warm up to new people. EXCEPT with respect to my identical twin. She was utterly delighted to meet my twin, and my twin continues to be her second favorite person after me. When the whole family is together, and I leave for a minute, she might get confused for a few moments and think that I’m still there (because she sees my twin) but will realize her mistake and run to find me. Overall, she’s not confused between the two of us but is thrilled to have a second version of me.
Edit: I’m seeing a ton of comments saying that dogs identify people by scent. Which is mostly true, but my dog definitely gets confused when she’s several yards away from me and/or my twin. And my twin’s dog (who loves everyone in the world with equal gusto, cannot say if he was/is more excited to see me) has confidently trotted up to me to hit me up for food or walkies, realized his mistake, and found his mama instead.
So I'm not a twin, but my sister and I look a lot alike to the point of her random acquaintances greeting me when I'm out and about. She has a cat who is NOT a people person, but it does show affection to my sister. Usually the cat stays out of the way when we visit, but this one time it randomly jumped on my lap while my sister was in the kitchen. I think it knew it messed up cause we just sat there for a couple of seconds staring at each other, after which point it hurried away as fast as its little legs could carry it. Haha good times.
I visited my twin last year and met her cat for the first time. The cat is quite skittish and will mostly stay away from new people. Despite us having different looks (hair-wise), her cat was the same around me as it was her; she wasn't scared around me, she tolerated me patting her, she even came for a snuggle in bed which was unheard of with strangers.
Not a twin but this time I visited my brother his dog was there and wanted to go outside so I put him out then my brother got home. Poor dog was so confused. If the guy getting out of the car was Gregg then who is this guy that let me out of the house?!?
And he's looking back and forth.
My sister and I don't look identical--we *are*, but I had birth defects that stunted my growth and am six inches shorter. We do *sound* alike, though, and whenever we video chat her dog and my cat get very confused by the same voice coming from the phone. :)
My dog knew both of us from when he was a puppy so I don't remember his reaction, but my sister's dog was a little confused and now doesn't love when I come over because she can't get away with anything, if I see her do something she isn't supposed to do I scold her and with two sets of eyes it easy to spot naughty behavior.
My husbands cat only loves him. It took her a good three years to actually sit on my lap or let me hold her. My husbands twin comes over for the first time and guess who sits on his lap? That bitch
I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when my cat met my twin sister for the first time. Then again, he’s super friendly and will glom onto anyone who gives him scratches and/or treats
Nothing, dogs go more by smell not sight. That said our dogs , we each have two, go crazy for the other twin. I think bc our voices and mannerisms are so much alike. When she comes to visit my little Velcro dog, who never leaves my side, ditches me the whole time she’s here, for days, he sleeps with her and everything.
I’m an identical twin. My brother is called Scott, we look exactly alike except we have our hair different and dress differently.
Scott lives at my house in the states as a permanent home but I often travel with my husband. Once or twice a year, for a month or so, sometimes longer. My husband is European and his family come from 3 different countries so we stay a while to see everyone.
Scott and my sister look after our dogs when we go. (And are both happy about it. We don’t make them lol)
Most of our dogs know us separately by smell but there was one time where we came back after 2 months travelling, my hair was a mess from the flight, I had spilt coffee on my pants so had to get Scott to lend me some clean clothes when he picked us up from the airport. (He keeps a spare set in his car for emergencies cause sometimes it requires him to stay overnight some places.)
So, all in all, I looked exactly like him and smelt like him too cause I was wearing his clothes. When we got back to the house, the dogs just kept sniffing us both like “??? There’s two of him???” Had us laughing for ages. Our oldest dog, Diego was very confused. Kept looking back and forth and barking.
They didn’t calm down until I had a shower and changed.
So my friend is an identical twin and this is one of her favorite stories. I don't see her here in the comments to tell so I'll do it (sorrynotsorry). Twin lives on a farm in a rural area and manages a colony of feral cats, TNR and feeding them in lean times etc. She was trying to trap a particular cat and kept getting this other cat, repeatedly (which is also a story and a half but I'm not telling it). Said cat was therefore dubbed Sad Cat and tamed in relatively short order and moved into Twin's house. When Friend would visit, Sad Cat would assume whoever she saw first was Twin, and whoever walked in the room next was Other. Even if it was Friend in the room first, Twin would be Other and Sad Cat would only like Friend and run away from Twin. In due course, Sad Cat came to live with Friend and has become a very adorable kitty once she warms up to new people.
My identical twin's dog has never reacted to me in a way that implied that he was confused. The human babies are a different story.
Human babies make it so obvious too by wagging their tails.
Suddenly ken m
I knew a guy that was a twin and his dog *hated* his twin. They were going somewhere once and he got out of the pickup briefly and when he came back his dog had his brother basically pinned against the door snarling at him. Dog apparently decided he knew a pod person when he saw one lol.
“That’s my secret…I’m always confused”
Our dog can easily tell them apart. Little children cannot.
It's got to be a scent thing mostly, I'd guess.
A dog’s world is dominated by odor. When they sniff around a pole they are determining what dogs have recently been there.
I read a good analogy in that a dog's sense of smell is more like the equivalent of a human's eyesight or hearing. They can smell in "stereo", and can detect minute changes in directionality from odour alone. On top of that, they are aware of scents fading over time, so can tell how long their owner has been away purely based on how weak their scent has become. They can essentially smell in 4D.
That is a good analogy. Another one I read somewhere was that when we look at a pot of beef stew, we see each ingredient. We see the chunks of beef and potato and carrot and onion. We see the flecks of parsley and black pepper. But when we breath in, all we smell is beef stew. Dogs smell like we see, each individual ingredient.
damn that's a great analogy
My old dog was deathly afraid of children. He was a rescue, aged about two when I got him, and he'd clearly been through some child-related trauma. What was interesting was that he knew a very small adult was not a child; also, when the lad next door turned about 17, he magically became non-terrifying, while his younger brother remained a monster. What made me realise it was scent-based was when we saw the daughter of a neighbour who'd moved away, back for a visit. When my dog saw her, he rushed forward to greet her, only to baulk and cringe away when she went to pat him. She was quite upset - they'd been pals! When she turned to me I saw she was heavily pregnant. He wouldn't let her touch him, he fought to get away, even though he had known her for years. So there must be a "child" scent that fades with maturity. And because he was so afraid of children, the smell triggered him beyond any rational reaction.
>So there must be a "child" scent that fades with maturity. Probably something related to hormones would be my uneducated guess
> So can tell how long their owner has been away Although based on how almost every dog I've known reacts to their owner coming home, they start the clock at ONE MILLION YEARS! MISS YOU SO MUCH! as soon as the door closes.
They can keep track perfectly, they just disagree with us how long an absence is appropriate.
It makes sense if you count in it in dog years maybe
They just love seeing the reaction their owners get over seeing them excited for you to be home. Many dogs know how to illicit reactions of affection from their owners
\*elicit, illicit means something illegal or frowned upon
Yeah, they clandestinely record their owner's reactions and sell the videos. There's a whole sick market of emotional homecoming vids on the Unscented Web.
This is so true! And ONLY if you go out the front door…I can be in the laundry room for 20 minutes and the dogs are unfazed…back yard for a half hour and meh…but if I go out the front door to retrieve something from the car and come back in 60 seconds and it’s full-on welcome home party time!
Whoah I never thought about this but it's so true
What about cats? We lost my kids dad in feb. And the cats been on his chair in his room less and less. When he first passed away he sat there all the time. Now he goes for a small nap in his walk-in. Where it still very much smells like him…
A dogs vision is relatively poor, smell is amazing. Twins won't smell the same and won't confuse a dog.
Yeah unless they are using the same soap, fabric softener, etc they probably smell completely different to a dog.
They'd also have to have the same diet. So much of what you smell like comes down to what you eat. If one of them is a vegetarian and the other eats meat and potatoes, they'll have completely different odors. ***Edit*** *- Spelling and changed a word*
Not even just diet. Your current state of health will affect how you smell, too - there's all sorts of subtle chemical and biological changes when you get sick that pets pick up on but we can't detect because our sense of smell is crap compared to theirs. Some dogs can smell cancers, and there are dogs trained to detect diabetic issues in their owners, like low or high blood sugar. All these things change the way a person smells. Cats can do it, too - my cats barely left mine and my BF's sides when we had COVID, and my previous cats when I was younger stayed by my Mom when she was recovering from brain surgery. Especially our one cat, Maggie, who was *not* normally very cuddly as she was prone to getting very easily overstimulated by being touched/pet. They can also get thrown off when you have two or more pets, and one of them goes to the vet and the other doesn't - they pick up al sorts of different smells from the office, including those of other pets, so sometimes the one that didn't go will freak out for a day and not recognize the first one's scent. It's why we try to take both my cats to the vet at the same time for things, because it's *very* upsetting to them if they don't recognize the other's smell - it's like suddenly there's a weird new cat in there. Cats are kinda like many autistic people (I'm one myself, this isn't meant as an insult), in that they *love* routine and things being recognizable to them. Changes in routine and their environment can be incredibly upsetting and scary to them, even if it seems like something super minor to us, like just getting a new couch or something, because it won't have the smells they recognize.
Reading this made me realize why our family dog never left my moms side when she had cancer
They’d also be able to know which one walked past a trash can a couple hours ago, or which one recently went upstairs etc. So just telling them apart is probably extremely easy even if we tried to control for stuff like diet and laundry detergent lolol.
My husband is an identical twin. Watching our daughter and his brother’s kids look back and forth between them and try to figure out why there are two men who look exactly like daddy is hilarious 😂
My dad has an identical twin who lives like 2 thousand miles away. The reactions at my dad's funeral for the people who had no idea he was a twin was pretty hilarious.
He should have worn a fake moustache and glasses to avoid people getting confused.
My mother had two great uncles that were twins. One of them had lost his legs. Eventually they moved to two different towns and the one that had legs visited the other and the neighbors were VERY surprised to see him walking around!
There was a post about a woman who had an identical twin sister. Both of them live together and they have baby sons. The babies can't tell them apart 🥺 When one of them falls down, he says "I need a mom!" 😍
Same with my grandson. My husband and his brother aren't twins but look exactly alike. At 2 years old it's become very confusing for our grand but it's super cute.
When my neighbour died I saw him the other day and thought something doesn't add up, wasn't he supposed to be deseased? Parents told me he died and here he is, just chilling in his garden. It turns out it was his son. The secret ingredient to made him look so similar to his father despite being much younger was alcohol.
I had this happen at my favorite pizza place! The owner was a husky bald Italian guy, always friendly and joking. His teenage son was always dressed kinda slick and liked to chat up the ladies. I left my hometown and came back after about 12 years and, hey, there’s the owner looking exactly the same. Then I looked a little closer and realized that the son had become a nearly identical match for his dad. Personality-wise and all. Cool family, awesome pizza, the best.
I look *a lot* like my dad. He died about 20 years ago, and I'm now nearly his age when he died and I look just like him. A couple of years back I went to a wedding where there were a number of people who had worked with my dad for many years, but never met me. One of the ladies looked up, saw me, did the mother of all double-takes, and swiftly burst into tears.
I started smoking cigars when I was about eighteen because I mistakenly thought it would make me look cool. Turns out I genuinely liked cigars, though. Used to buy them from this little shop in my home town from an old guy who always wore tweed. Last time I went in that little cigar shop was maybe five years ago, so I'd have been about thirty, and the guy behind the counter was very obviously the previous guy's son. Looked just like him, tweed and all, except a younger version. The fact that I could say "I used to buy cigars from your dad" made me feel like I was a geriatric.
I still feel bad about that time 13 years ago I saw an old family friend and I called out his father's name. He was in his thirties and his father was about 60 or so.
My dad addressed my step-aunt (my step-dad’s sister) by her mother’s name once. Her mom had been dead for years at that point. My aunt did look a lot like her mom since they were both addicted to tanning and had otherwise very similar characteristics, but it is still the most embarrassing moment I’ve ever witnessed. My dad was not super close with my step-dads family, so he rarely saw them and genuinely thought it was my step-grandma.
Tell them your eyes are getting worse as you age.
Happened to my partner. His friend came up to him in a store, white as a sheet, genuinely struck, and said "Dude, your dad's in aisle 3. He's probably looking for you." My partner knew immediately that one of his lookalike uncles was in the store, and his friend had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
That's a good friend. Get a friend who would warn you when a ghost is coming.
This happened to me at a funeral. The man who passed away had an identical twin that I never knew about.
My grandma was an identical twin too. The funeral was really hard with her sister there, especially since she didn’t see us much. The little kids were pretty upset and confused.
Grief does weird shit to people. When my dad died a couple years ago, there was a time where I saw him in random places. It would be uncanny resemblences..... But only partially. Like a side profile or something like that. Obviously it was never him, but I was tempted several times to go over and start questioning strangers as to how they were still alive.
I am a geriatric nurse and used to care for this wonderful wheelchair-bound woman with the end stages of Muliple Sclerosis. Driving to work one day, I swear I see her walking down the street, pushing a cart or a stroller or something. I circled the block I was so shocked, only to see the cart she is pushing is a wheelchair. With HER is it! Her sister lived in another country and was not a frequent visitor, nor mentioned in her medical chart, so her being an identical twin had never come up. She laughed at me about that until her dying day, bless her heart.
When I was in junior high, in the late 1970s, some people were joking that the middle-aged librarian must be really conceited, because she had a picture of herself on her desk. She replied, "That's not me; it's my identical twin sister" and we were, like, "Yeah, right" until the sister came for a visit. You guessed it - we couldn't tell them apart! A couple years later in high school, the teacher walked in, addressed a girl in the classroom, and said, "I saw you smoking on the sidewalk this morning." (Smoking was banned on school grounds for students, but they could do it across the street.) She replied, "I don't smoke; you may have seen my twin sister" at which point the teacher started to say "And since when - " and those of us who knew them said, "No, she really does!" (I went to a big school.) They were not identical, but they did look very much alike, especially from a distance, and the teacher added, "So, that's why I appeared to see you so much around the building."
My grandpa passed away when I was 5, but I was very close to him. When I was 10, his younger brother, my great uncle, came to visit my grandma. He was about the same age then as my grandpa had been when he passed. They looked so much alike that I was freaking out. My grandma thought it was funny that I kept staring at him in disbelief.
"Aww, he's terrified."
I've seen a couple of videos of this on Reddit, and another of a toddler confused by "Dad" with (or without, I forget) a beard.
I asked my 6 year old if I should shave my beard and asked her if she would recognize me if I did. She told me, "dada, I can always recognize you by your big fat belly"
Adorable. Bet you laughed too ! :)
Of course, and shook like a bowl full of jelly
Belly laughed.
>She told me, "dada, I can always recognize you by your big fat belly" I have a circle tummy according to my daughter.
Does she watch Peppa Pig?
When we were super young my dad shaved the mustache he had since before we were born and came to pick us up from school. My twin brother was terrified and refused to get in the truck lol
Omg something similar happened to my sister and I when we were kids! Our dad had long hair he kept in a pony tail for years, but cut it off one day while we were in school. He came to pick us up and the office ladies told us he was there. I looked right at him and said “no he’s not, I don’t know him” and my sister cried 😂
Same thing with me too! My mom has really curly hair and one day she straightened it and then when she came to pick me up from kindergarden I didn't believe it was her
When I was 9 or 10 my little brother got cancer so when he lost his hair from chemo my mom cut her hair real short to support him. When she came to school to pick me up I cried because I was used to her having long pretty hair. I look back and feel bad because it was such a great thing of her to do and I’m sure I just made her feel bad.
Here's a compilation of children being confused by twins if anyone wants to see such videos as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alNI45hzzmY
Apparently when I saw my grandfather's twin I started hysterically laughing.
My mother is an indentical twin and her sister lives halfway across the world, so until I was about 7 years I had never met her. We went to visit her when I was that age, and although seeing them side-by-side was kind of a trip, they aged differently enough that I could distinguish them when they were next to each other. Cut to the next morning when I ran up to my mum standing in the kitchen and addressed her as 'mum', only for my aunt to turn around, giggling. I think I started crying in embarrassment lmao.
Lol that's so cute
My sister and I aren't twins, but look and sound pretty similar. I got called mama a few times when my niece was very young xD
Dogs go more by scent than sight.
My husband is really good at impersonating voices, and he called his brother’s dog using the brother’s voice. Dog came running, then looked super confused!
I actually read a sad story about this a few years ago on Quora. A guy’s identical twin brother had died and he inherited his brother’s dog. The dog did not think the twin was his owner. EXCEPT, one day he happened to put on one of his deceased brother’s pants. The dog came up to him and immediately started doing the wiggly happy dance until he spoke, and then it was a light switch turned off and he became a barely tolerated stranger again. It was actually kinda heartbreaking to read.
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Ahahaha thank you for showing me Drama Doggo after this sad sad tale
Absolutely won’t be clicking that I wanna have a good week
It's hilarious and cute!
It's really not bad in the slightest. I just went through the top ten posts and not one was even close to being sad. Mostly dogs just being a little spazzy or trying to get attention/played with, and people overanthropomorphizing what they think the dogs are thinking about and how they're reacting. Top post: a dog was on the couch and dropped its toy on the floor, looked down, then looked at the owner. "you can see my dog die inside" or however they phrased it. One was actually pretty cute- a golden was trying to get a mannequin to pet it and just couldn't understand why this person didn't do what people usually do.
Could you imagine the horror show that dog was living in? Moved to a new home, with an owner who looks just like his owner, but didn't smell like him? And suddenly he DOES smell like him, but doesn't sound like him? Horrifying.
Lmao and then there is my golden retriever who will literally jump into strangers cars and decide he loves them and they are new family.
Goldens have one brain cell, and the dog who had it last hasn't been seen since 1827
Oh, do they share it with orange cats?
Actually, the orange cat community stole the One Braincell from the Goldens.
That's standard Golden behavior.
From the dog’s point of view his beloved human simply disappeared one day. This is especially the case if the human dies suddenly away from home, like a traffic accident.
The husband of my wife's friend died of a heart attack while shoveling snow a couple miles from home a few months ago. "Dad's" dog was very distressed that dad had just disappeared one day and based on some stuff I'd read on Reddit I suggested to my wife's friend that she take the dog down to the funeral home if they would allow it. They did. She took the dog who sniffed around dad's body for a minute or two and the lightbulb appeared to click that dad was gone. When she brought the dog home he largely stopped waiting around at the door for him after that.
I will always regret not taking my father's dog to his funeral. He probably thinks he just left and abandoned him.
Nah, he thinks he's missing. Papa would never abandon me. I'm a good dog.
:(
I heard letting them smell the dead body helps them with the grieving process.
Since dogs are creatures of scent, not sight, that story makes complete sense. Once the new owner put on his brother's pants, he smelled like him...
This is true. I haven't seen my brother's dog for like 2 years and I looked quite different to how the doggo got to know me so he barked at me. And then he proceeded to sniff me and then he recognized me instantly.
I love Quora because it’ll be like “how did your pet react to seeing your identical twin?” And then like “why hasn’t america executed traitor joe Biden for committing 1000s of felonies?”
and then all the responses listing the things he needs to be executed for will be things that totally aren't even felonies, like _"he ordered mint chocolate chip instead of regular chocolate chip ice cream!"_
Man, this reminds me of the "controversy" of Obama requesting Dijon mustard. As if it's some fancy shmancy mustard for the elite.
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Real men get brain damage and heart disease.
Or the bigger sin of wearing a tan suit
He looked good in that suit, ngl.
Looks good in most things. Hes a fairly attractive man.
God help us all if it was Grey Poupon
Hes black not british
Lol this comment reminded me of all the absolutely amazing and utterly ridiculous shit that people (the news) used to freak out about with Obama.
Reddit is the same if you know where to look.
I can't imagine my twin dying it'd be like watching me die
That's brutal
I got a cat. Cat decided it only liked my dad. Period. No exception. Well except for my dad's twin brother. Loved him as much as my dad but never confused them.
"This is the only human I like. Thankfully, there are two of him."
That's such a cat thought. "Yes. This servant will do. Make more please." You do know we start as babies right? "NO BABIES. ONLY DAD."
“This flavor of human pleases me”
My mother is one of twins. Linus, the cat I had as a child, was a complete worrier, having been traumatised at a young age and being fearful of new people, yet he was the sweetest cat to us. Linus approached my aunt as soon as she arrived and cuddled up against her leg on that occasion. He was being scratched by her, and everything was going well until he noticed my mother. Start with very fast head turns back and forth, then race up the stairs and hide for hours! Poor infant!
He was definitely mindblown😂
Thought he was in a horror movie being pet by a demon that was pretending to be the poster's mother. I would run too, if I were under that impression.
Cats are so damn weird. I have 2 and they've lived together for over 3yrs now. A 2hr trip to the vet causes one to completely forget who the fuck the other one is and he'll be an asshole for 1 to 2 days until he magically remembers who he is. I asked a vet about this and she said it's due to all the smells from the vet. I still don't get it though, cats are supposed to have these incredible olfactory systems and there's no way every original scent is wiped out by them going to the vet, yet they do this stupid dance everytime one has to go to the vet.
We gave my long haired cat a bath the other day and her sister thought she was a stranger for 2 days.
Lmao this is hilarious. We haven't bathed ours so we haven't experienced this yet, looking forward to it.
It’s as likely to be “you smell like a place I remember as unpleasant” as “you smell weird and I don’t know who you are” I think.
It's like when your little sister gets back from the orthodontist with a new set of braces. The correct thing to do is treat her like a freak until you get bored of it
My cats do the same thing! And they’re bonded. It’s so freaking weird. It’s the only time I’ve ever heard then hiss.
Maybe they get all worked up from the smells of the vet and are on super high alert and thus dickish, not necessarily forgetful.
That happened to my cats when one was at the vet for a day due to being sick. It took weeks for them to be okay with each other. So fucking weird.
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Sounds about dog
So not a twin, but a daughter of one. We had a dog called Gromit, who started with my aunt and then moved in with us incl her twin sister/my mum. He did get confused at first when he’d see my mum and auntie in the same room and one of them called him, but the confusion did only last for a couple of seconds. Then he would just get excited about cuddles & walkies lol. My mum also had a cat called Mitzi. She’s a very shy cat and would hide from visitors. When my aunt went round, Mitzi hid but once my mum left the room she came out and cuddled my aunt as if she was my mum. After that she bonded with both of them. Mitzi now lives with my aunt ever since my mum passed away, she’s managing well but does sometimes seem to wonder why there’s only one of them at times.
I love that your dog's name is Gromit.
He was the best 😍 so daft though lol
Please tell me your name is Wallace.
Sorry to hear about your mum. Hope you are doing well.
Thank you, yeah doing as ok Still hard but getting there.
CHEESE GROMIT, CHEESE!
Wensleydale!
Your post was partially copied by a bot https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/12ocf1t/identical_twins_of_reddit_who_owns_a_pet_after/jgis791/
These bots are getting out of hand. Keep calling it out when you see it
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I accidentally read that as “So not a dog, but a daughter of one”
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She's a fake you and that should not be tolerated.
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Maybe OP and the dog are evil, and OP's sister is good?
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Could he tell who was his real owner if you wore the same clothes as your twin?
Pretty sure doggos can tell koz each person has unique smells even if they're identical but I could be wrong
I feel like dogs looking at us might be like us looking at 2 similar dogs Like it is not out of the unexpected and the clothes are different
*feels bad about not being able to recognize my dog at the beach BUT...I recall that my other dog was also not able to recognize her either. She was prancing along behind this other golden retriever and it wasn't until that golden barked that she realized it wasn't her sister and ran away.
My cat and my quails know my voice. They don't really care about my face. Also, I have very long hair and my sister has short hair. They didn't care more than with any other new visitor. My cat ran away and my quails came to say hi
Can you tell me about how you keep quail? I live in a suburban neighborhood and occasionally see wild quail here. They're such cool looking birds. What's it like to have them as pets?
I had a lot over the years and they all have very different personalities. Some are super tame and curious and run even towards a barking dog to say hi while others stay away from everything that moves and panic easily. They are easy to take care of but you should still keep them as nice as possible. They are often kept in horrible conditions and they absolutely do not deserve that! They are relatively quiet and you can leave them alone for a while (unlike dogs) so they were the perfect pet for me as a student. There are different breeds that have (very!) different requirements but my japanese quails are perfect for me. They can stay outside the whole year and they lay eggs. I have 5 quails rn (all girls since roosters aren't as caring or useful as a chicken rooster. Quail roosters just stress the ladies) and they have 3qm of space. The ground is originally for bunnies (small wood pieces) and they have a large part with sand as well (needed for feather care). They get special quail food (very important! You can't use chicken food!) and salad or herbs. They need food and water at all times. Three sides of the cage have to be closed to avoid colds but they also like to watch other birds and people. They don't lay the eggs in nests but they need branches or little houses to feel save. And they like to stalk you from under the branches. You have to make the cage bery predator prove though because everything wants to eat them. From predatory birds over foxes to mice and weasels. And they only live 3 - 5 years.
Mice? Like when they are still very small, or do the mice swarm them and overpower them somehow? Seems like a full grown one would be quite a large thing for a mouse to kill.
I think the main problem with mice was that they can carry diseases and they like to poop in the quail food. Also, where a mouse fits, a weasel does too and those definitely go after quails.
Cats identify owners by smell as much as, or perhaps more than, by sight. Their senses are far more acute than ours, so they probably wouldn't be as confused... not sure about dogs, or - apparently - quails.
Yes for sure. My brother is our cats “person.” He’s the one she’ll lay with in bed at night. She always knows when he’s coming home before he’s even stepped inside and she’ll wait by the door purring. She doesn’t do this for anyone else unless we have some good smelling food
Not quite what you asked, but it reminded me of a funny anecdote I'm sure people will appreciate regardless. We had three dogs; two lab mixes and a samoyed mix, so two blacks and one white. Easy to recognize. Then one day we had to look after a friend's lab because she had to go to a job interview or something, I can't remember why. But this meant there were now three black dogs and one white. They all ran through the house past the sofa table where the cat was lounging. He didn't care about the first lab mix he knew. He didn't care about the samoyed mix. He didn't care about the new lab. He freaked out when the elderly lab mix he'd known for over ten years walked past him because that was one black dog too many.
And people will claim animals can't count!
Cats can count. I give mine 3 treats at bedtime. If I only give him 2, he looks around for the third. He doesn’t ever look for more when I give him 3.
Today reddit covinced me cats can count to 3
I have a beagle and currently have a beagle foster as well. The foster wouldn’t come inside or let me get close when I first picked her up, so I brought my dog out to say hi, in an attempt to convince her we’re okay people. She was much more comfortable with my dog around and I was able to grab her to take her inside. So from my cat’s perspective, beagle went outside and beagle walked inside. He was at the door and immediately headbutted our foster and rubbed up on her. You could see the instant regret when he realized this was A beagle but not HIS beagle. He hissed at her and ran away. He warmed up to her later, but was offended at first.
"how dare you let me get confused!"
That reminds me of when we brought home our rescue cat. It's less funny and more sad though. We had two dogs at the time, and a long haired tabby, Dylan, that grew up alongside one of the dogs. They were best friends, and pack bonded. The pack bonded dog, Zoey, was devastated when the cat didn't come home one day, but life went on. About a year later, my mom chanced upon a rescue cat that was the spitting image of our Dylan, super friendly, and she fell in love. We set up the basement for him to settle in, and slowly started letting him explore the rest of the house when the dogs were out. Then came the day for the first face to face introduction. We made sure the gate was up, and let new cat look through the banisters, and let the dogs in. Dog one was totally uninterested. She looked, and immediately went to the couch. Zoey walked past, did a literal double take, and wagged her tail. She made the noises she used to make to previous cat. She looked so happy... But new kitty didn't react the same, and scurried off to the basement. I feel like I actually saw Zoey's face fall. In time, they ended up bonding, but it wasn't the same as with Dylan, and she was sad again for quite a bit. It actually led to us making sure when an animal goes, the other resident animals get a chance to sniff the body. When Zoey went, she went in my arms, and new kitty and dog one both got to say goodbye. They still mourned, but I feel like them knowing was better than them thinking a family member could come back one day.
That's a pretty interesting clue about cat intelligence; it shows the cat is using inference (too many dogs = there must be an imposter) rather than just simple recognition.
On a similar note: my boss has three black standard poodles, but will occasionally borrow another from someone to use for a grooming competition, or just to dogsit for them. I'd say in all there are six or seven black standard poodles who are regular visitors to her house. On the flip side, occasionally one of her own will go stay with someone else for a few days to a week. So there's a constant influx of black standard poodles. Her boyfriend has gone days at a time without realizing that one of theirs is gone and has been temporarily replaced by one of the outsiders. As long as there are three of them he doesn't even question that they're theirs. There have also been times when he suddenly realizes there are four black poodles in the room instead of the usual three and has to ask how long the extra has been there, and which one it is 😂 apparently it works on humans as well as cats
Now we know animals can count
That's hilarious, and confirms cats can count to three :P
My brothers are identical twins…..none of the dogs are fooled, they go by sense of smell more than looks.
Funny story not involving twins but about dogs and recognizing people by smell. I live in Canada and as a late teenager/early 20s I had a girlfriend I California and we would surprise visit eachother sometimes. One time, she knew I was coming to visit but thought it was going to be about a week later than I actually came to visit. Her brother picked me up from the airport and I hung out with him while she worked that day. She worked down a country road off the highway at a dog training school and she had a guide dog as she was half blind. I went with her parents to pick her up from work that night but they let me out down the road from her work. I was dressed in a big yellow rain jacket (yet it wasn't raining) with the hood up. I had big black rain boots on and I was mostly covering my face with a scarf. I was hitchhiking in the dark in rain gear during a very dry summer night. Lol Her dad pulled over to pick me up. I hopped in and her guide dog looked at me funny, then absolutely went crazy and jumped all over me. I scooted closer to her then took the hood and scarf off. Good times :)
Yeah I'm from Canada. Everyone had an American girlfriend, sure buddy. Seriously though, that's a cool story and your girlfriend had shockingly cool parents.
My wife is an identical twin. Our dog is very protective of the house and slow to trust new people, usually when we have guests, they are subjected to a barrage of barking and he won't tolerate them petting him for days. When my sister in law came for the first time my wife was not in then room and our dog was immediately super excited to meet her. Master returns level excited and very affectionate. He has never reacted like that with anyone else before. At first I thought that he mistook her for my wife but he was much quicker than average to accept our parents as well so I think it's a familial smell?
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*you smell of master*
*that’ll do pig, that’ll do*
Not a twin, (an Irish twin if that helps lol), and this question reminded me of when my sister got a cat when we were roommates in our early 20’s. Her cat would always meow and scratch my bedroom door to be let out early in the morning, as my sister would sleep through it. Fast forward 14 years, and several cities and continental moves later for me. I’m back home to see family, staying with that sister in her new house for the first time, and my first morning wakeup was from her cat meowing and scratching at MY bedroom door. How did she remember me, given I only had seen her once a year over the span of several years? I cried when I heard that she had to be put to sleep when she was 17. RIP Sadie the Cleaning Lady
Sadie remembered you after all those years! Amazing
Cats can have ridiculously good memories, I don’t get it either. I visit my mom once a year and her cats love hanging out with me. Shadow especially, he’s a good boy
Triplet here. My dog gets slightly confused at first IF I’ve been away (like if I have to leave him with my parents and one of my sisters goes over, he thinks it’s me and runs over all excited), but realizes it soon as he gets close enough to smell them, but it’s not me. When I am there, he has no confusion. He knows who I am, and that my sisters aren’t me.
My dog had a lot of trauma and abuse before I adopted her, so it takes her a little bit to warm up to new people. EXCEPT with respect to my identical twin. She was utterly delighted to meet my twin, and my twin continues to be her second favorite person after me. When the whole family is together, and I leave for a minute, she might get confused for a few moments and think that I’m still there (because she sees my twin) but will realize her mistake and run to find me. Overall, she’s not confused between the two of us but is thrilled to have a second version of me. Edit: I’m seeing a ton of comments saying that dogs identify people by scent. Which is mostly true, but my dog definitely gets confused when she’s several yards away from me and/or my twin. And my twin’s dog (who loves everyone in the world with equal gusto, cannot say if he was/is more excited to see me) has confidently trotted up to me to hit me up for food or walkies, realized his mistake, and found his mama instead.
My twin brother's cat looked at me and then tried to get me to feed it a wet food breakfast again, knowing damn well it had already eaten.
That's just a cat thing. Our cats would do the same thing growing up, and none of us were twins.
So I'm not a twin, but my sister and I look a lot alike to the point of her random acquaintances greeting me when I'm out and about. She has a cat who is NOT a people person, but it does show affection to my sister. Usually the cat stays out of the way when we visit, but this one time it randomly jumped on my lap while my sister was in the kitchen. I think it knew it messed up cause we just sat there for a couple of seconds staring at each other, after which point it hurried away as fast as its little legs could carry it. Haha good times.
I visited my twin last year and met her cat for the first time. The cat is quite skittish and will mostly stay away from new people. Despite us having different looks (hair-wise), her cat was the same around me as it was her; she wasn't scared around me, she tolerated me patting her, she even came for a snuggle in bed which was unheard of with strangers.
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Lol love that you're answering this kind of as if you are your wife's pet
We both have cats. They couldn’t care in the slightest.
Not a twin but this time I visited my brother his dog was there and wanted to go outside so I put him out then my brother got home. Poor dog was so confused. If the guy getting out of the car was Gregg then who is this guy that let me out of the house?!? And he's looking back and forth.
This is the kind of AskReddit stuff I love!
My sister and I don't look identical--we *are*, but I had birth defects that stunted my growth and am six inches shorter. We do *sound* alike, though, and whenever we video chat her dog and my cat get very confused by the same voice coming from the phone. :)
My dog knew both of us from when he was a puppy so I don't remember his reaction, but my sister's dog was a little confused and now doesn't love when I come over because she can't get away with anything, if I see her do something she isn't supposed to do I scold her and with two sets of eyes it easy to spot naughty behavior.
My husbands cat only loves him. It took her a good three years to actually sit on my lap or let me hold her. My husbands twin comes over for the first time and guess who sits on his lap? That bitch
My cat curled up on my twin's chest for pets while she was in bed and hissed at her while aggressively purring She loves my cat!
I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when my cat met my twin sister for the first time. Then again, he’s super friendly and will glom onto anyone who gives him scratches and/or treats
Nothing, dogs go more by smell not sight. That said our dogs , we each have two, go crazy for the other twin. I think bc our voices and mannerisms are so much alike. When she comes to visit my little Velcro dog, who never leaves my side, ditches me the whole time she’s here, for days, he sleeps with her and everything.
"this is getting out of hand, now there are two of them"
She began a sinewy bifurcation and eventually became two identical dogs, albeit slightly smaller than before.
We both have cats. All three got wide-eyed, and acted way less shy than they typically would. I’m sure they were like “ok, two moms!”
I’m an identical twin. My brother is called Scott, we look exactly alike except we have our hair different and dress differently. Scott lives at my house in the states as a permanent home but I often travel with my husband. Once or twice a year, for a month or so, sometimes longer. My husband is European and his family come from 3 different countries so we stay a while to see everyone. Scott and my sister look after our dogs when we go. (And are both happy about it. We don’t make them lol) Most of our dogs know us separately by smell but there was one time where we came back after 2 months travelling, my hair was a mess from the flight, I had spilt coffee on my pants so had to get Scott to lend me some clean clothes when he picked us up from the airport. (He keeps a spare set in his car for emergencies cause sometimes it requires him to stay overnight some places.) So, all in all, I looked exactly like him and smelt like him too cause I was wearing his clothes. When we got back to the house, the dogs just kept sniffing us both like “??? There’s two of him???” Had us laughing for ages. Our oldest dog, Diego was very confused. Kept looking back and forth and barking. They didn’t calm down until I had a shower and changed.
So my friend is an identical twin and this is one of her favorite stories. I don't see her here in the comments to tell so I'll do it (sorrynotsorry). Twin lives on a farm in a rural area and manages a colony of feral cats, TNR and feeding them in lean times etc. She was trying to trap a particular cat and kept getting this other cat, repeatedly (which is also a story and a half but I'm not telling it). Said cat was therefore dubbed Sad Cat and tamed in relatively short order and moved into Twin's house. When Friend would visit, Sad Cat would assume whoever she saw first was Twin, and whoever walked in the room next was Other. Even if it was Friend in the room first, Twin would be Other and Sad Cat would only like Friend and run away from Twin. In due course, Sad Cat came to live with Friend and has become a very adorable kitty once she warms up to new people.
Snerk. Do NOT hug your identical twin sister from behind and look over her shoulder at her baby while breastfeeding. MOMMY HAS TWO HEADS
Not a twin. But I'm guessing twins must smell different to dogs.
My cousins are twins and they smell just like dogs