Learn English: Can You Understand this Natural Conversation about Pets and Animals?

- Hello, this Jack from tofluency.com.

And this is a conversational lesson about pets and animals.

And today we have our favorite guest,

- Kate.

- Kate, who is going to bring some American flair

to this conversation.

And, yeah, we're just gonna have

a conversation about pets.

We're gonna talk about pets that we've had,

common command for dogs.

We're gonna talk about going to the zoo,

extinct animals.

We'll think about talking about strange animals

we've eaten before, but we might not go there.

We'll see where this conversation goes,

and stay to the end because we'll have a question for you.

Kate's question.

Okay. And,

and just one last thing,

we're going to have this natural conversation,

but I'll leave some of the key phrases in the description,

and also turn on subtitles.

If you want to follow along with the conversation.

Let's just start with, pets that we had growing up.

We'll keep this segment a little bit short.

We won't go into too much depth,

but what animals, what pets did you have growing up

in Connecticut, United States of America?

- I had,

dogs.

- Uh huh. - So when I was born,

my parents had a golden retriever.

And then when I was a little bit older, we had a poodle,

We had a cat who was a rescue cat,

and she stayed a little bit feral,

a little bit wild,

- Hmm. Spider.

- Spider. Her name was Spider,

because she had a habit of eating spiders.

- I didn't know That's why you called her Spider.

- Yeah, we didn't.

She had that reputation in the animal shelter.

And so that became her name.

And I also had,

parakeets,

and betta fish,

and horses.

- (laughs) and horses.

- and horses.

- Yeah.

- I was very lucky.

- Yeah.

- So, a lot of, a lot of,

kids want a pony,

but I,

I had a pony,

in my backyard.

- Yeah, we, so we never had dogs,

but we, I always wanted a dog as a kid,

but my parents were more interested in cats.

So we had a cat which died when I was around four.

So my parents had that before I was born.

And then we had two cats called Tiger and Pepper.

We had a bunny called Fluffy,

and Flooffy.

- Flooffy. (Jack laughs)

and then, I think that's it, really, growing up.

I don't think we had any other pets, growing up,

but and, let's just talk about the horse briefly,

because that's,

I imagine people are interested in that.

'Cause not a lot of people have a horse.

Was it a lot of work involved,

- Yes. - with the horse?

- Yes.

So I did all of, when the horse came to live at our house,

I did all of the work for the horse and when it was boarded,

other places, I would also go and help out.

So that was hauling water,

making sure that there were hay bales,

which are big,

rectangles of hay, up in the loft.

And you know, and every morning you have to do barn chores.

So I would put on my boots and go out to the barn

and just muck out, (laughs)

every day.

- Muck out - Uh-huh.

- It's a phrasal verb.

- Is is a phrasal verb, and it's one

that you might not have heard before.

- No.

- No, so, - I can understand it

from the context, probably that it means let's clean,

- Yep. - clean it out.

- Uh-huh. - 'Cause horses,

create a lot of waste.

- They do.

- Right.

- So,

- And combing, brushing the horse.

- Uh-huh. A little grooming,

- Grooming, grooming.

- So usually I wouldn't groom,

my horse unless I was planning to ride.

But well, before I rode,

I had different brushes,

and a special tool

called a hoof pick to scoop out the dirt.

- Hoof pick.

- A hoof pick.

- H-O-O-F.

- Yeah, 'cause horses have hooves,

and then sometimes they get dirt

caked in their feet and you have to scoop it out.

- Wow. So a lot of upkeep.

- A lot of upkeep. Uh-huh.

- And yeah, I think that's a good thing to talk about,

Which pets need the most amount of maintenance,

the fish, least amount.

- Least amount.

- Cats next.

- Yes.

- Dogs.

- Uh-huh. - Then the horse.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- I would almost say, that,

a cat might even be easier than a fish, in some senses,

- Hmm.

because you can go away

for a few days and leave food for a cat,

and a fish, you have to feed them every day.

- Oh, yeah.

- Uh-huh.

- I wonder if they have like, automatic

fish food dispensers now.

- You would think so.

- If not, that's an idea, for somebody to introduce.

And, so yeah, pets that need the most attention.

I think a horse is up there. Right?

- Yes.

- Which means a horse has a great contender for a pet

that needs the most kind of maintenance and attention.

What other pets need attention more than a horse?

Can you think of anything?

I mean some, you probably need to pay attention to,

a little bit more. - Uh huh.

For example, we're going to talk about some exotic pets

that people have.

Which might be venomous spiders,

snakes.

- Okay.

- Like what's happened in Florida, with some snakes.

- Oh, this is a story that you clearly know more about.

I haven't been following it.

- So people had, boa constrictor pets,

- Uh huh.

and they got released into the wild.

- Oh no.

- And they're massive.

I think they're from,

somewhere in Asia,

I can't remember which country they're really prevalent in,

but people kept them in as pets in Florida,

they got too big,

And just oh, go to the wild and have taken over,

- Oh no. - The Everglades.

- Is that dangerous to humans?

- Not necessarily,

but to other animals that are more native to Florida,

they can take over territories, et cetera.

- So they're invasive species.

- Invasive, yes.

Yeah. And that just reminds me,

I think there's a stat that I think is really cool,

or maybe not cool, but interesting.

That the country with the most amount

of tigers in the world is the US.

- Wow.

- Think of Tiger King.

- Yeah.

- And people keep them as pets in certain states.

So, there there's a map I saw as well of where it's legal

or illegal to keep a kangaroo as a pet,

because in the US things are really,

a lot of laws are created state by state.

So in some states you can keep exotic animals, like tigers.

So people have tigers as pets.

And there are instances like in Knoxville,

where our friends live, where that tiger got loose.

Do you remember that story?

- I do.

- And someone created a fake Twitter account,

talking about, "I am the Knoxville tiger."

(Kate laughs)

Just like, someone, the authorities said,

we're leaving out chicken traps and stuff like that.

And the tiger would respond saying

like, "You can't fool me with that."

(Both laugh)

But it ended up, I think, being a false alarm.

- Oh, okay.

- 'Cause our friend who's a vet was part

of that mission to try and find it.

- Uh-huh. - He was in the helicopter

looking for the tiger

and going off leads.

- Uh huh.

- But this is real, like these pets

can escape.

- Uh huh.

- The thing with tigers,

it doesn't seem like if they escape,

they will breed and create more baby tigers.

But the boa constrictors seem to do that in Florida.

- I guess, unless you have a significant number

of tigers escape at the same time,

- Uh huh. - which is, unlikely.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- What was an animal like that,

that you would consider having as a pet.

If you had to have,

maybe like a,

tarantula, or,

- I was going to say, I'll take a koala. (laughs)

- Koala.

- You're talking about kangaroos,

That would be an exotic pet.

- Yeah.

Everyone loves a koala.

- Yes.

- They seem to be very chilled out, relaxed.

- Yes,

- There was some type of,

video where people at the zoo tricked

a British reporter about the dangers of koalas

and made up, like a massive armor suit.

- Oh no. - Do you remember that?

- No.

- And they just tricked her about like,

how dangerous they are,

and she put on this massive suit, just like, tricked her,

so she's reporting for news channel,

for the UK wearing this,

- Oh, no.

- That's a good prank. - Yeah.

- I'll leave a link to that in the description.

- So, was the tiger escape also a prank?

- No, I think it was like someone saw,

it might have been a coyote, or something like that.

I can't remember what it was. - Coyote, tiger. (laughs)

- Well,

I will tell a story,

- Okay. - When we got,

our first dog together, Lyle.

He was very small for a dog and he was a puppy as well,

- Yeah. - so he was tiny.

And we, I was with him for a few days,

and I hadn't really seen a cat in that time,

and we went out, do you remember?

- I do. - And I said,

"What is that down there?"

It's huge and it's feline.

And I was thinking, it was either like a tiger, baby tiger,

or maybe a coyote.

And it was just a house cat.

- Oh, But,

it wasn't just a house cat.

So there,

it wasn't any special kind of cat.

- It was,

a house cat, but it was huge.

- Right, so it was bigger than normal.

- I think it was both bigger than normal.

And it had a very aggressive personality.

- Oh, This was a different cat.

- Oh. - Yeah.

- The orange, stripey one?

- The one that used to terrorize Lyle,

- Yes. - at your house,

- Yes. - No, different one.

- Okay. - We went for a walk one day.

- We were just used to Lyle, - And it was in the distance.

being so small,

- Yeah - That you're like,

"It's a tiger."

but this one honestly was terrifying.

So the neighbor's cat was this huge orange cat

and, it would hide in the bushes near our house,

and wait for me to take little puppy Lyle outside.

- Uh-huh.

- And then the moment that we got onto the porch,

it would run out and go like,

(Kate hisses like a cat) - Yeah.

With its, like, and it would be all like, bristly

- In that bush. - and its tail would be huge.

And Lyle was terrified and developed a lifelong,

fear and hatred of cats.

- Which is a natural for a dog.

- Yes.

But I think that this cat in particular,

- Yeah. - really,

cemented it.

Although, do you remember?

- He defeated it.

- He did.

He got big enough that he could bark at it.

- He chased it out, remember?

- And he chased it out.

- And you could just tell it was the proudest moment

of his life.

- Yeah. - But that cat was a menace.

I was afraid to walk off of our porch.

- Really?

- Yes,

(Both laugh)

Did you see it? - Yeah,

It was a little aggressive. - Did it ever attack you?

- It was so aggressive,

and it was huge. - Yeah. It was a very,

It was really fat and mean.

- Yeah,

- It's the worst cat ever.

- It was, yeah.

Which is the reason why, I'm more of a dog person now.

And yeah, So we have two dogs.

And Lyle unfortunately died a couple of years ago,

and now we have a new dog,

which we won't talk about too much.

- She's yeah.

- She's, um,

- She's special.

- Maybe we'll save that for a future episode.

But there are certain commands that you can give dogs,

and they listen, and you can train them.

- Why don't I give you the command and you model?

(both laugh)

- No. (Kate laughs)

- However,

- It is worth a try.

- What I find, just from an English teacher point of view,

the commands are all in the command imperative.

- Imperative.

- Yeah.

So you'll say things like,

sit,

and you don't say sit down, do you?

you say sit. Right, yeah.

So, sit.

Lie down.

- Uh huh. - Not lay down, but lie down,

- Lie down.

- And roll over.

- Uh huh.

- Speak.

- Uh huh.

- Shake.

- Uh huh. - So they give you their paw,

and you shake hands.

Is there anything else?

- Leave it?

- Leave it.

- Wait.

- Wait, yeah.

- Wait, wait.

So those are the main commands that we can think of.

Sit, lie down, roll over,

speak,

paw,

wait,

leave it.

- And of course, dogs, especially certain dogs

have a capacity to learn a lot more.

- Uh huh.

- So some dogs are professionally trained,

and you know, become movie stars,

- Yeah. - and learn all sorts

of commands.

But we have, one of our dogs,

Toby,

he's a beagle mix.

- Uh huh. - He's a hound.

We adopted him,

11 years ago?

- 10.

- 10 years ago. - Uh huh.

- And he,

I wouldn't think would be very intelligent,

but he is so food motivated that if you have a treat,

he is a genius.

- Yeah.

He's learned all of those commands and more.

He's just so motivated to get that treat,

that he will do anything if he can figure out

what you want, and he usually can, he will do it.

- But he does anything as well

to get the food, just generally.

- Yeah. - So we've done days

when we've just about to go

to a potluck party,

and then we leave out, it was a pigs in blanket, right?

- Uh huh. that time we left it out

on the counter, and he moved the chair.

- He used to move our stools around the corner.

- Wait, well, wait quietly until we leave the room.

As soon as we leave the room, move the chair,

get on the chair, get on the top

and just eat as much as he can as quickly as possible.

- Uh huh.

And then, yeah.

The "leave it" for Toby isn't that strong.

- No. if it's food.

- Yeah.

- Uh huh.

- But no he's, dogs that are highly motivated

by food are very trainable.

- He's very trainable. - Yeah.

- And he is, I mean, he's eaten whole pizzas,

he's eaten whole pies,

- Uh huh.

- homemade pies

for the kids' birthdays.

He's eaten an entire Turkey, - Oh, that.

I remember that pie,

oh, and the turkey. - A Thanksgiving turkey.

- Yeah. - And when he was little,

he used to be able to jump from the floor onto the counter.

- Hmm.

- And then he learned how to use the stool,

but we used to come in and he would just be up there

on the counter, tail wagging.

- And so he does the whole, drag the tablecloth off,

- Drag the tablecloth off with his mouth.

- The milk spills everywhere.

- Cereal milk.

- And then he'll get the milk.

- Hmm. - Uh huh.

- And,

- We love him.

- Yeah, no, he's great.

So let's talk about animals where we live.

- Okay.

- So growing up in the UK,

the way I always talk about it is that we don't really have

any animals that can kill you.

- I mean, there are instances of cows.

- Or dogs.

- Dogs, yeah. Yeah.

But that type of,

the joke is always about Australia.

Isn't that where in Australia there's so much that can,

if the shark doesn't get you,

then the kangaroo will punch you and then the spider,

the snakes, - Box jellyfish.

- Box jellyfish.

- Do people often die from kangaroo punches?

- I don't, not that I'm aware of.

- But I've seen a few, again,

I don't know where I get all these,

- I know. (chuckles) - these movies from but,

it's just funny when you see a kangaroo,

'cause they actually did look like boxers.

- Uh huh. - Have you seen them?

- I have. - When they stand up,

they'll be like, "All right, We're ready to go."

- Uh huh. - And there's just,

bit, like videos of the guy like,

hooking a kangaroo,

and then they both look at each other and think,

"It's not worth it." - Yeah.

- "Let's just, let's not fight."

- Let's not fight. (Jack laughs)

- It's funny because they say that kangaroo

are as common as deer.

- Oh, really?

- Where, yeah, where I grew up.

I grew up in a place with a lot of white tail deer.

So every morning, at least, we would see

deer walk through our yard.

It's a little bit dangerous to drive at dusk and dawn

because there are deer running across the roads.

And so I think kangaroos are that common,

but kangaroos can also, punch.

- Yeah. - It's different.

- And kick.

- And kick.

- Yeah. - Yeah, and deer

just run away.

- Yeah, they do a lot of damage to cars,

And obviously they get,

- Yeah. - You know.

- Yeah.

- They don't usually walk away from those types

of incidents. - No.

- And you see quite a lot on the road.

- Uh huh.

- And, but yeah, the UK.

So growing up, going out of my house,

I'd never think,

oh, there's gonna be a coyote or a bear.

Or,

what else we have here, but,

- Yeah, We have,

So in terms of dangerous animals, we have,

- Yeah. - Coyotes,

We have bears in our yard quite frequently.

- Bobcats.

- Bobcat's more rare.

- But dangerous for animals too,

for pets. - They're more illusive.

Yeah, dangerous for pets.

And then we have some venomous animals.

- Hmm.

We have black widow spiders,

- Yeah. - Uh huh.

and rattlesnakes,

- Copperheads.

- Copperheads,

- and,

- Water moccasins.

- Is that like, shoes?

- I know. They're not, they're venomous,

- Oh, then. - snakes,

that live in the water. - I need to learn about

the water snakes that are dangerous.

- Uh huh.

- But if I see a snake in the water, I just assume,

- Yeah. - It's not good.

- Better to be safe and assume that a snake is,

is venomous and get out of the way,

- Yeah. - and leave it be.

- Yeah.

- The bear is a big one where we live

because we see them all the time,

they're just always in our neighborhood,

whether it's the male one, the young male one,

a new mum with cubs.

- Yeah.

- The junior ones.

- In the spring, we almost always get,

a mama bear with at least a couple cubs

that walks through the neighborhood.

- They're so cute. They're tiny.

- Yeah. - Sometimes they're this big,

well, maybe a bit bigger.

- Yeah. - But,

we see them about this big and just, you know,

to try to play on swings and do that kind of thing, but,

- Uh huh.

- they're also, they can be quite annoying in a way.

- Uh huh. - For example,

we can't put out our trash cans

or rubbish bins,

the night before,

because the bears know that and they can smell them.

- Yeah. - And they'll just,

topple over your trash can,

take everything out, rip everything up,

usually on the lawn,

- Uh huh.

- and then go through and maybe get bit of chicken here,

you know, an apple here.

- Uh huh. It's not good for the bears.

- And it's not good for them.

And they don't tidy up after.

- Uh, I know. And they also poop in our yard.

- Yeah. And then they do a big poop in the yard after.

But they usually do it,

if we left the garage door open,

when I was packing the car for a beach trip.

- Uh huh. - It takes half an hour

to clean it all up,

- (laughs) It's such a mess, yeah.

- Such a mess. But then,

- And not good for the bears.

- No.

- Uh huh. - When they've started

to do things like open doors

to people's houses.

Getting to garages.

Welcome to the story in this house.

Going garages, they take,

frozen Indian meals.

They'll,

They killed all our chickens,

killed all the neighbors chickens.

And recently, I'll let you tell that, but,

- So I had gotten a text message,

from a neighbor that there was a bear in our minivan.

- Yeah, we had just left,

- We just left. - to go to our friend's house,

- Uh huh.

- in my car, and then we got a text message saying,

there's a bear in your car.

So we just got interrupted,

but you were saying how we got texts,

And normally they destroy cars.

- Uh huh. 'Cause they get into a car

and then they get trapped.

The door closes and they can't get out,

and then they panic and they just, (chuckles)

- "How do I get out? How do I get out?"

- And they're so big,

- And strong. - and powerful,

and they have claws and teeth

and it's just not good.

- No.

- And so we went out, we came back later,

I was so worried.

And then I looked in the car and it was fine.

- You got me to check the car.

- I got you to check the car in case there's still a bear

trapped in it. And it was fine.

- Yeah. - It was cleaner. You know,

maybe a couple of things were not in the right place,

but I couldn't remember.

- No.

- And so, and so we went home and I thought,

for awhile that our neighbor, that it was a prank.

That they just thought,

oh, we'll say that there was a bear in her car,

because it was so clean. It was normal.

The doors were shut. Nothing was strange.

And then a couple of days later,

a neighbor sent me a picture,

of the bear,

in my car. - Yeah.

- So right where I sit every day and drive my minivan around

and you know, listen to the radio, drive my car,

There was, a like, 200 pound bear just,

right there on my seat.

- Yeah.

Are they 200 pounds? More?

- Oh, more than that.

- More than that.

- That bear was more like three to 400, I think.

- It was a big bear. It was a very big bear.

And it was just there.

- And sometimes you think, oh, that bear is quite small.

But the day we were leaving for our recent trip,

- Uh huh.

- We got a text message saying,

"Oh, the bear's in the neighborhood."

Cause we tell each other,

so we know not to let the dogs out or like children out.

And these are called, these are black bears,

which generally, touch wood, is this wood? (laughs)

- Mmm.

This is. - Yeah, this is.

And they're not as aggressive as the grizzly brown bears

like in Alaska,

- Yeah. or polar bears.

- We both had a bear stand up to us,

- Yeah. It looked huge. - and growl

and it's terrifying. - Yeah.

- But in both cases it was a mama bear with cubs.

- Uh huh. - And so they always,

we always talk about mama bear as being like,

aggressive and protective.

And that's been true.

So when the mama bear comes through the neighborhood,

she'll come with the cubs running behind her

and she'll make a noise like, (growls)

- Yeah. - and the cubs will go

up into a tree and wait,

and then she'll call them back, but,

- But she never wants to get in a conflict,

it's because then her cubs are at danger.

- Uh huh.

- So they seem more aggressive,

but they don't act out as aggressive.

- Oh, really? - Someone was,

Eli, our friend who works

at the nature center,

he says that any bear attack,

and we need to, I need to look this up.

But this is what I was told, by an expert,

- By an expert.

- that it's always a single male,

- Oh yeah.

- who's hungry and wants a momma bear.

Usually that's the case, because, think about that,

They don't have as much to lose,

but the momma bear, she gets injured,

she can't look after her cubs.

- Oh yeah. - But they're more aggressive

in the sense of, (imitates bear growl)

- They're more confrontational.

- Yeah. Like, "Don't you mess with me."

- "Don't mess with me."

But then they don't actually,

- That's what I heard. - follow through.

- I mean, it's,

so when I,

- But the same time, - I didn't know

- [Both] When I,

- went out in the middle of the night,

because I heard our chicken squawking,

and I suspected it was a bear, was,

and I came down the stairs and the mama bear was over here,

and I looked around and I didn't see anything.

And she kept rushing

- Yeah. - back at me and growling.

- And I don't know what I was doing just full of adrenaline

yelling and,

probably like banging on something,

like a pot. - Yeah.

And, then I started after a few minutes of her rushing back

and making this noise, I heard way up in the tree.

These other little noises were responding and it was,

I chased off the mama,

but there was still baby bears up in a tree.

- And so they came down and ran away together.

But it was, I'd come between a mama bear

and her babies, - Yeah.

- And I had no idea.

- And the mama bear puts the babies in the tree

because it's the safe place for them

while she kills the chickens.

- Yeah. - and gets chickens for,

- Uh huh. - I don't know

if they eat them that much,

maybe they eat one and then,

- Yeah, I,

- it's just it's coyotes do that,

they'll just kill the flock of chickens.

- Uh huh.

- And maybe eat one.

- Yeah, I mean, some animals like,

is it cache, or cache'

the bodies for later.

- Right. - If they're also

kind of scavenger animals,

- Right.

- So that it's like a food supply for later.

- And help out their vulture friends, and,

- Yeah. And there are lots of vultures around

our neighborhood. - Opossums.

- We really do have like a whole Appalachian forest,

- Uh huh.

of wild animals in our neighborhood.

- Yeah.

- Yeah. No, I think it was the same bear that,

it stood up to me last week.

- Uh huh.

- 'Cause I was saying there's,

there's a bear in the neighborhood, I got a text.

- So I went to close my car doors 10 minutes later,

but I didn't check before I went and they're so quiet.

- They're so quiet.

- It's unbelievable.

They're just like very stealthy.

And even when they're running,

you can't hear them,

- Uh uh. - unless they're near a bush.

And then, yeah, I went and I turned around

and it was 10 feet away and he just stood up

and then he got back down and it ran off

with the babies,

- Uh huh.

- I said "Yeah, yeah, come back here, Bear."

(Kate laughs)

- You know, chased after it. I didn't.

No, I just,

- Yeah. I just,

froze a little bit and it went off.

- We have a healthy respect,

- Oh, yeah. - for bears.

- Although there's someone feeding them,

- Oh yeah. - in our neighborhood.

- Another story.

- Yeah.

- And so let's just do a quick fire question.

Favorite animal?

- Uh huh, What,

- What's your favorite animal?

- What's my favorite animal? - Yeah,

what's your favorite animal? - Oh gosh.

- Quick. - Can I say the top three?

- Yeah.

- I think I like turtles, goats, and horses.

- Yeah, - What's your favorite animal?

- It's a goat isn't it?

- What's your favorite animal?

- Probably a llama.

- Oh! - No?

- (chuckles) Plot twist! - So though,

llama, and, llamas in Ecuador.

- They were funny weren't they?

(Both laugh)

We bonded over a llama.

We were both a little bit scared of it,

in case it was gonna spit.

- Uh huh. - Do you remember?

- I vaguely remember, but I do like llamas.

- Llamas are cool.

- Uh huh. - Yeah.

A lot in Peru as well.

And, favorite thing or favorite animal

when you go to the zoo?

- Elephants.

- Elephants, yeah.

- I don't like seeing them in zoos but,

- No. - I, you know,

they're one of those animals

that you get close to them and they just have such presence,

- Uh huh. - and they're so impressive,

they're huge.

And like, you can tell that they're intelligent

and social,

- Yeah. - and,

really, you know, special.

They have personality.

- Yeah. We don't have a zoo in Asheville.

We have a nature center,

which, it takes injured animals generally,

or animals that people have kept

and they don't want anymore.

And then they look after them at the nature center.

It's a fun place to go. Isn't it?

- Uh huh.

- And, Kate's question.

- Okay.

My question from today's conversation,

is what pets do you have?

and what wild animals are in your neighborhood?

- Yeah.

- What pets do you have

and what wild animals are in your neighborhood?

Yeah, and we, maybe we'll save the Ice Age,

extinct animals,

for, before the time, - I love,

I love megafauna,

- We both do. - and we will another time.

- Yeah

- I love that era.

So favorite pets and also in your neighborhood.

We also had a question before. I think?

I can't remember what it was now,

but you might've answered that already.

Leave a comment below with your answer,

and also share this,

this video or podcast episode,

If you're listening with a friend, you know.

Send it by WhatsApp, Messenger, anywhere, really.

So just share it with a friend.

Okay, so thank you so much for watching

and I'll speak to you soon. Buh-bye.