Science

Are Your Pets Acting Odd? Experts Say Not to Worry!

By Johan Crane

Tuesday, February 30th XX32

“What on earth are you staring at?” is not an uncommon thought among pet owners, upon finding your furry friend staring intently at, seemingly, nothing at all. But in Manse County, the question has become a much more frequent one as of late.

“People get concerned, they think it may be some kind of, you know, neurological issue, when their animal just starts to stare. But in this case it’s not that serious.” Says Dr. Jaden Lune, head veterinarian at Manse County Veterinary Clinic.

The Manse County Vet has reported a steep increase in calls relating to the pets “zoning out” or “staring at walls,” compared to previous years’ data.

“I’ve gotten into the habit now of asking ‘do they look distressed? What kind of body language are they displaying?’ when we get those initial calls. Because most of the time the owners will say ‘oh yeah they’re still  wagging their tail’ or say ‘they’re purring,’ in the case of a cat. And I tell them ‘Oh your animal is just fine. It sounds to me that they befriended a Visitor!’”

According to Dr. Lune, the Visitors of Manse County are notorious animal-lovers.

“We have a lot of Visitors come through to volunteer with our associated shelter. The other volunteers can’t be in close proximity for too long without having some issues, but we haven’t seen any kind of adverse reactions when it comes to the animals. They actually do very well with them!”

Dr. Lune tells us that she believes that the Visitors have some way of communicating with the animals that is different from how we communicate with animals, and different from the way that the Visitors communicate with humans.

“The animals seem to interact and respond differently to the Visitors than they do with us. They’re calmer and more obedient. It’s like they actually understand them.” She says, “I can’t say for sure though. I can’t talk with our Visitors for long enough to ask them about it, and it isn’t like they can explain it to us in any way that would make sense anyway.”

Dr. Lune continued, “But in the case of these calls we keep getting, what’s likely happening is that a Visitor may have spotted the animal outside the house or through the walls, and will stop and “pet” the animal, or coo at it in their own, mind-bending version of baby talk. And your animal will just sit there, soaking up the attention. The staring likely isn’t due to them actually seeing the Visitor, but rather listening intently.”

This idea seems to be corroborated by Manse County residents as well. We spoke to local pet owners Alicia and Veronica Peel as they picked up their dog, Opal, from the vet clinic.

“Oh yeah, we had the whole staring issue with Opal last month. I was super worried about it until Dr. Lune explained the situation to us.” Alicia says.

Veronica continued, “I’m not sure how we didn’t put two and two together sooner. I started getting really intense headaches and hearing an ear splitting metallic scraping sound at the same time Opal would do that staring thing, and it was the same type of headaches I’d get whenever we talk to our neighborhood Visitor, Enoch.”

When we asked how they solved the issue, Alicia replied, “We don’t think it’s too much of an issue really, it’s completely understandable that they’d want to give Opal some lovin’, I mean look at that face!” She stopped to give Opal a nice pat on the head, which the German Shepherd seemed to appreciate.

“But we did politely ask Enoch not to bother her in the middle of the night anymore,” She continued, “just because the metal scraping thing is inconvenient when we’re trying to sleep.”

Not all residents were as accepting of the explanation as the Peels were, however.

“We’re not even safe from these things in our own homes?” Asks one Manse county resident, who requested to remain anonymous. “It’s bad enough that we can’t do anything about them being in our town, but now we also have to deal with them brainwashing our dogs and cats?”

Many residents have even taken to surrendering their pets to the Manse county shelter, unwilling to allow the Visitors influence in their homes.

“It’s really sad to see,” says Dr. Lune. “A lot of people are convinced that it’s some kind of, you know, nefarious plot. They think the Visitors are telling their dog or cat to kill them in their sleep or something, so they come and drop them off here. And then when they see that we have Visitor volunteers they take that as proof that it’s part of a conspiracy, and we’re not able to convince them otherwise.”

Dr. Lune says that the Visitors of Manse County truly don’t mean any harm, and that your pet is not in any danger from the extra-dimensional attention.

“They want to give them love and affection, just like we do. They just show it in a way that’s different from what we’re used to. It’s only natural to be worried when your animal starts exhibiting behaviors that are out of the norm, but in this case it truly isn’t cause for concern.”