Your Pets' Secret Lives: The Truth Behind Your Pets' Wildest Behaviors

From poop-eating pups to supersmooth spy snakes, get a glimpse of our pets’ amazing secret lives with this funny and fact-filled exposé!

Butt-sniffing dogs. Terrified tarantulas. Canaries with invisible force fields? Yep—it turns out our pets experience the world in totally different ways than we do. Unlock some of your nonhuman family members’ wildest behaviors in this hilarious (and sometimes shiver-worthy) illustrated guide to their secret lives, complete with exciting interviews with the scientists who research them. From fierce hamster stink wars to the hidden wild side of Bubbles the goldfish, who knew there was so much more to understand about our furry and scaly friends? Back matter includes websites for do-it-yourself research, a bibliography of real studies and scientists, a glossary, and even some how-to-draws (how about tapeworms high-fiving on a poop rocket?). Bold, playful illustrations and witty text combine in this delightfully fun and gross page-flipper from the team behind Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle.Author Eleanor Spicer Rice reveals exactly why our pets do certain things and what those things mean. So many fun facts. You might know why your dog sniffs every single thing on a walk. But do you know why he/she drags his/her butt on the ground? Or why cats do that super-slow blinking thing? Or why parrots dump their food all over the place? All of this, and a lot more, is answered in this fun and funny book, which also features delightful illustrations by NYC’s own Rob Wilson. Our biggest take-away: contrary to popular belief, goldfish have excellent memory.
—New York Post

Memorable facts combined with delightful, full-color spot art will sustain readers’ interest. Four insightful interviews with a diverse group of researchers and experts interspersed throughout the text describe surprising breakthroughs and insights and different personal paths to careers in science. The author mixes humor with scientific data, delivering an entertaining and informative guide that will pique readers’ interest in learning more about the animals we share our homes with. An engaging, fact-filled book that offers both laugh-out-loud and aha moments.
—Kirkus Reviews

Pets are a key member of many children’s lives, and this jaunty guide helps kids understand their furry, feathery, and scaly companions even better. . . . In a humorous, conversational style, complemented by cartoon spot art, Rice explains such phenomena as why dogs message through pee (and how they align themselves with the north-south axis of the earth’s magnetic field to poo), why some cats go gaga for catnip, and why and how a bearded dragon would need to change colors.
—Booklist

The second book in the 'Your Hidden Life' series, this newest installment is certain to amaze, entertain, educate and amuse anyone who has a pet and wants to know more about why pets act the way they do. . . . Simultaneously hilarious while packing in loads of fascinating facts, this fun book with its equally entertaining illustrations is education at its best.
—Reading Eagle

Once you open Your Pets’ Secret Lives, you’ll be hooked. You’ll laugh so hard you snort. You’ll also learn the amazing science of what’s happening inside your house, outside in your backyard—and inside your pet. Who knew poop was so marvelously complex? And such an indispensable delicacy for your pet rabbit? Entomologist Eleanor Spicer Rice introduces young readers to the fascinating and weird biology and behavior of some of our most popular pets, from cats and canaries to . . . tarantulas. Your Pets’ Secret Lives is deeply informative, utterly surprising—and hilarious. Rob Wilson’s whimsical, spot-on illustrations are the perfect accompaniment.
—Cat Warren, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the WorldEleanor Spicer Rice, PhD, is an entomologist and the author of many nonfiction books, including Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle and Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Spiders. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, sons, dogs, hermit crabs, an assortment of spiders and insects, and a small but valiant flock of homing pigeons.

Rob Wilson is an award-winning illustrator and celebrated graphic designer who has created work for the Washington Post, New York magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and the covers of best-selling books. He is the illustrator of Your Hidden Life: Unseen Jungle and the creator of the icon for the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Rob Wilson’s work has been featured in galleries in London and New York City, where he lives.Introduction
 
More than half of us live with at least one creature that is not a human. Though they may have scales, fins, fur, or feathers, we consider them family members. Sometimes they might even seem like humans. Many greet us when we come home; some give us kisses or try to make us feel better when we’re blue. But trust us: our pets see the world in a totally different way than we do.
   Our lovable housemates have superpowers that come from their ancestors’ wilderness survival skills. Some battle ancient foes, if only in their minds. Others can change color or shape. Still others have conversations that we can’t see or even hear.
   These behaviors seem mysterious, but if you pay attention and know what to look for, you will begin to understand your pet in a whole new way. In these pages, we unlock some of our pets’ strangest behaviors. We shake their family trees, peek between their feathers, dive into their brains, and sometimes hitch a ride on their poops to uncover their hidden lives and reveal them to you.
   What you do with these discoveries is up to you. Will you give your cat kisses with your eyeballs? Listen to your mouse’s roars? Comfort your tarantula when she has nightmares? Congratulate your dog on a well-aimed pee? Give your goldfish some happy memories to last a lifetime?
   You know your pets better than anyone. And soon, after reading about their secret worlds, you may be able to understand them, too.
 
Part I
Dogs
   Of course, you and your pup are best buds! You do everything together! Well, almost everything. There are some things a dog just needs to do on its own. Like poop in the most spectacularly secret way. And send you tail-wag flag signals. And . . . turn the page to find out!

Talk to the Tail
   Sometimes we say it best when we say nothing at all. With that in mind, here’s a short list of some of the many everyday ways we talk with our hands instead of our mouths:
 
Wave: Hello.
Shrug: I don’t know!
Raised hand: Hooray!
or I’m over here!
Punch fist: You dirty rascal!
or I’m gonna beat you up!
Shrug: I’m not really
feeling it.
Power fist: We are the champions, my friend.
Prayer hands: Bless
your little pea-pickin’ heart.
or Thank you.
Peace sign: Peace out, homeslice!
 
   There are plenty more, of course. Some you’re probably not allowed to do. Don’t do those!
   Dogs can talk without talking, too. Their paws don’t allow for much in the way of a thumbs-up, so they let their tails do the talking instead. Are you listening to those wags? If you are, you can learn more than just who’s a happy pup.
   Here is a short list of everyday posterior postures to help you decode the tail talk.
 
Tail up: Hello! You have
my attention!
Circle wag: You are my very favorite of all the favorites, and I am so happy to see you in the most wonderful of ways!
Wag to left: You make me nervous, and I’m not super sure about you.
Wag to right: I want to make you my buddy.
or I’m very happy to see you, buddy!
Tucked tail: Yikes!
Also tucked tail: Come and get me, sucker!
 
   Yes, a dog’s tail can be a window into its sunny little soul. Some tail positions are practical. Tucking that tail in, for example, makes it harder for anyone to nab Buster, whether he’s skittering off in play or worried someone’s going to bite him. A perky, upright tail can leave the back door open for a good old-fashioned butt sniff.
   Scientists think dogs’ brain wiring leads to other tail positions. In dogs (and other animals, like humans—like YOU!), each side of the brain specializes in a different set of skills and feelings. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and links to using energy (run away!). It also links to feeling sad or afraid. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and links to feel-good, happy, calm-type feelings.
   When a dog like Buster sees another dog wagging its tail to the left, Buster’s heart starts pounding. He acts anxious. Even without knowing everything the scientists know, Buster somehow associates that other dog’s left wag with the feeling that something is a little iffy about the situation.
   On the other hand, when Buster sees another dog wagging its tail to the right, his heart rate stays nice and easy. He feels free to wiggle-waggle on up to that dog. With that right-tail-wag signal, Buster feels glad to see an old Buster buddy, or hopeful to make a new one.
   Keep your eyes peeled for the silent signals from your best friend’s rear end. Is your buddy ready for fun? Or needing comfort? Now that you can catch the meaning of the wag, you’ll know for sure.