This week, Laura and Kara delve into The Hidden Lives of Pets - a 4 episode series on Netflix. This, of course, leads Kara to talk about her menagerie of pets throughout her life as well as some interesting pet facts she's learned along the way. Laura comes with stories about being accused of cheating, and how the government may be responsible for our allergies...what?! Tune in and let us know what you think of this week's podcast!
This week, Laura and Kara delve into The Hidden Lives of Pets - a 4 episode series on Netflix. This, of course, leads Kara to talk about her menagerie of pets throughout her life as well as some interesting pet facts she's learned along the way. Laura comes with stories about being accused of cheating, and how the government may be responsible for our allergies...what?! Tune in and let us know what you think of this week's podcast!
The views and opinions expressed by the should they watch it podcast are those of two moms who happen to be a registered play therapist and a voice actor for cartoons. So while they may feel their opinions come from a knowledgeable place, they are still in fact just opinions. Should they watch it? A podcast that takes the task of reviewing your kid's favorite shows up your to do list Hey there and welcome to this should they want to podcast I'm Kara Edwards and
Laura Orr:I'm disappointed we don't have a song to sing today Laura Orr here disappointed so that's okay.
Kara Edwards:Little sad Laura Orr. Or there is no song for today's show the hidden lives of pets it is not the Secret Lives of pets as we have been calling it in our house all
Laura Orr:week. Same. Yeah. Very close.
Kara Edwards:They're hidden. They're not secret to know.
Laura Orr:They're though both kind of falling in a similar category hidden and secret. Yeah, but yeah, very different. Material and no songs.
Kara Edwards:So sorry about your nuts, but a review nonetheless. And a show after my own heart, but we are going to get to that later on. Laura. How are you?
Laura Orr:I'm good. I have lots of stories. Kara. I'm gonna let you choose
Kara Edwards:to i This is like choose my own adventure. Absolutely. This is choose my own podcast.
Laura Orr:Choose your own Laura story. Okay. Do you want to know about an odd freckle that I found? No.
Kara Edwards:Love you want to know, don't you? I say it as I go. Wait, I have a dermatologist. I can recommend Sorry, sorry. I'll
Laura Orr:wait. I'll be fine. As I say that. Like is there such thing as an interesting Frankl story? No. And as I'm thinking of the story itself, not that interesting. Maybe I'm turning into an old lady where I'm like, I have our frontal
Kara Edwards:recliners, participants some time talking about a freckle. I do have a public audience
Laura Orr:stuck about corner every one of my listeners on here and odd. Okay, fine. No freckles story. Do you want to hear about getting accused of cheating and kind of loving it? Or do you want to hear about an interesting thing I learned about allergies?
Kara Edwards:Oh, crap. I the kind of both because I'm an allergy sufferer. And I kind of want to hear about being accused of cheating. Which one? Is it? Oh, come on. I mean, do we have time? Kids, they're like the real they're the Laura's Digest version. I pick the one that's most
Laura Orr:interesting. And then cheating. I'm gonna go with cheat cheating. And then if we have time, I'll talk about the allergy. Okay. I mean,
Kara Edwards:as far as girl gossip goes, the cheating.
Laura Orr:It's really fun. All right. Oh, well, and we'll see if it's along the lines of what you're thinking now. Anyways, okay, so here we go. So I am, as you know, I love puzzle rooms. Okay, I go to a lot of them or escape rooms. Yeah, however you want to call them. I love them so much. Me and a couple of friends, we tend to go pretty frequently, I would say we have gone to over over 30 That's just me being I would say closer to 50 puzzle rooms. And we love it so much. Anyways, my friend has a friend who came into town who also loves puzzle rooms. So the four of us decided let's go do a puzzle. Okay. So we found a place that we've never been before. And we decided let's do the hardest one. There's four of us. Usually, it's just the three of us. And we have an extra person. Let's do it. And then while we were there, we also happen to see these other people who wanted to join the room too. So total there. Seven of us. Were like we could figure this room out. It's the hardest room here. Let's go for it. So we nailed that room. Okay, we killed this room. We got through it in record time. We got through with 15 minutes to spare. And the minute we opened the door to leave, you know. The puzzle Master is what she's called.
Kara Edwards:There's a puzzle master.
Laura Orr:It's Yes, it's a puzzle master. Someone
Kara Edwards:literally state hands up business cards. That is their job title is puzzle master.
Laura Orr:I hope so. And if not, they should okay. She's standing outside and puzzlemaster is somebody assigned to the room. If you get lost, they can give you hints basically, okay, and they're just watching you complete the puzzle. Make sure you're following rule
Kara Edwards:make sure like you don't get left and somebody comes back in 21 days and you're
Laura Orr:dead. Yeah, you gotta I gotta keep us in line. Yeah, make sure we're not breaking things, things like that. So she's standing out there. And the first thing she says to us is, you've totally been to this room before. You have come in. This is your this is not your first time completing this. And I was like, No, this is total They are first time completing this. Why do you say that? Because nobody has finished this room with that much time to spare. In fact, if they finish this room, they do it within seconds. And so there's no way you guys finish this room so fast. And I looked at her and I said, this isn't the nice thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you so much. I'm a words of affirmation, girl. And I'm still writing the high of that Kara.
Kara Edwards:Wait a second. So this is a story about cheating on a puzzle. Being accused of cheating. This was a story about like someone accusing you of cheating on your husband. No, I'm
Laura Orr:not that interesting.
Kara Edwards:Hey, your
Laura Orr:opinions of me. Or him not? My life is not is not like a soap opera in that way. It's more like cheating
Kara Edwards:on a puzzle room. Oh, yeah. Like, if I were betting the puzzlemaster that is more.
Laura Orr:Oh, that's my speed. For sure. Okay, I am more of a Big Bang Theory type of girl. That's my life more so then I don't know. Desperate Housewives. Okay. Yeah. See, I
Kara Edwards:was already like, you're like somebody came in from out of town. I'm like, that's who they think she's cheating with. I know when you puzzlemaster when you said
Laura Orr:Oh, no, no, no, no, no. When you said girl gossip, I was like, Oh, she's thinking something way more salacious. And maybe the listeners are to know it's puzzle room. I love puzzle rooms. And I'm actually getting really good at them. So if anyone needs like a hand, or if anyone's never done it, and they need, you know, like some guidance.
Kara Edwards:I've never done a puzzle room. Oh, Cara, which I have never done an escape room or it will not if you're like the best in the US. And clearly I would I would need it. It would be it would be fine. Puzzle rooms are really fun. I don't really like doing stuff like that with cheaters. Oh, my
Laura Orr:dear you. That's you know what? I do not like to cheat at games. And my husband loves it. Yeah, he comes from I think that's a pretty like, when it comes to games, like there are people who will win at all costs, you know, and then there's people who are sticklers for the rules. And I'm definitely a stickler for the rules. Oh, yeah. Kind of Jeremy comes from a family of cheaters. Okay,
Kara Edwards:I'm more of a rule person too.
Laura Orr:Are you? Yeah, I
Kara Edwards:don't I don't know. That's something I've been trying to teach my now seven year old is he's like, What is the easiest way to the end? And I'm like, No, you will
Laura Orr:follow the rule. You have to earn it. You got to earn it kid and you might not win. And that's okay. Cuz it's also about having fun with your friends and family. It's not always about winning. Is this interesting? I don't. It's
Kara Edwards:fascinating what it tells me about allergies.
Laura Orr:Oh, no. Are you one of those situations? Or only I think something is cool. Oh, and that's really actually not that cool. Very cool. Anyways, if you've never done a puzzle room, they don't actually lock you in. You should try it out. It's really interesting.
Kara Edwards:I actually, really, you've talked about it enough that I am interested in trying one. Oh, can
Laura Orr:I take you? I would love it. It's actually really? No, you would. It's really, really fun. And I've gotten Jeremy to join me a few times. So we could do like a double date.
Kara Edwards:Okay, I do I do. I'm I'm competitive enough though, that it would probably irritate me where I'm like, Oh, I'm not getting any of the answers.
Laura Orr:Teamwork, just to work it all right. It's a lot more fun than you would think. Even if you are not like amazing on it. Like I'm not amazing at it. It's a team effort. It's a wee thing. You know, just about one person. You work together as a group, allergies, allergies, what is it? Okay, so I haven't actually done any reading about this. So I'm going to be relaying this from a word of mouth type of perspective. But okay, I heard that city planners, for some reason have been planting male only trees. And because of that a lot of cities have these male only trees who are releasing pollen with no place for the pollen to go because the pollen would usually land in a female tree. And since they don't have that opportunity, they're going up our nostrils instead which is why everyone's allergies are so bad.
Kara Edwards:Oh, that actually is really interesting. Oh, thank you I gotcha. Maybe I could have left off the actually first fascinated to know how do you know if a tree is a boy or a girl?
Laura Orr:I guess one of them is giving and one is receiving pollen. Maybe Maybe and I guess in this case look at the trees and they're all boys are in Dallas. This is happening here.
Kara Edwards:There's not like they have like, is it a boy or a girl parties where they like release out blue confetti or pink confetti? No
Laura Orr:gender reveal, unfortunately reveals that would be helpful though. Wouldn't that be nice of each
Kara Edwards:twin trees convert from a boy to a girl like amphibians?
Laura Orr:Ooh, these that's interesting. Can they self pollinate? You mean like, can it pollinate? Oh, I
Kara Edwards:mean, I ended up with a lizard did the dude
Laura Orr:do that? I think that there are some plants that have been lab produced to do that, to where they can like, self pollinate. For sure. I think that exists. Again, this is coming from a word of mouth perspective. So I could just be spreading lies and gossip.
Kara Edwards:I wonder if because I have a tree that I need to replace in my front yard. Can I go in and be like, I need a female I need a female versus a male.
Laura Orr:I've thought about doing that as well. I've just like now I'm just gonna buy all the women buy all
Kara Edwards:the female trees. I'm only planting females to catch all the pollen in my house. Also, there's that Well, I have so many questions. I know I will not bore our listeners. I will go research.
Laura Orr:I know I came in here and dropped a bomb. And then and we just talked about this offline about how like, we know we have our husbands will drop a bomb about of information and have no other details around it. And yeah, now I'm doing that but it's a thing now and so that's why people's allergies are so bad. But how do
Kara Edwards:you know do you lift up the bark and see what they are? Do I determine
Laura Orr:that's a really should we Google it? I don't I'm looking at pictures of male versus female and I do not see the difference.
Kara Edwards:Boom, I've got it. If a tree is male and contains flowers, then it has male flowers and produces pollen. Meanwhile if a tree is female and contains both the no this doesn't tell me anything then it has female flowers and produces fruit. So female plant produce approves pollen
Laura Orr:they produce fruit produce fruit of Talan and so there are some who would say also that this is done so that we can not putting on a tinfoil hat right now. So that we have a harder time producing fruit bearing trees in are they all male or female we in case I'd have to go to the grocery store and run. Okay, wait are what are what side
Kara Edwards:wasn't listening? No. All trees are female. Can you like it doesn't have to be a male like can you have like an like sexless tree? This is like my non binary tree the tools my
Laura Orr:own I do non binary.
Kara Edwards:I don't know. Do we need to even keep googling this or should we go talk about pets instead of trees?
Laura Orr:The Secret Life of trees? I mean, we're only at 10 minutes. Okay, then we're getting on binary plants.
Kara Edwards:Like because this is what I'm curious about like why don't they advertise like this as well? I guess you don't have to advertise if a male is releasing pollen and another one is fruit now you know if it's male or female?
Laura Orr:Yeah, I think that's how you distinguish the two and that's why I think that's how fruit is produced right as the pollen goes into the flower and makes up fruit.
Kara Edwards:But then what about the trees that don't produce any like they just have leaves?
Laura Orr:Like they don't have flowers? Right? Ooh, what kind of let
Kara Edwards:us trees that never heard did change throughout the years.
Laura Orr:What are they identify?
Kara Edwards:This is somebody if somebody is super into trees, I
Laura Orr:have questions. Kara has a lot of questions like a lot of questions about curiosity is piqued now as well. I would like to know the the gender binary of plants. Yeah, thank you.
Kara Edwards:This is actually really interesting. And is it affecting our pollen? What is it affecting? Like what you were just talking about? Is our allergies and pollen it is. I mean we don't know that
Laura Orr:word of mouth. Okay. We are my nose as
Kara Edwards:I saw it on the internet. It is true.
Laura Orr:Dude, though, but my face is so itchy.
Kara Edwards:Oh no, the allergies have been horrendous. Horrendous I hate it. So my are also in I think the top three locations in the United States for allergies. Really. My en ti tells me all the time someone has like allergies. And he's like, right so you couldn't move.
Laura Orr:It's not this bad everywhere or learn to live with it. Where are the other two places?
Kara Edwards:I don't know. But I think they've been everywhere I've ever lived. I've never lived in a place that I didn't suffer from allergies. Oh, really? Yeah. And I've lived in Florida and the Carolinas and blah blah blah.
Laura Orr:When I lived in California, I did not have allergies. What areas have the worst are
Kara Edwards:in LA is one of my worst places for allergies because of the pollution their quality. Oh your allergies
Laura Orr:rather, you want to hear the top 10 most challenging places to live with seasonal allergies? Sure. Let's do this. Oh, wow.
Kara Edwards:I mean if we are if you're not riveted by now, if we haven't if we haven't hooked you and brought you in yet, you just hang on talking about the hidden lives of pets here. Clearly, we're just talking about the hidden lives of us today.
Laura Orr:And here we go. Number 10. Albany, New York. Okay, nine New Haven Connecticut K eight Buffalo New York K seven. Hartford, Connecticut. Lots of Connecticut's in New York SEER six. My hometown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I can vouch for that. Five, San Antonio, Texas for Richmond, Virginia, three McAllen, Texas which I wonder if that's what your end was talking about. Because it's not that far from here to Wichita, Kansas, one Scranton, Pennsylvania sorry, Pennsylvania.
Kara Edwards:Oh, sorry, Pennsylvania. I've never been I want to know if anyone listening in Pennsylvania has sex to their trees yet and figured out
Laura Orr:yeah, I'm mad at the city planners over at Scranton, Pennsylvania who planted a bunch of dude trees and now everyone every messed it all up. So if you are suffering from allergies, just right, your your local politicians add that to the list of things to harass them about cool. And in the one of many things that we're mad about right now, to add allergies to add
Kara Edwards:allergies to it to interesting stories, but if you're two out of three were great. I'm not gonna ask about the freckle
Laura Orr:don't know. Yeah, no, it's not it's, it's less interesting than cheating. You might just have to cut all that out anyways. Hey, but if you have really bad allergies, apparently, Seattle, Washington has the least issues of allergies. So because yeah, so anyways, would you like to like to talk about
Kara Edwards:I do want to talk about it and lives and I've been excited to talk about the hidden lives of pets.
Laura Orr:Okay, but before we do I have one more thing I have to say. Okay, so yesterday, we went out to eat for Kara's husband's birthday. Yes. And I just have to say Kara did the cutest thing. And I have to sing your praises a little bit. So there was a tween at the restaurant. And this tween had a Dragonball Z shirt on? Yeah. And Kara. So casually and cutely just looked at them, and said, Hey, I like your shirt. And, and the kid was like, hey, thanks and kept walking. And I.
Kara Edwards:Everybody is there like, they have no idea. They have no idea. And I was like, Nah, it's actually one of my favorite things to do in public. Yeah. And I have been known to walk across entire rooms or across entire parking lots to walk up to someone and be like, Hey, cool socks. Really? I like your shirt. Hey, your hats neat. If it's anything that I've been a part of a has always been this like, and then it depends on the situation. There have been times if that leads to a conversation that I will say, Okay, that's a show I'm a voice on and. But that's kind of, I don't know, I don't know if it's cute or just pure narcissism, but it is something that I enjoy just walking over being like, hey,
Laura Orr:that's transactional. We're all getting it.
Kara Edwards:I appreciate ya. Like, like, there was a there was a guy when we went to, we were on vacation recently. And when we dropped our dog off at work, where he goes to play daycare, boarding whatever. The guy who was getting him had on Dragonball Z socks and just like, Hey, I like your socks. Yeah, you're good choices and TV shows. Sure
Laura Orr:does. She does he know? No. Yeah. I love that. Even if they don't I think it's for sweet.
Kara Edwards:We were trying to get on the road. I didn't have time to Yeah, yeah.
Laura Orr:I just think it's cool that you acknowledge it when you see it. Hey, anyways, I appreciate
Kara Edwards:the support. I appreciate it. You know, I have a movie that actually just came out a Dragonball Z movies in theaters right now. And it is it's Dragonball Z superheroes and I actually had to miss the premiere of the movie because I was out of town with family which will be coming up here shortly because it is relevant to the hidden lives of pets but yeah, so hey, Dragonball Z fan. Go see these out and get into the theater and watch it cuz I'm gonna be out there watching it. I haven't seen it yet. I'm about to I'm gonna see it. You're gonna see it. It's gonna be a good one. Yeah, but in for the record spoiler. I'm not in it very long. Okay, but okay, but a minute,
Laura Orr:but I'm in it. You're in it. You're on a screen now.
Kara Edwards:The hidden lives of pets Kara? Yep.
Laura Orr:Should they watch it like Yes.
Kara Edwards:The cutest thing ever. This was so much fun to watch. Okay, Laura, should they A watch
Laura Orr:Oh yeah, it's adorable.
Kara Edwards:There is no way you can. It's so adorable. This came out on Netflix in June of 2022. So it's a brand new show. If you're looking for something that you don't have to dive into, or devote a lot of time to, this is your show to sit down and watch with your kids. 30 minute episodes, there are only four episodes of the show.
Laura Orr:And the one season on Netflix, it's a quick watch. It's also a show that you can pause if you need to,
Kara Edwards:this could be a before bedtime. Like we can watch this for 10 minutes, pause it come back to it. There's little mini stories about pets. And it's a heavily science based show. There's a whole lot of science and information about the pets and things.
Laura Orr:Yeah. Did you want to do the premise?
Kara Edwards:I mean, sure, that's it. So it's about pets. The secret? I suppose that's my pet. It is the hidden lives of pets. It is it's just little mini little blips of information about people and their various pets. It talks a lot about the science and it goes into a whole lot. I mean, there's they can have a season two because there's definitely some pets that they missed out on. But a lot about rabbits and cats and dogs and tortoises and daughters and birds and all the kinds of things that you can have as pets in which pets are extraordinary. And they they some of the little blips stories are about particular pets that do extraordinary things. Some of the stories are just about the science of this certain animal in general. You know, why are birds able to fly as long as they're able to fly? You know, tortoises, why do they live as long as they do, but then there's also loving stories about their pet owners with a lot of these things. And so it's just, it's cute, and it's happy. You will learn something for sure from this show. There's going to be some a lot of it is kind of like Yeah, I knew that. But this is cute anyways, and some of it, you'll be like, well, that's interesting, I didn't realize that the bone structure of that animal caused it to do this whatever thing
Laura Orr:or the dogs have no collarbones at all. Speaking of bones, I didn't know that. I didn't know that so many fun facts on this show. And I what I thought was cool about it is I feel like a lot of documentaries that I have seen are usually about animals that aren't accessible. They're about animals that are you know, not in our backyard, usually. And so I thought it was really a fun show that, you know, talked about animals that you will encounter easily in your everyday life. Yes, it and they do talk about some of the like durables and hamsters and things like that. But even in that situation, like, you're gonna see that people only you know, live with these animals. Yeah,
Kara Edwards:even the guy who lived with the giant tortoise and it was so cute, because he talked about his tortoise that was going to outlive him someday and how he's had to make plans. And he's looking for the right person to take over the tortoise that's gonna live to be well over 100 years old. And
Laura Orr:that was a really meaningful story to me. I felt like it was really, really sweet. Yeah, he he, he takes his tortoise out on a walk every day. And I don't know, I don't tend to think of those kinds of animals as having like big personalities. And so it was really cool to hear from somebody who lives with this tortoise every day and gets in hat and knows this animal very well. And he was able to speak on the things that he notices the behaviors that he notices with this tortoise,
Kara Edwards:Kuma speed and I loved the guy who had a certain animal sanctuary and they focused a lot on him because he has macaws, which are my favorite bird. And he has them free flying. He's actually trained them not to go off property. And so he has these beautiful macaws actually doing what they're supposed to be doing which is like flying free and hunting and there yeah it everything about it is feel good.
Laura Orr:So you have a favorite birdie.
Kara Edwards:I do have a favorite bird it's I've always wanted a blue hyacinth macaw.
Laura Orr:Why is that your
Kara Edwards:favorite it because they're kind of rare and they're really beautiful. And so I grew up you know this I grew up around a lot of animals a lot of animals and hoping you would get into that and and and I'm a very much an animal lover. Birds were kind of a big thing for me. So when we talk about the pet in fact, this show made me think so much about the pets I've had in my life and the ones that I have right now. Which I think is going to make anybody with a pet you're going to want to go hug your pet watching this show. But it made me think about my all time favorite pet growing up and the one that like And when I think of my dogs, it's Kingston, but when I think of my truest, truest love it is my Cockatiel pirate. I have you have not even heard about pirate.
Laura Orr:Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, so the cockatiels name was pirate. Yes. I thought you meant the breed was a pirate of some sort and I got very confused. Oh, the cockatiel. His name is pirate. Yes, my Cockatiel is a bird Cockatiel
Kara Edwards:is a buckeye. They're a smaller type of bird. They're not as small as a parakeet or a Finch. But they're also not a large parrot. And pirate was my first bird was my cockatiel. I had multiple growing up. You have one leg maybe No, I just slide is that was the name I gave him and he had like, because he had a little bit of gray around one of his I had, yeah, it and no, nothing. No, but I did have one named Popeye. That was a son Kanye and Popeye had a deformed beak. And so that one actually was named because he kind of went like this to the side and, and I used to have to take him in to get his beak trimmed because he birds naturally when they trim their beaks, they do it by eating and he couldn't because his little beak lips didn't retrofit. So there were so I named him anyway,
Laura Orr:Pirate was my fever. Please don't stop this story. I didn't know any of this. About birds even
Kara Edwards:its I did. I had a lot of birds growing up. I had finches. I had parakeets. I had my cockatiel. I had my son Konya. I am a bird. I am an avian like love birds. I
Laura Orr:don't have one now.
Kara Edwards:I don't because of the cats because I have I have bird killing cats and I just can't imagine bringing a burden to the house to be hunted.
Laura Orr:Wait, so why did you love pirates so much?
Kara Edwards:I just I bonded with pirate on such a psychotic level. I think I would have been like 1213 around there. 11 Maybe okay, I had pirate for many years. I will show you pictures before you leave. I took pirate with me everywhere in the house pirate ate every meal with me. He preferred ramen noodle soup. Top Ramen was his favorite chicken flavor. Or the noodles but he sat on my dinner plate and ate with me. He did my homework with me. He did he he was free flying. Yeah, he had a cage but I never closed it. And so he would sleep in his cage. But sometimes he would come and sleep on the edge of my bed or we were the best friends and I taught him some words and he would say I pirate and then he would go pretty bird pretty bird. And cocktails are usually known for their talking ability. But he was a little talker. No, he was my best friend when it was his time to go. I was absolutely devastated. That was the best pet ever.
Laura Orr:How old was he when
Kara Edwards:he? Oh, he I mean they don't live a super long life in captivity, which I think was why my brain went to the hyacinth macaw because the hyacinth macaw will typically outlive the human. Oh, wow. Okay, and so it was like I won't.
Laura Orr:I will never Yeah,
Kara Edwards:I don't know a pirate might have been five. When he finally passed, which I believe that five to seven for cocktail parakeet those birds. They just aren't known to live as long. But yeah, you get into the Africa there was an African Grey and the hidden lives of pets and I got really excited. They are the most intelligent bird out there that they can do. I have a girlfriend that has one of those. And I would go stay with her. She lives in LA and I would go stay with her when I was out there working. And he would wake me up every morning and be like, Gird up. It's time for your coffee, coffee, coffee. And he would say Hola, Costa. Hello. And you got to do video I can show you say so many things. And you want to imitate the other animals and one day I'm sitting in her. This is like the hidden life of Kara's pet. Sorry, everybody. Okay, um, I was sitting on her couch and the birds name was Sophocles. And so that she had cats and she was a big rescuer. And so she had all these animals, dogs, everything and I'm sitting at her tree house in LA. And the cat comes up and goes, Wow. And Sophocles looks at the cat and goes, Oh, and the cat looks at Sophocles and goes. And then Sophocles goes, Wow. And they sat there and had a whole conversation. That is so great. And I was like, this is the best thing I have ever witnessed.
Laura Orr:My brain is swimming right now. But I love it also, that you have these stories about these birds, these animals who were free flying because one of the points that they make on the show is that the more that some of these animals are in captivity, the more anxious they become. So they use a bunny as an example of like how bunnies are known for being very jumpy and anxious. And so one of the people on the show who had a bunny was talking about how he just, again, like removed a cage, basically, and let the bunny live in the house and how because of that, the bunny wasn't jumpy. And developed its own personality. Yes. And was playing like, I think that was the bunny that played basketball for fun. Yes, its own version of it. And so I love that message of, you know, if you're going to have a pet, you have to consider the parameters that are healthy for the animal, as opposed to, I think some people who are like, I want this animal because I've always wanted this animal but it's going to live in a cage.
Kara Edwards:And you have to consider like you asked me, Why don't you know, why don't you have a hyacinth macaw. It's not just the cats, I would not get one of those birds unless I could devote an entire bedroom to that bird. Because I don't believe in caging animals unless you have to. I very much grew up we all know my dad was a taxidermist, three do. My dad was an animal collector. It wasn't healthy. And we had cages in the backyard. And we would always have we had squirrels I had prairie chickens we had like name and animal and we had it in a cage. And that was something once once I was an adult unable to get and even as a teenager able to have my own animals, I was adamant that they not be caged because animals do come to life, the more space if they have the adequate space. And if you work at a zoo, they refer to it as animal enrichment. And Michael went to Zoo preschool and so he will even talk like that is we have to give them enrichments so that it works their brain out like we have a snake that is obviously in an aquarium a 20 gallon because she's really small. But we get her out constantly. Yeah, and sometimes I get her during the day when Michael's not here and I just bring her in my studio and hang out with her. Cuz they you do like animals have to have dogs need to go on walks, animals have to be exercised and their minds enriched because we don't give them enough credit for how amazing they are. Yeah, yeah, literally, they do something I'm very into this,
Laura Orr:but it's super valid. And I noticed that Kota has a little puzzle game that you give him for his food. And I think that's just acknowledging that these are human, these are not humans, these are animals that exist outside of their utility for us. And we kind of talked about that last week when we talked about babies that a lot of times, so we can fall into this thinking of what is this animals value as it relates to how it affects and benefits me and Oh 100 doing that, I think some we are a lot of times doing them a disservice. And I think that that's one of the messages of this show is that animals that especially and even the ones that we live with, they are capable of so much so NEMA if given the opportunity and given the space just like humans, they are living things just like we are with brains that work and are capable of doing more than we give them credit for
Kara Edwards:and I am an absolute four year old mentally when it comes to animals like Stickney we were I meaning I want them all I have to constantly regulate myself. Cuz it's like oh, you're doing this because your your children want these animals. That's why you have so many and it's like no, I am really comfortable with a lot of animals. I like them around me and I constantly have to check myself I had to do it. Just this past week I took my family we were in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and there is an alligator farm in Hot Springs Arkansas that you have to go to with your children. If you haven't, we went twice. We had so much fun that everybody decided that was our favorite place and we went back in Utah this would you like the list of things that from this alligator farm? I wanted to bring home I will tell you it was not an alligator. Okay, good. I know but I had to talk my son out of that because his his like spirit animals or reptiles. Yeah. And so he was like, Mom, I must have one. I'm like you can't tame an alligator and you can't have an alligator. There's no way we could keep an alligator. I want to go oat farm. Like I want like to take my next breath. I have never laughed so hard in my life than sitting in this pen of goats with all of them by and there was this other one of sheep. That literally sounded like a bunch of dads sitting in a cage. It was like it was like dads I'll put in a cage because everyone's Well, you just hear more by is that what men? It's literally they didn't sound like an animal. They sounded like dads. Well, hey, ma, ba
Laura Orr:my dad's and not dead.
Kara Edwards:Kids. I don't know males, kids, I felt like dads are the type of people that would put themselves in a big pin and sit around entertaining themselves by being like, Ma,
Laura Orr:not far from the truth. That is right. I saw a picture of you with a goat and I think I commented on your one of your social medias. I was like, Oh, you're gonna want to bring that home? Are you?
Kara Edwards:Oh, you better believe it. There is a cougar that reminded me so much of Simon I Oh, there was a there were wolves there that were so cool. Okay,
Laura Orr:what else do you want to bring home all of them
Kara Edwards:except for the alligator? No, I even a wolf. Even the wolf. They were so cool. And it was fun. Because we were there the on the second time, we ended up going late in the day. And so they actually let our kids feed most of the animals, we actually got to go around with them and like, participate in the feedings. And I was like, I love them all. And there were bunnies and there were ducks. And there was, I mean, this place is just great. And it is when I get around there and I see us all light up. I'm like, let's just get a farm and have them all and I'm like, nope, why not check yourself? Someday? That's a lot of work. Yeah, that's it like I want to I grew up with a horse. I would love to have a horse again. Yeah, that's an extraordinary amount of work. And I won't take something on unless I know I can care for it. Yeah. In the way that it deserves. Sure. Not just feeding and looking at
Laura Orr:No, that's very responsible view is I wish people were like that because I'm thinking of things like Tiger King where you see all those? Oh, you're about all the way there not not aiming? Not and I'm not what I'm not thinking of him. Exactly. But there are a lot of times they talk about on that documentary, I guess is
Kara Edwards:people people give out animals can't care for him and they don't have the space for him. Yeah, no, it's really it's sad. And that's what I felt like this show when I was watching it. It just reminds you so quickly of how extraordinary these various animals are. Why they are the way they are like you're just gonna, you're gonna walk away with a whole new respect. And like I said, you're gonna want to go hug your dog. You're gonna cuddle your cat like you instantly will respect your own pets so much more. Yeah, I
Laura Orr:ended up buying a little puzzle feeder to Oh, yeah, I was like they need more. They need no stimulation in Richmond, Richmond. Thank you, Michael. Okay, who is the audience? Kara?
Kara Edwards:I mean, me. Clearly, me. And my children, and my husband, animal lovers for my dog liked watching it. I mean, let Oh, yeah, I was super into it. Kota watched all of it to this is, I mean, it's animals on screen. He loves watching TV. Oh, that's so interesting. Stan used to flip out if he saw an animal an animal on TV, he would bark and lose his mind. And no, it was the animals see it to animals get it? Yeah, definitely. I mean, clearly, everybody. Yeah,
Laura Orr:I'd say like five and up. I caught my daughter's attention. Because I think so we like to watch a lot of funny animal videos on YouTube. And so the format of the show, I think, reminded her of that, because yeah, clips of animals. But instead of animals being clumsy, like what you would see on those, you know, compilations on YouTube or watching very talented animals and learning about what the animals can do. So I think it will grab their attention, because the format of it is very similar to things that they might see in other forums. There are some subtitles. So if your kids aren't fast readers, or if they are not readers yet, then you might have to read the subtitles to them when there's one that exists. But yeah, I would agree with you. I think it's, if you're a fact, if you love fun facts, and if you love animals, and if your kids very inquisitive, and they love animals, I think
Kara Edwards:you're gonna get something out of it. And there was again, there was just great messages throughout. One of the ones it talked about was the more we play, the more pets will show their social emotional intelligence. Going back to that enrichment, that's how they worded it. And there was a lot like I could even see with my kids while watching it. They were like, We should do that with our dog. We should do that with our cats. We like they were even thinking of ways like we should do more to bring out their intelligence. Oh, I want to train my dog to do that. I want to train. You know, ooh, can my snake do that which by the way, there weren't actually snakes they were captured. going on, but they didn't do any stories about snakes, which really bothered Michael. Oh, yeah, little season to everyone. We're requesting a few more reptiles. They did have some lizards. They had some really cool lizards in there.
Laura Orr:It's interesting what you said about the more we play. Yeah. Or what did
Kara Edwards:you say the more we play, the more we play, the more pets will show their social and emotional intelligence. That's a quote from the show.
Laura Orr:And that is so true for people. It's funny because that there's been a lot of research out that says the more people play yeah, the more they develop social emotional skills to especially kids but even adults.
Kara Edwards:Well, that's how you do therapy with children is yes, layer
Laura Orr:B and it's my go to puzzle rooms again, back to puzzle room, your brain and your social emotional skills and you learn team building and it's great.
Kara Edwards:No CLI, no, I could actually do a lot of thing
Laura Orr:you know, like this idea of play again extends further than I think just being human centric and our brains if we just include other animals and a lot of these philosophies that we've applied to ourselves I think it would be applicable absolutely also watch TV as Kara just said, like they are social beings their brains are way more complex than I think we give them credit for.
Kara Edwards:Like I'm telling you, I have a snake My son has a snake I played with it more than anybody. Sapphire Sapphire. And I watched sapphire and she has personality. I have a lizard that clones itself and breeds itself. It's a binos Gecko and it's fascinating because she has a different personality than her baby even though they are actually clones of each other. She's got this really bold personality and she comes out and gives you looks whereas her baby spike is terrified of everything and is constantly hiding
Laura Orr:well that's what they say about clones right is you're not really getting the same person or animal
Kara Edwards:do they say this about okay I guess I haven't thought much about well I mean that until I started having clones no but like
Laura Orr:then that whenever the idea comes up of people being able to clone their pets yeah passed on the scientists always are saying now you know this is not the same dog for example that you had before
Kara Edwards:this is this is this is a different dog is going to have a different personnel
Laura Orr:exactly it's not going to remember you it's not going to be you know it's not going to have the same habits as the other one movie
Kara Edwards:The gave movie where they ended up cloning there they brought they figure it pet cemetery pet cemetery remember when they buried it and it would come back to life but then it came back to life like
Laura Orr:this and it was a demon Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Terry
Kara Edwards:so I mean there's they won't improve your point
Laura Orr:but we'll see Stephen King this whole time is just warning us about cluster
Kara Edwards:see saw the future he knew that it was gonna be okay. So I did look up some interesting animal facts that I can go through kind of quick if you want. Oh, please. Okay, the rarest animal on earth. And by the way, why did I look up these facts? It's because Michael, this show had his brain churning. Okay, and he has been asking me so many questions about what about this animal? What about that animal so I started writing them down. The rarest animal on earth is of Akita it is a type of porpoise found off of Baja California. They believe that there are around 10 left in existence, none of them live there none. In captivity, they can only be found in the wild.
Laura Orr:Well, are they rare? Because they've been whittled?
Kara Edwards:Yeah. Because it's because of just humans and development and pollution and all of these things. Just kind of going by these here the rest of your facts I can That's the saddest one the fastest animal on earth. What do you think it is cheetah on land, but the actual fastest animal on earth is a type of Falcon called a pair of GREIN. Okay, Falcon. I hope I said birds. Yep, it's a bird the fastest. What do you think the smallest animal on earth is? MibA No, it's actually a frog. Oh, okay. Mollis. It is a pet a flood of Fleming and Mehman and minimis. It's a type of frog
Laura Orr:farmer named Winnie. Okay, okay. Yeah, green it I don't know.
Kara Edwards:It's a frog. What do you do you know the biggest animal on earth? Blue Whale. Yes, you are correct. Do you know the smartest animal on earth?
Laura Orr:Hold on. Hold on. Smartest. Is it a pig?
Kara Edwards:It's not a pig. It's an elephant. Oh, smart. I never forget. Do you know what number two is? Is it a pig? It's an octopus.
Laura Orr:Oh yeah. Oh yeah, you've seen them escape some boxes for sure. They literally can escape enclosure. They've done so at a bunch of zoos, right? Yeah.
Kara Edwards:Okay, so that's it. That's all I got. I feel like I figured that'd be enough.
Laura Orr:It was it was great Kara i My brain is is turning. Wait, what did you say this in this is we're supposed to. We're supposed to be the smartest animal. I don't even remember the number one who's the smartest elephant elephant? That's right. That's right. That's right.
Kara Edwards:I don't think we are the smartest. I know we're supposed to. I'm not feeling very smart. I'm not looking at this world thinking we're being very smart.
Laura Orr:Well, and that's the thing. Like, we don't know what type of introspection an animal has like, what if? What if? Like, what if a dog knows like everything? And we don't know. I don't know. They just don't know how to tell us.
Kara Edwards:I think some of my animals are smarter than us, I think but I'm gonna tell you shuffle my cat. Oh, that cat would rule this world. Oh, you had opposable thumbs. We'd be done. Yep.
Laura Orr:That's really the only thing keeping him back. Is this this? His hands don't work like they need to work in order to wipe us out. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Cats are just biding their time until they can take us out for sure. Questions. So I don't think we need to harp too much on the fact that this is educational. Yeah, in answering your educational, educational, it is a documentary. We like all the things Is there anything problematic?
Kara Edwards:Okay, so I do not have anything problematic to say about this show. Okay, if you don't have anything, I do have some reviews for my IMDb with some people who were remarkably upset about this show. I
Laura Orr:will Okay. I will say one thing, okay. And this is reaching, but your kids might after watching this want to have some of these animals. And so if you are not into having pets, you know, just be aware that your kids might decide that they all of a sudden want a hamster after watching. Yes,
Kara Edwards:no question that's we want. But the problem was I wanted all of the after. I had to talk myself out of getting all the animals. Yeah, was it? No, it was no question prepared.
Laura Orr:And also, turtles their hearts beat six times a minute and that's it. Can you believe that?
Kara Edwards:I mean, they must be so relaxed. I think they are so relaxed when I heard that I
Laura Orr:literally looked at the clock and I was like, beep that is so weird to think about on Earth. It's just not moving a lot. And then you think of like a hummingbird and they're just like all over the place. Right? Like yeah, easy. Any hurdles?
Kara Edwards:Do you want to hear what people are upset? Yeah, please tell me every years from IMDb number one. This isn't the hidden lives of pets. It should be called narcissistic jerks who abused animals. I lasted five minutes. Thanks for another POS show Netflix. It's any wonder your days are numbered. Whoa, I'm gonna get into what they're upset about that was the first review I read and I was like, wait, what what are we what are they about about review number two? Oh, okay. This show last me the moment some bonehead went off the cliff with his dog. That's what the reps okay out that Oh,
Laura Orr:I I know what they're saying. But if this had been any other animal, but a frickin Border Collie, right? I might be like, let's take a second look at that. But if anyone has ever been around a Border Collie, or what is it other one, the shepherd. Australian show
Kara Edwards:that's a coda is just sitting
Laura Orr:animals are daredevils. They are crazy. And they would
Kara Edwards:want to be with they're human. They don't care if you're leaping off a cliff or running across a street. They are going to follow and want to be there. And you can see the dog once you do this. He got so excited when they put in so yeah, guy jumps off the cliff. Spoiler alert. first five minutes of episode one yes. jumps off a cliff with his dog.
Laura Orr:And if that dog did not want to do it, the dog would run away from him.
Kara Edwards:Absolutely. That would be that and he wouldn't be calling out documentaries and filming it. If he was abusing his dog. Absolutely. This dog is loving it but that's whatever you review and boy are they mad I can see
Laura Orr:the anxiety but I don't see the outrage. I don't need
Kara Edwards:it. Is there a risk? Of course there's risk. But you know what, there's risk every time you take your dog for a walk, something can happen.
Laura Orr:And we don't mind that our military is training German shepherds to jump out of helicopters. Oh, that's
Kara Edwards:a real No, that's a really good point.
Laura Orr:It's happening
Kara Edwards:right now. Yeah, I mean, it's a good thing that they don't get reviews on IMDb. I'm going to write one. I mean, I'm telling you people are mad Okay, what's another one? That's I mean, that was nearly all of it. I mean, I can keep going about it, but it's literally everybody's just really angry about that one scene. So if you age so, you know, spoiler alert. If if jumping off a cliff with a Border Collie is gonna upset you. You need to fast forward for the first 10 minutes of episode one. You can watch the next 20 minutes and the rest of the season you will be fine. There is nothing else that is risky or anything.
Laura Orr:That's fair. I'm glad you did that. I'm glad you gave that heads up for sure. Yeah, yeah. Other than that, you're gonna so if you I just spend so much time on IMDb it's like one of the main apps on my phone. Oh,
Kara Edwards:the IMDB reviews give me like me too. There's so good. Better than Yelp.
Laura Orr:I look at IMDb once a day. If for some reason. They are better than Yelp. They are so right about that. So if anyone's looking to for something fun to do in their spare time. Oh my go read
Kara Edwards:the reviews of your favorite shows or your least favorite shows. Especially because mad IMDb is the best so
Laura Orr:good. It's so good. Angry IMDB. Yeah, well, I think that's all
Kara Edwards:we did the hidden lives of pets. We highly recommend it
Laura Orr:salutely Next week we're going to be reviewing Gravity Falls with special guests Nate do for them excited speakable and we're really looking forward to that one.
Kara Edwards:Yeah, I love when we have guests on the show. So thank you for making it this far with us everybody.
Laura Orr:And sorry in advance for weird stories. I
Kara Edwards:guess. They were great. They were really good. Especially that cheating one. Okay, I'll see you next week.
Laura Orr:Scribe and follow us on Instagram.