# Pet Wild Side > Your pet's weird habit is a wild instinct. Painted documentary episodes and short sourced answers for curious pet owners. Pet Wild Side makes painted, narrator-led documentary episodes for curious pet owners: why pets behave the way they do, their wild relatives, and true animal stories. Every page lists its sources. Not veterinary advice. Editorial standard: Every episode and explainer lists its sources; ideas that are not proven are marked as ideas and legends as legends; where accounts disagree we say so. Not veterinary advice. ## Why does my pet...? - [Why does my rabbit freeze or thump?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-rabbit-freeze-or-thump/): Rabbits are prey animals. Freezing makes them harder to spot, and a thump of the back feet can be a warning. - [Why does my hamster stuff his cheeks?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-hamster-stuff-his-cheeks/): Hamsters are hoarders. Stretchy cheek pouches, reaching back toward the shoulders, let them carry food to a safe store. - [Why does my dog wait by the door when I'm out?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-dog-wait-by-the-door/): Dogs form strong attachment bonds with their people, and many learn the sounds and routines that come before you get home. In one study, dogs greeted their owners more intensely after longer absences. - [Why does my dog sniff everything on walks?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-dog-sniff-everything/): Your dog is reading. Scent marks on a lamp post carry information about who passed, and dogs are very good at following it: trained dogs could tell which way a trail went from about five footsteps. - [Why does my dog circle before lying down?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-dog-circle-before-lying-down/): Nobody knows for sure. Proposed ideas include flattening a bed, a last check of the surroundings, and settling into a warm curl. - [Why does my cat hunt even when she's well fed?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-cat-hunt-when-she-is-fed/): In cats, hunting and hunger are partly separate. In a classic study, cats left their food to hunt and then came back to the meal. - [Why does my cat get the zoomies at night?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-cat-get-zoomies-at-night/): Cats are most active around dusk and dawn, and an indoor cat may store up energy during a quiet day. A short burst of running, pouncing and chasing at night is common and usually normal. - [Why does my bearded dragon bask all morning?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-does-my-bearded-dragon-bask-all-morning/): Lizards are ectotherms: they warm up from their surroundings, not from their own body heat. Basking is how a bearded dragon powers up. - [Why do my cat's eyes glow in the dark?](https://petwildside.com/why/why-do-my-cats-eyes-glow-in-the-dark/): Behind the retina, cats have a mirror-like layer called the tapetum lucidum. It reflects light back through the eye for a second chance to catch it, which helps in dim light and causes the eyeshine you see in photos. ## Episodes - [Why Lizards Wait for the Sun](https://petwildside.com/episodes/why-lizards-wait-for-the-sun/): Why would a lizard wait all morning for the sun? Ziggy the bearded dragon warms up while an old garden wall wakes up outside. - [Why Hamsters Stuff Their Cheeks](https://petwildside.com/episodes/why-hamsters-stuff-their-cheeks/): Why does your hamster stuff his cheeks and hide the food? Pip does it every night; his wild cousin fills an underground pantry for winter. - [Why Dogs Spin Before Lying Down](https://petwildside.com/episodes/why-dogs-circle-before-lying-down/): Why does your dog turn in a circle before lying down? Juno does it every night; a Yellowstone wolf does almost the same in deep snow. - [Why Your Cat Goes Wild at 3 A.M.](https://petwildside.com/episodes/why-cats-go-wild-at-3am/): Why does your cat get the zoomies at night? Meet Miso and her wild double, the black-footed cat, one of the most successful hunters among cats. - [Why a Rabbit Fears the Sky: Hawks, Kestrels and Buzzards](https://petwildside.com/episodes/why-a-rabbit-fears-the-sky/): How does a rabbit know a hawk is coming? Clover spends an afternoon on the lawn while the garden's birds of prey sweep overhead. - [She Was Banded in 1956. She's Still Coming Back.](https://petwildside.com/episodes/oldest-known-wild-bird/): Wisdom, a Laysan albatross banded at Midway Atoll in 1956, is the oldest known wild bird. How sure can we be? - [This Dog Waited at a Train Station for Almost 10 Years](https://petwildside.com/episodes/hachiko-the-dog-who-waited/): The true story of Hachiko, the Akita who kept returning to Shibuya Station, and what science says about why dogs wait for us. - [Your Hamster's Garden at Night: Moths, Spiders, Hedgehogs](https://petwildside.com/episodes/garden-at-night-hamster-height/): What happens in the garden after dark? Pip watches from the window while we drop to hamster height to meet a moth, a bat, a spider and a hedgehog. - [The Dog Who Walked 2,500 Miles Home](https://petwildside.com/episodes/dog-who-walked-home/): In 1923 Bobbie the collie was lost in Indiana. Six months later he walked into Silverton, Oregon. What do we actually know? - [Your Dog vs a Wolf: Who Has the Better Nose?](https://petwildside.com/episodes/dog-vs-wolf-nose/): Why does your dog stop at every lamp post? Follow Juno on a morning walk, inside her nose, and out to her wild cousin, the grey wolf. - [The Bird That Flew 7,000 Miles Without Landing](https://petwildside.com/episodes/bird-that-flew-7000-miles/): In 2007 a bar-tailed godwit called E7 flew from Alaska to New Zealand nonstop: 11,680 km in about eight days, tracked by satellite. ## article - [Your Pet vs Its Wild Ancestor: Comparison Cards](https://petwildside.com/wild-ancestors/): Every common pet still has a wild relative: dogs descend from ancient grey wolves and pet cats from the Near Eastern wildcat. These cards compare five pets with their wild side, covering the family tree, the habits they share and how the wild ones are doing. ## page - [Wild Cousins: Your Pet and Its Wild Relative](https://petwildside.com/series/wild-cousins/): Wild Cousins. Why does your cat, dog or hamster do that? Each Wild Cousins episode follows a pet through an ordinary day, then travels to its wild... - [Series: Wild Cousins, Backyard Giants, Case Files](https://petwildside.com/series/): Three series for curious pet owners: Wild Cousins (pets and their wild relatives), Backyard Giants (the garden at pet height), Case Files (true stories). - [Case Files: True Animal Stories, Checked](https://petwildside.com/series/case-files/): Case Files. Famous true stories about animals, told carefully: what the records say, where accounts disagree, and what science can and cannot explain. - [Backyard Giants: The Garden at Pet Height](https://petwildside.com/series/backyard-giants/): Backyard Giants. Drop down to the height of a hamster, a rabbit or a lizard and the garden becomes a forest of giants: moths, hawks, spiders... - [About Pet Wild Side](https://petwildside.com/about/): Pet Wild Side makes painted documentary episodes for curious pet owners, built on published research and careful sourcing.