"LOL" wrote in message
om...
"JHBennett" wrote in message
...
Angela,

(selective snipping for length)

, and another time--my scariest
encounter--I was confronted by a dog, on a pitch dark night. I
couldn't see
the dog, which sounded large, and he was very menacing, blocking my
path.
In that case, all I could do was give the universal "No!" command,
followed
by "go home" and some other authoritarian verbal orders. Whatever
it was
worked and he vanished back into the night.
The thing of it is, you, us, we people, are at the top of the
food chain
and the big creatures in charge. We're the bosses and, while it's
nice and
fun to kid around about *them* being our masters or our equals, it
just
isn't so, nor can it be. I don't know what was going on in your
pet's mind,
but would offer that she apparently believes she can discipline you,
in her
way, for whatever infraction you committed. If she thinks that,
it's
dangerous and dumb, my friend.

Cheers,
Jack



Mike has always been a mean cat. He's always been a biter, and though
it's happened less and less over the years (he's now 11) occasionally
he would just *attack* - he would get a strange look in his eyes, and
there was no stopping him unless you could throw up a barrier of some
kind, like shove a pillow in front of you to block him. It was almost
like a seizure of some kind, and was pretty scary, just because it was
so weird. He could do some damage whenever this happened.

That said, there is a limit to just how much damage a 10 pound cat can
do to a 100 pound person. Assuming you can keep the cat from your
face and eyes, bad scratches is about the extent of it. In my
experience, under ordinary circumstances the commanding voice thing
will do the trick. If an animal is completely out of control, all
bets are off, of course.

I have my own scary dog encounter, and would like to ask your opinion.
Once, DH and I were out walking at night, when a man pulled into his
driveway across the street. Big, *big* rottweiler leaped out of the
back of his truck and headed for DH and me, barking and snarling like
he meant business. My DH did not grow up around pets, and his
instinct is to run, which he began to do, grabbing my arm. The dog's
owner was running into the street after the dog, trying to catch him
before he could get to us. I snatched my arm away from DH and yelled
******!!!NO!!!******* at the dog in my very best commanding voice.
The dog froze in his tracks. So did DH and the dog's owner insert
ladylike snort of glee

I like dogs, and like rotties, but I know this man and can easily
believe he'd trained this dog to be mean. The shout at least stopped
the dog long enough to let his owner get to him, after he himself had
shaken off the "NO" command g but what would you suggest in that
situation? We were not carrying a stick or anything, and the dog
outweighed me by at least 30 or 40 pounds. Humans aren't *always* at
the top of the food chain, in a situation like this.

------
Krista

I don't have any suggestions, other than what you did, but I'd guess
that's the best thing you could have done. Running is a VERY bad idea
in such a situation. If you stay put, you might be attacked, but if you
run, you definitely will be.

Joy