Something Bizarre Happened: Animals Acting Crazy

Two stories for you today. It was a weird November.

Demon Dogs

All through November I’d left work late, and by the time I got out to my children’s school to pick them up, it was dark. Because both boys’ classrooms are near a back entrance, I’d park near the door, we’d grab their things, and then just go out the back.

One night we left at the same time as the boys’ former kindergarten teachers. We were chatting as we walked out the door, and the boys went down the sidewalk ahead of me. Boy 1 stayed closer, but Boy 2 went all the way to the curb, about twenty/twenty-five feet away.

All of a sudden, two shiny black dogs popped around the corner of the school. I have tall children and the top of these dog's heads reached their shoulders. They were leggy, thin, retriever-looking dogs, and they were surprisingly aggressive.

One stopped near the kindergarten teacher and began barking at her, hackles up. The other, also hackles up, crossed behind me and Boy 1 to where he was a few feet away from Boy 1 and barked at him. Before it could get too close, I pulled Boy 1 behind me, and started to move cautiously down the sidewalk toward the car, and where Boy 2 waited on the curb. I didn't want to move too fast and set off the dog's chase instinct. 

Photo Courtesy flickr/creativecommons/EddieB55

The dog that was barking at the kindergarten teacher was too fast, and I was too far away to do anything more than watch, when it stopped barking at her and ran at boy 2. Thank God the dog stopped about a foot or two away from him, hackles still up, and just looked at him. 

Boy 2 flinched like he was going to run and I yelled to him to stay still. He did, but the tension in his body and face screamed that he wanted to get the hell out of there. I pulled Boy 1 faster down the sidewalk and prepared to get bit, because there was no way I was going to let the dog bite Boy 2. I was in a quandry because I didn't want Boy 1 to be in the middle of a dog attack, but because of the other dog, I had to make sure I knew where he was.

The other dog solved that problem, though. It came up on the other side of boy 2 and then the first dog started to bark at him. I honestly thought "Oh no you don't!" I let go of Boy 1 and rushed up behind the one dog, shouting in as deep a voice as I could and waving my arms around, "You go home! NO! Go home!" I must have startled them, because both shied away, and went beyond boy 2 into the parking lot.

I continued yelling at the dogs, grabbed both kids and got us to the car, and then the dang dogs came around the car and barked at us some more! I'd already gotten the door open, so the boys piled in and I yelled more at the dogs, which worked to keep them away and I rounded the car and got into the drivers seat.

Sad to say, but I figured the two teachers were on their own. I heard them yelling at the dogs when I started yelling at them, but as far as I know they never moved from the spot where they initially stopped when the dogs came around the corner.

The scariest thing is that both dogs went straight for the littlest people. I'm just grateful that they didn't actually attack either boy. I was prepared to beat the crap out of both of them if they did, but I shudder to think of what might have happened if they both attacked at once. There was no question in my mind that I'd do whatever I could to stop them from hurting the boys, even if that meant I'd be the one to get hurt. It was crazy how non-emotional I was. It was just a fact.

Scary Squirrels

Have you seen the commercial where the squirrels attack the man in the white shirt and tie? If you haven’t, let me describe it for you. There are ten to fifteen squirrels on the ground and they slowly approach this man, tails twitching, with expectant expressions on their faces. The sheer number of squirrels kind of freaks the guy out and he starts to back up and that’s when the squirrels attack. They jump onto his chest and back and sink their sharp little teeth into his neck.

I found the commercial quite humorous until my sons and I went to the park the other day. We took a dirt pathway off the main pathand

Photo courtesy James Barker/freedigitalphotos.net

soon boy 2 said, “Hey, look, squirrels.” About four or five squirrels slowly approached me and boy 1, coming right to the ends of my shoes. They looked up at us with beady little eyes agleam with hopes of peanuts being handed out, I guess. However, what flashed through my mind was “Are they rabid and are they going to attack us like the commercial?”

Uneasy with exactly how close they were, and by the crow sitting up in the tree watching us like a harbinger of doom, I pulled the kids further down the pathway. And they chased us! Some kept cover behind trees, while others followed us brazenly down the pathway. I have to wonder what they would have done if we did have peanuts to give them. Maybe being peanut-less was the only thing that kept us from being attacked.

Did you have any bizarre goings-on in the last month?

Tell us about it in the comments!